β˜€ 90 percent of all new electricity will be renewable

β˜€ 90 percent of all new electricity will be renewable

The war in Ukraine and increased awareness of the climate crisis means that the expansion of renewable electricity will break records in the coming years.

Kent Olofsson
Kent Olofsson

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The global energy crisis will turbocharge the expansion of renewable electricity, predicts the International Energy Agency, IEA, in a report.

In the next five years, the amount of renewable electricity that will be built will equal the combined construction of the last 20 years, according to the IEA's analysis.

In total, the IEA expects that renewable electricity generation will increase by 2,400 gigawatts by 2027. That is more than 90 percent of the total expansion and as much electricity as the entirety of China produces today.

That is 30 percent more than what the IEA predicted just a year ago. According to the IEA, the major reason for the increase is that the energy crisis that hit the world in connection with the Ukraine war has made many countries want to be able to generate more electricity within their own borders. In addition, climate awareness has increased in many countries.

"Renewable electricity was already growing strongly, but the global energy crisis has brought us into a new phase where expansion is even faster. This is a clear example of how the current energy crisis can become a historic turning point towards a cleaner and safer energy system." says Fatih Birol, IEA Executive Director, in a press release.

Solar power will account for the largest part of the expansion. By 2027, three times as much solar power as exists today will be built. This means that solar power will overtake coal power as the largest source of energy in the world.

Read the full report here.