The Greener Side: Covid, who? Renewables break records in 2020
The team¹ at The Greener Side is very excited about the second edition of our weekly good-newsletter. This week is all about how renewable energy had a blockbuster year in 2020. Solar and wind are. taking. charge. We’ve also looked at how a cool organization is getting influential companies to commit to clean electricity, and then comes a fun example of renewable transport in the Shetland Islands. That last one was Sideshow Bob’s² idea.
Renewable energy reached new highs last year.
Last week we talked about electricity from solar and wind. This week, it’s all about the new projects that make generating that electricity possible! And for that, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) had the biggest scoop. Despite everything, the world went and broke a few records for renewable energy capacity³ in 2020. The total added was around 260 gigawatts (GW) — a 50% increase over 2019 and really unexpected given early 2020 news in the pandemic’s wake. Much more solar and wind were each installed than ever before.
Now, how does that compare to coal and gas? IRENA says that fossil fuels made up 60 GW online (net nuclear is negligible), meaning that more than 80% of all electricity sources brought online last year were renewable. That is a record high once again, and up from just 38% a decade ago. Part of the reason for the surge is that many countries are retiring fossil fuel power plants, causing a net decrease. Another main factor is that the cost of renewables has never been lower. In fact, just this week a world record low price for solar was paid in Saudi Arabia. More to come on that!
Because of its long history, hydropower is still the leading renewable technology, but solar and wind are quickly gaining ground — they made up more than 90% of the renewables added in 2020 and are each expanding in the double digits. China was far and away the leading market, and well ahead of the United States and Europe, but every year more countries are adding big-time amounts of renewable energy. Dig into IRENA’s stats here.
And all of this despite the health and economic crisis. We’re also writing about these things in detail in REN21’s Renewables Global Status Report, which is open for public review until tomorrow! 🍀
Business makes sense. The world’s biggest companies keep buying renewable energy.
Another record was broken in 2020: companies are buying more renewable energy than ever, and this is set to increase. Maybe some readers haven’t heard of RE100, a group of the world’s leading companies that have pledged to power all their operations with electricity from renewables.
Last year, RE100’s international members used as much power as all of Australia, and it is rapidly becoming greener. We’re talking more than 290 members across all continents, and there are some big names here, from Apple to Zalando. Some have already met the 100% goal for their own operations and are moving onto their global supply chains. It’s not just tech and retail either — companies in mining and manufacturing also are joining the fun.
Many of these firms have said that policy remains a big obstacle to them buying more renewable energy, so I’m looking forward to seeing the snowball effect of this additional pressure on governments to kickstart bold policymaking. It’s already spreading in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. 🍀
From ocean to motion.
The Greener Side team sees a lot of misinformation floating around the internet on the climate impact of driving electric vehicles when the power grid is “dirty”. In short, carbon emissions are typically still much lower than driving with gasoline or diesel. (Longer post to come on that. Sideshow Bob is on it.) But it is extra cool to find a fun example of renewable energy being directly used in EVs. In Shetland, they’ve been harnessing the tide since 2016 to power their homes. Now, with the installation of a new EV charging point, the ocean’s power is sent straight to their wheels. Sign me up! 🍀
Got any stories?
That’s it for this week on The Greener Side. If you have any fun stories that you think deserve a mention next week, let me know! I’d also love to hear what you think of the newsletter and about any creative projects you’re working on.
Subscribe here to get The Greener Side directly in your inbox. And, do you know someone who would like some good news stories about energy and climate? I’m writing this mostly for non-experts, so share it here.
Hope you’re all surviving through these weird times and remember to put your head in the fridge from time to time to avoid brainmelt.
¹ Right now the team consists of me and a few houseplants, but we are projecting strong growth and have expansion plans to include a family dog by the end of the year.
² You can guess where Sideshow Bob got his name. Here he is, in all his unkempt glory.
³ I’m making myself put all the nerdy stuff in a footnote, so here you go. Power capacity — described in megawatts or gigawatts when the numbers are this big — is typically a measure of the maximum output of a power plant. It is often used alongside electricity generation, which describes the amount of electricity produced (in watt-hours or joules, two common units of measuring energy). Think of it like filling a glass of water. Capacity is how quickly the water is flowing into the glass (in liters per second) and generation is how much water you have in the glass (in liters). Bottoms up!
