Finance: The Future Could be Bright for Renewable Energy - IEA Report

World Energy Outlook 2019 (IEA)

Deep disparities define today’s energy world: oil markets and geopolitical tensions, carbon emissions and climate targets, the promise of energy for all and the lack of electricity access for 850 million people around the world.

World Energy Outlook 2019 explores these widening fractures in detail. It explains the impact of today’s decisions on tomorrow’s energy systems, and describes a pathway that enables the world to meet climate, energy access and air quality goals while maintaining a strong focus on the reliability and affordability of energy for a growing global population.

In the Stated Policies Scenario, solar becomes the largest source of installed capacity around 2035, surpassing coal and gas. Global coal-fired capacity plateaus, with the project pipeline of 710 GW, mainly in Asia, just exceeding coal plant retirements, mainly in advanced economies. Renewables make up two-thirds of all capacity additions to 2040 globally. Wind power capacity triples, with offshore wind taking off in Europe, China and the United States. Gas-fired capacity grows in most markets for reliability purposes and battery storage skyrockets.

In the Sustainable Development Scenario, additional measures to incentivise investment in renewables-based electricity, bioenergy, solar heat, geothermal heat and electrification push the share of renewables to two-thirds of electricity generation output and 37% of final energy consumption. By 2040, expected output from wind (8 300 TWh) and solar PV (7 200 TWh) are expected to exceed hydropower (6 950 TWh), while the share of heat coming from renewables in 2040 increases to 30% of the total or to 1 200 Mtoe. In the transport sector, consumption of energy from renewable sources is projected to increase to 600 Mtoe, with biofuels accounting for around 60% and electricity from renewable sources consumed by electric vehicles and rail accounting for the remainder.

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