Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Renewable sources of electricity generation are continuing to grow strongly around the world, with India on course to become the second-largest renewables growth market globally, after China, and is expected to comfortably reach its ambitious target by 2030, the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) medium-term forecast said on October 7. Led by the rapid rise of solar PV, renewables’ expansion is taking place in a context of supply chain strains, grid integration challenges, financial pressures and policy shifts, and it is expected to more than double by 2030.
“Renewables 2025”, the IEA’s main annual report on the sector, sees global renewable power capacity increasing by 4,600 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 — roughly the equivalent of adding China, the European Union and Japan’s total power generation capacity combined. Solar PV will account for around 80 per cent of the global increase in renewable power capacity over the next five years — driven by low costs and faster permitting timeframes — followed by wind, hydro, bioenergy and geothermal.
Geothermal installations are on course to hit historic highs in key markets, including the US, Japan, Indonesia and a host of emerging and developing economies. Rising grid integration challenges are renewing interest in pumped-storage hydropower, whose growth is expected to be almost 80 per cent faster over the next five years compared with the previous five.
