| World news Global World achieves historic 30% renewable electricity milestone


The global energy landscape has achieved a momentous milestone, surpassing the 30% mark for renewable electricity, driven by an impressive surge in solar and wind energy, reveals a report by global energy think tank Ember. This surge in renewables, rising from just 19% in 2000, signals a shift


toward sustainable energy sources, driving down the carbon intensity of global power generation to unprecedented lows. The report, titled Global Electricity Review, offers a comprehensive


overview of the global power landscape in 2023, drawing on country- level data from 80 nations, representing 92% of global electricity demand. The findings, disclosed alongside the world’s inaugural open dataset on electricity generation in 2023, underscore a seismic transformation in the energy sector. “The renewables future has arrived,” stated Dave Jones, Ember’s


director of global insights, emphasizing the unexpected acceleration of solar energy adoption. Solar power emerged as the primary driver of electricity growth, outpacing coal in 2023. Surging ahead for the nineteenth consecutive year, solar now claims the title of the fastest-growing electricity source globally, surpassing wind energy to become the foremost contributor to new electricity generation for the second consecutive year. While the trajectory toward clean energy appears promising, challenges persist. The report highlights a significant dip in hydropower generation, attributable to droughts in key regions such as China. Despite this setback, renewable capacity additions in 2023 would have enabled a notable decline in fossil fuel generation under normal circumstances. However, an uptick in coal generation, particularly in drought-affected nations like China, India, Viet Nam, and Mexico, offset this potential decline, resulting in a 1% rise in global power sector emissions.


Nevertheless, the report projects a forthcoming era of declining power sector emissions, with a projected 2% decrease in global fossil generation anticipated in 2024. This trajectory aligns with commitments made at the UN’s COP28 climate change conference, where world leaders agreed to triple global renewables capacity by 2030. If achieved, this target could propel the world toward a 60% renewable electricity share by 2030, substantially curbing power sector emissions and advancing climate goals. Jones emphasized the critical role of high-level policy ambition, incentive mechanisms, and flexibility solutions in propelling the rapid growth of solar and wind energy, particularly in nations like China, Brazil, and the Netherlands. “ Expanding clean electricity not only helps to decarbonise the power sector, it also provides the step up in supply needed to electrify the economy; and that’s the real game- changer for the climate,” he remarked. Echoing these sentiments, former UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres said: “The fossil fuel era has reached its necessary and inevitable expiration date as these findings show so clearly. This is a critical turning point: Last century’s outdated technologies can no longer compete with the exponential innovations and declining cost curves in renewable energy and storage. All of humanity and the planet upon which we depend will be better off for it.” Commenting with regards to hydropower, Eddie Rich, CEO of the


International Hydropower Association, emphasised: “Hydropower continues to generate more electricity than any other renewable but wind and solar power are on the rise. Sustainable hydropower needs to double capacity by 2050 to provide the flexibility and storage capacity necessary to support the growing intermittent renewable energy sources. That means planning now. Water, wind and sun get the job done!”


“The recently steadily increasing share of


Germany Hydropower records significant surge, boosting Germany’s renewable energy landscape Renewable energy sources have surged to cover approximately 56% of Germany’s electricity consumption in the first quarter of 2024, according to projections released by the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) and the German Association of Energy and Water Industries. During the period from January to March,


renewable energy plants generated an estimated 75.9 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, marking an increase of around 9% compared to the same timeframe in the previous year. Among the renewable sources, onshore wind turbines contributed over a quarter of Germany’s electricity demand with 39.4 billion kilowatt hours. The report also revealed that hydropower made a significant above-average contribution to electricity generation, producing 5.3 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. This represents a substantial 27% increase compared to the corresponding period last year. In total, hydropower plants covered 4% of Germany’s gross electricity consumption.


renewable energy in electricity consumption shows that we are on the right track. The expansion of renewable energies has recently increased significantly. This is now reflected in electricity generation,” said Kerstin Andreae, Chairwoman of the BDEW Executive Board. “But one thing is also clear: in order to achieve our climate goals, we have to go the extra mile. The solar package contains important instruments to further accelerate the expansion of both photovoltaics and wind energy on land. The planned measures must now be implemented quickly. In addition, the expansion and conversion of the networks must be further pushed forward so that green electricity reaches consumers.” This is also confirmed by Prof. Dr. Frithjof Staiß, Managing Director of the ZSW: “In order to be able to realize an efficient, reliable, safe and greenhouse gas-neutral electricity supply based on 100 percent renewable energies including hydrogen, if possible by 2035, we not only need stringent and, above all, integrated infrastructure planning for electricity and hydrogen, but above all their implementation. The current needs survey for the network development plan set the course in this direction for the first time, but the implementation of the hydrogen core network could be significantly delayed if the financing


conditions agreed cannot sufficiently activate a private sector chapter. Despite the currently very high expansion momentum in photovoltaics and the fortunately increasing expansion rates in wind energy, it still remains to be seen whether the goals for infrastructure expansion can also be achieved at the same time.”


US


New toolkit released to aid hydropower industry in workforce transitions The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has launched the Hydropower Knowledge Sharing and Succession Planning Toolkit, designed to help hydropower organizations manage workforce transitions. This new resource aims to mitigate the risk of knowledge loss and support effective succession planning. In response to significant retirement rates and


worker attrition within the hydropower sector, the toolkit addresses the industry’s need for robust knowledge transfer strategies. NREL’s report, U.S. Hydropower Workforce: Challenges and Opportunities, highlights the difficulties in recruiting and preparing new workers, emphasizing the potential for substantial organizational knowledge gaps.


www.waterpowermagazine.com | June 2024 | 5


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