The share of wind and solar energy in global electricity production reached a record level
The share of wind and solar energy in global electricity production reached a record level of 14.3 percent in the first half of this year. Coal’s share of electricity production decreased by 36 percent. Hydroelectric production experienced a historic drop of 8.5 percent due to the drought.
London-based energy think tank Ember published an analysis containing electricity data for the period January-June 2023 from 78 countries representing 92 percent of global electricity demand.
According to the report, global electricity demand increased by 0.4 percent in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year. This rate remained well below the 10-year historical average of 2.6 percent in global electricity demand growth. Falling demand in some major economies, especially the European Union (EU), suppressed global electricity demand growth.
PARTICIPATION OF WIND AND SOLAR
In electricity production, the share of wind and solar energy broke a record, reaching 14.3 percent in the first half of this year, compared with 12.8 percent in the first half of last year. While the share of wind energy in global electricity production was 8.75 percent, the share of solar energy increased to 5.52 percent. Wind and solar energy have become two sources of electricity that have significantly increased their participation in global electricity production.
Electricity production from solar energy grew by 16 percent in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2022, and wind energy production grew by 10 percent.
The growth in the share of wind and solar energy in electricity production ensured that the increase in emissions related to the sector remained stable at 0.2 percent. Electricity produced from solar and wind energy avoided 142 million tons of carbon emissions.
THE HIGHEST RATE IS IN DENMARK
The country with the highest share of wind energy in electricity production was Denmark with 55.6 percent. Denmark got 10.3 percent of its electricity from solar energy in the first half of this year.
Wind power provided 31.6 percent of the UK’s electricity, Germany 27 percent, Spain 25.7 percent, the Netherlands 21.5 percent, Brazil 12.2 percent and the USA 11.3 percent.
While the share of wind power in China’s electricity production was 11 percent in that period, India, one of the largest developing economies, provided 4.3 percent of its electricity production from wind .
The country where solar energy had the largest share in electricity production was Luxembourg with 24.6 percent.
While the Netherlands and Greece obtain 18.3 percent of their electricity production from solar energy, this rate was calculated at 16.3 percent in Spain, 12.6 percent and 12.3 percent in Italy and Germany, respectively.
WHAT IS THE SITUATION IN Türkiye?
In the first half of the year, Japan produced 11.4 percent of its electricity from solar energy, Denmark 10.4 percent, India 7.1 percent, China 5.9 percent and the US 5.8 percent.
In Turkey’s electricity production, the share of wind energy increased to 10.4 percent and that of solar energy to 5.65 percent in the first half of this year.
In EU countries with ambitious clean energy transition targets, the average share of wind and solar energy in electricity production was 18.1 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
THE DROUGHT AFFECTED HYDROELECTRIC PRODUCTION
During the period in question, electricity production from coal increased by 1 percent and constituted 36 percent of global electricity production. The share of electricity generation from natural gas in the total increased by between 0.5 percent and 22 percent.
Electricity production from nuclear energy grew by 0.7 percent in the January-June period compared to the same period last year and covered 9.6 percent of global electricity production.
Hydroelectric production experienced a historic decline of 8.5 percent during this period due to drought and constituted 14 percent of global electricity production. Three-quarters of the decline in hydroelectric production was due to China. To close the gap resulting from hydroelectric production, production from fossil fuels was increased.
It is estimated that if global hydropower production remains at the same level as last year in the first half of this year, emissions from the energy sector will decrease by 2.9 percent. The rest of the world’s electricity production was met by other renewable sources, such as geothermal energy and fossil fuels. (AA)