The share of electricity from fluctuating renewables, such as wind and solar PV in the world’s 20 major economies increased by more than 70 percent during the last five years.
From 2010, the electricity from renewables in the G20 rose from 4.6 percent to an average of 8 percent in 2015. Seven out of these countries, even generate more than 10 percent of their electricity from variable renewables compared to only three in 2010.
Germany, home of the Energiewende — a policy shift towards green power leads this group of seven with renewables having generated roughly 32 percent of its power in 2015. High shares of renewables are also present in the UK, Italy and France (more than 19 percent), while Brazil and Australia generated 13 and 11 percent respectively. For the member states of the EU, the average was 18 percent in 2015. Those figures do not include hydropower. Figure 1 shows the change in share of power generated by renewables from 2010 to 2015 in selected countries.
Figure 1: Power generation from renewables (excl. hydro) in selected countries (source: Bloomberg New Energy Finance/FT)
Especially in the UK the expansion of onshore and offshore wind contributed to a strong growth, from only 6 percent in 2010 to 24 percent last year.
Even though China is the biggest market for renewables worldwide, where 2015 saw one third of global investment at $329bn, renewable power from fluctuating sources only makes up 5 percent. First of all, hydropower the second-largest source of electricity in China after coal is not included in those figures, which would otherwise stand at around 20-25 percent. Furthermore the country still adds considerable thermal capacities: Roughly 50 GW a year. Nevertheless, manufacturers of renewable energy technology experienced a boost in China. While a large part of all PV panels installed all over the world is produced in China, the wind turbine manufacturer Goldwind became the largest manufacturer worldwide.
