According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), we will look back on the current energy crisis as the tipping point in the transition to renewable energy. The agency expects as much renewable energy capacity to be added in the next five years as in the past 20 years. “The global energy crisis is leading to a sharp acceleration in investment in renewables, with total capacity growth worldwide almost doubling in the next five years,” the agency said in a press release.
Exceptional growth
This huge projected increase is 30 per cent higher than the growth forecast just a year ago. This highlights how quickly governments have thrown additional policy pressure on renewables. The report shows that renewables will account for more than 90 per cent of global electricity expansion over the next five years.
“Renewables were already expanding rapidly. But the global energy crisis has pushed them into a new phase of even faster growth. The world will add as much renewable energy in the next 5 years as in the previous 20 years,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA. “This is a clear example of how the current energy crisis can be a historic turning point towards a cleaner and more secure energy system.”
Even faster
But it can be done even faster, the agency stresses. For instance, the EU could introduce new laws and regulations that accelerate the energy transition. The IEA points to speeding up permitting processes so that new solar and wind energy projects can be realised sooner. But there is also a world to be gained in rooftop solar power generation.
