Renewable energies attract nuclear power in the global race for energy

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This article is the fifth in a series on the latest issue of BP published by& nbsp;Statistical Review of World Energy 2019. & nbsp; Previous articles in this series & nbsp; cutlery& nbsp;carbon dioxide& nbsp;shows,& nbsp;oil& nbsp;supply and demand, production and consumption of& nbsp;coal and global natural gas trends:

• BP warns against an unsustainable path
• The United States accounted for 98% of the growth in world oil production in 2018
• Coal demand rises but remains below peak levels
• The United States increases its dominance in the production of natural gas

Today, I want to cover global trends in renewable energies.

Renewable energies

The Review separates renewable energies into two categories called hydroelectric and renewable. The old & nbsp; consists of hydroelectric power, which has been around for a long time. Hydropower still produces more electricity in the world than the renewable energy category, which consists primarily of fast-growing wind and solar power, as well as older renewable technologies, such as geothermal energy and solar power. biombad.

To put these numbers in perspective, & nbsp; the following graph shows the overall percentage of each of the major energy sources contributing to electricity generation in 2018:

Coal remains the largest source of electricity in the world, although natural gas has taken the lead in the United States. However, renewable energy has grown rapidly in the last decade and is poised to move beyond global nuclear power.

In 2018, nuclear energy was responsible for generating electricity at 2,703 terawatt hours (TWh), compared to 4,193 TWh for hydropower and 2,480 for renewable energy. In comparison, coal produced more energy than the three categories combined.

However, the growth rates of the different categories of electricity production tell a different story. Over the last decade, from 2007 to 2017, global electricity generation from coal has increased by 1.7% on average annually. Nuclear generation during this period actually decreased by 0.4% each year, a consequence of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. Hydropower generation increased at an average annual rate of 2.8% . These growth rates are indicative of mature energy sources.

But contrast these growth rates with those of modern renewable energies.

From 2007 to 2017, the renewable energy category grew by an average of 16.4% per year. But in this category, the energy generated by geothermal energy and biombad has increased by 7.1% in annual average. Wind energy and solar energy, on the other hand, grew at an average annual rate of 20.8% and an average of 50.2% over the last decade.

What does an average annual growth rate of 50% look like over the last decade? Here are the global trends in solar energy since 2000:

(I will note that in 2007, I wrote an article entitled The future is solar, & nbsp; a few years before the start of solar).

The world's largest producer of solar energy in 2018 was again China, with a global market share of 30.4%. China maintained stellar growth in 2018, with solar production increasing by 50.7% over 2017. From 2007 to 2017, China increased solar output at an average annual rate slightly above 100%.

The United States remains second in the world with a market share of 16.6%. Solar power generation in the United States grew 24.4% from 2017, and over the decade, the United States increased solar energy at an average annual rate of 53.2%. Japan (12.3% of the total), Germany (7.9% of the total) and India (5.3% of the capital) complete the top 5 solar energy producers .

Wind energy is still ahead of solar energy in global electricity production. In 2018, wind energy was used to generate 1 270 TWh, against 585 TWh for solar energy. But solar energy is poised to surpbad wind energy over the next decade.

On a global scale, China was also the largest producer of wind energy with a global share of 28.8%. Here again, the United States ranks second with a market share of 21.9%, followed by Germany (8%).0.8% share), India (4.7% share) and the United Kingdom (40.5% share).

Nuclear power stays ahead of renewables, but hardly. In addition, he loses ground. In 2017, the world produced 22% more nuclear energy than modern renewable energies. In 2018, nuclear lead was less than 9%. According to current trends, modern renewable energies will exceed nuclear power generation this year or next. (I will add that nuclear is a firm power and that renewable energies are intermittent, which is an important distinction).

The rapid growth rate of renewable energy is a positive development in a world that is trying to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. However, renewables have not yet reached the level at which they are causing a contraction of fossil fuel demand.

Modern consumption of renewable energy (mainly wind and solar energy) increased by 71 million tons of oil equivalent in 2018. But global energy consumption grew much faster than that, fossil fuels supporting the bulk of the load. World consumption of coal, oil and natural gas increased by 276 million metric tons in 2018, nearly four times the growth of renewable energy. As a result, global carbon dioxide emissions reached a new record in 2018.

This underscores the need to continue to develop firm, low carbon energy sources that can be exploited on a large scale. The most obvious candidate is nuclear, which will be discussed in the next article.

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This article is the fifth in a series of BP publications Statistical Review of Energy in the World 2019. Previous articles in this series. carbon dioxide shows, oil supply and demand, production and consumption of coal and global natural gas trends:

Today, I want to cover global trends in renewable energies.

Renewable energies

The Review separates renewable energies into two categories called hydroelectric and renewable. The first is hydropower, which has been around for a long time. Hydropower still produces more electricity in the world than the renewable energy category, which consists primarily of fast-growing wind and solar power, as well as older renewable technologies, such as geothermal energy and solar power. biombad.

To put these numbers in perspective, the following graph shows the overall percentage of each of the major sources of energy that contributed to the generation of electricity in 2018:

Coal remains the largest source of electricity in the world, although natural gas has taken the lead in the United States. However, renewable energy has grown rapidly in the last decade and is poised to move beyond global nuclear power.

In 2018, nuclear energy was responsible for generating electricity at 2,703 terawatt hours (TWh), compared to 4,193 TWh for hydropower and 2,480 for renewable energy. In comparison, coal produced more energy than the three categories combined.

However, the growth rates of the different categories of electricity production tell a different story. Over the last decade, from 2007 to 2017, global electricity production from coal has increased on average by 1.7% per year. Nuclear production during this period actually decreased by 0.4% each year as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011. Hydropower production increased at an average annual rate of 2.8% . These growth rates are indicative of mature energy sources.

But contrast these growth rates with those of modern renewable energies.

From 2007 to 2017, the renewable energy category grew at an average annual rate of 16.4%. However, in this category, geothermal energy and biombad increased on average by 7.1% per year. Wind energy and solar energy, on the other hand, have increased annual average of 20.8% and 50.2%, respectively, over the last decade.

What does an average annual growth rate of 50% look like over the last decade? Here are the global trends in solar energy since 2000:

(I'll note that in 2007, I wrote an article called The Future is Solar, a few years before the solar power took off).

The world's largest producer of solar energy in 2018 was again China, with a global market share of 30.4%. China maintained stellar growth in 2018, with solar production increasing by 50.7% over 2017. From 2007 to 2017, China increased solar output at an average annual rate slightly above 100%.

The United States remains second in the world with a market share of 16.6%. Solar power generation in the United States grew 24.4% from 2017, and over the decade, the United States increased solar energy at an average annual rate of 53.2%. Japan (12.3% of the total), Germany (7.9% of the total) and India (5.3% of the capital) complete the top 5 solar energy producers .

Wind energy is still ahead of solar energy in global electricity production. In 2018, wind energy was used to generate 1 270 TWh, against 585 TWh for solar energy. But solar energy is poised to surpbad wind energy over the next decade.

On a global scale, China was also the largest producer of wind energy with a global share of 28.8%. Here again, the United States ranks second with a market share of 21.9%, followed by Germany (8%).0.8% share), India (4.7% share) and the United Kingdom (40.5% share).

Nuclear power stays ahead of renewables, but hardly. In addition, he loses ground. In 2017, the world produced 22% more nuclear energy than modern renewable energies. In 2018, nuclear lead was less than 9%. According to current trends, modern renewable energy will exceed nuclear power generation this year or next year. (I will add that nuclear is a firm power and that renewable energies are intermittent, which is an important distinction).

The rapid growth rate of renewable energy is a positive development in a world that is trying to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. However, renewables have not yet reached the level at which they are causing a contraction of fossil fuel demand.

Modern consumption of renewable energy (mainly wind and solar energy) increased by 71 million tons of oil equivalent in 2018. But global energy consumption grew much faster than that, fossil fuels supporting the bulk of the load. World consumption of coal, oil and natural gas increased by 276 million metric tons in 2018, nearly four times the growth of renewable energy. As a result, global carbon dioxide emissions reached a new record in 2018.

This underscores the need to continue to develop firm, low carbon energy sources that can be exploited on a large scale. The most obvious candidate is nuclear, which will be discussed in the next article.