Despite having 45% of the world’s GDP, G7 countries are building just 10% of prospective utility-scale wind and solar projects
On the renewable energy front, there’s both good and bad news. Prospective utility-scale solar and wind capacity grew by a fifth last year, according to a new report from Global Energy Monitor (GEM). But rich countries accounted for only a small percentage of that growth.
GEM’s trackers for solar and wind – Global Solar Power Tracker and Global Wind Power Tracker – were used to come up with the report, which includes all renewable energy projects which have been announced, entered pre-construction, or are currently under construction. For solar, the capacity being considered is over 1 megawatt (MW), while utility-scale wind’s capacity is over 10 MW.
According to the report, prospective utility-scale solar and wind capacity grew to 4.4 TW in 2024, a rise of over 20% from the 3.6 TW of 2023. Both solar and wind are largely equal in their prospective development, with 2 TW and 2.5 TW, respectively, found the report.
Rich countries falling behind
The report says that the growth of utility-scale solar and wind capacity in 2024 is close to adding electricity from 400 large coal plants. But rich countries forming the Group of 7 (G7) are building just 10% of these projects, despite owning nearly half the world’s wealth.
China leads the growth curve for both prospective utility-scale solar and wind, with over 1.3 TW added last year. This is more than one-fourth of all prospective capacity globally. Brazil follows closely with 417 GW, according to the report.
Only after then, does the developed world come up to speed with Australia adding 372 GW, followed by the US with 218 GW, and Spain with 144 GW.
India’s target is also ambitious with 130 GW of prospective utility-scale solar and wind capacity in the pipeline, and 35 GW of these additions planned to be connected to the grid by March 2025, found the report.
The developing country’s passion for upscaling renewables is shown by the growth of 50% in prospective utility-scale solar and wind capacity sectors.
Compared to that, G7 countries are currently building only 59 GW of utility-scale solar and wind capacity. China, on the other hand, is responsible for more than 70% of current construction on utility-scale solar and wind globally, or over 416 GW, found the report.
Hurdles with project completion
Stepping outside China’s bounds, however, the growth story of prospective utility scale wind and solar begin declining. Just 7% of prospective capacity, or 226 GW, is currently being built, found the report.
Then, there’s the hurdle of finishing building these projects on time and making them operational. GEM’s data included 185 GW of solar and wind farms that were under construction as of December 2023, planned to be operational before the end of 2024. But the data suggests that only 59% of these projects started producing electricity on time, according to the report.
This is where rich countries get ahead of the developing economies. G7 countries are more likely to complete projects on time. According to the report, about 76% of solar and wind projects in G7 countries became operational within the originally planned time frame. For China, the figure declines to 55%, and drops even further to 52% for non-G7 countries.
“The growth of wind and solar in the last year is promising, but the world needs to pick up the pace and bring these projects online much faster. Addressing barriers like limitations on the physical grid, permitting bottlenecks, and lack of financing can help bring us closer to tripling renewables capacity and limiting the worst impacts of a changing climate,” said Diren Kocakuşak, Research Analyst for Global Energy Monitor.
It is important that developing countries understand the need for bringing renewable projects online and in a timely manner. Failing to do so could prove to be a serious impediment in meeting the global goal of tripling renewables capacity by 2030 set at COP28 in Dubai.
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