Ember calls for greater policy support, with solar on track to meet 2030 targets
The world’s exponential growth in solar capacity additions is a cause for optimism, but greater policy support will be needed if the world is to meet its 2030 renewable energy targets.
These are the conclusions of the latest report from think tank Ember Climate, ‘In 12 months the renewables market has moved but governments have not’, published today. The report assesses the climate commitments made by a number of national governments, compared to the goal of tripling global installed renewable capacity by 2030, agreed upon at last year’s COP28 climate conference.
A highly positive takeaway from the report is that solar additions are growing at a considerable pace. Ember expects the world to add 593GW of new solar capacity this year, 29% higher than in 2023, which saw a record 87% increase in year-on-year capacity additions.
Indeed, the International Energy Agency (IEA) notes that its net zero scenario includes more than 90% of the growth of renewable power capacity to come from the solar and wind sectors, with the installed capacity of the former set to quintuple between 2022 and 2030. The IEA also expects the world to surpass 2TW of cumulative solar capacity by the end of this year.
Greater policy support needed
The rapidly-declining cost of generating power from renewable energy sources in general, and solar in particular, has led to this disparity in forecasts, where market conditions make exponential solar investments attractive, but national governments have not yet implemented policies to support this transition.
This is reflected throughout the Ember report, which breaks the world into six regions, and notes that even the area whose government targets are closest to the capacity additions needed by 2030 – the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) – these targets only account for around two-thirds of the capacity additions needed.
“Year after year, renewables growth continues to exceed expectations. Prices are falling, markets are surging and technological efficiency is improving,” said Dr Katye Altieri, an electricity analyst at Ember and one of the authors of the report. “What’s missing are high ambitions and confidence from countries—national targets are outdated and should be updated to reflect that a tripling is now within reach.”
This call for greater policy support echoes similar arguments made by trade body SolarPower Europe, which, last week, called for greater legislation to support the development of agrivoltaics (agriPV) in Europe in particular.
It is notable that, of the regions profiled by Ember, the two with the most installed renewable capacity have clear policies in place to encourage further clean power investments. China set a target for 1.2TW of cumulative renewable energy capacity installs by 2030 – which it reached in July this year – and Europe, where many of the OECD’s members are located, has benefitted from the latest round of National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), which EU member states submitted for approval last year.
“This Ember report highlights that the renewables industry can deliver the scale required to address the climate challenge, if the right policies are in place,” said Bruce Douglas, CEO of the Global Renewables Alliance. “However, ambitious national targets, combined with long term energy plans and enabling frameworks, are essential to unlocking the full potential of this transition.”
Original source: PV Tech
