The use of renewable energy is accelerating

GLOBAL ENERGY demand tumbled by 4% in 2020, as flights were grounded, factories idled and commuters locked down at home. One part of the world’s electricity markets, however, continued to grow. Renewable-energy generation grew at its fastest rate in two decades, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA), an intergovernmental forecaster. New renewable-energy capacity grew by 45% last year, adding an extra 280GW to the world supply—more than the entire energy-generation capacity of Germany.

The surge was partly because of a sudden scramble to install additional renewable capacity in America, China and Vietnam before government subsidies expired. Because of such schemes, twice as much renewable-energy capacity was added in the fourth quarter of 2020 than in the last three months of 2019 (see chart). Most of these gains went to new wind and solar installations, though hydro-electric capacity also expanded markedly. China accounted for 80% of new solar and onshore wind installations, as developers rushed to meet a deadline requiring subsidised projects to be connected to the grid by the end of 2020.