Last Year Saw Record High Renewable Energy Generation... Led by the US and China

(Source: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Aggressive investments by China and the United States have led to a record increase in renewable energy generation last year.

According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IREA) on the 5th (local time), following Europe, the pioneer in renewable energy investment amid the COVID-19 pandemic, China and the United States increased their related investments, raising the share of renewable energy (wind, solar) in global electricity production to 82% last year.

In China, renewable energy production capacity expanded to 136 GW over the past year. More than half of the country's total electricity production last year came from renewable energy, a level comparable to Spain's total electricity production last year.

The United States' renewable energy production capacity increased by 80% year-on-year to 29 GW. Fossil fuel power generation in Europe, North America, Russia, and Turkey fell to 60 GW from 64 GW the previous year.

Francesco La Camera, Secretary-General of IREA, said, "Despite difficult conditions, last year marked the beginning of a paradigm shift toward the era of renewable energy," adding, "As the cost of renewable energy generation gradually decreases and related markets grow, the benefits of energy transition are becoming clear."

However, the share of renewable energy in total electricity generation was limited to 36.6%, up only 2 percentage points from the previous year, falling far short of fossil fuels.

Countries severely affected economically by COVID-19 last year have commonly introduced stimulus measures including investments in new and renewable energy to aid economic recovery, suggesting that the related market expansion will accelerate further.

The United States plans to invest $1.7 trillion in federal budget funds in green new deal sectors such as renewable energy and green mobility, while Germany intends to allocate about 46 billion euros, one-third of its economic stimulus budget, to climate change response including renewable energy.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.