is a UK-based nonprofit that provides data about renewable energy to clients worldwide. Every year, it publishes a global electricity report that provides a snapshot of where we are and where we are headed when it comes to clean energy. Itshas just been released and it contains some good news for renewable energy advocates. Here is the preamble to the report:
“However, drought caused a five year low in hydropower, which created a shortfall that was met in large part by coal. Nonetheless, the latest forecasts give confidence that 2024 will begin a new era of falling fossil generation, marking 2023 as the likely, saying, “Thanks to the galloping pace of new solar and wind capacity, renewables have been claiming almost all growth in electricity demand for five years, leaving fossil fuels stagnant.
Ember’s prediction relies on hydroelectric power recovering from five years of drought, and nuclear power continuing to provide just over 9% of the global mix. Europe, which leads the world in clean energy production, could theoretically have progressed even faster if Germany had not decided to shut down its nuclear power plants after Japan’s Fukushima accident in 2011, said Trevelyan Wing, a fellow at Cambridge University’s Center for Geopolitics who focuses on energy matters.
Indeed, the Biden administration is expected to announce new tariffs on many Chinese-made products — especially electric vehicles — next week, according tountil now, a move that has sorely troubled US solar panel manufacturers. The US is faced with a Hobson’s choice — gorge on cheap Chinese-made cars and solar panels because they help advance positive climate goals, or slam them with high tariffs to protect domestic manufacturers.