The global production of renewable energy grew by 2.6% between 2013 and 2014, accounting for 13.8% of the world’s Primary Energy Supply, according to a new publication from the International Energy Agency.
Intended for publication in August or September, the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Renewables Information 2016 report will provide “a comprehensive review of historical and current market trends in OECD countries, including 2015 provisional data.” However, the IEA has provided a “Key Renewables Trends” excerpt this week, including detailed renewables and waste data for the OECD and the non-OECD region.
Of utmost importance to the IEA was the increase in production of renewable energy between 2013 and 2014, which grew by 2.6% to reach 13.8%, or 1,894 Mtoe of the total Primary Energy Supply.
2014 fuel shares in world total primary energy supply
Provisional data for 2015 also showed that electricity production from renewable products in the OECD grew by 3.8% between 2014 and 2015, reaching 2,471.1 TWh, nearly a quarter (23%) of total OECD electricity production in 2015.
OECD regional shares in renewable electricity production from 1990 to 2015
Unsurprisingly, as has been the case and will be the case for a while longer, hydroelectricity accounted for the vast majority of renewable electricity in 2014, with 73.2% of the total, or 16.4% of the total world electricity generation. Biofuels and waste made up 1.8% of world electricity generation in 2014, while solar, wind, geothermal, and tide energies accounted for 4.2%, or 18.7% of the total renewable electricity generation.
Fuel shares in world electricity production in 2014
Nevertheless, while the electricity production seems small in the overall, the growth rates represent another figure, and show what will be defining factors in the years to come.
Specifically, in 1990, wind, biogases and liquid biofuels represented less than 0.6% of renewable electricity combined. In 2015, wind alone experienced growth from just 0.3% of renewable electricity in 1990 to 22.9% in 2015 — an average annual growth rate of 22.1%, making it the second largest renewable electricity source.
Annual growth rates of electricity production between 1990 and 2015 in OECD countries
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