Accounted For 10% Of Total Power Generation in The First Half Of 2020.
In the first half of 2020, affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, although global electricity demand fell by 3%, wind and solar power generation still increased by 14% year-on-year. Among the 48 countries and regions in the report, wind and solar power generation increased from 992 TWh in 2019 to 1,129 TWh in the first half of 2020.
Compared with the first half of 2019, global coal power generation in the first half of 2020 fell by 8.3%. This is the biggest drop since 1990, following a 3% year-on-year decline in 2019. A major factor driving the decline in coal power generation is the decline in electricity demand caused by the global epidemic, but the increase in wind and solar power generation and higher market shares are also the main reasons for the decline in coal power.
Although the electricity demand caused by the COVID-19 epidemic has not yet affected wind and solar power generation. However, the global epidemic has affected the installation speed of new wind and solar power generation devices in 2020; the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that by 2020, the newly installed capacity of renewable energy power generation will drop by 13%, falling to the level since 2015 The lowest level.
Dave Jones, senior power analyst at Ember, said: “Countries around the world are striving to build more wind spots and photovoltaic panels to replace coal power. If the global temperature rise is to be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, coal power generation will have to be generated every year for the next ten years. A reduction of 13%. However, despite the impact of the new crown epidemic that has curbed electricity demand as a whole, coal power generation only dropped by 8% in the first half of this year. This fact shows that we are still deviating from the energy transition track. We have a transition solution. The plan, it’s working, but it’s not progressing fast enough.”