Clean energy-powered autos to improve by 60%
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has projected that international renewable energy capability will improve by nearly 4,800 gigawatts (GW) between 2026 and 2031, with Africa and Asia set to lead the expansion for the primary time outdoors China.
According to the company’s newest report titled (*5*), the projected 4,800GW addition is nearly 60 per cent greater than was added in the earlier six-year interval.
The forecast, coming amid unprecedented disruptions to international vitality markets because the outbreak of the Iran conflict, confirmed that stronger coverage assist and intensified vitality safety issues are driving quicker deployment of renewables throughout Africa, India, South-east Asia, and the Middle East.
According to the report, Solar Photovoltaic (PV) is about to account for greater than three-quarters of world renewable capability development to 2031, adopted by onshore wind.
The IEA stated that for the primary time, the quantity of renewable energy capability added in rising and creating economies outdoors China is predicted to match the quantity added in superior economies in the forecast interval.
China, in accordance to the report, will stay the most important contributor to the worldwide improve in renewable energy capability, however its share is about to decline from over 60 per cent in 2025 to a mean of 53 per cent over the forecast interval, amid adjustments to its renewable vitality insurance policies.
Also, india is rising as the world’s second-largest development market, with its whole renewable capability set to greater than double by 2031.
Growth can be growing throughout South-east Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. Across these areas, the quantity of renewable capability added in the 2026-2031 interval is forecast to nearly triple in contrast with the earlier six-year interval.
The report famous that the expansion will not be solely pushed by main installations by utilities and builders, but in addition instantly by shoppers, with households and small companies more and more turning to extra reasonably priced rooftop photo voltaic PV techniques amid excessive gas costs and unreliable electrical energy provides.
These small-scale installations, it confused, have already helped enhance electrical energy providers for round 70 million households worldwide.
On transport, the IEA made a forecast that the usage of renewable vitality for transport will rise by greater than 60 per cent by 2031, by which level it is going to cowl 6 per cent of the transport sector’s vitality demand worldwide.
Besides, renewable electrical energy used by electrical autos will accounts for round 45 per cent of this improve, whereas biofuels will make the second-largest contribution, it stated.
As an instantaneous response to excessive gas costs and availability challenges, a number of international locations, it confused, have raised mixing mandates, which set the minimal proportion of biofuels that has to be blended into petrol or diesel bought on the pump. The forecast for biofuels was revised up by 40 per cent in contrast with final yr’s report.
The report additionally highlighted the significance of safe and diversified provide chains, noting that India is rising as an vital various supply of provide, with its share of world photo voltaic PV module manufacturing anticipated to nearly double to 17 per cent over the subsequent 5 years.
In his feedback, IEA Executive Director, Fatih Birol, confused that whereas in the previous environmental sustainability was driving the expansion of the renewable sub-sector, it’s now vitality safety that’s pushing it.
“Previously, environmental issues had been the coverage precedence behind the expansion of renewables, whose falling prices have made them a aggressive possibility in many markets – however immediately, it’s primarily vitality safety that’s driving renewables’ enlargement as an increasing number of international locations search to scale back their publicity to imported fuels.
“The new chapter of the renewables development story is a very international one as their deployment spreads nicely past main markets into each nook of the world.
” This is making them a key pillar of the worldwide energy sector. Today, they account for a 3rd of world electrical energy technology; in the subsequent 5 years, they are going to be getting nearer to half of it,” the IEA chief identified.
However, the IEA additional warned that enhancing energy system flexibility has grow to be critically vital for vitality safety, with the quantity of advanced-stage renewable vitality and storage initiatives ready for grid connections worldwide growing by 60 per cent over the previous yr to 3,000Gw, 4 instances the wind and photo voltaic PV capability linked to the grid final yr.
According to the organisation, deployment of battery storage has been accelerating in many international locations, providing an vital manner to improve the flexibleness of electrical energy techniques quickly.
