China leading ‘Age of Electricity’ – report

The fast, clean energy rollout is driven by industry demand and solar power in China, according to the energy watchdog

The global energy market is entering a new “age of electricity” led by China, with fossil fuel demand set to peak by the end of the decade, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.

In its annual World Energy Outlook published on Wednesday, the IEA said that clean energy generation is progressing at an “unprecedented rate,” as the production of batteries and solar panels surges, driven by industry, electric vehicles and data centers.

China is expected to account for almost 60% of all renewable energy capacity installed worldwide by 2030, despite remaining one of the world’s top oil consumers, the IEA noted. China’s solar generation alone is on track to exceed the US’ total electricity demand by the next decade.

According to the watchdog, the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have exposed the strain on the global energy system and the need for investment to speed up the transition to “cleaner and more secure technologies.”

“In energy history, we’ve witnessed the Age of Coal and the Age of Oil,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol explained.

“We’re now moving at speed into the Age of Electricity, which will define the global energy system going forward and increasingly be based on clean sources of electricity,” he added.

A record high volume of clean energy came online globally last year, the IEA said, including more than 560 gigawatts (GW) of renewable power capacity. Nearly $2 trillion is being invested in clean energy projects around the world annually, almost double the amount invested in fossil fuels, the Paris-based organization said.

“Together with nuclear power, which is the subject of renewed interest in many countries, low-emissions sources are set to generate more than half of the world’s electricity before 2030,” the report said.

At the same time, demand for fossil fuels is still projected to peak by the end of the decade, according to the agency, as the deployment of clean energy “is far from uniform across technologies and countries.”

Despite the “growing momentum behind clean energy transitions,” the IEA said the world was “still a long way from a trajectory aligned” with its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.