Ember: A review of global electricity in 2022

Ember, an independent think tank on energy and environment, released the "Global Electricity Review" report stating that as the fastest growing power sources, in 2021, wind power and photovoltaic power generation accounted for more than 1/10 of the global power generation for the first time, reaching 10.3%, setting a new record. At the same time, the proportion of non-fossil energy power generation in the world's total power generation has also exceeded coal-fired power, reaching 38%.

Ember's report analyzed electricity data from 209 countries and regions from 2000 to 2020, including the latest data for 2021 for 75 countries that account for 93% of global electricity demand.

The report shows that since the signing of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the proportion of global wind and photovoltaic power generation in total power generation has doubled. In 2021, more than 10% of electricity supply in 50 countries around the world came from wind and photovoltaic power generation. Among them, the report specifically mentioned that in 2021, China's wind and photovoltaic power generation not only accounted for more than 10% of total power generation, reaching 11.2%, but its annual growth rate also reached 32% and 27% respectively, ranking first in the world.

According to Ember's statistics, the countries that have made the fastest transition to wind power and photovoltaics are the Netherlands, Australia and Vietnam. In these countries, about 1/10 of electricity demand has been replaced by wind and solar energy from fossil fuels in the past two years. At the same time, in 2021, wind and photovoltaic power generation accounted for more than 1/4 of the total in 10 countries. Among them, Denmark's "wind and solar" power generation accounted for 52%.

Ember also pointed out that in 2021, the record growth in global wind and photovoltaic power generation was mainly supported by the strong rebound in electricity demand, while carbon dioxide emissions and coal-fired power growth also hit record highs during this period.

The report data shows that although global wind and photovoltaic power generation achieved record growth in 2021, it only met 29% of the global electricity demand growth, and the rest was still met by fossil fuel power generation, which led to a 9% increase in coal power generation, the fastest annual growth rate since 1985. The growth of fossil fuel power generation has pushed carbon dioxide emissions from the global power industry to a record high, about 3% higher than the record value in 2018. According to the International Energy Agency's net zero roadmap, in order to achieve the 1.5-degree temperature control target, by 2030, wind and solar power generation needs to reach 40% of the world's total power generation, while coal power needs to drop from 36% to 8%.

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