Is the Renewable Revolution Over?

All graphs in this blog post are from the Renewables 2014 Global Status Report. A link to the full report can be found at the bottom of this page.





It is obviously premature to declare the renewable revolution over, however, the latest data on the subject does indicate a substantial deceleration in investments as well as on new installed capacity.

Below, we show some highlights from this report:

For the second year in a row, investments in renewables dropped. 

It could be argued that part of the reason for this drop is that prices of these technologies have been dropping, however, the growth year over year of Solar PV (photo-voltaic) and of Wind are beginning to moderate.

In Solar PV, the percent growths year over year have been:

2005: +38%

2006: +37%

2007: +29%

2008: +78%

2009: +44%

2010: +74%

2011: +75%

2012: +43%

2013: +39% (+26%)

In Wind, the percent growths year over year have been:

2005: +23%

2006: +25%

2007: +27%

2008: +29%

2009: +31%

2010: +25%

2011: +20%

2012: +19%

2013: +12% (+7%)

Sure, the bigger the installed base the more difficult it it to maintain youthful growth rates.

On the other hand, it was China, almost single-handedly that supported the growth of both PV and Wind in 2013. The numbers above in parenthesis don't consider China.

On the positive side, Solar + Wind + Geothermal + modern biomass have finally exceeded 1% share of global final energy consumption: 

Here is the link to the full report:

http://www.ren21.net/Portals/0/documents/Resources/GSR/2014/GSR2014_KeyFindings_low%20res.pdf