The International Energy Agency (IEA) has just recently released their updated five-year forecast for global renewable energy and has referenced the growing competitiveness of wind and solar. However, they have also warned that growth would need to be double their forecast in order to meet global green targets. The forecasts see growth in renewable energy installation, after a slight stall in installations last year, and is expected to be the fastest growth rate in the past four years.
The IEA report states that “Contrary to conventional wisdom, commercial and industrial applications rather than residential uses dominate distributed PV growth, accounting for three-quarters of new installations over the next five years. This is because economies of scale combined with better alignment of PV supply and electricity demand enable more self-consumption and bigger savings on electricity bills in the commercial and industrial sectors.” This is an interesting viewpoint as it aligns with SuperNode’s demand model where there is a belief that industry and office buildings have huge potential for rooftop solar paired with battery storage.
One of the IEA’s forecasts (central) sees onshore wind growing by 57% by 2024 to reach an installed capacity of 850GW worldwide. Offshore is also experiencing a big growth spurt and will grow by 300% to reach an installed capacity of 65GW by 2024. This growth in offshore is being led by China first “with 12.5 GW in development through numerous projects having continued policy support under the FIT scheme” but other new markets opening contribute to this figure.