By Energy from increasingly-competitive renewable sources such as wind and solar has quadrupled globally in just a decade, the United Nations said Thursday, but insatiable demand saw power sector emissions rise 10 percent.
Worldwide investment in renewables since 2009 is on course to hit $2.6 trillion (2.35 trillion euros) by the end of the year, largely driven by “spectacular” falls in the price of solar panels, the UN’s annual assessment of green energy trends said.
The world’s renewable capacity — power generated from solar, wind, geothermal and biomass — rose from 414 gigawatts in 2009 to 1650 gigawatts this year, and renewables now account for 12.9 percent of all electricity generated on Earth.
Solar accounted for the largest single share of the more than 2300 GW of additional power capacity installed globally in the past decade, outpacing fossil fuels such as coal and gas.
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