With a record 30% share renewable electricity is driving the energy transition, while transition of heat and fuels is lagging, according to new research.
The Renewables in Energy Supply module, launched today as part of the annual Renewables 2023 Global Status Report (GSR) collection, found that the global energy supply is split mostly among heat (49%) and fuel (29%), with electricity having the lowest share (22%).
In 2022, the share of renewables in the power sector reached 30%, mainly because the sector has received long-term policy attention that enabled market and technology development and drove down costs.
Across all sectors, renewables cover only 12.7% of the total energy system, a relatively low share.
Meanwhile, the other energy carriers – fuels and heat, which provide most of the world’s energy “have only dismal renewable energy shares” of 3.6% and 9.2% respectively.
“The record growth of renewables in the electricity sector is positive news, however we need to more than double this growth and to achieve deep electrification of the heat and transport sectors,” said REN21 executive director Rana Adib.
“We also need to invest heavily in grid infrastructure to address climate change and to provide access to over 700 million people living without electricity, mainly in Africa and Asia.”
Wide-ranging barriers are preventing renewable energy from contributing effectively to meeting the world’s climate and development goals, the report found. These barriers include a lack of attention to all energy carriers, a failure to diversify renewable energy technologies beyond wind and solar power, deficiencies in policies, bottlenecks in permitting and grid connections, unequal investment levels in different regions and continued large investments in fossil fuels.
The Renewables in Energy Supply module covers the way final energy is distributed among heat, fuel and electricity, geographies and technologies (bioenergy, geothermal power and heat, heat pumps, hydrogen, hydropower, solar PV, concentrated solar power (CSP), solar thermal heat, ocean power and wind power).
While electricity is expected to play an increasingly important role in the global energy supply, the International Energy Agency (IEA) net-zero scenario and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) 1.5 degree Celsius scenario indicate that electricity will supply only half of the world’s total final energy in 2050.
“This clearly means that we cannot continue to neglect the other carriers – renewable heat and fuels – if we are serious about cutting emissions and addressing the climate, energy and poverty crises,” said Adib.
“It took time, investment and policy attention to expand to 30% renewable power. We now need to award heat and fuels similar policy attention to achieve the critical shift we need,” Adib added.