Summary:

Solar panels with photovoltaic cells have seen a huge rise over the past decade, with more solar power capacity installed than any other power source. In the past ten years, globally, there were 638GW of solar panel installations. Solar energy has reaped more capacity than any of the other sources of renewable energy in that past decade.

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Solar Power: The Star of the Decade

Solar panels with photovoltaic cells have seen a “meteoric rise” over the past decade, with more capacity installed than any other power source, according to a new report by BloombergNEF and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Over the last ten years, 638GW of solar panel installations was performed globally – a dramatic turn of events for a power source only boasting 25GW at the close of 2009.

Solar energy reaped more capacity investment than any other sources of renewable energy technology over the decade, at US$1.3 trillion. That’s half of the overall US$2.6 trillion invested in sources of renewable energy capacity – excluding large hydro – over the same period.

Solar energy’s ascendancy has been accompanied by a “precipitous drop” of the levelised cost of solar technology, the report notes. The cost of solar technology has tumbled 81% over ten years, from US$304 to US$57 per MWh.

The cost of solar energy’s revolution has been powered by the preponderance of competitive sources of renewable energy auctions, improvements in the efficiency of solar energy generating equipment, and fierce competition among manufacturers and developers to cut overheads. It has also been sustained by a strong downward trend in the cost of equity and debt crucial to upfront capital expenditure for new projects, due to record-low interest rates in many countries over the past decade and increasing competition between banks and investors to participate in the market.

Over the decade, China has sunk US$758 billion into sources of renewable energy capacity, followed by the US (US$356 billion) and Japan (US$202 billion). Europe has invested US$698 billion in total, with Germany and the UK leading the pack at US$179 billion and US$122 billion respectively.

Sources of renewable energy now account for 26.3% of all electricity produced, or 12.9% if large hydro is excluded.

Inger Anderson, UNEP executive director, said that regardless of a decade of “incredible growth” in sources of renewable energy, “global power sector emissions have risen about 10% over this period. It is clear that we need to rapidly step up the pace of the global switch.”

The report notes that fossil fuel subsidies, “which run into the hundreds and thousands,” are slowing sources of renewable energy penetration. Coal was the second most deployed technology after solar panels of the past ten years, at 529GW.

Solar hits 65% share of renewable roll-out in 2018

In 2018, solar power deployments accounted for more than half of total sources of renewable energy additions (excluding large-scale hydro), at 108GW of an overall 167GW. The technology also attracted the most investment, at US$133.5 billion.

Investment in sources of renewable energy capacity was roughly three times larger than global investment in coal and gas-fired power in 2018.

Global capacity investment in sources of renewable energy in 2018 was US$272.9 billion, down 12% from the year prior. The drop was due to the decision by China – by far and away the world’s biggest sources of renewable energy investor – to suspend its solar energy subsidy program in the second half of the year. This led to a drop of 11% in overall sources of renewable energy investment, also encouraged by the falling cost of solar equipment.

Non-capacity types of investment rose in 2018. The industry benefitted from a 10% increase in government and corporate R&D expenditure, a 6% increase in equity raising by specialist companies on public markets and a 35% increase in venture capital and private equity investments.

As feed-in tariffs have become more sparse, developers are increasingly turning to competitive auctions and corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs). In 2018, government-held auctions had their second-highest year ever, and corporate power purchase agreements hit a new record for the amount of new renewable energy capacity they supported in 2018. Facebook signed the largest volume of PPAs in 2018, with 2.1GW of solar power deals.

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