Recently, many countries have successively raised their renewable energy development goals. In Europe, Italy has raised its renewable energy development target to 64% by 2030. According to Italy’s newly revised climate and energy plan, by 2030, Italy’s renewable energy installed capacity development goal will be increased from 80 million kilowatts to 131 million kilowatts, with photovoltaic and wind power installed capacities reaching 79 million kilowatts and 28.1 million kilowatts respectively. Portugal has raised its renewable energy development target to 56% by 2030. According to the expectations of the Portuguese government, the country’s renewable energy installed capacity development target will be increased from 27.4 million kilowatts to 42.8 million kilowatts by 2030. The installed capacity of photovoltaic and wind power will reach 21 million kilowatts and 10.4 million kilowatts respectively, and the target for electrolytic cell installation will be increased to 5.5 million kilowatts. The development of renewable energy in Portugal is expected to require an investment of 75 billion euros, with funding mainly coming from the private sector.
In the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates recently announced its latest national energy strategy, which plans to double renewable energy production by 2030. During this period, the country will invest approximately $54.44 billion in renewable energy to meet the expanding energy demand due to population growth. This strategy also includes a new national hydrogen energy strategy and the establishment of a national electric vehicle charging station network, as well as policies to regulate the electric vehicle market.
In Asia, the Vietnamese government recently approved Vietnam’s eighth power development plan (PDP8). PDP8 includes Vietnam’s electricity development plan up to 2030 and its outlook up to 2050. In terms of renewable energy, PDP 8 predicts that the proportion of renewable energy generation will reach 30.9% to 39.2% by 2030, and 67.5% to 71.5% by 2050. In December 2022, Vietnam and IPG (members of the International Partnership Group) issued a joint statement on the “Fair Energy Transition Partnership”. In the next three to five years, Vietnam will receive at least $15.5 billion, which will be used to assist Vietnam in accelerating its transition from coal to clean energy. PDP 8 proposes that if the “Fair Energy Transition Partnership” is fully implemented, the proportion of renewable energy generation in Vietnam will reach 47% by 2030. The Malaysian Ministry of Economy has announced an update to its renewable energy development goals, which aim to account for around 70% of the national electricity structure by 2050, while eliminating cross-border trade barriers to renewable energy. The renewable energy development goal set by Malaysia in 2021 is to account for 40% of the electricity structure. This update means that the country’s installed renewable energy capacity will increase tenfold from 2023 to 2050. The Malaysian Ministry of Economy stated that to achieve the new development goals, an investment of approximately 143 billion US dollars is required, which also includes grid infrastructure, energy storage system integration, and network system operating costs.
From a global perspective, countries are increasingly valuing and continuously increasing their investment in the field of renewable energy, and the growth momentum in related fields is evident. In the first half of this year, Germany added a record 8 million kilowatts of solar and wind installed capacity. Driven by onshore wind and solar power generation, renewable energy meets 52% of Germany’s electricity demand. According to Germany’s previous energy plan, by 2030, 80% of its energy supply will come from renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, biomass, and hydropower.
According to the latest report from the International Energy Agency, increased policy support, rising fossil fuel prices, and increasing attention to energy security issues are driving the deployment of photovoltaic and wind power. The global renewable energy industry is expected to accelerate development in 2023, with new installed capacity expected to increase by nearly one-third year-on-year, with photovoltaic and wind power installations experiencing the largest growth. In 2024, the global total renewable installed capacity is expected to increase to 4.5 billion kilowatts, and this dynamic expansion is taking place in major markets worldwide, including Europe, the United States, India, and China. The International Energy Agency predicts that $380 billion in global investment will flow into the solar energy sector this year, surpassing investment in the oil sector for the first time. It is expected that by 2024, the manufacturing capacity of the photovoltaic industry will more than double. In addition to the construction of large-scale photovoltaic power stations in multiple regions around the world, small-scale photovoltaic power generation systems are also showing a rapid growth trend. In the field of wind energy, as wind power projects that were previously delayed during the epidemic continue to advance, global wind power generation will rebound significantly this year, with a year-on-year growth of about 70%. At the same time, the cost of renewable energy such as solar and wind power generation is becoming increasingly low, and more and more countries are realizing that developing renewable energy is not only beneficial for addressing climate change, but also provides important solutions for addressing energy security issues.
However, it should also be noted that there is still a high gap in sustainable energy investment in developing countries. Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, international investment in renewable energy has almost doubled by 2022, but most of it is concentrated in developed countries. On July 5th, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development released the 2023 World Investment Report, which pointed out that global renewable energy investment in 2022 has shown strong performance, but still needs to be improved. The investment gap for sustainable development goals has reached over $4 trillion per year. For developing countries, their investment in sustainable energy lags behind demand growth. It is estimated that developing countries require approximately $1.7 trillion in renewable energy investment annually, but only attracted $544 billion in 2022. The International Energy Agency also expressed a similar view in its 2023 World Energy Investment Report, stating that global clean energy investment is imbalanced, with the largest investment gap coming from emerging markets and developing countries. If these countries do not accelerate their transition to clean energy, the global energy landscape will face new gaps.
Post time: Dec-29-2023
