IEA

The oldest solar organization in the world, the International Solar Energy Society, dates back to 1954. President David Renné tells pv magazine about India’s solar dreams, the next best thing in solar technology and what renewables hold for the world’s future.

Solar PV has come a long way as a power generation technology. As highlighted in SolarPower Europe’s Global Market Outlook for 2018 to 2022, solar added 98 GW of net generation capacity last year, eclipsing all other forms of electricity generation. But solar needs to do a lot more, and to do it very soon if we want to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and keep global warming to below 1.5°C from pre-industrial levels.

The U.K. is helping islands in Scotland and the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian oceans, make the switch from dirty diesel generators to renewables. In the former, community-owned renewable systems are ensuring 24 hour energy supply, while in the latter, a new renewable energy analytics platform is set to help identify the optimum energy mix for six islands.

In the recently released World Energy Outlook, the International Energy Agency (IEA) foresees a steady decline in the global expansion of PV to 2035. In response, Dutch researcher Auke Hoekstra has updated his graphic, IEA versus reality in solar PV.

The impressive growth is unlikely to replace coal-fired power generation as it will only be sufficient to cover the predicted increase in demand for electricity. The electrification of heating, manufacturing and transportation offer room for further development.

Even in its low ball scenario, the International Energy Agency (IEA) imagines that installed solar PV capacity will overtake that of all other forms of energy apart from gas by 2040. Overall, it presents four scenarios in its 2018 World Energy Outlook, which show a changing energy landscape. While it finds that CO2 levels are, perversely, on the rise, and that many energy efforts in all but the most whimsical of its forecasts are far behind those needed to seriously address global warming, it still imagines coal, oil and gas playing a leading role in our energy mix going forward. It also sees “dramatic” transformation in the electricity sector. Long story short: Read something else if you want to take real climate action. We suggest The Drawdown.

The agency’s base case expects relatively flat growth in solar deployment over the next six years, but for solar to still dominate growth among renewable technologies. The agency’s estimates are again below those of major market analysts.

The Global Solar Council (GSC) held its general assembly at last week’s Solar Power International (SPI) in California, where it announced new board members and said it will work towards crafting a unified message for the solar industry. All five working committees of the council are expected to contribute to this new task.

The New Climate Economy and OVO Energy, together with the Imperial College London, have published two independent reports pointing at the tremendous financial advantages resulting from clean tech transitions. Carbon pricing schemes could reap global sales of around US$2.8 billion, they say. Wide-spread use of storage, V2G, and electric heating could further save U.K. homes around $258 per year.

The International Energy Agency’s latest study of global energy investment paints another rosy picture for solar – even as the authors warn of missed sustainable growth targets – but the report covers last year, and notes China’s policy about-turn could blow a cold wind through PV.