WIND, SOLAR POWER AT RECORD HIGH IN 2020

Paris, Aug. 13 : Wind and solar produced a record 10 percent of global electricity in the first half of 2020 as the world’s coal plant fleet ran at less than half its capacity, analysis published on Thursday showed.

Despite a near-record drop in power demand due to the pandemic, renewables accounted for 1,129 terawatt-hours in January-June, compared with

992 in the first six months of

2019, according to a report by the Ember energy think tank.

Overall, the percentage of power drawn from wind and solar has more than doubled from 4.6 percent in 2015 — the year of the landmark Paris deal on climate change.

On the other hand, generation from coal — the most polluting fossil fuel — fell 8.3 percent in the first half of 2020, the analysis showed.

This was despite leading emitter China increasing its share of the global coal fleet slightly.

“From 2015 it’s an incredible amount of growth (in solar and wind), but even at 10 percent it’s not completely transformational,” Dave Jones, senior electricity analyst at Ember, said.

“When we ask is it enough what we are really talking about is, how fast are emissions falling?

“Thirty percent of fossil fuel emissions globally are just from coal power plants, so coal fired power generation needs to collapse quickly in order to limit climate change,” said Jones.

The analysis showed that many major economies — including China, the United States, India, Japan, Brazil and Turkey — now generate at least 10 percent of their electricity through wind and solar.

Britain and the European Union were singled out for particular praise, deriving 21 and

33 percent of their power from renewables, respectively.