Renewable energy capacity up by 8.3 percent in 2013

Lawrence Berkeley Lab

Recently, the Renewable Energy Policy Network released Renewables 2014, a report that tracked the growth of the sector in 2013. The report is prepared by a mix of academics, government officials, members of NGOs, and industry groups; given the latter, there's almost certainly an element of cheerleading in the analysis. But on some level, the numbers speak for themselves: by the end of 2013, renewables accounted for over 20 percent of the global electricity production, with wind and photovoltaics having reached 3.6 percent of the total.

Globally, renewables accounted for over half the new generating capacity installed last year. The total cumulative capacity reached 1.56 terawatts, which is up by over eight percent in the last year. Hydropower provided roughly one terawatt of that, and it grew by roughly 12 percent in the last year. In contrast, all the other sources of renewables grew at a collective 17 percent. Wind grew by 12 percent, while photovoltaic capacity went up by 27 percent. That represents the first time that solar power has outpaced wind.

The rise continues at a torrid pace for solar growth; the average increase over the last five years is more than 50 percent. Perhaps more impressively, however, 2013's growth came despite a drop of 22 percent in total investments. In other words, the price of photovoltaics came down so much that end users were able to get much more capacity for significantly less money.