Carbon emissions stall as wind and solar continue global growth – report
Ember’s ‘Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2023’ report found that global wind and solar energy generation increased by 12% over the first six months of 2023, while global power sector emissions grew by just 0.2% during the same period
The plateauing in fossil fuel emissions contrasted sharply with the rise in wind and solar energy over H1 this year, which were “the only two electricity sources that significantly increased their share in the global power mix” according to Ember.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: renewables
Renewable energy sources — once the fuel of the future, then practical in specific, narrow applications — are increasingly economic mainstream sources of power generation. Hydropower was long the mainstay of U.S. renewable electricity generation, although wind power surpassed hydro for the first time in 2019, and solar continues its rapid growth. The continued growth of wind and solar, with their fluctuations, is tied in part to improvements in storage technology: batteries.