378 E. MOE
six years later, the figure is 47% (Reuters 2020). We wrote, back in 2014,
that the German goals were so ambitious that they bordered on the unrealistic, with among other things the share of renewables in electricity
consumption doubling from a current 17 to 35% by 2020. And lo and
behold, at the end of 2019, solar PV accounted for 10.5% of electricity
production with wind power at 27%. Renewables in total (also including
biomass and hydropower) came in at more than 50%, easily surpassing the
old targets (Fraunhofer ISE 2021).
Germany is not a part of this present volume, so I will not spend
more time on that, but worldwide, at the end of 2013 wind and solar
accounted for 3.6% of electricity consumption. At the end of 2019, the
corresponding figure was 8.7% (REN21 2014, 2020). While more than
a doubling is impressive, less than 9% is still no revolution. At the same
time, in many of the countries that have the most impressive renewable
rates (and even in many of those that are distinctly average), we seem
to be rapidly entering a new phase of renewable energy. At the time of
concluding the previous volume, we were still at a stage where Feed-in
Tariffs (FITs) (and priority access to the grid) were the gold standard
of renewable energy. In many ways it was an easy time in the sense that
renewable energy policy was primarily about the support system. Did the
state have a FIT? How high was it? If not, was there at least another
system of support, such as for instance a Renewable Portfolio Standard
(RPS)? Thus, the government’s role to a significant extent was that of
providing financial support for installations, and then the actors in the
market would install wind and solar power to the extent that it was profitable. However, the more successful FITs became, the more expensive
they also became (as they applied to an ever-larger quantity of installations), and the costs were very often borne by individual consumers
and industry in the form of surcharges. Priority access to the grid was
a complicating factor. Many countries did not mandate electric utility
companies to accept electricity generated by renewable energy to the grid,
and there renewables invariably struggled. Also, if countries had support
systems that overwhelmingly incentivized the installations of intermittent
renewable energy without also incentivizing the strengthening of the electricity grid (or additional storage capacity), the grid would become ever
less capable of coping with large amounts of renewable energy.
Thus, in the previous volume we suggested that the success of renewable energy would in the future be putting major strains on the electric
six years later, the figure is 47% (Reuters 2020). We wrote, back in 2014,
that the German goals were so ambitious that they bordered on the unrealistic, with among other things the share of renewables in electricity
consumption doubling from a current 17 to 35% by 2020. And lo and
behold, at the end of 2019, solar PV accounted for 10.5% of electricity
production with wind power at 27%. Renewables in total (also including
biomass and hydropower) came in at more than 50%, easily surpassing the
old targets (Fraunhofer ISE 2021).
Germany is not a part of this present volume, so I will not spend
more time on that, but worldwide, at the end of 2013 wind and solar
accounted for 3.6% of electricity consumption. At the end of 2019, the
corresponding figure was 8.7% (REN21 2014, 2020). While more than
a doubling is impressive, less than 9% is still no revolution. At the same
time, in many of the countries that have the most impressive renewable
rates (and even in many of those that are distinctly average), we seem
to be rapidly entering a new phase of renewable energy. At the time of
concluding the previous volume, we were still at a stage where Feed-in
Tariffs (FITs) (and priority access to the grid) were the gold standard
of renewable energy. In many ways it was an easy time in the sense that
renewable energy policy was primarily about the support system. Did the
state have a FIT? How high was it? If not, was there at least another
system of support, such as for instance a Renewable Portfolio Standard
(RPS)? Thus, the government’s role to a significant extent was that of
providing financial support for installations, and then the actors in the
market would install wind and solar power to the extent that it was profitable. However, the more successful FITs became, the more expensive
they also became (as they applied to an ever-larger quantity of installations), and the costs were very often borne by individual consumers
and industry in the form of surcharges. Priority access to the grid was
a complicating factor. Many countries did not mandate electric utility
companies to accept electricity generated by renewable energy to the grid,
and there renewables invariably struggled. Also, if countries had support
systems that overwhelmingly incentivized the installations of intermittent
renewable energy without also incentivizing the strengthening of the electricity grid (or additional storage capacity), the grid would become ever
less capable of coping with large amounts of renewable energy.
Thus, in the previous volume we suggested that the success of renewable energy would in the future be putting major strains on the electric