The world is adding renewable energy capacity at record speed. Solar farms are sprouting up in the deserts of Arizona, wind turbines are swirling along North Sea coastlines, and hydroelectric plants are being etched into European mountainsides. Billion-dollar green policy packages — including the US Inflation Reduction Act and the EU’s “REPowerEU” strategy — are propelling the boom. Global investment in renewable power last year surpassed $700bn, over double the amount in 2015. For all the progress, though, there is a major snag: too much of it is going to waste.
Green energy generation is intermittent. Solar panels need sunny days. Wind turbines thrive on gusts. That means when they are generating electricity it is all the more important that it is fed into the grid for use, or stored away. Grid and storage capacity has, however, fallen behind the growth in renewable energy sources across the world, as a report from the International Energy Agency will reveal on Wednesday.
As a result, significant volumes of green energy capacity are being held back. In America, close to 2,500GW of renewably sourced electricity was waiting to be connected to the grid last year, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.