A look back: Who led world renewables in 2015?

January 12, 2016 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

China was the world's leading market across a number of renewable energy technologies in 2015 and helped drive global renewable installed capacity to an estimated 913.48 Gigawatts (GW), according to research and consulting firm GlobalData.

Guiyang, China. Credit: Mrspaceman/Wikimedia Commons

GlobalData notes that, in 2015, China led the world for annual capacity additions in solar, biopower, small hydropower and onshore wind, although the National Development and Reform Commission confirmed reductions in the cut to China's onshore wind feed-in tariffs, for projects approved after January 1, 2015 or commissioned after January 1, 2016.

China consolidated its position as the leading installer of solar power capacity in 2015, as part of a bid to increase renewable technologies and drive down greenhouse gas emissions.

"China became the largest consumer of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules in 2014, overtaking both Japan and the U.S. China's annual solar PV installations have grown rapidly over the past few years, from 500 Megawatts in 2010, to 10.6 GW in 2014, and an estimated 18.43 GW in 2015," said Ankit Mathur, GlobalData's Power Practice head. "In 2014, Japan and the U.S. stood second and third, with annual solar PV installations of about 10 GW and 6.2 GW, respectively. However, both countries added an estimated 8.2 GW each in 2015."

While the major markets of Europe and North America have historically had the best renewables track record and will continue to expand renewable capacity, developing markets, such as China, have shown commitment to increasing their installed renewable capacity, driven by an increasing global emphasis on policies tackling climate change, according to GlobalData.

The most important recent development in global climate change policy in 2015 was the United Nations 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris, which proposed a number of ambitious targets.

"Although reasonable doubts have been cast over China's challenging targets, it has outdone self-assigned targets in the past. China previously set a target of 15 GW of solar additions for 2015, and amended this target to 17.8 GW in March, which it eventually surpassed," Mathur said. "However, China failed to meet the third revised annual target, set in September of 23.1 GW, and it remains to be seen if the country can achieve the ambitious goal of 150 GW of solar PV capacity by 2020."

For more:
- see this article

http://www.smartgridnews.com/story/look-back-who-led-world-renewables-2015/2016-01-12