The predominance of renewables in the global energy matrix is already a reality in some countries. In Brazil, this has been happening in recent years, and recently in the United States, after more than a century, clean and sustainable energy also reached first place. But now the trend is for renewable energy to surpass fossil fuels worldwide.
For Márcio Takata, director of Greener, it is a matter of time before renewables replace coal in most countries. “It’s a global trend. Environmental and economic aspects are the two factors that will guide the development and expansion of renewable generation in the world.”
According to him, this will occur due to the technological advancement of renewables, the gain in financial efficiency of the technology and also due to the world's concern with reducing CO2 emissions.
“Now, with the post-Covid recovery, we will have a different world. The world will be even more concerned about ensuring that the recovery is carried out, preferably, on a sustainable basis. And renewable energy, within this context, plays an extremely important role”, highlights Takata.
“However, there is no forecast for the drastic reduction of coal and renewable predominance. It varies a lot from country to country. China, for example, depends heavily on coal, which represents more than 60% of the energy matrix,” he concluded.
Solar energy surpasses nuclear and coal sources in Brazil
According to ABSOLAR (Brazilian Association of Photovoltaic Solar Energy), the total installed power of the source – including large solar plants and small systems in homes, businesses, industries, rural producers and public buildings – has already surpassed the sum of coal-fired and nuclear thermoelectric plants in Brazil. There are 5.763,5 MW of power in solar systems versus 5.586,8 MW of coal and nuclear.
“With this, the total solar power exceeds that of these thermoelectric plants by almost 4%, which are based on non-renewable resources and have greater environmental impacts throughout their entire life cycle”, comments Ronaldo Koloszuk, president of ABSOLAR.
“Brazil is one of the countries that uses renewables the most in the world. We are gaining in competitiveness, especially solar energy, which has seen technological development and cost reduction in recent years, causing this source to accelerate its application in the country”, says Márcio Takata, director of Greener.
Renewables surpasses coal in the US
It can be said that the coal era is over in the United States. According to the EIA (US Energy Information Administration), coal consumption has been surpassed by renewables for the first time in more than 130 years.
The research shows that coal represented 11,3 quadrillion BTU (British thermal units) of energy in 2019, a 15% decline compared to the previous year, caused mainly by utilities moving away from fossil fuel. Renewable energies registered 11,5 quadrillion BTU, an increase of 1,4%.
“It is very positive news. A global trend is the expansion of the use of renewables due to technological evolution, with cost reduction and increased competitiveness of the renewable source”, commented Takata.
