Exceptional growth is the new normal for solar and wind energy
Onshore wind turbines and electricity transmission pylons at the Little Cheyne Court Wind Farm near Camber, UK, on October 26th, 2020. | Photo: Bloomberg/Contributor via Getty Images
Solar and wind energy growth soared in 2020 and is on course to keep catapulting upward. Last year, renewable sources of electricity grew faster than they have since 1999. That rapid rise is far from a one-off event, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), which said today that the “exceptionally high” growth in 2020 is the “new normal.”
It’s yet another signal that renewable energy is elbowing out competition from fossil fuels, at least when it comes to electricity. New renewable energy capacity — primarily solar and wind — made up a whopping 90 percent of the power sector’s growth globally last year, according to the IEA, an intergovernmental organization that...
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