The prevailing belief that renewable energy sources like wind and solar have swiftly surpassed fossil fuels in recent decades is a powerful narrative, but in reality, coal for power generation is still king across the globe.
Coal produced more than 35% of the world's electricity in 2022—the highest percentage of any source. At 22.7%, natural gas has the second-highest proportion. Hydroelectricity made up 14.9% of the total, nuclear power accounted for 9.2%, wind for 7.2%, solar energy for 4.5%, and a combination of geothermal and biomass energy for 3.6% were the other sources.
In the past, the total percentage of low-carbon energy sources—nuclear, hydropower, wind, and solar—peaked in 1995, the year of the UN climate summit. Remarkably, even after over 30 years and 27 UN climate summits, the proportion of low-carbon energy generated worldwide has stayed relatively stable into 2022.
Fossil fuels, such as coal and natural gas, continue to produce the majority of the world's electricity. Amazingly, in 2022, the demand for coal even hit new all-time highs. In reaction to energy shortages and price surges, China, India, and Indonesia—the world's three largest producers of coal—are quickly increasing their output to record levels. The production of coal is expected to increase much more globally in 2023.
In the first half of 2023 alone, China approved more than 50 gigawatts of new coal power plant capacity. The goal of this coal development is to make up for China's decreased hydropower output as a result of severe droughts linked to the effects of climate change. Due to drought, the output of other significant hydroelectric producers, such as India and parts of Europe and North America, has also decreased, increasing the need for dispatchable coal and gas facilities to satisfy demand for energy.
Given that the United States accounts for less than 7% of worldwide coal use, factors that have driven drops in U.S. coal consumption over the past 15 years—such as cheap, abundant natural gas from fracking and growth in subsidized renewables—have not similarly altered global coal demand patterns.
Therefore, even though renewable energy sources like solar and wind are growing quickly, their bases are not very large. For the foreseeable future, fossil fuels—coal in particular—continue to account for the majority of the world's power generation. The vital development of energy storage, which is required to support the further expansion of intermittent renewables, is also hampered by a persistently high demand for coal.
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