Renewables met 100% of the rise in global electricity demand in the first half of 2022
Renewables met all of the rise in global electricity demand in the first half of 2022, preventing any growth in coal and gas generation, according to a new report published by London-based energy think tank Ember.
The rise in wind and solar generation met over 75% of the demand growth in the first half of 2022, while hydro met the remainder, preventing a possible 4% increase in fossil-fuel generation and avoiding $40 billion in fuel costs and 230 Mt CO2 in emissions.
Malgorzata Wiatros-Motyka, senior analyst at Ember, said:
Wind and solar are proving themselves during the energy crisis.
The first step to ending the grip of expensive and polluting fossil fuels is to build enough clean power to meet the world’s growing appetite for electricity.
The report analyzes electricity data from 75 countries representing 90% of global electricity demand. It compares the first six months of 2022 to the first half of 2021 to show how the electricity transition has progressed.
The report finds that global electricity demand grew by 389 terawatt hours (TWh) in the first half of 2022. Renewables – wind, solar, and hydro – increased by 416 TWh, slightly exceeding the rise in electricity demand.
Wind and solar alone rose by 300 TWh, which was equal to 77% of the rise in global electricity demand. In China, the rise in wind and solar generation alone met 92% of its electricity demand rise. In the United States it was 81%, and in India it was 23%.
Rise in fossil-fuel generation unchanged
As a result of the growth in renewables, fossil-fuel generation was almost unchanged (+5 TWh, +0.1%). Coal fell by 36 TWh (-1%) and gas by 1 TWh (-0.05%). This offset a slight rise in other fossil fuels (mainly oil) of 42 TWh. Consequently, global CO2 power sector emissions were unchanged in the first half of 2022 compared to the same period last year, despite the rise in electricity demand.
Coal in the EU rose 15% only to cover a temporary shortfall in nuclear and hydro generation. Coal in India rose 10% because of a sharp rebound in electricity demand from lows early last year when the pandemic struck hardest. Globally, these rises were offset by coal-power falls of 3% in China and 7% in the United States.
The growth in wind and solar prevented a 4% rise in fossil fuel electricity generation worldwide. In China, the growth in wind and solar enabled fossil fuel power to fall by 3%. Without this growth, fossil fuels would have risen by 1%. In India, fossil fuel power rose by 9%, but it would have been 12% without growth in wind and solar. In the United States, it slowed down the rise in fossil fuel power from 7% to just 1%. In the EU, fossil fuel power rose by 6%, but it would have been 16% without growth in wind and solar.
Despite the halt in fossil-fuel generation in the first half of 2022, coal and gas generation increased in July and August. It leaves open the possibility that power sector emissions in 2022 may yet rise, following last year’s all-time high.
Further, a new report from San Francisco-based NGO Global Energy Monitor found that approximately 89.6 gigawatts (GW) of gas plants in development globally, totaling 5,070 million metric tons of CO2e lifetime emissions if built, are coal-to-gas conversions or replacements.
These conversions are proceeding despite data showing that gas projects are increasingly uncompetitive with renewables and are just as bad, if not worse, for the environment than coal.
Wiatros-Motyka said:
We can’t be sure if we’ve reached peak coal and gas in the power sector.
Global power sector emissions are still pushing all-time highs when they need to be falling very quickly. And the same fossil fuels pushing us into a climate crisis are also causing the global energy crisis. We have a solution: Wind and solar are homegrown and cheap, and are already cutting both bills and emissions fast.
Read more: Siemens Gamesa launches recyclable onshore wind turbine blades
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If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you combine a fruit cart, a cargo bike, and a Piaggio Ape all in one vehicle, now you’ve got your answer. I submit, for your approval, this week’s feature for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column – and it’s a beautiful doozie.
Feast your eyes on this salad slinging, coleslaw cruising, tuber taxiing produce chariot!
I think this electric vegetable trike might finally scratch the itch long felt by many of my readers. It seems every time I cover an electric trike, even the really cool ones, I always get commenters poo-poo-ing it for having two wheels in the rear instead of two wheels in the front. Well, here you go, folks!
Designed with two front wheels for maximum stability, this trike keeps your cucumbers in check through every corner. Because trust me, you don’t want to hit a pothole and suddenly be juggling peaches like you’re in Cirque du Soleil: Farmers Market Edition.
To avoid the extra cost of designing a linked steering system for a pair of front wheels, the engineers who brought this salad shuttle to life simply side-stepped that complexity altogether by steering the entire fixed front end. I’ve got articulating electric tractors that steer like this, and so if it works for a several-ton work machine, it should work for a couple hundred pounds of cargo bike.
Featuring a giant cargo bed up front with four cascading fruit baskets set up for roadside sales, this cargo bike is something of a blank slate. Sure, you could monetize grandma’s vegetable garden, or you could fill it with your own ideas and concoctions. Our exceedingly talented graphics wizard sees it as the perfect coffee and pastry e-bike for my new startup, The Handlebarista, and I’m not one to argue. Basically, the sky is the limit with a blank slate bike like this!
Sure, the quality doesn’t quite match something like a fancy Tern cargo bike. The rim brakes aren’t exactly confidence-inspiring, but at least there are three of them. And if they should all give out, or just not quite slow you down enough to avoid that quickly approaching brick wall, then at least you’ve got a couple hundred pounds of tomatoes as a tasty crumple zone.
The electrical system does seem a bit underpowered. With a 36V battery and a 250W motor, I don’t know if one-third of a horsepower is enough to haul a full load to the local farmer’s market. But I guess if the weight is a bit much for the little motor, you could always do some snacking along the way. On the other hand, all the pictures seem to show a non-electric version. So if this cart is presumably mobile on pedal power alone, then that extra motor assist, however small, is going to feel like a very welcome guest.
The $950 price is presumably for the electric version, since that’s what’s in the title of the listing, though I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. I’ve bought a LOT of stuff on Alibaba, including many electric vehicles, and the too-good-to-be-true price is always exactly that. In my experience, you can multiply the Alibaba price by 3-4x to get the actual landed price for things like these. Even so, $3,000-$4,000 wouldn’t be a terrible price, considering a lot of electric trikes stateside already cost that much and don’t even come with a quad-set of vegetable baskets on board!
I should also put my normal caveat in here about not actually buying one of these. Please, please don’t try to buy one of these awesome cargo e-trikes. This is a silly, tongue-in-cheek weekend column where I scour the ever-entertaining underbelly of China’s massive e-commerce site Alibaba in search of fun, quirky, and just plain awesomely weird electric vehicles. While I’ve successfully bought several fun things on the platform, I’ve also gotten scammed more than once, so this is not for the timid or the tight-budgeted among us.
That isn’t to say that some of my more stubborn readers haven’t followed in my footsteps before, ignoring my advice and setting out on their own wild journey. But please don’t be the one who risks it all and gets nothing in return. Don’t say I didn’t warn you; this is the warning.
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Environment
Podcast: Trump/GOP go after EV/solar, Tesla, Ford, GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Trump’s Big Beautiful bill becoming law and going after EVs and solar, Tesla, Ford, and GM EV sales, Electrek Formula Sun, and more
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The show is live every Friday at 4 p.m. ET on Electrek’s YouTube channel.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
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Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
- Electrek FSGP 2025: New teams, new cars, same solar spirit
- Congress votes to send 2 million US jobs to China, increase deficit, energy costs
- Tesla (TSLA) confirms 384,000 deliveries in Q2 2025, right on expectations
- Tesla prototype sparks speculation: a Model Y, maybe slightly smaller
- Tesla launches Oasis Supercharger with solar farm and off-grid batteries
- Tesla unveils its LFP battery factory, claims it’s almost ready
- Here’s why Ford’s electric vehicle sales crashed by nearly a third in Q2
- The Chevy Equinox EV is GM’s breakout star, but that’s not the only surprise
- Xpeng launches G7, a new Tesla Model Y competitor for just $27,000
Here’s the live stream for today’s episode starting at 4:00 p.m. ET (or the video after 5 p.m. ET:
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