We are pleased to share the new Renewables in Cities 2019 Global Status Report, which was released this week by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21). This report provides an overview of cities’ contributions to the global renewable energy transition. 

Cities play a key role in accelerating clean energy deployment because they account for 55% of the world’s population, 75% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and 2/3 of global energy demand.

• Read the full report to learn about renewable energy trends and markets, energy access, policies, and investments in cities.
• Visit REN21's Cities webpage for more on select cities featured in the report and to sign up to get involved in the 2020 edition of the cities report.

​The Renewables in Cities 2019 Global Status Report was produced in collaboration with a global network of research partners. More than 300 volunteers from REN21's international network, including the InterAmerican Clean Energy Institute, contributed to the report. 

REN21 is a global network of renewable energy stakeholders from science, government, NGOs, and industry working to advance the clean energy transition. REN21 publishes the annual Renewables Global Status Report series to provide the public and decision-makers with current and actionable information on renewable energy data, markets, technologies, and trends. All reports are available online, free-of-charge.

2015 set new records for clean energy investment, installation and jobs globally, according to the latest Renewables Global Status Report published by REN21. Highlights include:

• 120 gigawatts of non-hydro renewable power capacity were installed worldwide, increasing the global total to a record high of 785 gigawatts.
  
• Record levels of investment - $286 billion - flowed to renewable power and fuels (excluding large hydro).

The green workforce also set a new record, rising 5% worldwide in 2015 to 8.1 million. Employment in the U.S. solar business grew 12 times faster than overall job creation, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency. There are now more jobs in solar than in oil, gas, and coal extraction in the U.S. (See below chart from Bloomberg).

Global clean energy investment (excluding large hydro) totaled $329 billion in 2015, a new world record, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. This achievement is particularly impressive given the headwinds faced by the clean energy industry, including the plunge in fossil fuels prices and economic weakness in Europe. 

In a statement Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said: “These figures are a stunning riposte to all those who expected clean energy investment to stall on falling oil and gas prices. Wind and solar power are now being adopted in many developing countries as a natural and substantial part of the generation mix: they can be produced more cheaply than often high wholesale power prices; they reduce a country’s exposure to expected future fossil fuel prices; and above all they can be built very quickly to meet unfulfilled demand for electricity. And it is very hard to see these trends going backwards, in the light of December’s Paris Climate Agreement.”
 
Preliminary figures indicate that wind and solar PV installations grew 30% worldwide in 2015 compared to 2014. The combined total of new wind (64 gigawatts) and solar (57 gigawatts) capacity accounted for around half of the net capacity added in all generation technologies (fossil fuel, nuclear and renewable) globally in 2015.

A transformation of power grids towards reliance on mainly renewable energy sources has begun. The Age of Renewable Power, a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), provides a framework for developing a national roadmap to guide each country’s power sector transformation.

Renewable energy investment surged 17% to $270 billion in 2014. Further, the world added 103GW of new renewable power capacity (excluding large hydro), and renewable energy technologies made up 48% of net power capacity added globally, according to Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investments 2015, a new report prepared by the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

A new fact sheet from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) provides data on employment in the U.S. and global renewable energy sectors from a variety of governmental and non-governmental sources. Notably, a total of 6.5 million jobs around the world are supported by the renewable energy sectors, according to the Annual Review on Renewable Energy and Jobs of 2014 report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). China, Brazil, the U.S., India and Germany are the top five largest employers for renewable energy industries, and solar photovoltaic and wind power are the two most dynamic renewable energy sectors, according to IRENA.

Global clean energy investment in Q3 2014 was $55bn, up 12% from the $48.9bn achieved in Q3 2013, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Global clean energy investment during the first three quarters of 2014 was $175.1 billion, 16% greater than investment during the same period of 2013. Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, commented: “It is heartening to see investment heading for an up-year in 2014 after two down-years, thanks in large part to the greatly enhanced competitiveness of solar, and to some extent wind. However, there is no room for complacency because clean energy investment of between $200bn and $300bn a year is not large enough to herald the rapid transformation of the power system that experts say is required if the world is to see a peak in CO2 emissions around 2020. There is still too much policy instability holding back investor confidence.”

Clean Edge this week released its annual Clean Energy Trends 2014 report (download for free here), which includes tracking, forecasting and market sizing of the global solar, wind, and biofuels markets, analysis on solar PV pricing, public market performance, venture capital investments, and energy capacity additions. For 2014 the report also features global figures for LEED buildings and EV/hybrid vehicles. The authors highlight the following as five key trends to watch: 

• Enlightened Utilities Begin To Embrace Distributed Energy Assets
• Cities Lead Climate Charge by Focusing on Regional Carbon Reduction
• Net Zero Energy Buildings Gain Ground
• Internet-Enabled Clean-Tech Startups Define a New Sector
• Vertical Farming Sprouts in Cities Around the World

The Advanced Energy Now 2014 Market Report is the first annual report of market size, by revenue, of the advanced energy industry, worldwide and in the United States. As defined by Advanced Energy Economy (AEE), a national association of business leaders with the goal of making the global energy system more secure, clean, and affordable, advanced energy is a broad range of technologies, products, and services that constitute the best available technologies for meeting energy needs today and tomorrow.

Prepared for AEE by Navigant Research, Advanced Energy Now 2014 reports that, for 2013, advanced energy reached $1.13 trillion in estimated global revenue, a 7% increase year-over-year driven by growth in six of the seven segments. Fluctuation in the worldwide total for advanced energy was largely driven by a peak year for large hydro projects in 2011 followed by a large decline in 2012, then slow growth in 2013.

In the United States, the advanced energy market was an estimated $168.9 billion in 2013, 15% of the global advanced energy market, up from 11% in 2011. Excluding wind, U.S. advanced energy revenue grew 18% from 2011 to 2012 and 14% from 2012 to 2013. Wind energy suffered a severe, $23 billion revenue downward swing between 2012 and 2013, due to policy uncertainty around the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC). The effect of wind’s downturn is that U.S. advanced energy revenue declined 2% overall in 2013, following a 26% increase from 2011 to 2012.