Covid recovery plans 'missed opportunity' to expand renewables, says report
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'Policies that promote energy storage deployment also help with successful variable renewable energy integration'.
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Pandemic economic recovery packages have pumped "six times more investment” into fossil fuels and have been a missed opportunity to expand the use of renewables and partner technologies, such as battery energy storage, according to a new report.
Global governance group, the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), said 2020 could have been a "gamechanger”, as primary energy demand fell by 4% at the height of Covid-19 lockdowns around the world.
However, "even with this historic decline, G20 countries, the planet’s biggest polluters, barely met or even missed their unambitious renewable energy targets,” according to REN21’s ‘Renewables 2021 Global Status Report’.
REN21 said the report "clearly shows that governments need to give a much harder push to renewables in all sectors”.
"Policies that promote energy storage deployment also help with successful variable renewable energy integration, since storage can make it easier to balance the supply and demand of renewable generation and minimise the curtailment of electricity,” the report said.
The decreasing cost of technologies such as batteries, wind, solar power and electric vehicles – compared to fossil fuels – is "key to their greater appeal”.
And while "many challenges” remain for scaling up EVs, "further electrification of road transport has the potential to ease the integration of solar PV and wind power by providing balancing and flexibility services to the grid”.
Global governance group, the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), said 2020 could have been a "gamechanger”, as primary energy demand fell by 4% at the height of Covid-19 lockdowns around the world.
However, "even with this historic decline, G20 countries, the planet’s biggest polluters, barely met or even missed their unambitious renewable energy targets,” according to REN21’s ‘Renewables 2021 Global Status Report’.
'Greater appeal'
REN21 said the report "clearly shows that governments need to give a much harder push to renewables in all sectors”.
"Policies that promote energy storage deployment also help with successful variable renewable energy integration, since storage can make it easier to balance the supply and demand of renewable generation and minimise the curtailment of electricity,” the report said.
The decreasing cost of technologies such as batteries, wind, solar power and electric vehicles – compared to fossil fuels – is "key to their greater appeal”.
And while "many challenges” remain for scaling up EVs, "further electrification of road transport has the potential to ease the integration of solar PV and wind power by providing balancing and flexibility services to the grid”.