COVID-19 inflicted a serious blow on the industries related to fossil fuels. And this is another reason to think seriously about switching to renewable energy sources, which, as evident, is not only environmentally friendly but also economically advantageous. This is stated in a new report prepared under the auspices of the UN environment programme (UNEP).
In recent years, many businesses and farmers are increasingly using windmills or solar panels. A number of States increasingly rely on hydro. Investors are eager to Finance projects related to the development of "green" technologies. All this makes a huge contribution to limit global warming.
according to the report, the cost of installation for renewable energy is reduced, and the return in power is growing rapidly. This means that the investment will pay big dividends. Thus, the capacity of renewable energy sources, excluding large hydro, in 2019 compared to the 2018 year increased by 184 GW. It is the highest in the history annual increase of 20 GW, or 12 percent. And this despite the fact that investment in this sector in 2019 was only one percent higher than in the previous year, amounting to 282,2 billion.
Cost of the development of wind and solar installations continues to fall, mainly due to technological improvements. Another important reason is the growing scale of production of renewable energy and fierce competition at auctions. The cost of electricity from new solar photovoltaic power plants in the second half of 2019 were 83 per cent lower than a decade earlier.
"a New study shows that investing in renewable energy is one of the most reasonable and cost-effective investment," - said the Executive Director of UNEP Inger Andersen. She added that the transition to clean energy in a period of economic recovery COVID-19 – this is a big step towards a world where people are protected from these pandemics.
Nearly 78 percent of new generating capacity GW in 2019 were in the wind and sun, biomass and waste, geothermal and small hydropower. The volume of investments in projects for renewable energy were more than three times higher than in new production associated with fossil fuels.
renewable energy could become a powerful engine of economic recovery after the crisis of the coronavirus, to promote the creation of new and environmentally friendly and safe workplaces.
In 2019, the share of renewable energy sources, excluding large hydro, in the world production increased to 13.4 percent from 12.4 percent in 2018, and 5.9 percent in 2009.
