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					</table>France-based energy firm <a href="https://www.engie.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ENGIE</a> has acquired a 6 GW portfolio of solar, paired storage, and standalone battery storage capacity from <a href="https://belltownpower.com/us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Belltown Power</a> to add to its development pipeline in the U.S.
These projects consist of approximately 2.7 GW of solar with 0.7 GW of paired storage and 2.6 GW of standalone battery storage.
The projects are located across the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection (PJM), and Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECO).
In North America, ENGIE has 3.9 GW of installed renewable capacity as of June 30, 2022.
Chief Renewables Officer and Head of ENGIE North America Dave Carroll said, &#8220;The mix of solar, paired, and stand-alone storage across a wide set of geographies both complements our existing portfolio as well as provides opportunities for expansion into new areas in the United States. The 3.3 GW of battery storage projects will be a critical enabler of flexibility and supports the balance of the grid to improve its reliability and resilience.&#8221;
Belltown Power specializes in greenfield development of solar photovoltaic and energy storage projects, starting with site identification and navigating interconnection, real estate, permitting, environmental, tax, and all other development items to bring these projects to fruition.
CEO of Belltown Power U.S. Hernan Farace said, &#8220;The ENGIE team is very knowledgeable and has the breadth and depth of expertise to bring these projects into operations. We believe our projects are in excellent hands and look forward to the ribbon-cutting ceremonies at each of these sites.&#8221;
In September this year, ENGIE was one of the four <a href="https://mercomindia.com/blupine-engie-tata-power-upc-winners-guvnls-750-mw-solar-auction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">winners</a> in an auction by a distribution company in India to procure power from 750 MW of grid-connected solar projects with a greenshoe option of an additional capacity of up to 750 MW.
ENGIE also <a href="https://mercomindia.com/daily-news-wrap-up-pg-procure-power-engies-solar-project/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> a  power purchase agreement with Procter &amp; Gamble to procure power from its 200 MW Sun Valley Solar project in Hill County, Texas. ENGIE will supply over 530,000 MWh of clean electricity annually once production starts.

ENGIE Acquires 6 GW Solar and Battery Storage Capacity in the US

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					</table>The world&#8217;s wind and solar projects combined met more than a tenth of global electricity demand for the first time in 2021, according to research company <a href="https://about.bnef.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BloombergNEF (BNEF)</a>.
In its Power Transition Trends 2022 report, BNEF said solar achieved a new milestone in 2021, clearing 1,000 TWh of generation for the first time, while wind neared 2,000 TWh. Together, the technologies accounted for 10.5% of all power produced worldwide.
Zero-carbon generation totaled over 10,000 TWh to meet nearly 40% of global power demand.
The report said wind and solar accounted for three-quarters of the 364 GW of new capacity installed in 2021. Solar alone was half of all capacity added, and annual solar build was 25% higher in 2021 than in 2020.
In contrast, fossil fuels made up for only 14% of total capacity added in 2021, with net growth in coal capacity at its lowest in at least 15 years.
Solar is the technology of choice
BNEF said over three-quarters of the nations surveyed installed more clean power (including hydro) on a capacity basis than any other technology in 2021. Solar was the technology of choice in nearly half of the world’s nations. Hydro followed with 15%, down from 20% a decade earlier.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-41921" src="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Solar-and-wind-share.png" alt="Solar and wind share" width="450" height="364" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Solar-and-wind-share.png 613w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Solar-and-wind-share-300x243.png 300w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Solar-and-wind-share-600x485.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px" />
“Solar is also quickly spreading to new markets through deployment at scale remains somewhat concentrated. In 2021, the number of countries that installed at least 1 MW of solar capacity reached a new high of 112 markets – 7.5 times the number of markets that added coal. This is up from 101 markets in 2020 and just 55 in 2012,” the report said.
Wind and solar are now the cheapest sources of new bulk power generation in countries that make up two-thirds of the world population and three-quarters of global GDP.
Global installed solar capacity would <a href="https://mercomindia.com/global-installed-solar-capacity-could-reach-3000-gw-by-2030-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">double</a> by 2025 and quadruple to 3,000 GW by 2030, DNV said in a 2021 report. Global solar power generation could expand 30-fold to 22,000 TWh in 2050 from 190 TWh in 2019 and account for the largest share of new renewable capacity.
Global power production
The BNEF report said that post-Covid, total global power production jumped 5.6% in 2021, from 25,800 TWh to 27,300 TWh.
Wind’s contribution rose 6.8% from just 0.7% a decade ago, while solar reached 3.7% from virtually nothing in 2012.
Generation from natural gas and nuclear rose 3% and 4%, respectively, while hydro power’s contribution slid by 0.7%.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-41925 size-full" src="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/global-capacity-change.png" alt="global capacity change" width="316" height="397" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/global-capacity-change.png 316w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/global-capacity-change-239x300.png 239w" sizes="(max-width: 316px) 100vw, 316px" />
APAC’s rise in the global power mix
The report acknowledged Asia-Pacific (APAC) region’s role in the global power mix, with  APAC now home to 49% of global installed capacity.
As of year-end 2021, APAC totaled 3.8 TW installed. Africa followed with a 123% jump over the period. In 2021, the continent reached 249 GW of capacity.
Europe and North America saw their shares of capacity drop sharply since 2006, although they remained the second largest regions for installed capacity, accounting for 20% each.
Global installed power-generating capacity reached a new high in 2021 of 7.9 TW. Solar PV capacity jumped 23% to 973 GW in 2021, while global wind capacity rose 12% to 833 GW.
China and India lead coal generation
Coal generation jumped 750 TWh in 2021 and accounted for over half of all net additional power generation.
China, with 414 GW, and India, with 107 GW, continue to lead in building new coal-fired power generating capacity.
Half of the countries that pledged to phase out coal at COP26 recorded growth in coal generation in 2021.
China, India, the U.S., Japan, and South Korea complete the top five in coal generation.
India has planned to shut down 5.1 GW of coal-based power capacity. Power companies in India have <a href="https://mercomindia.com/5-1-gw-coal-based-capacity-to-be-shut-down/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">retired</a> almost 14 GW of coal-based generation capacities over the last 18 years.

In a First, Wind and Solar Projects Met Over 10% of Global Electricity Demand in 2021: BNEF

China’s National Energy Administration (<a href="http://en.ndrc.gov.cn/mfod/200812/t20081218_252224.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">NEA</a>) has announced that the country has reached a cumulative installed solar capacity of around 186 GW. China added 11.4 GW on a year-over-year basis (YoY), which roughly translates to a 20% increase.
With the newly-added capacity, grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) projects now total 130.5 GW, with 6.82 GW added in the first half increase of 16%.
Distributed solar power generation projects have increased by 4.58 GW to reach an installed capacity of 55 GW, a 31% increase.
<a href="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Annotation-2019-08-26-101315.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-15152" src="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Annotation-2019-08-26-101315.png" alt="China Solar PV Installations (MW), 2010-1H 2019" width="542" height="282" srcset="https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Annotation-2019-08-26-101315.png 542w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Annotation-2019-08-26-101315-300x156.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 542px) 100vw, 542px" /></a>
Of the newly installed solar capacity in the first half of 2019, North China accounted for 3.92 GW, making up 28.9% of the total. The new installed capacity in the northeast region was 260 MW, accounting for 2.3%, while East China accounted for 2.28 GW, which made up 20%. Central China’s newly installed solar energy capacity stood at 1.35 GW, accounting for 15.3% of the capacity while the Northwest region saw installations of 825 MW, making up 11.9%. The NEA data reveals that the newly installed capacity in Southern China was 768 MW, which is 6.7% of the total installations during this period.
Recently, Mercom <a href="https://mercomindia.com/china-fit-solar-projects-22-gw/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> on the news of the NEA approving 22.78 GW of Feed-in Tariff (FiT) based solar projects in China. These solar PV projects are expected to be grid-connected by December 2019. They have been approved under China’s first national unified bidding for solar projects seeking feed-in-tariffs. A total of 4,338 solar PV projects with a combined capacity of 24.55 GW were proposed to be developed, but only 3,921 projects totaling 22.78 GW had received the official approval. Apart from these, 417 proposed solar projects with a capacity of approximately 1.77 GW had not been approved.
In <a href="https://mercomindia.com/china-cumulative-installed-solar-nea/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">June 2019</a>, China’s cumulative installed solar capacity stood at nearly 180 GW, the country added around 5.2 GW of new solar projects in the first quarter of 2019.
Image Credit: Suntech Power

China Adds 11 GW of Solar in First Half of 2019

The growth in capacity addition of renewable energy sources has stalled, says a report by the International Energy Agency (<a href="https://www.iea.org/">IEA</a>). According to the report, the year 2018 was the first year since 2001 in which the growth in renewable power capacity could not increase on a year-over-year basis. New net capacity from solar PV, wind, hydro, bioenergy, and other renewable power sources increased by about 180 GW in 2018, the same as the previous year.
This is about 60% of the net addition needed each year to meet long-term climate goals.
At this rate, the countries are not going to be able to meet the goals of the Paris agreement which requires a global addition of about 300 GW capacity of renewables each year from 2018 to 2030, said the report.
Further, according to the IEA, energy-related CO2 emissions increased by approximately 1.7% to a historic high of 33 gigatons. This is worrying since there was a growth of 7% in renewables electricity generation and emissions from the power sector grew to record levels.
In the report, IEA noted that since 2015, rapid growth in solar photovoltaic (PV) was compensating for the slowdown in capacity additions of wind and hydropower projects. However, since last year, the capacity addition of solar PV has also slowed down due to a change in solar incentives in China. As reported by Mercom, the Price Bureau of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) <a href="https://mercomindia.com/china-feed-in-tariff-levels-solar/">announced</a> the level of solar FIT payments for large-scale projects which will become effective from July 1, 2019. Back in June of 2018, China shocked the global solar markets by <a href="https://mercomindia.com/major-policy-change-china-affect-global-solar/">imposing</a> installation caps and a reduced feed-in tariff for solar projects in the country affecting solar demand in the country after which installations declined from 53 GW in 2017 to 44 GW in 2018. The change in policy is a result of a massive <a href="https://mercomindia.com/chinas-solar-subsidy-backlog-approximately-17-4-billion/">subsidy backlog</a> of 120 billion yuan.
<a href="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/lus.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-13494" src="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/lus.png" alt="" width="743" height="568" srcset="https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/lus.png 743w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/lus-600x459.png 600w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/lus-300x229.png 300w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/lus-650x497.png 650w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/lus-624x477.png 624w" sizes="(max-width: 743px) 100vw, 743px" /></a>
In addition to China, Europe and India reported lackluster growth in wind installations in 2018.
Solar installations in India have reached 30 GW according to preliminary figures from Mercom’s <a href="https://mercomindia.com/product/india-solar-project-tracker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">India Solar Project Tracker</a>. The <a href="https://mercomindia.com/indias-solar-capacity-30-gw-milestone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">share of solar capacity</a> grew from 6.6% as of March 2018 to 8.4% as of March 2019. Among renewables, solar accounted for approximately 38% of the installed capacity, up by 2% compared to the previous quarter.
Wind currently accounts for over 35 GW of the total installed power capacity and nearly 10% of the overall power capacity mix, as of March 2019 in India. The installations were down in FY 2018-19, adding around 1.5 GW in capacity additions.
“The world cannot afford to press “pause” on the expansion of renewables and governments need to act quickly to correct this situation and enable faster flow of new projects,” said Dr. Fatih Birol, IEA’s executive director.
“Thanks to rapidly declining costs, the competitiveness of renewables is no longer heavily tied to financial incentives. What they mainly need are stable policies supported by a long-term vision but also a focus on integrating renewables into power systems in a cost-effective and optimal way. Stop-and-go policies are particularly harmful to markets and jobs,” Birol added.
In the Indian context, capacity addition for renewable energy projects fell from 15 GW in 2017 to 14 GW in 2018. Solar PV which was a major contributor to renewable energy capacity addition is expected to lag this year because of cancellation of tenders, complexities concerning taxation and the general election. In April 2019, Mercom <a href="https://mercomindia.com/solar-auction-cancellations-need-a-fix/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> that since the beginning of 2018, various government agencies such as the Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (<a href="http://upneda.org.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">UPNEDA</a>), the Grid Corporation of Odisha (<a href="https://www.gridco.co.in/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GRIDCO</a>), Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited, and others had <a href="https://mercomindia.com/solar-auction-cancellations-need-a-fix/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">canceled</a> nearly 5 GW of solar auctions.
Besides the cancellation of tenders, lingering uncertainties around the imposition of <a href="https://mercomindia.com/safeguard-duty-solar-manufacturers-unhappy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">safeguard duty</a> and <a href="https://mercomindia.com/delhi-court-gst-council-review-tax-solar/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">GST</a> have also stalled the development of various projects across the country.

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