Graph of the Day: The world’s biggest power markets

In Australia we are repeatedly told – by those who want to take little action on climate change, or want to slow down the push into renewable energy – that on the global scale, what happens in Australia doesn’t matter.

That’s why this graph below is interesting. It is taken from the presentation this week by the world’s biggest wind and solar company, SunEdison, and features the top power markets in the world. Australia ranks No 14.

Among its peer range Australia stands out because of its recent stance on renewables, where it threatens to become the first country in the world to reduce its renewable energy target, while others are increasing theirs.

Turkey has just announced plans to build 5GW of solar by 2023, Mexico has lifted its renewable energy target to 35 per cent by 2024, South Africa is regarded as one of the world’s most exciting markets for renewables, with numerous developments in large scale solar PV, solar tower with storage, and other technologies, and Saudi Arabia plans to spend $42 billion on solar to reduce its domestic use of oil and gas. A Saudi company recently secured the lowest price of solar PV, under 6c/kWh for a 200MW PV plant in Dubai.

Among the biggest power users, China, Japan and US are the world’s biggest markets for solar and wind energy, and India has a plan to build 100GW of solar power by 2020. Only Russia fails to have a clearly defined renewables program.

Of the next tier, Germany is leading the global energy transition with its “energiewende program, France now has a 25 per cent renewable energy target to reduce its dependence on costly nuclear, Brazil and Canada are reliant mostly on hydro – with Brazil auctions producing some of the cheapest prices for wind and solar, the UK is building the world’s biggest offshore wind farm, and Italy and Spain were among the world’s leaders in the uptake of solar technology.