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25 01 RENEWABLES 2014 GLOBAL STATUS REPORT energy in individual sectors or economy-wide, and many have already achieved their targets.21 Asmarketshavebecomemoreglobal,industrieshaveresponded by increasing their flexibility and developing global strategies and supply chains.22 In 2013, manufacturers continued to diversify products to increase product value, and many advanced further into project development and ownership. Many renewable industries saw a rapid increase in worldwide demand for construction and engineering, consulting, equipment maintenance, and operations services.23 Several industries had a difficult year, with consolidation continuing, particularly in solar energy and wind power. But the picture brightened by year’s end, with many solar PV and wind turbine manufacturers returning to profitability.24 Global investment in renewables declined again in 2013, largely due to falling system costs and policy uncertainty.25 Still, renewables outpaced fossil fuels for the fourth year running in terms of net investment in power capacity additions.26 Further, 2013 was a watershed year for renewable energy financing, with the development and enactment of new financing structures that provide access to low-cost money through capital markets.27 (See Investment Flows section.) Projects (particularly wind and solar PV) changed hands at record rates during the year, reflecting in part a growing interest in renewable energy asset investments among pension funds and other institutional investors that anticipate solid long-term returns.28 Innovative financingmechanisms,suchascrowdfundingandrisk-guarantee schemes, continued to expand and spread across China, Europe, and the United States, and are increasingly targeting off-grid projects in Africa and Asia.29 A range of actors continued to actively engage in the financing of distributed renewable energy projects for isolated regions of the developing world.30 The impacts of all of these developments on employment numbers in the renewable energy sector have varied by country and technology, but, globally, the number of people working in renewable industries has continued to rise. (See Sidebar 6, page 60, and Table 1, page 63.) ■■ POWER SECTOR The most significant growth occurred in the power sector, with globalcapacityexceeding1,560GWin2013,anincreaseofmore than 8% over 2012.31 Hydropower rose by 4% to approximately 1,000 GWi , while other renewables collectively grew nearly 17% to an estimated 560 GW.32 Globally, hydropower and solar PV each accounted for about one-third of renewable power capacity added in 2013, followed closely by wind power (29%).33 For the first time, more solar PV than wind power capacity was added worldwide.34 (See Reference Table R1.) Around the world, policy support and investment in renewable energy have continued to focus primarily on the electricity sector. Consequently, renewables have accounted for a growing share of electric generation capacity added globally each year.35 In 2013, renewables made up more than 56% of net additions to global power capacity and represented far higher shares of capacity added in several countries around the world.36 In the EU, renewables accounted for the majority of new capacity for the sixth year running.37 By year’s end, renewables comprised an estimated 26.4% of the world’s power generating capacity.38 This was enough to supply an estimated 22.1% of global electricity, with hydropower providing about 16.4%.39 (See Figure 3.) While renewable capacity continues to rise at a rapid rate from year to year, renewable electricity’s share of global generation is increasing more slowly. This is in large part because overall demand keeps rising rapidly, and also because much of the renewable capacity being added is variable. Even so, variable renewables are achieving high levels of penetration in several countries. For example, throughout 2013, wind power met 33.2% of electricity demand in Denmark and 20.9% in Spain; in Italy, solar PV met 7.8% of total annual electricity demand.40 Hydropower, which provides the single largest share of renewable electricity worldwide, is being used increasingly to balance systems with high shares of variable renewables, sometimes with the aid of pumped storage. Figure 3. Estimated Renewable Energy Share of Global Electricity Production, End-2013 Based on renewable generating capacity in operation at year-end 2013. Fossil fuels and nuclear 77.9 % Renewable electricity 22.1% Hydropower 16.4% Bio-power 1.8% Wind 2.9% Solar PV 0.7% Geothermal, CSP and Ocean 0.4% Figure 3. Estimated Renewable Energy Share of Global Electricity Production, End-2013 i - The GSR 2013 reported a global total of 990 GW of hydropower capacity at the end of 2012; this figure has been revised downward due to better data availability. This adjustment also affects the global figure for total renewable power capacity. In addition, global hydropower data and thus total renewable energy statistics in this report reflect an effort to remove capacity of pure pumped storage from the totals. For more information, see Methodological Notes, page 142. Source: See Endnote 39 for this section. Based on renewable generating capacity in operation end-2013. Data do not add up due to rounding.