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01 GLOBAL OVERVIEW
n North America: In the United States, wind (8.6 GW) and
solar (7.4 GW, solar PV and CSP) were the leading sources of
new power capacity in 2015, exceeding natural gas capacity
additions (about 6 GW). 100 Renewables accounted for nearly
13.7% of electricity generation (up from 13.4% in 2014), despite
a 3.2% drop in hydropower output. 101 Canada continued to be
a leader in hydropower development and ranked sixth globally
for wind power capacity additions. 102
n Latin America and the Caribbean: Countries across the
region achieved high shares of their electricity generation with
renewables: for example, Costa Rica generated 99% of its electricity
with renewable sources, Uruguay generated 92.8% and
Chile has quickly surpassed several long-term targets. 103 Latin
America remained one of the fastest growing markets for wind
energy and solar PV in 2015, albeit from a small base. Brazil
was second globally for new hydropower and fourth for new
wind power capacity although transmission capacity has been
unable to keep pace with wind power capacity; Guatemala
brought its first wind power plant online, and Mexico was
one of the few countries worldwide to add geothermal power
capacity in 2015. 104 Several countries – including Chile, Mexico
and Peru – held successful tenders in 2015 and early 2016,
resulting in some of the world’s lowest bid prices, due in part
to the region’s vast renewable energy resources. 105
n Africa: Many countries throughout Africa increased their policy
commitments in the power sector during 2015. All renewable
power generating technologies except ocean energy are
being deployed across the continent, with significant markets
on-grid as well as off-grid (for solar PV in particular). In 2015,
several countries (including Ethiopia, Guinea and Zambia)
brought new hydropower facilities online. 106 Morocco was the
world’s largest CSP market, South Africa was the first country
on the continent to achieve 1 GW of solar PV and helped push
the continent’s wind power capacity above the 3 GW mark,
and Kenya ranked fourth globally for new geothermal power
capacity. 107 Across Africa, renewable power projects and technology
manufacturing facilities were being planned or were
under construction. 108
n Pacific: Australia led the region in 2015 and was among the top
10 countries for newly installed solar PV, ending the year with
the equivalent of one solar panel per inhabitant. 109 Renewables
accounted for about 14.6% of Australia’s electricity generation
(up from 13.5% in 2014), despite a significant drop in hydropower
generation. 110 Elsewhere in the region, Samoa installed
its first wind farm, and Fiji saw the inauguration of some solar
PV micro-grid projects. 111
n Middle East: Relatively little renewable power capacity has
been deployed in most countries of the region, but interest
in CSP and solar PV, in particular, is growing rapidly. 112 Iraq,
Jordan and the United Arab Emirates all held tenders for
renewable power in 2015. Jordan brought its first utility-scale
wind farm online, Israel led the region for solar PV capacity
additions, and significant steps were taken towards domestic
manufacturing of solar technologies in several countries,
including Saudi Arabia. 113
The rapid growth of renewable power generation created
both challenges and opportunities in 2015. In countries where
electricity consumption is expanding, both renewable energy
and fossil fuel generation are being deployed to meet growing
demand. In countries with slow or negative growth in electricity
consumption (e.g., several OECD countries), renewable energy
is increasingly displacing existing generation and disrupting
traditional energy markets and business models. 114 In response
to this competition, some incumbents are pushing back against
supportive renewable power policies or adapting their business
models by restructuring, consolidating or splitting. 115 Other
utilities and electricity suppliers are repositioning by acquiring
significant renewable energy assets, decreasing their fossil fuel
investments, acquiring other utilities that already have significant
amounts of renewable energy in their generation portfolios and
moving into new markets. 116
Around the world, technical, economic and market transformation
of the electric power sector continued to accelerate in 2015. 117
Several factors are driving a transformation from centralised
systems to more-complex systems that encompass a growing
number of decentralised generating assets. 118 These factors
include technological advances, social change, policy goals and,
in particular, declining costs and increasing shares of variable
wind and solar PV. 119 A key challenge is adapting the power grid
to integrate rising shares of renewable generation, developing
more-flexible systems to balance variable resources (on both the
supply and demand sides) while minimising costs. 120
Several jurisdictions – including Denmark, Germany, the state of
South Australia and some US states – already have successfully
integrated high shares of variable renewables. 121 Throughout
2015, variable renewables achieved high penetration levels in
several countries: for example, wind power met 42% of electricity
demand in Denmark, 23.2% in Portugal and 15.5% in Uruguay;
and solar PV accounted for 7.8% of electricity demand in Italy,
6.5% in Greece and 6.4% in Germany. 122 Electric utilities also have
successfully integrated very large shares over short time periods:
for example, variable renewable generation reached new highs
in Denmark, Germany and parts of the United States during the
year. 123
Many developed countries and some developing countries have
begun to respond to the challenge of grid integration. 124 Strategies
in 2015 included various combinations of: increased flexibility
on the demand side and on the supply side (e.g., innovations in
flexible fossil power plants; energy storage, particularly pumped
storage; active power controls at wind and solar power plants);
construction of new transmission networks; development
of smarter grids; interconnection and co-ordination with
neighbouring grids; advanced resource forecasting; integrated
heating and cooling systems; and innovative market designs. 125
Dispatchable renewable energy plants – including reservoir
hydro, biomass and geothermal power (and CSP with storage)
contributed to flexibility. System balancing also is served by
new and upgraded transmission interconnections, such as the
Skagerrak 4 interconnector between Norway and Denmark,
which became operational in 2015. The interconnector was
built to help balance Denmark’s wind and thermal power
and Norway’s hydropower. 126 Innovative hybrid systems have
emerged, such as the Longyangxia station in China, where 1,280
megawatts (MW) of hydropower is linked to a massive solar PV
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