Analysis of world renewable energy policy and development

The development status of renewable energy

Since the development of renewable energy, it has occupied an important position in the world's energy consumption, and has been widely used in the fields of power generation, heating and transportation.

Data show that in 2011, renewable energy consumption accounted for 19% of global final energy consumption. Among them, traditional biomass energy accounted for 9.3%, modern renewable energy accounted for 9.7%, thermal energy utilization accounted for about 4.1%, hydropower accounted for about 3.7%, wind power, solar power, geothermal power, biomass power generation and other biofuels accounted for about 1.9%.

In 2012, the world's renewable power generation capacity exceeded 1.47 billion kilowatts, accounting for 26% of the world's total installed power generation capacity, and the share of electricity generation was more than 21%. Among them, the installed capacity of solar power generation grew strongly, and the installed capacity of photovoltaic power generation and solar thermal power generation reached 100 million kilowatts and 2.5 million kilowatts, respectively, an increase of 41% and 60%. The installed capacity of wind power maintained rapid growth, reaching 283 million kilowatts, an increase of 19%. The growth rate of hydropower and geothermal power installations slowed down, increasing by 3-4% year-on-year to 990 million kW and 11.7 million kW. In addition, global biopower installed capacity increased by 8% year-on-year to 83 GW.

In 2012, the world's top five countries with the most installed renewable energy generation were China, the United States, Brazil, Canada and Germany, while the "BRICS" accounted for 36% of global installed capacity. In terms of non-hydro renewables: China, the United States, Germany, Spain, Italy and India are at the top of the list, accounting for 69% of the global installed non-hydro renewable power generation capacity. The EU accounts for 44% of the world's installed renewable energy capacity and generates 20.6% of the region's electricity demand. The BRICS countries account for nearly 27% of the world's installed capacity.

Policy support for renewable energy

As an important part of the global energy system, in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy provides an important driving force for the social, political and economic development of countries, and plays an important role in ensuring energy security, improving environmental protection and increasing employment in countries around the world. By the beginning of 2013, 127 countries had developed or introduced renewable energy policies, of which more than two-thirds were in developing countries and emerging economies.

Overall, renewable energy support policies cover various fields such as power generation, heating (cooling), transportation, and the vast majority of support policies are concentrated in the power generation industry. Power generation support policies mainly include on-grid tariff, renewable energy quota system, net metering tariff, fiscal and tax support policies and green power prices, among which on-grid tariff and quota system are the most widely used.

The feed-in tariff mechanism (FIT), that is, the government forces power grid enterprises to purchase renewable energy generation within the coverage of the grid within a certain period of time according to a certain price. Today, the feed-in tariff system is still the most widely adopted policy in the field of renewable energy generation in countries around the world. As of the beginning of 2013, including China, Germany, Spain, France and parts of the United States, 71 countries and 28 regions (states) in the world have implemented this system in their renewable energy power generation market, of which developing countries account for the majority, and the most common application in the EU countries.

The form of feed-in tariff usually includes fixed tariff and floating tariff. In the future, the implementation of two feed-in tariff forms in one country will be the main development trend of the renewable energy power generation market. For example, in 2012, the renewable energy electricity market in Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and other countries implemented two pricing methods.

Due to the different development levels and stages of renewable energy in the world, countries continue to adjust and improve their own on-grid pricing and adjustment mechanisms according to their national conditions. As a result, the policies developed by countries have both commonalities and national differences.

Renewable energy quota system (RPS) refers to the mandatory provisions on the market share of renewable energy generation in the form of law, which is a mandatory means adopted by the government to cultivate the renewable energy market and make the renewable energy generation reach the minimum guarantee level. In general, the content of the quota system includes the scope of application and responsibility, renewable energy development goals, effective renewable energy types, green certificate system and reward and punishment measures. Different from the on-grid tariff, the quota system can better realize the full competition of renewable energy within the specified market share, so as to reasonably reflect the government's macro-control intention. By the end of 2012, more than 22 countries had implemented uniform nationwide quotas, and 54 states (provinces) had implemented intra-regional quotas. Countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy and Japan are typical countries that implement renewable energy quotas.