Solar & wind power vs fossil fuel energy sources
Today, we have a total of 14,057 wind-powered and 5,728 solar-powered plants around the world. This number already exceeds the number of gas and power stations.
In 2022, 142 countries will be using the wind and solar type of energy production, while coal and gas plants will be present in fewer—128—countries.
It doesn't look so great when we look at the total amount of energy we can produce when using renewable energy sources. It turns out that despite having fewer plants, gas and coal can produce four times as much energy as sun and wind. This is a huge problem if we want to reduce our carbon emissions and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.
The number and capacity of power plants has changed profoundly over the last century. From the graph, we can see that the number of solar- and wind-powered plants is growing dramatically, while new gas and coal power plants occur not so often. It is a trend which we were expected to see, knowing of the environmental benefits of using solar and wind power, as well as the need for new energy sources due to climate change.
However, it is not clear that the overall capacity of these renewable energy sources is increasing at the same rate as the number of constructions being built.
Let’s draw the trend line, assuming that progress regarding the number of new plants built and their capacity will keep the same pace as it has over the last 10 years.
The prediction line shows us that gas power plants will surpass those that use coal as the power source in both quantity and overall capacity.
The situation is different for renewable sources of energy. Although the number of wind plants has already exceeded coal and gas ones, and solar stations are going to do the same soon, the power capacity of these energy sources is increasing at the same rate as their opponents.
This means that, despite a lot of new wind and solar power plants being built, their number is clearly not enough to surpass the capacity of fossil fuel-powered plants. And maybe, even for sustaining our needs.
Here we have a coloured map which represents how much energy each county can produce using wind. Denser colour means that country has a larger total capacity of wind-powered stations. I encourage you to zoom-in and explore the map more closely.
From the beginning, we can see that China stands out. But this country also has the greatest population and production industry on Earth, which explains why it needs all this energy. The USA catches the eye next. This country is also well-populated and has a big industrial complex, so the data may be distorted too. The same can be said about Brazil.
Canada and Australia are much less populated than the previously mentioned countries, and still, they use a lot of wind-produced energy. Then comes West Europe: Spain, Germany, UK, France. These also have quite a blue tint, although they are significantly populated as well.
I suppose it would be fair to say that we cannot really distinguish any obvious leader in using wind for producing energy.
The overall picture reminds me of the situation with wind power, but there are some differences. Let’s investigate more closely.
It is noticeable that African countries use more solar than wind energy. Mexico also has a denser colour on this map, and Chile does too. When we look at Europe, we see that, unlike with wind, Spain has clear leadership regarding using solar energy. Australia uses solar energy slightly more than wind. And all of this was expected: these countries have more sunny days, hence the reason for using more solar panels.
China and the USA have the greatest power-producing capacity when it comes to solar energy, but here is something interesting about the United Kingdom: although this country produces less solar energy than it does with wind, and despite being well-known as "Foggy Albion", it is still able to extract more energy from the sun than most African countries.
To distinguish the countries that are best at using these new technologies to produce energy, let’s compare how they do it with fossil fuels.
We have our winner! Sweden produces the most energy with solar and wind power compared to the capacity of its fossil fuel plants. To be honest, I was surprised to see Estonia on this list. I didn't know that this is such a "green" country. Likewise, Honduras is one that I didn't expect to see on this list. I personally thought it would be filled mostly with North-European countries.
Although the last few decades have seen a more gradual increase in the number of power plants that use renewable sources of energy—sun and wind—their numbers do not produce enough energy to compete with fossil fuel powered stations.
Assuming that the last 10 years’ growth rate will continue, the capacity of solar and wind power will increase at the same rate as fossil fuel plants.
The amount of solar and wind power produced is dictated mostly by each country’s needs—its economics and population—rather than geography. However, it is fair to say that sunny countries, when compared to others, tend to use more solar energy than wind.
The top ten "Green" countries are very different from one another, which means that we can't tell if solar and wind power will be popular in a country based on geography, population, economics, or culture. Each country chooses its own path.