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Rapid investments in grid infrastructure and energy storage is needed to fully harness the potential of renewables, expert says
While this signals an important milestone in the clean energy transition for the influential bloc that still hosts most of the world’s coal power, energy experts urged these countries to accelerate investments in energy storage and grid infrastructure to keep pace with the growing share of renewable energy.
The nine Brics countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates – are expected to bring online a combined 72 gigawatts (GW) of fossil-fuel generating capacity this year, compared with 190GW of non-fossil capacity added by China, India and Brazil alone so far, according to a report released on Tuesday by Global Energy Monitor (GEM), a San Francisco-based non-profit.
This would bring the total non-fossil power capacity operating in the Brics to 2,289GW versus a maximum of 2,245GW of fossil capacity by the end of this year. This means the share of non-fossil fuels in the Brics countries’ power mix could cross 50 per cent for the first time, from just 30 per cent in 2007. The bloc, which accounts for 36 per cent of global gross domestic product, is catching up with the European Union and the G7, which reached 50 per cent non-fossil share in the early 2010s and 2023, respectively, according to GEM.
“The Brics bloc is at a watershed moment,” said James Norman, project manager for GEM’s global integrated power tracker, a multi-sector data set of power stations and facilities worldwide. “The clean energy transition really is happening everywhere.”
The transition is led by China, as its share of fossil-fuelled power capacity has fallen twice that of other Brics countries over the last five years, according to GEM.
China also accounts for 70 per cent of the 814GW of utility-scale solar power capacity in development across the Brics countries, and 67 per cent of the 744GW of wind power capacity in development across the bloc, according to the report.
“Despite some encouraging signs with significant non-fossil additions, all Brics group countries should accelerate power sector transition,” Norman said, noting that all Brics members are still building additional coal, oil or gas plants.
Low utilisation of renewable power is also a challenge in many markets, where investments in grid expansion, grid flexibility and energy storage have not kept pace with renewables expansion, according to Norman.
For example, China’s average utilisation hours of wind and solar power dropped by 8.3 per cent and 4.9 per cent year on year, respectively, in the first half of 2024, because of intensive wind and solar installations and a lack of grid-connection capability, according to a report by Fitch Ratings last month.
This would lead to higher curtailment rates and lost revenue for renewable energy producers and inefficiencies in the energy market, undermining the business case for additional renewables projects, said Norman.
To enhance the roll-out of renewable energy, especially solar and wind, it is important to remove existing bottlenecks, including procurement of land, high borrowing costs and supply chain constraints, he said.
“Additionally, supporting infrastructure will become increasingly important in accelerating the expanded roll out of renewables, particularly investments in electricity grids and energy storage,” Norman said.
“Such measures will reduce the need for new fossil fuelled power capacity and further shift the balance in favour of non-fossil and renewables.”
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