FRANKFURT: A halt in spending on electrical grids around the world is slowing the spread of renewable energy and could jeopardize efforts to curb climate change if millions of miles of power lines are not added or renewed in the next few years, according to the World Bank. International Energy Agency He said. The ability to connect and transmit electricity is not keeping pace with the rapid growth of clean energy technologies such as solar, wind, electric cars and heat pumps that are being deployed to move away from fossil energy, the Paris-based organization said in the report on Tuesday. Fuel.
International Energy Agency Executive Director Fathi Pyrol He told The Associated Press in an interview that there is a long line of renewable energy projects waiting for the green light to connect to the grid. He added that the stalled projects could generate 1,500 gigawatts of power, or five times the amount of solar and wind power that was added worldwide last year.
“It’s as if you build a very efficient, very fast, very beautiful car — but you forget to build roads for it,” Birol said.
He said that if spending on grids remained at current levels, the chance of keeping the increase in global average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – a target set by the 2015 Paris climate agreements – “will diminish significantly”. .
An IEA assessment of electricity grids around the world found that meeting climate targets set by the world’s governments would require adding or renewing 80 million kilometers (50 million miles) of power lines by 2040 — an amount that would be equivalent to the current global grid in less than two decades. .
The agency said annual investment remained stagnant but needed to double to reach more than $600 billion annually by 2030.
It is not uncommon for a single high-voltage overhead power line to take between 5 and 13 years to gain approval through bureaucracy in developed economies, while time periods are much shorter in China and India, according to the International Energy Agency.
The report referred to the Southlink transmission project to transfer wind energy from northern to southern Germany. It was first planned in 2014, but was postponed after political opposition to an overhead line led to it being buried instead. It is expected to be completed in 2028 instead of 2022.
Other important projects that have been postponed: a 400 km (250 mi) bay. Biscay The Spain-France Connector, now expected to start in 2028 instead of 2025, and the high-voltage SunZia line to bring wind power from New Mexico to Arizona and California. Construction began only last month after years of delays.
On the East Coast, the Avangrid line to bring hydropower from Canada to New England was halted in 2021 after a referendum in Maine. A court overturned a statewide vote to reject the project in April.
International Energy Agency Executive Director Fathi Pyrol He told The Associated Press in an interview that there is a long line of renewable energy projects waiting for the green light to connect to the grid. He added that the stalled projects could generate 1,500 gigawatts of power, or five times the amount of solar and wind power that was added worldwide last year.
“It’s as if you build a very efficient, very fast, very beautiful car — but you forget to build roads for it,” Birol said.
He said that if spending on grids remained at current levels, the chance of keeping the increase in global average temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – a target set by the 2015 Paris climate agreements – “will diminish significantly”. .
An IEA assessment of electricity grids around the world found that meeting climate targets set by the world’s governments would require adding or renewing 80 million kilometers (50 million miles) of power lines by 2040 — an amount that would be equivalent to the current global grid in less than two decades. .
The agency said annual investment remained stagnant but needed to double to reach more than $600 billion annually by 2030.
It is not uncommon for a single high-voltage overhead power line to take between 5 and 13 years to gain approval through bureaucracy in developed economies, while time periods are much shorter in China and India, according to the International Energy Agency.
The report referred to the Southlink transmission project to transfer wind energy from northern to southern Germany. It was first planned in 2014, but was postponed after political opposition to an overhead line led to it being buried instead. It is expected to be completed in 2028 instead of 2022.
Other important projects that have been postponed: a 400 km (250 mi) bay. Biscay The Spain-France Connector, now expected to start in 2028 instead of 2025, and the high-voltage SunZia line to bring wind power from New Mexico to Arizona and California. Construction began only last month after years of delays.
On the East Coast, the Avangrid line to bring hydropower from Canada to New England was halted in 2021 after a referendum in Maine. A court overturned a statewide vote to reject the project in April.
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