China has become the world's largest single producer of renewable electricity

Abstract from China wind Power News

    On July 5, the "BP Statistical Yearbook of World Energy (2017)" (Chinese version) (hereinafter referred to as the "Yearbook") was released in Beijing. Global carbon emissions have remained flat for the third year in a row, driven by weak energy demand and a shift in the energy mix, as the share of renewables increases to fill the gap left by a sharp decline in coal use, according to the yearbook.

    The Yearbook has been produced continuously for 66 years. BP Group chief economist Dai Sipan said that the 2017 edition of the data clearly shows that the market is undergoing a long-term shift, including slowing growth in global energy demand; A big shift in demand to emerging Asia; A low-carbon transition in the energy mix due to strong growth in renewable energy and declining coal use. At the same time, the energy market is effectively adjusting to near-term challenges, such as the easing of the oversupply that has been present in the oil market in recent years.

    Introducing this year''s edition of the Yearbook, BP Group CEO William Dudley said: "Global energy markets are in a period of transition as the world struggles to meet the twin challenges of energy supply and reducing carbon emissions. At the same time, the market is also facing a number of short-term influences, most notably the oil market continues to adjust to oversupply. Over the past three years, oversupply has weighed on oil prices."

    The Yearbook shows that in terms of Primary energy, the global energy demand increased by 1% in 2016, similar to the growth rate of 1% in 2015 and 0.9% in 2014, far lower than the average growth rate of 1.8% in the past decade. Moreover, the growth mainly comes from rapidly growing developing countries, with about half of the growth coming from China and India. However, India''s energy demand grew by 5.4%, while China only grew by 1.3%, which is only about 1/4 of the 10-year average growth rate. Nevertheless, China''s demand has been increasing year by year and has become the fastest-growing energy market globally for 16 consecutive years.

    In traditional energy, the lower oil prices in 2016 increased demand by 1.6%, while production growth was only 0.5%. Therefore, the oil market roughly returned to equilibrium in the middle of the year, but oil prices are still constrained by the large inventory accumulated over a long period of time. Natural gas production was also adversely affected by low prices, only increasing by 0.3%. US natural gas production declined in 2016, the first decline since the beginning of the Shale gas revolution in the middle of the first decade of the 21st century.

    For coal, global coal consumption declined for the second year in a row, down 1.7 per cent, or 53 million tonnes of oil equivalent. Coal''s share of primary energy fell to 28.1%, the lowest since 2004. The decline in consumption was mainly driven by the two largest coal users, the United States (-8.8%) and China (-1.6%). World coal production fell by 6.2%, or 231 million tonnes of oil equivalent, the biggest annual decline on record. The decline in production continued to come from China (-7.9%) and the United States (-19%). In the UK, coal consumption has more than halved and is now down to levels last seen at the start of the Industrial Revolution some 200 years ago. In April, the UK electricity sector achieved its first "coal free" day.

    In contrast, renewables remained the fastest growing segment of all energy sources, with an increase of 12% excluding hydropower. While below the 10-year average growth of 15.7% for renewables, this is still the largest annual increase ever recorded (an increase of 55 million tonnes of oil equivalent, more than offsetting the reduction in coal consumption). While renewables accounted for only 4 percent of total primary energy, their growth accounted for nearly a third of total energy demand growth in 2016. More than half of the growth in renewables came from wind power, which grew 16 percent in 2016. Solar power is up 30%. In 2016, China surpassed the United States to become the world''s largest single producer of renewable electricity, while the Asia-Pacific region surpassed      Europe and Eurasia to become the largest producer of renewable electricity.

    In addition, global nuclear energy production grew 1.3 percent in 2016, with all of the net increase coming from China. China''s nuclear energy production grew 24.5 percent to 9.6 million tons of oil equivalent, the largest increase of any country since 2004.

Global hydropower grew 2.8% in 2016, with the largest increase again coming from China, followed by the United States.

Slow growth in energy demand and shifts in the fuel mix have led to an estimated 0.1 per cent increase in global carbon emissions, making 2016 the third year in a row that carbon emissions have remained stable or even declined, Despan said. This is also the lowest three-year average since 1981-1983.

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