After years of hope and promise, renewables are beginning to establish a presence in the energy market free of the requirement for heavy subsidies or other policy interventions. The International Energy Agency’s latest review of the renewables sector records the remarkable progress that is being made, particularly in terms of falling costs.

Renewables cannot yet transform the entire energy business but in electricity they are becoming deeply disruptive to the established competitive order.

The IEA’s paper describes a year of remarkable progress and presents a forecast of continued growth over the next five years. The progress centres on solar power, where capacity grew by 50 per cent last year and is set to add another 660 GW by 2022. Solar and wind are beginning materially to supplement the supply from hydro.