Renewables becoming the bedrock of power supply in major global cities

Here is another testimony of the rapid expansion of the renewables wave across the globe. A latest report compiled by the UK-based noted non-profit environment impact agency, the CDP, has revealed that more than 100 major cities across the world are now mostly meeting their power demand from renewable sources.The icing on the cake is: these cities do not quintessentially belong to the developed countries but there is a considerable representation from the low income countries as well.

In precise terms, the report states as many as 101 cities across the world now receiving an average of around 70 percent of their power supply from clean energy sources. The cities which have been particularly mentioned in the report includes New Zealand’s Auckland, Kenya’s Nairobi, Norway’s Oslo, and Canada’s Vancouver. The agency had come out with a similar report in 2015 which had underlined 42 cities across the globe receiving the maximum chunk of their energy requirement from the renewable resources. The latest count of 101, therefore, signifies a massive jump in the adoption of renewable energy sources by the leading cities in the world.

Meanwhile a close examination of the geographical pockets of the cities, where renewable is now being harnessed to meet the maximum demand, presents an interesting trend. Of the list of 101, 57 are in Latin America, 21 are in Europe, nine are in Africa, five are in Canada, four are in the US, three are found in New Zealand, and one can be found in South Korea, with another in Australia. Two cities – Iceland’s Reykjavik and Vermont’s Burlington- have been specifically mentioned for having attained 100 percent reliability on renewable sources like solar, wind, hydro and biomass. The CDP latest findings further validates the basic assumption of a report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) stating that renewables’ capacity addition has picked up major momentum in many parts of the world.   It may be noted that a high contribution from Hydro power, a sector that seems to have left its best years behind for now is a notable contributor. So expect not only the energy mix to change in the future, but also future additions to the list to be more solar and wind driven actually

The full list of renewable energy cities