A Twitter User @TonyClimate on February 7, 2023 wrote that wind and
solar make up less than 4 per cent of the global energy supply and are
making almost no progress.
His tweet reads: “Wind and solar make up less than 4% of the global
energy supply, and are making almost no progress. This is because they
are inherently unreliable”
The tweet, which was a quote-tweet to Elon Musk’s tweet on the 31st of
January, had 25.8 thousand views, 151 retweets, 7 quote tweets and
557 likes.
Verification
What is Energy Supply?
According to Definitions.net, Energy supply “is the delivery of fuels or
transformed fuels to point of consumption, and encompasses the
extraction, transmission, generation, distribution and storage of fuels”.
Energy supply is sometimes referred to as energy flow.
Energy supply can also be defined as the “quantity of energy available
that suppliers can provide to end users”.
Sources of Energy Supply
There are primary and renewable energy sources.
Primary sources include nuclear energy, and fossil energy such as oil,
coal and natural gas.
Renewable energy sources include wind, solar, geothermal and
hydropower.
What percentage do wind and solar contribute to global energy
supply?
Enerdata World Energy and Climate Statistics Yearbook 2022 shares
data on how the share of wind and solar has risen constantly and has
reached 10.7% of the global energy supply.
“In 2021, renewable power generation continued to increase at a steady
pace (+16% for wind and +23% for solar), as global renewable
installations remained dynamic. Despite the surge in thermal –
especially coal-fired – power generation in a context of global economic
recovery and revived electricity demand, the share of wind and solar in
the global power mix increased again in 2021 to 10.7%, i.e., +8.4 pts
more than in 2010,” the report read.
The BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2022 also showed that in
2021, Wind and solar reached a 10.2% share of energy generation,
marking the first time wind and solar power exceeded more than 10% of
global energy generation.
The World Economic Forum stated that Solar generation grew by 23% in
2021, while wind generation increased by 14%.
Rating
False – Wind and solar make up more than 4% of the global energy
supply as recent global energy supply data shows that wind and solar
generate more than 10% of the global energy supply, and their energy
generation has been increasing.
This fact-check was produced by Justina Asishana, a Journalist
with The Nation Newspaper with support from Code for Africa’s
PesaCheck and African Fact-Checking Alliance network.
