Towards 100% renewable energy: Utilities in transition

The IRENA Coalition for Action brings together leading renewable energy players from around the world with the common goal of advancing the uptake of renewable energy. The Coalition facilitates global dialogues between public and private sectors to develop actions to increase the share of renewables in the global energy mix and accelerate the global energy transition.

The Coalition has produced a series of white papers and analyses that document case studies and best practices for achieving 100% renewable energy, including recommendations to policy makers on how to support an accelerated energy transformation.

Building on several case studies and first-hand interviews, this white paper by the Coalition explores the role of utilities in the energy transition and outlines the achievements and implementation strategies of national, regional and local utilities switching to 100% renewable energy. The paper also includes a comprehensive mapping of national and sub-national 100% renewable energy targets.

Key takeaways:

• Citizen engagement is key for utilities making the transition to renewables.
• Clear, long-term and reliable government policies and increased energy independence are key motivators for utilities making the transition to 100% renewables.
• Close collaboration between utilities and relevant decision makers is crucial to enabling the renewable energy transformation.
• Finding an optimal balance among different renewable energy sources is recognised as a key success factor for utilities in building supply-side flexibility.
• Demand-side flexibility and distributed renewable energy are key to transform the energy system. Flexibility solutions to balancing high shares of renewable energy are available, but further innovation is needed.
• Early adoption of high shares of renewables across all sectors may enable synergies and create competitive advantages.