ABSTRACT
The explosive growth of electricity supply that followed entailed an equally explosive growth of the consumption of dirty coal to feed the hundreds of new power plants. Since the year 2000, the global production of electricity from nuclear plants has been turning down. By 2017, electricity generation from the renewables has increased 10-fold to 38% of the total German consumption. Wind and photovoltaics (PV) produce more electricity than coal and nuclear there. In 2016, PV and wind power accounted for 60% of all new capacity installations. PV was number one ahead of wind and natural gas power. Since the year 2013, China has been leading the world on renewable energy matters: on new wind power installations, PV, hydro, and solar thermal. In China, it is also PV that has become number one for new power installations. Wind and PV produce more electricity than coal and nuclear there.
