Each of these seven countries is a major consumer of natural gas, and the pro- portion of energy consumption accounted for by natural gas has increased relatively quickly in each case. Of these, four countries are developed countries: the United States, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom. There are also three emerging countries: Malaysia, Turkey and Egypt.

In 2015, China’s energy consumption will reach 4 billion tons of standard coal. By 2020, non-renewable energy consumption will be controlled at around 4.8 billion tons of standard coal, with total standard coal consumption con- trolled at around 3.0 billion tons, a drop of 62.5% in the proportion of total energy consumption.

Conversion from coal to gas is mainly encountered in Europe, Australia and the United States.

China’s intentions are that CO2 emissions should peak by around 2030 and work should be carried out to try to achieve this peak sooner. Planning outlines include 2030 non-fossil fuel energy sources rising to account for around 20% of primary energy source consumption.

Renewable energy targets is based on 2016 data.

China’s market is growing rapidly. By 2013, the installed capacity in China increased to 13 GW, whereas it was only 0.3 GW in 2009. In Italy, more than 7.8% of total electricity is generated from solar PV.
Up to 2013, the global cumulative installed capacity of CSP was 3.4 GW [23]. About two-third of this capacity was installed in Spain.

Up to 2013, total cumulative installed capacity of wind power was 318 GW, whereas it was only 94 GW in 2007. Significant amount of wind power comes from Demark, Germany and US. At present, more than 240,000 wind turbines are operating in all over the world [23]. China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa are becoming big markets for wind power development.

In 2013, geothermal resources contributed only 76 TWh electricity with an installed capacity of 12 GW.

The total installed capacity of biomass power increased from 45 GW in 2007 to 88 GW in 2013 [23]. In 2013, the growth rate of biomass power was 12%.

In 2013, Italy also generated significant amount of electricity from solar PV, which was the second largest contributor of global solar PV power and accounts for 18%.

At the same time, Spain, China, Japan, US and France generated 10.5, 9.5, 8.6, 7.5 and 3.7% of the global generation, respectively.

China dominates the production of PV modules.

Due to the lower generation cost, coal fired power plants generate 41% of the global electricity (2013).

Natural gas is the least carbon-intensive fossil fuel which generates almost 50% less CO2 than that of coal. In 2012, about 22% of the global electricity was generated from natural gas.

In 2012, about 5% of the global electricity generation was produced from liquid fuel.

In 2014, about 11% of the global electricity generation throughout the world was generated from nuclear power plants. In France, 72.3% of the total electricity (2016). In 2016, about half of the total electricity demand in Slovakia, Ukraine, Belgium and Hungary was met using nuclear (2016).