Energy

Topics represented

Energy (34) · Infrastructure (34) · Technology (34) · Climate & environment (5) · Armas nucleares (3) · Cambio climático (3) · Disuasión (3) · War & military technology (3) · Política climática (3) · Adaptación (2) · Science (2) · Física nuclear (2)

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1. c. 2010–c. 2022

   Uneven progress toward modern energy access

   The SDG 7 agenda made access to electricity and clean cooking a central energy-planning metric. Global electricity access increased during the period, but joint tracking by the IEA, IRENA, UNSD, World Bank, and WHO concluded that progress remained insufficient to meet 2030 targets. This milestone treats access, reliability, and affordability as part of energy infrastructure, not as a simple count of connections.

2. c. 2010–c. 2023

   Solar photovoltaic and wind cost inflection

   Between 2010 and 2023, global average costs for new solar photovoltaic and onshore wind power fell sharply. A global comparison of levelized costs does not guarantee the same result for every project: resources, finance, grids, storage, permitting, and local prices still shape cost and integration.

3. 2011

   Fukushima Daiichi and safety review

   The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami caused a severe accident at Fukushima Daiichi and tested cooling, regulatory, and emergency-response systems. Its lessons led to safety reviews and differing energy decisions by country; they do not by themselves determine the viability of all nuclear energy.

4. c. 2015–c. 2019

   Greater LNG contractual flexibility

   During the second half of the 2010s, liquefied-natural-gas (LNG) trade grew and a larger share of contracts incorporated more flexible destinations. This connected some regional gas markets more closely and broadened supply options, but the IEA warned that contractual liquidity does not eliminate physical bottlenecks, infrastructure dependence, or supply-security risks.

5. 2015

   Paris Agreement as an energy-transition signal

   The 2015 Paris Agreement set a climate framework that reinforced the relevance of decarbonizing power, transport, buildings, and industry. This entry records its directional effect on energy systems, not a guaranteed technical outcome: national contributions, finance, grids, and implementation remain uneven.

6. c. 2015–c. 2024

   Acceleration of solar and wind deployment

   Solar photovoltaic and wind deployment accelerated through the second half of the 2010s and reached new scales in 2023–2024. The IEA estimates the two technologies supplied the great majority of renewable growth in 2024; the milestone also highlights grid-connection, flexibility, manufacturing, and geographic-concentration constraints, not an automatic replacement of fossil fuels.

7. 2021

   Glasgow Climate Pact

   COP26 adopted the Glasgow Climate Pact in 2021. The package called for strengthened emissions cuts, adaptation, finance, and transparency, and for the first time in a COP decision called for the phasedown of unabated coal power and inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies. These are calls and decisions in a process among Parties; they do not by themselves amount to national implementation or verified outcomes.

8. 2022

   European gas crisis and energy-security response

   After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the price surge, European Union gas demand fell 13% in 2022, its largest annual drop according to the IEA. The response combined conservation, efficiency, fuel switching, new renewable capacity, alternative imports, and, in several cases, LNG infrastructure. Part of the reduction was cyclical or carried industrial costs; it should not be read as a linear transition or a universal security solution.

9. 2022

   IPCC assessment of energy-system planning

   The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report on mitigation synthesised system-scale options and barriers across supply, transformation, transmission, storage, and end uses. It emphasised that coordinated planning can lower system costs and improve reliability, without prescribing one technology mix or replacing each grid’s democratic, regulatory, or operational decisions.

10. 2023

    First global stocktake of the Paris Agreement

    The first global stocktake of the Paris Agreement concluded at COP28 in 2023 with a decision recognizing that progress was too slow and calling for accelerated action before 2030. The outcome includes mitigation, adaptation, means of implementation, and links to nature, but guides Parties’ updating of action; it does not replace national plans or demonstrate that its calls have already been fulfilled.

11. 2023

    COP28 call to transform energy systems

    The first global stocktake agreed at COP28 called on Parties to contribute to a just, orderly, and equitable transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems; it also called for tripling global renewable capacity and doubling the annual rate of efficiency improvement by 2030. It is a political and international-coordination signal: the text makes calls and depends on national implementation, finance, grids, and accountability.

12. 2023

    Electricity grids as a transition bottleneck

    The IEA’s 2023 global assessment placed grid expansion, modernisation, regulation, and planning at the centre of electricity security. Electrification and new renewable projects require lines, connections, controls, and flexibility that do not always advance at the same pace. It is an infrastructure-and-governance diagnosis, not a claim that every grid or renewable project is necessarily blocked.

13. 2023

    Completion of Germany’s nuclear phase-out

    Germany’s last three reactors ceased generating electricity in April 2023. The outcome closed a policy process accelerated in 2011 and temporarily adjusted during the 2022–2023 energy crisis. It is a national system-design decision—with implications for replacement supply, grids, and security—not a general conclusion about nuclear power in every country.

14. 2024

    Vogtle Unit 4 enters commercial operation

    The 1,114 MW Unit 4 at Plant Vogtle entered commercial operation in the United States after connecting to the grid in March 2024, completing the site’s four-unit expansion. It records a specific case of new nuclear construction in an advanced market; it does not by itself establish costs, schedules, or construction prospects for other countries.