Coronavirus disruption clashes with major renewable energy deadlines

The financial toll brought on by the coronavirus pandemic could hinder plans for countries' ambitious renewable energy goals, as jobs disappear amid strict nationwide lockdowns.

Driving the news: Milestones for low-carbon energy policies in China, India and the European Union, which were all expected to drive new projects this year, are scheduled to expire soon.

The big picture: The growth previously forecast for global solar and wind projects is expected to be "wiped out" this year and instead round out to about the same as it was in 2019, consultancy Rystad Energy said in March. Next year will be even worse, with a 10% cut in solar and wind ventures compared to 2020 as investments and construction shrink.

Where it stands: In the face of this projected wipeout, deadlines for renewable-energy plans are fast approaching, writes Heymi Bahar, a top International Energy Agency analyst.

• India needs to speed up the deployment of renewable energy projects this year to reach its goal of 175 gigawatts of renewables generating capacity by March 2022, Bahar writes.
• China's latest five-year renewable energy plan aims for 15% of the country's primary energy consumption to come from nonfossil fuels this year.
• The EU wants its members to consume 20% of their total energy from renewable sources by this year — a goal set in 2009.
• In the U.S., federal solar tax credits are scheduled to decrease by 4% at the end of the year. Wind tax credits will actually expand for projects that begin by December. But $35 billion worth of wind projects are still endangered by the virus, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) said recently.

Threat level: More than 106,000 U.S. workers in energy efficiency, renewable power, alternative fuels, electric cars and other related sectors lost jobs in March, a BW Research Partnership report published last week found.

The other side: Especially relative to oil and natural gas, wind and solar farms are relatively stable and low-risk investments — which "could give them a financial boost in coming months and years," the Wall Street Journal notes.

What we're watching: "Global recession is quickly becoming the base case assumption as the scope and scale of quarantines continue to expand, but the impacts on the trajectory of the energy transition remain nascent," consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in its weekly note on the pandemic's effect on clean energy.

Go deeper: The impact of coronavirus spans the energy universe