Solar and wind energy could replace fossil fuels entirely to become the world’s power source by 2050, a new report said.
Published Friday, the report from thinktank Carbon Tracker also forecasted that if wind and solar power continued on their current growth trajectory, they would completely throw out push fossil fuels in the electricity sector by the mid-2030s.
Current technology gave the world the power to capture 6,700 Petawatt hours (PWh) of power from solar and wind energy, researchers said – more than 100 times the amount of energy required globally in 2019.
Although the potential for vast amounts of energy to be harvested is there, just 0.7 PWh of solar power and 1.4 PWh of wind energy was generated in 2019, according to the report.
But, its authors were confident that continued falling costs were likely to drive exponential growth in the generation of solar and wind power. An annual growth rate of 15% would be expected from solar and wind generating all of the world’s electricity by the mid-2030s and providing all energy worldwide by 2050.
According to the report, the cost of solar power had declined by an average of 18% per year since 2010 and wind power prices had also fallen by an average of 9% every year.
Solar power had grown at an impressive rate of 39% over the last decade, almost doubling the capacity in every two years, while wind energy had grown in capacity by 17% a year, with continuous improvements in panels and higher turbines, further reducing costs.
Although many global corporations are pledging to assist with efforts to slow down climate change and help subsequent energy shift, others are still doubling investments in power sector that depends on fossil fuels.
Out of the world’s 60 largest banks, 33 banks have substantially expanded their funding to the fossil fuel sector between 2016 and 2020.
