According to the New Energy Outlook 2019 report from BloombergNEF (BNEF), solar PV, battery, and wind technologies will lead the way in renewable energy generation, with them collectively meeting 48% of electricity demand by 2050.
BNEF anticipates that renewable energy will be increasingly rolled out as the above technologies undercut gas and coal power generation.
The report also states that for two thirds of people in the world, either solar PV or wind is already the cheapest way of adding additional power-generating capacity. For example, wind technology has made great advance in production cost, scale, and efficiencies, and high-quality lubricants, like those from Mobil stockists, have kept pace with the increasing demands of wind turbines.
In addition, Matthias Kimmel, the report’s lead analyst, predicts that by 2030, solar PV, wind, and battery technologies will undercut coal and gas generation almost everywhere in the world. By 2050, the levelised cost is expected to drop dramatically by 63% to just $25 per MWh. Wind, meanwhile, will drop in cost by 48% to about $30 per MWh. Battery technology will also drop in price by 64% to $62 per KWh, although this is still relatively expensive.
These declining costs will lead to renewable energy generation almost tripling in capacity as it accounts for 80% of the 15.15 TW of new generation capacity that will be added over the 2018-2050 period. The BNEF analysts note, however, that other low-carbon technologies will be needed to provide any further capacity.
