The global shift away from a fossil fuel-based power system is gathering pace, with renewable energy sources on track to account for over 80% of total electricity output by 2050 as the build-out of wind and solar plant expands 20-fold, according to energy consultancy DNV GL’s latest Energy Transition Outlook (ETO).
But the 2019 report underlines that despite market-making advances in wind and solar technology, slow progress in streamlining governmental regulatory frameworks to accelerate the energy transition is putting a drag on cutting emissions to levels that would meet the Paris Agreement goal of holding global warming to 1.5°C-2°C above pre-industrial levels.
“The progress on technology is very encouraging – both in terms of the daily impact on the transition and also on the cost [of energy] level it’s very good – and so while we are ‘technology-optimistic’ we remain very much ‘climate-concerned’” said Ditlev Energy, CEO of DNV GL Energy, speaking to Recharge before the publication of the ETO.
DNV GL forecasts the global PV fleet to be producing some 36,000TWh a year by 2050, and wind farms 17,000TWh, together accounting for nearly two-thirds of all electricity production globally.
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