A fully green future could be closer than you think. With each passing year, the steadily declining price of renewable energy makes it increasingly competitive against fossil fuels.
Today's infographic from Raconteur breaks down the material shift towards renewable energy, and where in the world it's taking place.
Infographic: The Global Transition to Green Energy
Time to go green
A recent United Nations report estimates that renewables must make up 70% to 85% of electricity by 2050 to combat the dire effects of climate change.
The good news? Embracing renewable energy is becoming easier on the wallet. Most renewable energy sources are becoming cheaper and quicker to produce, and it's speeding up widespread adoption.
| Cost of electricity per energy source ($ per KWh) | 2010 | 2017 |
|---|---|---|
| Concentrating solar power | $0.33 | $0.22 |
| Offshore wind | $0.17 | $0.14 |
| Solar photovoltaic | $0.36 | $0.10 |
| Biomass | $0.07 | $0.07 |
| Geothermal | $0.05 | $0.07 |
| Onshore wind | $0.08 | $0.06 |
| Hydro | $0.04 | $0.05 |
The price of solar photovoltaic cells are projected to dip dramatically over this seven-year period, as solar panel infrastructure moves away from being an experimental technology, and into a trusted energy source easily replicated at scale. Solar also received the most new investment by energy type in 2017, up 18% from the previous year.
Of course, it won't happen overnight. Even as the world continues to electrify, coal will still make up almost one-third of the world's energy mix in 2040, while renewables will only be at 25%.
Nevertheless, concentrated efforts to curb our reliance on coal are signals that the fossil fuel is on its way out, and new investment in green energy sources is on the rise in most regions.
The Renewables Race
It's perhaps not surprising that China is leading the change in renewable growth. The nation tops the list of spenders, spending more on green energy than the United States and Europe combined.
| New Investment by Region | 2016 ($ billion) | 2017 ($ billion) | % Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total | $274 | $279.8 | 2% |
| China | $96.9 | $126.6 | 31% |
| Europe | $64.1 | $40.9 | -36% |
| United States | $43.1 | $40.5 | -6% |
| Other Asia and Oceania | $35.7 | $31.4 | -12% |
| Other Americas | $6 | $13.4 | 124% |
| Middle East & Africa | $9 | $10.1 | 11% |
| India | $13.7 | $10.9 | -20% |
| Brazil | $5.6 | $6 | 8% |
In places where a consistent and reliable source of energy is hard to come by, people are looking to clean energy as a way to leapfrog ahead of using the carbon-intensive electricity grid entirely.
Take Ethiopia for example: the $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) project along the Nile River will help meet the area's rising energy demands. Once completed, it will be the largest dam on the continent and generate around 6,450 MW of power.
This trifecta of innovation, investment, and falling costs could be the answer to bolstering renewable energy infrastructure for decades to come – and it will be interesting to see the ultimate pace at which green energy supply comes online, and what that means for the world.
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