Bloomberg’s latest New Energy Outlook predicts nearly half of the world’s electricity will be generated from wind and solar by 2050. Throw in hydro, nuclear and other renewables, and that total will reach 71 percent. That level will be reached in part by a boom in battery storage, as the technology is expected to dramatically drop in cost and provide stability for intermittent solar and wind production. Total battery storage investment from now through 2050 is expected to reach 1,291 GW, or $548 billion. Battery storage prices have already fallen 79 percent from 2010 levels. Additionally, solar prices are expected to fall by 71 percent by 2050, with wind dropping 58 percent in the same time.
Power Engineering 20th June 2018 read more »
The global boom in battery storage will enable the world to source half of all electricity from wind and solar by 2050. That’s according to a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), which suggests “precipitous reductions” in cost will enable more power from intermittent renewables to be stored and discharged to meet shifts in demand and supply. It expects coal’s share of the mix to shrink from 38% to just 11% of global generation by the middle of the century as costs shift heavily in favour of low carbon technologies. The report shows lithium-ion battery prices are already down nearly 80% per MWh since 2010 and suggests these costs will continue to drop as electric vehicle manufacturing rises.
Energy Live News 20th June 2018 read more »
In 2016 Good Energy launched a peer-to-peer platform where consumers of energy can actually choose which generator they buy their energy from, knowing how far away it is and what source of energy it uses. If you look back 20 years, there was no way you could even consider this type of system, because renewable energy use was limited and the technology to manage the output was not widely available. This speaks to the way the market is changing, with the explosion in technologies including storage, energy control, low cost solar and electric vehicles, we are no longer going to be producing huge amounts of power in single locations and shipping it around the country. Power is going to be generated much closer to the consumer, and possibly on the same site. As this becomes the case, you will see your customers starting to expect to see things like solar panels and EV charging points when they visit your business. These technologies will become more every day; integrated into every building, every workplace, every new home. Which means that power is not going from big power station to small consumer, instead it’s travelling both ways.
Business Green 21st June 2018 read more »