As most people in most parts of the world are advocating for clean energy, renewable energy is becoming the best alternative. In efforts to control climate change, many states are increasing solar and wind power production. Consequently, their growth has been rising for several years now. Given the research of new technologies and development efforts, there are high chances that the change will keep getting better.
Some changes in the energy industry have been registered despite the corona global pandemic. For the last one year, renewable energy such as solar and wind has increased in the United States’ capacity. That has been the same case for the production of natural gas. However, coal registered a drop, whereas the majority of the rest of the resources stagnated.
The Knowledge Exchange Division by CoBank has made some findings regarding energy. By the middle of this decade, CoBank expects nuclear and coal power to decrease by more than 100 GW. However, there will be a need for compensation hence necessary to accelerate renewable power generation. Fortunately, such projects are replacing the retiring ones with an excellent ratio of 2: 1. So, for every coal capacity retirement, two clean energy projects are emerging.
Energy storage is something that will play a massive role in ensuring that the energy supply becomes sustainable. For so long, as much as it has been crucial, energy storage has been challenging and expensive. However, there has been a steady decline in energy storage systems cost. A good example is the findings of HIS Markit. It showed that between 2012 and 2020, the average price of a lithium-ion battery decreased by 82%. The forecast indicates that it will drop further within the next three years to a cost of $100/kWh. Then, the price will be around $73kWh come 2030. With the price decrease, the demand and deployment will increase.
Mercom Capital Group’s report states corporate funding is increasing since around 35 deals for the acquisition of battery storage received $3.5 billion in 2020. Compared to the similar deals the previous year, that was an increase of 62% from the earlier years. Therefore, people looking for funding aren’t lucking options of financial institutions planning to lend them.
The various research on technologies that can affect the progression of the energy industry is quite a number. Some of the most studied technologies of energy sources are geothermal, fusion, and hydrogen. Therefore, there is hope that they will eventually reach their full potential, which will be a plus for the energy industry. It may not happen soon, but with the progress so far, the game-changing technologies’ future is bright.
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