Sparklines

The Renewable Energy Asset Rotation Cycle Is Stuck

Returns on solar and wind have gotten so good, buyers no longer want to let go.

Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
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The price tag for driving down global emissions in a major way is, as you can imagine, big. BloombergNEF calculates that meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement with a combination of zero-carbon electricity and hydrogen would require more than $60 trillion of power sector investment, plus more than $30 trillion of investment in hydrogen production and transport investment by 2050. Flex a few technical choices—such as switching over dedicated nuclear power plants to manufacturing hydrogen—and the total price tag is $100 trillion or more.