Solar Growth Estimates for 2050 Are Aggressive, But Not Unrealistic
To decarbonize power substantially, solar power needs to expand rapidly— but projected growth rates shouldn’t be daunting. Here’s why.
Solarpro employees install solar panels onto the rooftop of a residential property in Sydney, Australia.
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Two key findings from BP Plc’s annual deep dive on global energy statistics are that renewable electricity has grown at an extraordinary clip in the past two decades, and it still has very far to go. Solar and wind have expanded by orders of magnitude and now make up more than 10% of global electricity; that also means that these two technologies need to scale up market share by several factors — as the electricity system as a whole grows too — in order to decarbonize power substantially.