Two Power Sources Rule in a Sunny, Windy 21st Century
Investment in clean energy will continue to skyrocket as green technologies become cheaper and more efficient.
Greener, cleaner.
Photographer: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images
Bloomberg NEF just published its latest projections for the world’s electricity generation. It’s increasingly lower-carbon, reflecting changes in renewable energy already decades in the making, as well as the inexorable decreases in cost and increases in efficiency.
Just a decade ago, geothermal and biomass — essentially, combustion of organic matter to run turbines — made up the largest zero-carbon energy source after hydroelectricity. Wind passed biomass in 2011 and has ascended rapidly since. Solar, emerging from nearly zero generation around the same time, is on a path to equal geothermal and biomass in just a few years.