Five years is a long time: it is enough for the Sun to radiate the energy equivalent to all our reserves of oil, coal and natural gas.
If we were able to convert 0,02% of its energy into electricity, we would have covered 100% of our needs.
We collect sustainable energy from sun, tides, wind, geothermal sources and in just 30 years all of our resources will be renewable (and I have not mentioned the possible nuclear fusion).
Here are the 5 revolutions in energy that we will see from 2019 to 2024:
First offers "1 cent per kWh" driven by solar and wind
10 years ago the lowest price of energy produced from solar and wind was between 10 and 12 cents per kilowatt / hour (kWh), double the price of energy produced with coal or natural gas.
Today the gap between these forms of energy has become very thin in different parts of the world. In the G20 countries, for example, the cost of electricity from fossil sources fluctuates between 5 and 17 cents per kWh, while the average price of photovoltaic energy it is about 10 cents per kWh.
The Spanish company Solarpack recently won an order for the construction of a 120MW solar power plant that provides energy at an average price of 2.90 cents per kWh, and will be fully operational in 2021: it will be a drop of more than 25% compared to current prices.
The countries of South America can drive the further fall in prices in the following years, up to the milestone of 1 cent per kWh.
Solar and wind power will exceed 15% of the total electricity produced in the USA and drive growth everywhere.
Currently photovoltaic and wind energy cover just over 8% of US needs. In total 17% of the requirement is met by renewable sources, the rest is divided between fossil fuels and nuclear energy.
Last year in the UK wind energy generated double the energy generated by coal with a record week, in May 2018, which saw total independence from coal, with wind and solar able to cover respectively 35% and 21% of the national requirement.
This is just the beginning: solar and wind still have a relatively low share of the energy produced in the world, around 6% total, by 2024 it will be 15% in the US and just under the planet average.
The time is approaching when it will no longer be convenient to build any fossil-fueled power station.
Building new solar or wind farms will be cheaper than keeping coal-fired ones open.
Last October the Indian company NIPSCO announced its transition from an industry powered by 65% coal to a completely carbon free status by 2028. And the beauty is that it did not do it for the sake of the environment but for mere calculation. estimating 4 billion in savings.
NextEra, one of America's largest energy operators has set a similar goal, planning to purchase 7 million solar panels over the next 4 years from JinkoSolar.
Sales of combustion cars will stop: the car market will be driven only by the electric car.
Electric vehicles have always been more expensive than combustion ones, but with lower maintenance costs: favored by the drop in battery costs, electric cars will end up being by far the best investment even in the long term.
According to leading experts in the sector, combustion vehicles reached their peak of diffusion already in 2018 and from then on will only continue to decline steadily: during 2019, on the other hand, electric cars will quadruple their market share (for now settling at 1.6%).
New storage technologies will replace lithium-ion batteries
For decades lithium-ion batteries have dominated the market, but this will not be the case in the future: new technologies capable of capturing and conserving solar energy will be the new protagonists of the scene.
We are talking about solid state batteries, which an ever increasing number of companies (Toyota, Honda, BMW, Hyundai, Nissan) are developing.
Le solid state batteries they are up to 6 times faster to load, have three times the energy available and last on average 8 years longer.
With these characteristics, the "old" lithium has numbered years.
