Wind or solar now represent the least expensive option for adding new power generation capacity in approximately two-thirds of the world.

And further falls in technology will see the two leading forms of renewable energy powering nearly half of the global grid by 2050 and attracting $9.5 trillion in new investment between now and then.

Those are two of the headline findings from the latest New Energy Outlook report from BloombergNEF (BNEF), which was unveiled yesterday and compares the costs of competing energy technologies through a levelized cost of energy analysis.

At Bloomberg’s Sustainable Business Summit in London yesterday, BNEF chief executive Jon Moore said: “The good news for the energy transition is that the destination is getting much clearer. In two-thirds of the world, solar and wind are the cheapest energy technologies bar none.”

BNEF says that with electricity demand set to increase 62 per cent, global generating capacity will almost triple between now and 2050 – which in turn will attract $13.3 trillion in new investment, of which wind will take $5.3 trillion and solar $4.2 trillion.

In addition to the spending on new generating plants, $840bn will go to batteries and $11.4 trillion to grid expansion.

And wind and […]

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