Clean energy, including wind and solar power, is becoming commercially competitive faster than predicted, spurring some commentators to predict that the world’s reliance on electricity made from coal-fired power stations, and use of combustion-engine vehicles, will come to an end sooner than previously forecast.
Oil and mining companies currently believe that demand for traditional energy sources will continue to increase until the 2040s. In the UK, however, renewable energy overtook its fossil fuel competitors for the first time earlier this year – suggesting the tide is well and truly turning in favour of renewables.
The progress of clean energy has been hailed by campaigners who believe it could bolster the political will to transition to renewables before it is too late to stop global temperatures from rising to catastrophic levels.
Meanwhile, carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation are falling thanks to the sector’s increasing move away from coal in favour of renewable energy sources, with its CO2 output in 2019 dropping at its fastest rate for 30 years. Coal-fuelled electricity fell 3 per cent in 2019, driving a 2 per cent decline in the electricity sector’s CO2 emissions.
And it has been reported that in 10 years, for all countries, it will be cheaper to demolish coal-powered plants and replace them with wind and solar plants. It is already cheaper to do so in some countries, including the UK.
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Clean energy, including wind and solar power, is becoming commercially competitive faster than predicted, spurring some commentators to predict that the world’s reliance on electricity made from coal-fired power stations, and use of combustion-engine vehicles, will come to an end sooner than previously forecast.
Oil and mining companies currently believe that demand for traditional energy sources will continue to increase until the 2040s. In the UK, however, renewable energy overtook its fossil fuel competitors for the first time earlier this year – suggesting the tide is well and truly turning in favour of renewables.
The progress of clean energy has been hailed by campaigners who believe it could bolster the political will to transition to renewables before it is too late to stop global temperatures from rising to catastrophic levels.
Meanwhile, carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation are falling thanks to the sector’s increasing move away from coal in favour of renewable energy sources, with its CO2 output in 2019 dropping at its fastest rate for 30 years. Coal-fuelled electricity fell 3 per cent in 2019, driving a 2 per cent decline in the electricity sector’s CO2 emissions.
And it has been reported that in 10 years, for all countries, it will be cheaper to demolish coal-powered plants and replace them with wind and solar plants. It is already cheaper to do so in some countries, including the UK.