By 2030, global investment in building new power plants may reach US$7.7 trillion, and renewable energy may reap as much as two-third of the amount, forecasted Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) in its newly released report.
BNEF pointed in the report that global investment in renewables will hit US$5.1 trillion (hydropower included) by 2030 and about half of the amount will be in Asia. As costs of solar panels and wind turbines continue to drop because of higher manufacturing capacity, it will be more profitable to develop related power facilities and will trigger investment in those industries. In the next 15 years, BNEF forecasts that solar power will top clean energy installations in every region.
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According to the report, Asia will account for US$2.5 trillion of the US$5.1 trillion investment, the United States US$816 billion of that, Europe US$967 billion, and Middle East and Africa US$ 818 billion. Also, the report estimates renewables’ share of global generation will increase from 3% in 2013 to 16% in 2030, in which large-scale hydro power plants will account for most of the clean generation.
Regarding the global power generation shares by 2030, BNEF estimates a 5,000 GW additional power generation capacity globally. Coal, gas and fossil fuel generation will account for only 1,073 GW, implying a share shrink from 64% now to 46%. During the same period, solar power generation will rapidly expand around the world, especially in Asia where the capacity may exceed the sum of gas and coal.
“The period to 2030 is going to see spectacular growth in solar in this region, with nearly 800 GW of rooftop and utility-scale PV added,” Milo Sjardin, BNEF’s head of Asia Pacific, said in the report. “This will be driven by economics, not subsidies, as our analysis suggests that solar will be fully competitive with other power sources by 2020.”