There is no doubt that renewable energy is becoming more popular each year. There are several countries that are moving fast towards a future powered solely by renewable energy. For instance, 43% of the energy used in Denmark is from renewable energy sources. Germany, on the other hand, is now using more than 25% renewable energy. With the moves being made by these successful countries, one can only wonder if sometime in the future we will be relying exclusively on renewable energy.
Currently, both solar and wind are making huge strides. Solar experts predict that the solar industry is likely to grow by more than 20% in the next two years. The same happened between 2012 and 2013. It therefore wouldn’t be too far-fetched to imagine that one day, the world will run on renewable energy only.
What is Driving the Growth of Renewable Energy?
Over the past ten years, there has been tremendous growth in the renewable energy industry. Prices have fallen significantly, and the technology is now more efficient. People have also come up with better ways to integrate clean energy solutions into electrical grids. Let’s look at some factors giving us hope that clean energy might just run the world on its own in the future. Here are the facts:
Renewable Energy is Creating Jobs
In the United States alone, the renewable energy sector is currently employing not less than 2.2 million workers. These are high quality jobs that pay higher with average hourly rates that are more than the national average by up to 19%. There are more of these jobs being offered and speculations are that by 2028, solar installers might be among the fastest growing jobs in the United States. On the other hand, the fossil fuel industry is expected to keep losing workers.
Minimal Environmental Impact
In a world where everyone is starting to shift towards being greener, there is a lot of hope that the moves being made might one day eliminate fossil fuel usage altogether. All power plants have an impact on the environment during development and operation. With fossil fuels, the negative impact on the environment is significantly greater than renewable energy. There are no gasses emitted during renewable energy production therefore they fall at the bottom when it comes to activities that have a negative impact on wildlife and the environment.
Renewable Energy is Cheaper
Solar and wind costs have fallen remarkably over the past few years. As a result, the cost of renewable energy also keeps on falling. It therefore makes sense that the world will gravitate towards a cheaper and more sustainable option. Currently, utility-scale solar is now cheaper than almost all gas-fired power production. In the past, industries used to worry about the cost of battery storage, but that too has seen the fastest global price drop. This fall in prices is one of the key factors suggesting that renewable energy might take over the world.
Room for Growth
It is true that there is a lot of positive movement as far as renewable energy is concerned. However, this industry is still very small globally.
At the moment, about 11-12% of the total energy consumption in the U.S. comes from renewable energy. As a result, it is reasonable to submit that the world will still run on fossil fuel energy for a lot more years. Projections are that ten years from now, the growth of renewable energy will only limit fossil fuel consumption to 75% in the next 10-15 years. It is possible for renewable energy to take over the world, but it will take a long time.
