Solar could dominate electricity generation by 2050 even without ambitious climate policies

Decorative The sun is rising on a new era of energy and the time to embrace it is now, writes Dr Nadia Ameli (UCL Bartlett School of Environment, Energy & Resources) alongside Dr Femke Nijsse and Dr Jean-Francois Mercure of the University of Exeter in The Conversation. In pursuit of the ambitious goal of reaching net-zero emissions, nations worldwide must expand their use of clean energy sources. In the case of solar energy, this change may already be upon us. The cost of electricity from solar plants has experienced a remarkable reduction over the past decade, falling by 89% from 2010 to 2022. Batteries, which are essential for balancing solar energy supply throughout the day and night, have also undergone a similar price revolution, decreasing by the same amount between 2008 and 2022. These developments pose an important question: have we already crossed a tipping point where solar energy is poised to become the dominant source of electricity generation? This is the very question we sought to address in our recent study. Our findings, which were obtained by plugging the latest technological and economic data from 70 regions across the globe into a macroeconomic model, suggest that the solar revolution has, indeed, arrived.