Battery Boom: World To Get Half Of Electricity From Wind, Solar By 2050

"Coal to shrink to just 11% of global electricity generation by mid-century, from 38% now, as comparative costs shift heavily in favor of wind, solar and batteries   

London and New York – Wind and solar are set to surge to almost “50 by 50” – 50% of world generation by 2050 – on the back of precipitous reductions in cost, and the advent of cheaper and cheaper batteries that will enable electricity to be stored and discharged to meet shifts in demand and supply.

Today, Bloomberg NEF (BNEF) published its annual long-term analysis of the future of the global electricity system – New Energy Outlook (NEO) 2018. The 150-page report draws on detailed research by a team of more than 65 analysts around the world, including sophisticated modeling of power systems country-by-country, and of the evolving cost dynamics of different technologies.

This year’s outlook is the first to highlight the huge impact that falling battery costs will have on the electricity mix over the coming decades. BNEF predicts that lithium-ion battery prices, already down by nearly 80% per megawatt-hour since 2010, will continue to tumble as electric vehicle manufacturing builds up through the 2020s."

Bloomberg had the story June 19, 2018.

Source: Bloomberg, 06/21/2018