In my last posts, I covered the global evolution of renewable energy we witnessed over the last few decades. But the big question on everyone’s mind is if renewables can transform our energy systems that have been built on the foundation of fossil fuels over the last 200 years. In this post, I present some interesting facts that shine light on the future of our energy systems.
A booming sector
We are seeing an unprecedented growth in the renewable energy industry today. Over the last decade, Solar PV led the race to be the number one power generation source installed across the world. Renewable energy went from being a technology heavily dependent on subsidies and tax credits to a highly bankable and attractive investment asset. Onshore wind and solar power are the cheapest source of electricity today in at least two-third’s of the world and in the last 10 years investment in renewable energy has grown by more than USD 2.6 trillion.
This has tremendous implications for students interested in entering this industry. A large skilled workforce will be essential to drive its growth forward. So, I highly recommend students contemplating a career in renewable energy to take the dive as the future looks very bright for the industry.
Renewable energy as an investment
It came as no surprise that earlier this year BlackRock, the world’s largest fund manager, recognised climate risk as an investment risk. Some new measures identified, a major highlight was, “Making sustainability integral to portfolio construction and risk management; exiting investments that present a high sustainability-related risk, such as thermal coal producers.”
Blackrock is setting an example by raising more than US$5 billion, the largest alternate investment fund raised in its history. The investments will be disbursed globally in the renewable energy sectors like solar, wind, hydro and waste-to-energy.
A promising future
IEA projects renewables to pull in about USD $322 billion a year through 2025. With investments pouring in, the future looks extremely promising for renewable energy. BNEF predicts solar and wind power to contribute close to 50 % of the total power generation by 2050.
The renewable energy industry is going global and will have a huge requirement for skilled manpower to fuel its rapid growth. In 2018, the renewable energy sector employed around 11 million people worldwide. IRENA projects this number to almost double by 2030.
In the last decade I have seen an unprecedented race to renewables globally. This has strengthened my belief in the potential of renewable energy in transforming our energy systems today. That is why, my personal mission is to rapidly decarbonise India’s energy systems by accelerating the uptake of renewable energy solutions.
After having completed my Master’s with EIT InnoEnergy and travelled across continents, I realised the critical link between clean energy access of a country and the well being of its citizens.
Clean energy is an excellent opportunity to bolster every country’s economy by increasing employment, reducing dependence on fossil fuel imports and improving the health of its citizens. I hope to see more students will join me in changing the status quo and bringing about a clean energy revolution.
Arjun Gupta,EIT InnoEnergy Master School alumni and Top 30 under 30 Sustainability Leader 2019