General

The Future of Global Energy

Perhaps the most dramatic changes to the way that we live and experience the world in the past few years concern energy. The past decade alone has witnessed the quadrupling of renewable energy sources.

In some former polluters like the UK; the energy grid has not used pollutants such as coal at all for months and months on end. Carbon-producing energy sources are on the decline and a new world of future energy sources awaits. But what does the future of environmentally friendly energy actually look like? Read on to find out.

1. Wind Power

There has perhaps been no success story as powerful as that of wind power. Wind turbines and wind farms were once seen as inefficient, but that has changed forever. In the past two decades, wind power capacity has grown 75-fold, an astonishing achievement. This growth has largely been driven by wind turbine superpowers such as the UK and dynamic UK turbine companies such as greenray.com; which have supplied wind power across Europe.

2. Solar Power

Solar power is another astonishing eco-friendly success story that has only really come to fruition in the past few years. In the US, solar power has seen record growth in the past several consecutive years, driven partly by an explosion of home solar panels. Meanwhile, countries such as China are taking the lead by constructing massive solar panel farms that can easily meet the energy needs of entire countries.

3. Hydro Power

Hydropower was until recently a very niche and specialized form of energy generation. However, hydro was responsible for 125GW of electricity generation last year, a record high that came on top of several years of stratospheric growth. By harnessing Earth’s most abundant natural resource, water, we can truly begin ditching fossil fuels and natural gas for good.

4. Nuclear Power

Despite people’s reservations about nuclear power, it remains one of the most viable and realistic global energy solutions to the climate crisis. The world’s nuclear power generation is expected to double in the next twenty years; with some of history’s largest nuclear power plants currently under construction on virtually every continent.

Although people might understandably be concerned about the possibility of radioactive spillage, nuclear power plants are safer and more secure than ever before. All told, the risks from global warming are far more deadly and likely than any risks from nuclear power.

5. Biomass Power

The generation of power using “biomass”, which is essentially organic waste, is a way of killing two birds with one stone. You can safely recycle huge amounts of waste while simultaneously producing clean and sustainable energy. Plants, trees, food, and animal matter can all be used to make biomass power. The global biomass market hit a record high of $50 billion in 2019, a number that is expected to continue growing for the foreseeable future.

More Future Energy Insights

For more important future global energy insights, you have come to the right place. Make sure to consult our dedicated Technology pages for in-depth explorations of the energy and tech trends that are reshaping our planet.