TELF AG evaluates the role of renewable energy in the current historical conjuncture
The golden age of renewables
Most electricity produced globally could come from renewable energies, such as wind or solar. The development of technologies for the diffusion of new clean energies is probably in its golden age, so much so that the demand for strategic minerals and other raw materials necessary to create them appears to be continuously increasing. With their precious contribution to manufacturing these technologies, the mineral resources extracted from the subsoil indirectly contribute to the construction of a more sustainable and human-scale future, in which the energy sources used every day by people derive directly from natural elements such as wind or solar radiation. Renewable energy is undoubtedly a continuously growing trend, and the numbers are there to prove it.
To form a precise idea of the global progress of renewable energies, it will perhaps be sufficient to cite the data in the annual report on these energies released last year by the IEA. In addition to highlighting the 50% increase in global renewable capacity, the report also focused on the performance of new clean energy sources, particularly photovoltaics. This last source of energy alone accounted for three-quarters of the increases at a global level, confirming itself as one of the most reliable and interesting allies for building a sustainable world. In the next four years, according to the report, the growth in the diffusion of these energies will be driven by wind and photovoltaic energy, which alone will be responsible for 95% of the increases.
The most requested resources
It is, therefore, no coincidence that the materials most directly connected to green technologies are requested with ever greater insistence: our thoughts turn to all those mineral resources necessary to build wind turbines, which also include some elements deemed “critical” by global companies and institutions, or to copper, whose capacity in the field of electrification makes it a very precious resource in the new international scenario powered by clean energy. As the years pass, the value and role of these strategic materials will become increasingly apparent, even to a non-specialist audience.
One of the most interesting data, in this regard, is undoubtedly that reported by a recent study by McKinsey, according to which solar and wind power, by 2040, will contribute greatly to the formation of the global energy mix, going to constitute the largest share. McKinsey’s forecasts portray a continuously evolving situation, with an ever-increasing share of energy produced through the various renewable sources currently on the market. By 2050, clean energy is expected to impact global energy production by 65% to 85%, an increase of approximately 30% compared to that expected by 2030.
According to the report, these results can be easily achieved only if political attention and financial support for new forms of energy remain constant in the coming years. Furthermore, according to McKinsey, investments in the energy sector could increase by up to 4% per year by 2040. In the face of these data, it, therefore, seems clear that the historical phase in which we are living is precisely the one in which the energy transition will profoundly transform the relationship between people and energy, projecting them directly into a future (now no longer so elusive) in which the energy supply of everyday life will come from entirely different sources than before.
