The experts of The Economist have explored the pace of development and key trends of solar energy and have come to the conclusion that it will be a determining energy source for the planet for the next decades. According to their research, the solar power doubles every three years and increases ten times every decade. It is projected that by the mid-2030s, solar panels will be the largest source of electricity on the planet, and by the 2040s can be the main source of energy as a whole.
Experts also predict that solar energy will significantly reduce the cost of electricity production, making it almost twice cheaper than the most accessible technologies today. They emphasize that this will not only slow down climate change, but also transform access to energy around the world, providing more than 600 million people in Africa with energy that opens new opportunities for social and economic development.
With the current trends, solar energy is gaining importance, due to its low costs for production and boundless resources, such as sand containing silicon. At the same time, experts warn of the need to develop energy storage technologies to compensate for variations in the production of solar energy and to ensure its maintenance in the peak hours of demand.
Thus, solar energy defines a new era of affordable, cheap and sustainable energy, which can change life and economical activity around the world, from household consumers to heavy industry.
Everything that people use energy today will be cheaper - and this applies to almost everything. Then there will be things that will be possible due to cheap energy. People who could never afford it will start illuminating their homes or riding on cars. Cheap energy can purify water and even desalinate it. It can control hungry machines of artificial intelligence. But the greatest consequences will have those things that no one has thought of. In its radical prosperity, cheaper energy will release the imagination, forcing the tiny wheels of the inspection of the mind to spin from excitement and new opportunities.
