The Economic Competitiveness of Renewable Energy: Pathways to 100% Global Coverage

Chapter 10

Likelihood of and Timeline for a World Powered by 100% Renewable Energy

10.1 Likelihood of a 100% Renewable World

It is my firm belief that if we only highlighted negative stories like global warming and finiteness of resources – as true as it is – in order to discuss a change from today’s centralized fossil and nuclear energy supply, it would take quite long to get a global change organized. I am convinced, however, based on the superior cost development of all renewables compared to today’s traditional energies that the financial argument, once understood by decision makers in politics, the financial institutions and industry, will make this change much quicker than most people would anticipate today.

The preceding chapters aimed to quantify the competitiveness of the most important renewable energy technologies in an energy efficient world. Besides the technology developments which most likely are the easiest to achieve there are some additional facts which are very often overlooked.

One important finding was developed by Stern in his famous report [10-1] which described the investments necessary for a renewably powered world compared to the damage which will occur due to climate changes if we continue to burn fossil and nuclear resources. He concluded that the damage was greater than the cost and the world would be in a worse shape by continuing with business as usual – melting of glaciers, rising sea levels with flooding in many highly populated regions, damage ...