and gas left, as well as the vast coal deposits.” quoted from Burn Out.
Renewables
To substitute oil and gas in the energy sector, renewables are growing at an unprecedented pace. According to British Petroleum (BP) 2018 energy outlook, renewable energy is increasing its market share within the power sector at a rate of 7.5% per annual, accounting for over 50% of the growth in power generation. (https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/energy-outlook/bp-energy-outlook-2018.pdf)
Solar energy is one of the most widely used and best-developed renewable energies. When sunlight is absorbed by solar panels, the solar energy knocks electrons off from the atoms, allowing the electrons to flow through the material and produce electricity. This process of converting light (photons) to electricity (voltage) is called the photovoltaic (PV) effect. (http://www.chemistryexplained.com/Ru-Sp/Solar-Cells.html)
Solar energy is effectively infinite. The Sun’s energy is so abundant that more energy is transferred to our planet in an hour’s sunlight than the entire global electricity consumption for a year (https://books.wwnorton.com/books/The-Great-Transition/). It is also one of the fastest expanding renewable energy sources. With quicker technical gains and stronger policy support, the price of solar power is dropping rapidly.
Figure. Annual photovoltaic addition history versus International Energy Agency (IEA) World Energy Outlook (WEO) predictions from 2002 to 2016. The graph shows exponential growth in solar energy capacity and a continuous underestimation by WEO.
https://2oqz471sa19h3vbwa53m33yj-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/iea-predictions-solar.jpg
Figure. In the Evolving Transition scenario (ET scenario), which is premised on a demand for fossil fuels that vastly exceeds the carbon budget for limiting temperature rises to 1.5-2C, solar cost continues following its learning curve. The module cost falls by around 24% with every doubling of cumulative capacity. The rate of decline slows down in the BP 2018 Outlook, as it takes longer to double the cumulative capacity later on the learning curve
