In New Energy Outlook 2019 BloombergNEF provides its vision of how the electricity
market will evolve, highlighting the following global results and investment trends until
2050.

GLOBAL RESULTS

1.Cheap renewable energy and batteries fundamentally reshape the electricity system.
We move from two-thirds fossil fuels in 2018 to two-thirds zero-carbon energy by 2050. For
wind and solar thats “50-by-50” – with these technologies supplying almost 50% of world electricity by 2050, ending the era of fossil fuel dominance in the power sector.

2.Solar sees the most growth, rising from 2% of the world electricity generation today,
to 22% in 2050.
We expect around 330kW in every 1MW of that PV to be deployed behind-the-meter by
households and business – accounting for 5% of world electricity in 2050. Wind generates
26% of the world’s electricity in 2050, compared with 5% today.

3. Hydro sees very modest growth, and nuclear stays practically flat. 
Hydro is constrained by resource availability and nuclear by a combination of high costs and
a lack of flexibility to complement cheap renewables.

4.Batteries, peakers and dynamic demand help wind and solar reach more than 80%
penetration in some markets.
Around 359GW of batteries are added to the power system to help shift excess generation to
times when the wind is not blowing and sun is not shining. Demand-side flexibility also helps
better integrate variable renewable energy. This includes dynamic EV charging, where
vehicles are plugged in when idle, drawing a charge determined by time-of-use tariffs and
demand response.

INVESTMENTS

5. We see $13.3 trillion invested in new power generation assets over the 32 years to
2050.

Of this, 77% goes to renewables. Wind attracts $5.3 trillion and solar $4.2 trillion, and
another $843 billion goes to batteries. Investments in new fossil fuel plants doesn’t exceed $2
trillion. This work out to around $416 billion per year.As demand grows, so too does the grid, with distribution and transmission expansion needing
an estimated $11.4 trillion to 2050.

6. The investment total funds 15,145GW of new power plants between 2019 and 2050, of
which 80% is zero carbon.
A further 1,666 GW of non-generating, flexible capacity, such as batteries and demand
response, are installed as well. PV sees a fourteen-fold increase and wind a six-fold increase.

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