As economies shift toward decarbonization, demand for renewable energy sources (RES) is expected to boom. According to senior partners Humayun Tai and Alexander Weiss and coauthors, installed capacity of intermittent generation, which includes wind and solar, could grow ninefold from 2020 to 2050. However, integrating RES to power grids could come with challenges, namely network inadequacy (a shortage of physical capacity to accommodate supply and demand in locations with the best resources) and network instability (due to a lack of real-time management of voltage fluctuations).
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A pair of graphs show projected changes in global installed power capacity in terawatts and power demand in petawatt hours under the Current Trajectory scenario. The first graph shows both dispatchable generation—which includes sources such as gas, nuclear, and oil—and intermittent generation—which includes sources such as solar. Intermittent generation capacity is projected to increase by 9 times from 2020 to 2050. The second graph shows an increase of 2 times in electricity demand over the same period.
Source: Global Energy Perspective 2023, McKinsey, Nov 2023.
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To read the article, see “How grid operators can integrate the coming wave of renewable energy,” February 8, 2024.