The latest edition of the annual New Energy Outlook (NEO) from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) predicts that by 2050 investments of US$13.3 trillion will be made in power generation, 77% – or US$10.2 trillion – of which in renewable energies. Investment of US$5.3 trillion is to be made in wind power plants, US$4.2 trillion in solar plants, and the remainder predominately in battery storage facilities. Wind power is therefore expected to contribute to approximately 26% of the global energy mix in 2050; today, this figure is around 5%. In the same period, the share of solar energy is set to increase from 2% today to 22%.

According to the NEO, investments will continue to be made in the coming years in fossil power plants, which generate electricity primarily from coal; this will be the case in Asia especially. The US in particular will continue to rely on gas-fired power plants until 2050. However, Bloomberg analysts anticipate growth rates of just 0.6% per year in this sector: power generated from gas will increasingly be retained as simply an energy reserve and to maintain a flexible power supply.