A rapidly growing electricity system

Executive Editor

Cipher is proud to make our journalism free for all to read and republish. Unless otherwise noted, you may republish our articles for free as long as you abide by our Creative Commons license and the following terms: 

  • Credit Cipher and any co-reporting partners. In the byline, we prefer “Author Name, Publication(s).” At the top of the text of your story, include a line that reads: “This story was originally published by Cipher.” You must link the word “Cipher” to the original URL of the story.
  • If you’re republishing online, you must link to the URL of this story on ciphernews.com, include all of the links from our story and use our PixelPing tag.
  • If you use canonical metadata, please use the Cipher URL. For more information about canonical metadata, refer to this Google SEO link.
  • You can’t edit our material, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style. (For example, “yesterday” can be changed to “last week,” and “Portland, Ore.” to “Portland” or “here.”
  • For questions or help, please email [email protected] with the subject line: “Republishing.”
<header><h1>A rapidly growing electricity system</h1><a href="" rel="author"></a><span class="title"></span><time rel="pubdate" datetime="2021-11-10T00:00:00-05:00">Nov 10, 2021</time></header><p>The amount of electricity capacity we need in a world reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 is anywhere between four and nearly eight times more than what we have today, <a href="https://about.bnef.com/new-energy-outlook/?utm_source=hs_email&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9vsR_yujhF62fYzQqb-uFZ2dRs1TGUIqIyAb-7AwKo_4toj-rjvt7oLbJnLCuVrFylAoe7" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-hs-link-id="2">according to BloombergNEF</a>.</p><p>The above chart shows total global electricity system size, categorized by three different scenarios BloombergNEF modeled that stipulates different primary energy sources for the world’s overall (not just electricity) energy mix.</p><p>Renewables, led by wind and solar, are actually the dominant electricity source in all three scenarios, underscoring the importance of building out wind and solar farms and their power lines.</p><p>In the scenarios labeled mostly renewables and mostly nuclear, hydrogen produced from these sources help reduce emissions in other sectors of the economy like manufacturing. In the third scenario, carbon capture is used both in power and in other energy sectors.</p>
A rapidly growing electricity system

by -
November 10, 2021
The amount of electricity capacity we need in a world reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 is anywhere between four and nearly eight times more than what we have today, according to BloombergNEF. The above chart shows total global electricity system size, categorized by three different scenarios BloombergNEF modeled that stipulates different primary energy sources for the world’s overall (not just electricity) energy mix. Renewables, led by wind and solar, are actually the dominant electricity source in all three scenarios, underscoring the importance of building out wind and solar farms and their power lines. In the scenarios labeled mostly renewables and mostly nuclear, hydrogen produced from these sources help reduce emissions in other sectors of the economy like manufacturing. In the third scenario, carbon capture is used both in power and in other energy sectors.