Photovoltaic solar energy will experience accelerated growth over the next five years. The International Energy Agency notes in its 2019 Renewables report that the world’s total renewable energy capacity will grow by 50% between 2019 and 2024; 60% of that growth will correspond to photovoltaic solar technology. In installed power it means adding 1,200 GW in the next five years, that is, the equivalent of the current total energy capacity of the United States. In this way, the share of renewables in the global generation of electricity will go from the current 26% to 30% in 2024.

“Renewable energies are already the second largest source of electricity in the world, but their deployment must be accelerated if we want to achieve the long-term objectives in terms of climate, air quality and access to energy,” says Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the IEA in the aforementioned report. The three main challenges that must be overcome to accelerate the deployment of renewable energies are: political and regulatory uncertainty, the high investment risks that arise from the above and the systems of integration of wind and solar energy.

The report highlights that the costs of wind and photovoltaic solar energy will continue to decrease, which will result in the improvement of their competitiveness against the new coal and natural gas power plants. This forecast is supported by another report by the Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) entitled Renewable Powers Costs in 2018, which states: “The costs of all commercially available renewable energy generation technologies decreased in 2018. The overall weighted average cost of the electricity decreased 26% year-on-year for concentrated solar energy (CSP), followed by bioenergy (-14%), photovoltaic solar (PV) and terrestrial wind (both -13%), hydroelectric power (-12%), geothermal and wind power marina (both -1)”.