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Welcome to the Age of Electrotech
THE INCUMBENT VIEW OF ENERGY is centered on fossil fuels, slow change, and mostly business as usual. The climate view is focused on emissions and aggressive policy targets. The third approach, electrotech, is driven by innovative technologies, including advances in solar, wind, batteries, and digital solutions.
The sun supplies Earth with as much energy every five days as all fossil fuel reserves combined. Kingsmill Bond and Ember recently unpacked how electrotech is rewriting the economics and geopolitics of energy in their annual slide deck, “The Electrotech Revolution.” A snapshot of those findings follows below.
Electrotech Gets Cheaper
As demand grows, new and more efficient factories are added, driving overall production costs down.
Source: Rystad, BNEF, and Ember analysis
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Fossil Fuels Cost More
As demand rises, companies must tap into newer, more expensive oil fields, pushing prices higher despite improvements in extraction techniques.
Source: Rystad, BNEF, and Ember analysis
Electricity is the Energy King
In 2007, electricity overtook oil as the largest supplier of useful energy.
Source: IIASA, IEA, and Ember analysis
Electrotech Investment Has Doubled over Oil
The world is now spending more on solar capital expenditures than on oil.
Source: IEA WEI, and Ember analysis
AI Accelerates Change
AI may raise the demand for electricity, but it is of tremendous benefit to scaling electrotech.
Source: IEA WEI, and Ember analysis
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