Thomson Reuters Unveils Electrical-Energy Outlook through 2045 and Related Business Insights
Thomson Reuters recently released its outlook on the electrical-energy landscape for the next three decades confirming a disruptive shift toward alternative energy in its report titled Powering the Planet 2045 . The most viable and scalable methods for generating electricity in the next 10 – 30 years will be Hydro-Wave, Nuclear Fusion and Solar Photovoltaics, the latter of which increased 160 percent in innovation activity since 2010, according to the report’s findings.
“Rapid alternative-energy innovation, the transformative effect of disruptive technology and climate change will have major impacts on our customers and their businesses in the coming decades,” said Mark Schlageter, chief customer officer for Thomson Reuters. “These trends will reverberate across established and emerging markets as populations shift and markets fluctuate. It is our goal to provide the most up-to-date information and analysis to enable our clients to make informed decisions in this quickly evolving economy.”
The Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris, December 2015, underscored the widening gap in global greenhouse gas emissions and how the continued use of fossil fuels is unsustainable. This has the potential to lead to unburnable oil reserves that are at risk of becoming stranded assets and require new accounting approaches. Regional carbon markets will play a greater role in the electrical-energy shift, as evidenced by the nearly 50 billion euros of cumulative emission allowances and offsets that were traded last year.
Powering the Planet 2045 features Thomson Reuters financial, tax and legal perspectives, as well as global patent information, in identifying the electrical-energy technologies receiving the greatest investment and which are poised to lead in the near future. More open financial markets, carbon pricing and carbon taxes, stranded assets on balance sheets, increased regulation and legal ramifications will affect businesses around the world as the shift in powering the planet unfolds.
“In order to meet the overall targets agreed in the Paris Agreement, the level of ambition – which in the end determines the price on carbon allowances – must be significantly increased over the next decades,” said Stig Schjolset, head of Carbon Research and Forecasts, Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk. “If the big emitters are able to move forward in such a coordinated way, it might be possible to scale up the climate ambition significantly. Even a moderate carbon price could have a huge impact on the global energy mix as it would make natural gas more profitable relative to coal and make it more attractive to invest in renewable energy.”
