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Tom Young
7 May 2021
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Obstacles to renewables growth can be addressed

Supply chain resilience, intermittency issues and ageing grids all stand in the way of decarbonising power supply

The amount of electricity generated by wind and solar will have to rise dramatically by 2050 in order to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to figures from consultancy Rystad Energy. The bulk of growth will come from solar, where annual installations will have to grow sixteenfold, to a peak of 2,200GW/yr in 2039. Meanwhile, wind will have to grow ninefold to reach 553GW/yr in the same year. “We can overcome these challenges” Frimann-Dahl, Rystad Energy Overall, solar and wind will each require $1tn/yr to grow to supply 88pc of electricity demand globally by 2050, up from 10pc currently. The main challenges in reaching this goal are: supply chain resilience, intermitten

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