2024 is shaping up to be a milestone year for renewable energy with plans for mega wind, solar, hydropower and energy storage projects the world over, the emergence of exciting new technologies and huge investment potential.
At Coalesce Management Consulting (CMC) we have teams of renewable energy specialist consultants based across the US, Asia and Europe. We offer the service capability of both team-on-demand and expert-on-demand to support the commissioning and installation of wind, solar, hydropower and energy storage projects anywhere in the world.
Our experts work with the smallest of innovative start-ups through to the largest of energy giants, working alongside our partners and getting a unique understanding of the changes in the sector. So we're using that knowledge to create an overview of the renewable energy outlook for 2024, including the biggest growth opportunities and planned projects, the key challenges the sector faces and an overview of some of the exciting technologies to hit the market. You can see our overview of the biggest projects to follow in 2024, or read on to learn why this year is so important for the energy market.
Renewable Energy Will Hit Record Levels In 2024
The World Economic Forum (WEF) tells us that 2024 will be a landmark year for renewable energy and will make up more than a third of the world’s power for the first time.
It’s been reported by the International Energy Authority (IEA) that global investment in clean energy reached a record figure of some $1.75 trillion in 2023. This eye-watering sum makes for great headlines, but will need to grow, year on year, in order for the industry to meet its ambitious targets.
Late last year, international governments met at the COP28 climate talks in Dubai. Here they agreed upon a “historic” statement, for the first time setting a goal of transitioning away from fossil fuels. The agreement includes targets to triple the capacity of renewable energy and to double the rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030.
It’s believed that the COP28 objective will lead to a change of course for the global energy system. While consumption of oil, gas and coal has hit record highs in 2023, in parallel, it’s been a boom year for renewable energy too. For example, annual production from wind and solar power was more than 50% higher than it was in 2020.
It’s fair to say we’re at a pivotal juncture in human history as the world takes bold action to stave off the worst of the climate change impacts we are warned of.
A government-assisted energy transition
International governments will need to play a key role in catalysing the transition to renewable energy. It’s their job to offer attractive subsidies, tax incentives, and regulatory frameworks that encourage developers to build clean energy power plants. In doing so, they will increase the popularity of renewable technologies and hopefully attract inward investment.
For example, The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will make building renewable plants more enticing, while investment tax credits for energy storage offer a financial shot-in-the-arm for developers that want to work with standalone energy storage technologies.
REPowerEU, a plan by the EU Commission to phase out Russian gas, oil and coal imports and save energy, diversify supplies and accelerate the clean energy transition - and the Green Deal Industrial Plan - will continue to drive the EU towards its 2030 renewables goals.
In the UK we see similar initiatives such as the creation of a ‘Solar Taskforce’ and the Scottish Government’s New Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan. While in Germany, politicians have recently approved over 57 billion euros in green investments for 2024 to enable their 2045 net-zero target.
We’re witnessing similar initiatives as far afield as Australia, where reduced regulation is being structured for solar installations in order to make these projects more attractive to international investors.
Developing desire from developing countries
In 2024 developing countries faced increased international pressure to rapidly adopt renewable energy and move away from traditional fossil fuels.
According to the United Nations, sustainable renewable energy is key to unlocking the full potential of developing countries. Take for example Latin America and the Caribbean’s commitment to annual investment in renewables of 1.3 percent of regional gross domestic product (GDP) over the next decade. It’s expected to create seven million new green jobs alone! A well planned and executed transition to renewable energy will require governments to strengthen policies, while taking advantage of both foreign direct investment and private sector investment.
As the technologies become more affordable and more accessible, alongside increased sustainable development initiatives on offer, we expect to see fast clean energy take-up all over the world. When more developing regions truly embrace renewables and seek to become less reliant on imported energy, we can expect a significant change to the global energy landscape.
Corporate and public peer pressure!
Corporate investment in renewable energy will continue to rise significantly in 2024. Companies across all sectors from automotive to food and beverage and pharma are now making good on their sustainability targets, with a desire to meet renewable energy goals and invest in green energy projects.
For example, through 2023 dozens of major firms have signed up to join RE100, a global corporate renewable energy initiative bringing together hundreds of large and ambitious businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity.
Many of the members are US based with targets for 2025, but this initiative is expected to grow fast in membership numbers and international scope. This is good news for the renewables sector as corporations participating in multinational membership organisations will have a greater impact upon pushing governments to address their climate change concerns, catalysing the energy transition.
For example, ahead of the COP28 meeting, 131 companies with almost US$1 trillion in annual revenue campaigned to urge governments to phase out fossil fuels by 2035.
Increased consumer demand
With each year that passes, consumer demand for renewable energy grows. This is primarily due to the fear of escalating climate change impacts and an era in which people the world over are becoming focused on sustainability and lessening their impact upon the planet.
This shift in consumer preferences will undoubtedly have an influence on energy markets, encouraging companies across all sectors to adopt greener working practices, while leaning on governments to formulate energy policies that promote more renewables over fossil fuels.
The exponential growth of AI technologies
The capability and takeup of AI driven systems has grown exponentially throughout 2023. This is reflected across all of the sectors we serve, from aerospace and automotive through to process manufacturing and the renewable energy sector.
There’s been a real buzz around the subject of generative AI in recent months. Generative AI, also referred to as GenAI, is already sharing a glimpse of its transformative potential for the renewables sector. It allows you to input prompts to generate new content and can already do this with images, videos, code, sounds and more. Appealingly, it “learns” as it operates and will continue to be trained to handle publications and documents that already exist online. We are told that the use of generative AI, by companies across all sectors, could lead to increased demand for renewable energy and therefore add more pressure to governments to facilitate this.
As power systems become increasingly complex, grids can't be as easily directed from centralised power stations. As more and more devices become grid-connected - from electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to residential solar installations - it becomes harder to predict flows. This means we need powerful tools that can cope with the demands of ever-evolving power systems.
In response artificial intelligence (AI) applications are progressing fast. Already used across many solar, wind or hydro plants, it’s clear that the energy sector plans to harness the potential of AI to maximise efficiency. Its role could include everything from grid management to predictive maintenance.
It’s envisaged that AI systems will improve predictions of supply and demand, helping firms to understand when renewable power is available and when it’s needed. Consider, if you will, how AI could be used at solar PV power plants to predict sunlight patterns, adjust panel angles for maximum efficiency and to help to distribute energy more evenly.
We agree that AI represents a key component of next-generation power systems, so we’re helping our clients to embrace AI and machine learning (ML) technologies to adapt, grow, and remain competitive in a rapidly evolving landscape by bringing the right people into their teams.
Drilling into untapped resources
Over the last decade onshore wind and solar power have been the champions of the renewable energy cause. But the intermittency of availability and the sheer scale of land use required are two obvious downsides of these innovative, yet tried and tested technologies.
We’ve kept a keen eye on other potential contenders to the mix over the years - including longstanding, but overlooked underground resources including geothermal and renewable natural gas (RNG). Could 2024 be the year that they start to get the recognition they deserve?
The area of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) that capture the heat of the earth could soon benefit from incoming cost reductions - achieved through advanced sensing and drilling. We feel these projects could become a lot more viable in 2024 and beyond. As expressed earlier, AI could play an important role here. For example, developers could use Generative AI to analyse and better understand seismic data, driving drilling costs down to offer improved return on investment. The number of signed power purchase agreements for geothermal plants remains miniscule - under five percent of all PPAs globally; but that could soon change to meet the growing demand for clean energy.
We’re also keeping an eye on renewable natural gas (RNG) project development. Currently almost exclusively used within the transportation sector, representing a mere slip of the global gas market, we’re told that it could grow tenfold by 2050 as developers eye it as a future source of power and heat.
True Expertise Delivered
CMC's experts provide specialist construction and installation services on renewable energy projects around the world. Our consultants are available on an expert-on-demand or team-on-demand basis, with professionals able to be deployed quickly and effectively on any project.
Get in touch with our energy specialists to learn more about partnering with CMC today.