As featured on Advisor.ca and Investment Executive:
In a defining moment for renewable energy, solar power has attained a major milestone on the world stage. For the first time in history, solar surpassed nuclear energy in worldwide electricity generation output measured in terawatt-hours (TWH). This according to milestone data obtained from Ember, a global energy think tank specializing in energy data and policy solutions.
For decades, nuclear was among the leading low-carbon energy sources, providing stable baseload power for many countries worldwide. With solar surpassing it, a logical takeaway is that renewable technologies have matured enough to compete directly with, and ultimately exceed, major established sources of clean electricity. We believe this marks a tipping point in the transition away from legacy generation toward more distributed, flexible, and rapidly scalable power sources.
The rise of solar also reflects its increased scalability as a dependable power provider, which wasn’t always the case in years past. Unlike nuclear, which take years of planning and billions of dollars to build, solar projects can be deployed in months at scale, making it easier for countries to expand capacity quickly and adapt to demand growth.