- The International Energy Agency has released its report entitled Energy Technology Perspectives 2024, which maps out the current state of clean energy manufacturing and trade and how they are expected to evolve over time.
The first-of-its-kind analysis is designed to help countries identify opportunities and weigh the challenging choices ahead as they navigate the new global energy economy that is emerging.
Main takeaways:
- Based on today’s policy settings, the global market for the top six mass-manufactured clean energy technologies (solar PV, wind turbines, electric cars, batteries, electrolysers and heat pumps) is set to rise from $700 billion in 2023 to more than $2 trillion by 2035 – close to the value of the world’s crude oil market in recent years.
- Global trade in these clean technologies is also expected to rise sharply. In a decade’s time, it more than triples to reach $575 billion, more than 50% larger than the global trade in natural gas today.
- The report has detailed analysis on economies that are already manufacturing these technologies at scale – mostly notably China, the United States, Europe, and increasingly India. It finds that China is set to remain the world’s clean energy manufacturing powerhouse for the foreseeable future. Under today’s policy settings, its exports of top clean technologies are on track to exceed $340 billion in 2035, which is roughly equivalent to the projected oil export revenue this year of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates combined.
- Today, countries in Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa account for less than 5% of the value generated from producing clean technologies. But the report shows the door of the new clean energy economy remains open to countries at different stages of development, identifying key opportunities for emerging and developing economies based on a country-by-country assessment of more than 60 indicators.
- In the coming years, rising trade in clean energy goods and lower fossil fuel trade could boost energy resilience. A single journey by a large container ship filled with solar PV modules can provide the means to generate the same amount of electricity as the natural gas from more than 50 large LNG tankers or the coal from more than 100 large bulk ships.
- Today, around half of all maritime trade in clean energy technologies passes through the Strait of Malacca, which connects the Indian and Pacific Oceans. While the implications for energy security differ, it is worth noting that this is significantly more than the roughly 20% of fossil fuel trade that passes through the Strait of Hormuz.
Link to the full report HERE
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
