In 2016, solar and wind provided just 0.8 percent of the total world’s energy (Total Primary Energy Demand (TPED)), even after trillions of dollars in taxpayer-extracted subsidies, and will reach only a 3.6 percent share of energy in 2040, according to the International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook 2017 forecast (see graphic below). The world’s energy future of tomorrow, even almost a quarter century from now in 2040, will look very much like it does today, with fossil fuels supplying the large majority of our energy (81 percent today vs. 75 percent in 2040) and renewables playing a relatively minor role as energy sources.
Sources: Bjorn Lomborg and Matt Ridley (“Shale is the Real Energy Revolution”).
For more on this issue, see "Fossil Fuels Are a Blessing to Humanity."
Reprinted from American Enterprise Institute.
Mark J. Perry
Mark J. Perry is a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan’s Flint campus.