Gen Z

• Ahead of a planned phasing out of nuclear power by the end of 2022 and of coal by 2038, Germany is seeking to ramp up very quickly the role of renewables in electricity generation and to become an important hub for the trade and distribution of natural gas.
• The EIA has said natural gas will remain the dominant fuel for U.S. power generation for the foreseeable future, accounting for 40% of the electricity supply in 2050-even as the penetration of renewables increases.
• Germany has passed a legislation to end coal-fired power generation by 2038 at the latest and agreed on a shutdown schedule for individual lignite and hard coal power plants as well as compensation payments for operators.
• The rising cost of homeownership and education over recent years means that the current Generation Z cohort of late teens and early 20s are tending to study longer and enter the workforce later, a trend that is expected to continue for the next two decades.
• The increase in investment will be accompanied by a decrease in wind and solar generation costs in Japan, which Wood Mackenzie expects will drop by over 30% over the coming decade.
• Domestic production of natural gas, the generation and injection of biomethane as well as green gases are taken into consideration for the trends in the gas supply in Germany up to 2030.
• After years of rapid growth and falling prices, wind and solar are now the lowest-cost source of new power generation in most of the world - and are expected to be the cheapest everywhere by 2025.
• Electric power generation is obviously not emissions-free today, but it can be expected that the related emissions will go down considerably between now and 2050, thanks to the strong trend towards renewable energies across all sectors of the global economy.
• Already by 2025, renewables make up more than half of electricity generation, dominated by wind, and grow to 68% by 2030.
• Wind and solar generation will account for 50% to 60% of power generation by the 2040s, in scenarios where the world seeks to address emissions.
• The Philippines' power mix was expected to remain dominated by coal over the coming decade, with the share of coal-fired power increasing from an estimated 54.6% of total generation in 2019 to 60.2% by 2029.
• Poland wants to cut its dependence on coal, which currently fuels about 75% of its electricity generation, and generate half its electricity from zero-emission sources by 2040.
• Governments will need to reverse their current trend of expanding coal-fired generation capacity and instead urgently implement policies to enable a quick phase-out of coal from the electricity mix.
• The coal share of electricity generation will fall from 24% in 2019 to 17% in 2020 - a collapse from 45% a decade ago.
• The Asia Pacific region could see $1.5 trillion worth of investments in the power generation sector over the next decade with hydrocarbons, mainly coal and gas, accounting for $500bn.
• Natural gas burn for electricity could decline 2% year over year in 2021 while coal generation picks up 6% - at the conservative end of his forecast.
• Coal's share of electricity generation will tick up to 22% in 2021 from 18% in 2020 while natural gas-fired power's share will decline to 35% from 40%.
• Natural gas is expected to be the dominant fossil fuel source for power generation over the next 20 years or so.
• NGOs' policy demand of phasing out coal by 2030 will mostly be implemented: In electricity generation, renewables and the carbon price drive the quick phase-out in almost all Member States by 2030.
• The power sector will spend $3.2 billion on software in 2020 to optimize the performance, costs and revenues of generation and grid assets.
• Beyond 2020, China's gas demand is expected to be driven by the industrial sector and a policy-driven expansion of gas-fired power generation to reduce air pollution.
• Britain has set a target of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the first among the major G7 countries to set such a goal, which will involve huge changes, including increasing renewable electricity generation.
• Driven by technology advancements (such as quantum cascade laser technology), the new generation of IR imaging microscope is expected to facilitate faster scan speed and better quality of spectra, enabling high-throughput routine MP analysis.

Last updated: 04 October 2020