An aerial picture shows the Villanueva photovoltaic power plant operated by Italian company Enel Green Power in the desert near Villanueva, a town in the Coahuila state, Mexico, on April 20, 2018. The plant covers an area the size of 40 football fields, making it the largest solar plant in the Americas.
The 21st century promises to usher in the age of renewable energy. The world today is drawing more and more of its power from the sun, wind, water and biomass fuel, as the cost of these sources — down considerably from seven years ago — continues to drop. In electricity generation, companies are vying to build solar and wind generation facilities at auctions where bid prices are now comparable with those for new coal or natural gas buildups. (The progressive removal of subsidies has enabled market forces to work their magic on prices for solar and wind power.) The latest Bloomberg New Energy Finance analysis, in fact, projects that renewables will account for 64 percent of electricity generation worldwide by 2050.
