DNV, a global risk management firm and a renewable energy consultant, released its annual Energy Transition Outlook reports, where the firm forecast the future of energy towards a pathway to net zero emissions. In this report, the company highlights the importance solar energy will have in the future.

Solar will become cheaper in the coming years. DNV expects the price of solar energy to drop in the future. Currently, the global weighted average levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for solar is around $50 per MWh. DNV expects solar LCOE to drop to $30 per MWh by 2050.

“In 2050, solar PV will be in an unassailable position as the cheapest source of new electricity globally,” said DNV in its report. 

Other studies have also seen solar as one of the cheapest sources of energy. In BloombergNEF’s New Energy Outlook, specialists predict that the cost of solar energy will decrease about 34% by 2030.

In addition, both reports forecast an increase in solar energy. DNV expects that, in 2050, the energy mix will be 70% reliant on variable renewable sources like solar and wind power. Specifically, the report predicts that solar will have a 15% share of the total global primary energy supply.

Thanks to renewable energy like solar, global carbon emissions will also decrease. BloombergNEF’s report focuses on two scenarios: one scenario where the economy transitions towards a cleaner way to produce energy, and another when we achieve zero emissions by 2050. In the most pessimistic scenario where only the economy transitions, the report says that about 20% of the global energy will be produced by fossil fuels.

Big utility-scale solar projects like solar farms are part of this revolution and cost reduction. More solar projects are being developed in the U.S. and in the future, more people will have access to them.