The underestimated potential of solar energy to mitigate climate change

Creutzig, F.; Agoston, P.; Goldschmidt, J. C.; Luderer, Gunnar; Nemet, G.; Pietzcker, Robert C.

doi:10.1038/nenergy.2017.140

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT

Add to Basket

Local TagsRelease HistoryDetailsSummary

Released

Journal Article

The underestimated potential of solar energy to mitigate climate change

Authors

Creutzig, F.
External Organizations;

Agoston, P.
External Organizations;

Goldschmidt, J. C.
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/Gunnar.Luderer

Luderer, Gunnar
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

Nemet, G.
External Organizations;

/persons/resource/Robert.Pietzcker

Pietzcker, Robert C.
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research;

External Ressource

No external resources are shared

Fulltext (public)

There are no public fulltexts stored in PIKpublic

Supplementary Material (public)

There is no public supplementary material available

Citation

Creutzig, F., Agoston, P., Goldschmidt, J. C., Luderer, G., Nemet, G., Pietzcker, R. C. (2017): The underestimated potential of solar energy to mitigate climate change. - Nature Energy, 2, 17140.
https://doi.org/10.1038/nenergy.2017.140

Cite as: https://publications.pik-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_21868

Abstract

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's fifth assessment report emphasizes the importance of bioenergy and carbon capture and storage for achieving climate goals, but it does not identify solar energy as a strategically important technology option. That is surprising given the strong growth, large resource, and low environmental footprint of photovoltaics (PV). Here we explore how models have consistently underestimated PV deployment and identify the reasons for underlying bias in models. Our analysis reveals that rapid technological learning and technology-specific policy support were crucial to PV deployment in the past, but that future success will depend on adequate financing instruments and the management of system integration. We propose that with coordinated advances in multiple components of the energy system, PV could supply 30–50% of electricity in competitive markets.