Lack of finance for renewable energy, especially in the poorest countries, is one of the barriers preventing solar power from reaching its full potential and overthrowing fossil fuels as the dominant global power source, an analysis has concluded.
Based on a data-driven model of technology and economics, a team of UK-based researchers found that solar photovoltaics has already reached a “tipping point” that means it will likely become the number one power source before 2050 – even without support from more ambitious climate policies.
However, they say that a lack of funding and infrastructure means this may have limited benefits for poorer countries close to the equator, even though they get the strongest sunlight.
“Access to finance may be challenging there, especially for the supportive infrastructure,” says Femke Nijsse, a lecturer at the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute and lead researcher in the study published this month in Nature Communications.
In low-income countries, solar can provide small-scale off-grid applications, allowing people far from electricity grids access to electricity, but for large-scale projects and grid infrastructure, a barrier around finance needs to be overcome, according to Nijsse.
