Clean Technology Forecasts to 2050 - Report July 2010

Clean Technology Forecasts to 2050

Australian CleanTech has released a report that forecasts how global clean technologies may mature over the next 40 years to help provide investors and governments with a tool to picking long term winners for their regions.

Australian CleanTech has been working with Governments and investor groups for several years and the key question that keeps coming up is what technologies are the long term winners that will provide economic development and investment returns. This report is the culmination of many research projects to help provide those answers.

The key findings of the report are that:
• Rooftop Solar Panels will not be installed after 2020 as Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV) become standard installations for roofing and window materials.
• Large Scale Wind Turbines will start to be replaced by improved designs over the next five years. The last of the large scale wind turbines will be installed around 2030 as other technologies, such as utility scale solar and geothermal become cheaper in most regions.
• Utility-Scale Solar will have a long gestation but will continue to grow becoming widespread and peaking in installations in the late 2020s.
• Wave and Tidal Power will become viable at utility scale in the 2020s in niche locations but will eventually be phased out as cheaper alternatives emerge.
• Electric Vehicles will grow very quickly over the next few years along with the associated recharging infrastructure. It will continue to grow strongly through to the 2030s.
• Energy Efficiency and Green Building Materials and products will also grow strongly over the next few years and continue on this growth trajectory for many years to come.
• Smart Grid technologies will only grow slowly over the next 10 years due to the regulatory structures surrounding the utilities that must install them. Once these structures are effectively altered however, there will be significant growth worldwide.
• Water Technologies that create drinking water and help to reuse wastewater and stormwater for fit-for-purpose uses will continue to grow strongly throughout the forecast period. Technologies associated with reducing the energy use of desalination will grow particularly strongly.
• Waste and Recycling Technologies that recover ‘waste’ and turn into valuable resources that can be reused will also have strong steady growth driven by a reduction in raw resources leading to increasing resource pricing.

Whilst there have been a number of technology forecasts for particular sub-sectors of cleantech, and in particular for renewable energy, there have been no reports that have pulled all the information together into a concise package that can be utilised throughout the developed world.

By understanding both the short term trends and the longer term technology trends, it is possible for both governments and investors to build portfolios that will deliver both short and long benefits. The data provided in this report will enable those interested in cleantech to more fully understand the sector and its likely growth.

The report can be downloaded from /content.php?id=822&url=http://www.auscleantech.com.au /ACT_Reports.html