Implementation of renewable energies, technological advances, and prospects for the next 20 years

Abstract

The rising demand for energy, climate change, the growing instability of the fossil fuels cost and geopolitical problems related with the energy sector have promote the development of the clean energies industry, making feasible the production of alternative energies despite the higher production cost compared to conventional fuels. Day by day governmental and private industries have increased the investment budget for renewable energy research, being China the largest energy consumer and the world’s greatest investor on this field making notable investments in solar and wind energy which are expected to be the largest contributors in the production of renewable energies during the next 20 to 50 years. Because of this, innovation in material science and processing engineering will be the main task in order to solve the actual hindrances among the technological development and the massification of this technology.