Solar energy, the clean technology with the greatest growth potential

In the energy sector, for many years there has been a sustained growth in the generation of clean and renewable electricity from the kinetic force of the wind and the energy transported by those tiny particles called photons, which travel from the Sun to the Earth for eight minutes, until they hit silicon cells that release electrons from their atoms to make them flow through a conductor.

At least in the next two to three decades, this growth will be even more explosive, mainly due to three factors that will drive it: the economic repercussions of energy, the global energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, and the increasing focus that People around the world put in green and sustainable initiatives.

These three engines will substantially modify the dynamics currently followed by investments. There is a growing flow of capital seeking to align with low carbon or frankly neutral initiatives.

The rating agency Moody’s predicted this past August that the GSSS bonds (Green, Social, Sustainability, and Sustainability linked) will reach a trillion dollars by the end of this year 2022. For its part, Bloomberg Intelligence has said that ESG assets will exceed 53 trillion dollars in 2025 to represent in total more than a third of assets under management. When this level is reached, it is clear that it is no longer a simple trend, and we can already start talking about a true disruptive transformation.

Today countless companies around the world are being practically forced to align themselves with the use of low or carbon neutral technologies. It is no longer enough for those who pollute to offset their emissions by paying for those that a third party, and somewhere else in the world, is responsible for capturing. Today it is required to achieve operational sustainability. Additionally, it is imperative that their progress on this path to decarbonization be reported in a transparent and responsible manner, if they want to continue to have access to sources of financing.

And in this environment, solar energy is positioned as the ideal means to help companies of all types and sizes to comply with ESG criteria. Investment fund operating firms, with this clear vision, have turned to buying solar bonds, whose sales between January and March 2022 doubled those of the same period for the years 2020 and 2019.

It is certain then that there are enormous opportunities for the solar sector. The demand and scale required in this industry is immense, but this also imposes significant challenges to achieve the very sustainability of its processes, from more environmentally friendly mining practices and finding effective ways to recycle its materials and waste, to increase local or regional production to avoid transfers from remote manufacturing sites to markets.

The optimism is based on the fact that the parties involved are aware and are already working on the search and massification of the solutions that will allow us to successfully reach that future that we all yearn to achieve.

Raul Assisi Monforte Gonzalez.

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