Solar will be largest power generator in “much changed” world by 2032, but battery storage is the big mover
20 May 2026
Renew Economy News - 20 May 2026, Solar is on track to become the world’s largest generator of electricity by 2032, a major new forecast reveals, riding the wave of falling prices and manufacturing oversupply, and bolstered by a booming battery storage market and the third global energy shock in a decade. The Bloomberg NEF (BNEF) New Energy Outlook for 2026, published on Tuesday, finds the global market “much changed” since last year’s edition, as the transition to renewable energy, battery storage and electrification has a rocket put under it by the latest Middle East conflict. “Whether the global economic order is fracturing or merely shuddering remains to be seen. That said, the fragility of today’s fossil energy-delivery system is not in doubt,” the report says.
“In March 2026, countries heavily reliant on Persian Gulf fuels saw energy costs surge and the risk of physical shortages rise, setting off energy security alarm bells in capitals across the globe.” The immediate and longer-term effects of this are reflected in BNEF’s updated Economic Transition Scenario (ETS), which maps out how the global energy system is most likely to evolve over the next decade and through 2050. NEO 2026 also includes BNEF’s first update in two years to its Net Zero Scenario (NZS), which explores how energy supply and demand would evolve if nations collectively adjusted policies to align with a “well below 2°C climate scenario” of net-zero by 2050. BNEF says the updated ETS “signals the start of an electricity-led era,” in which electricity grows to supply two-thirds of new energy demand over the next 24 years, while natural gas supplies another 25 per cent. According to NEO 2026, electricity accounted for 21 per cent of final energy – energy delivered to end users for consumption – in 2025, second only to oil products at 38 per cent. BNEF says it its base case, electricity becomes the dominant source of final energy by 2047 – or a decade earlier in 2037 under the NZS. Notably, China hit that electrification milestone back in 2023, according to the report.