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Solar & Wind
Solar & wind: the basis of the energy transition
Solar PV and wind power are reshaping the global energy landscape. Clean, mature and increasingly cost-competitive, they can supply electricity at scale and have become the main drivers of renewable capacity growth worldwide. Their expansion is supported by falling technology costs, energy-security priorities and climate policies across major markets - rather than by any single national programme. Initiatives such as the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the European Green Deal, and REPowerEU have helped accelerate investment and deployment [1].
Because solar and wind draw on renewable energy flows rather than finite fuel stocks, they have no fuel costs and very low marginal generation costs. As their share of the power mix grows, they can reduce wholesale electricity prices and exposure to volatile fossil-fuel markets. Their modularity also allows capacity to be added incrementally as demand increases, making them well suited to distributed generation and smaller grids. At high penetration levels, however, their full value depends increasingly on adequate transmission, flexible demand, storage and other balancing resources [2].
Solar and wind are also central to the production of green hydrogen (GH2), as they can provide the renewable electricity required for electrolysis. Hydrogen production can absorb power during periods of abundant generation, although its economic and system benefits depend on factors such as electrolyser utilisation, infrastructure and end-use demand. GH2 could extend the reach of renewable electricity into harder-to-electrify applications, including parts of heavy industry, long-distance transport and dispatchable power generation.
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Need for storage
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S&W are linked to high temporal variability, making their dispatch unpredictable. Therefore, utilizing S&W-generated electricity in a stand-alone system necessitates compatible battery energy storage systems (BESS) or other storage solutions [3].​
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Solar vs wind
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Solar panels require less maintenance than wind turbines, since there is no moving part, and can be deployed at lower voltage levels for direct consumption. Also, nothing is much more modular than rectangular solar panels to just plug together: wind power is modular within the granularity of the turbine size [4]. Unlike solar, wind-based systems can produce electricity around the clock, making them very effective when implemented properly. Wind turbines on average harness 60% of the energy that passes through them, compared with the 18-22% efficiency of solar panels [5].
Additionally, most homes can easily add solar panels, but not everyone has enough space for a wind turbine, which is deployed at sites away from load centers, such as farms & villages, or coastal and island communities.
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S&W industry perspective
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There are emerging signs of diversification in global PV supply chains, with new policies in the U.S. & India expected to boost investment in solar manufacturing by as much as USD 25 billion over 2022-2027. While China remains the dominant player, its share in global manufacturing capacity could decrease from 90% today to 75% by 2027 [6].
General Electric (GE) & European companies have dominated the wind energy industry. However, in the last years, companies from emerging countries are also penetrating and becoming major players: emphasis can be given to China, which has a deposit pattern detached from the rest of the world.
References
[1] https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2025/executive-summary