Solar Set to Surpass Nuclear Power Generation by End of 2026

According to new reporting by the BBC, solar photovoltaics will account for 10 percent of the world's power generation by the end of 2026, a threshold that will see solar energy officially surpass nuclear fission. Jan Rosenow, a professor of energy and climate policy at the University of Oxford, told the British broadcaster that solar is now the engine of the power transition.

Nuclear energy generation has stayed largely flat over the past 26 years globally, while the volume of solar energy being generated has exploded, increasing some 2,700 times over the same period. Much of the solar boom can be traced back to China, where massive supply is driving down the cost of photovoltaics to unprecedented lows.

US-based startups aiming to revive the nuclear energy sector appear to be making little headway in commercializing fission, and the cost of nuclear construction projects in the US has skyrocketed over recent decades. For the rest of the world, cheap solar power is increasingly becoming a lifeline, both day to day and as a way to decouple from the long-standing oil economy.

Rosenow told the BBC that the issue going forward is no longer one of access to alternative energy, but of balanced development of infrastructure for underdeveloped and overexploited nations. He said the bigger question is no longer whether solar grows, but whether power systems and institutions can keep up.