3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
ONshore Wind
Onshore wind power offers an equally enormous, attractive global market opportunity for the
steel industry, as well as for other manufacturing, financial, insurance, and IoS-based wind
(virtual, remote) operations and maintenance sectors.
The 2015 global 100% renewables energy assessment proposes relying on just 3.5% of the
onshore technical potential for locating turbines by 2050. This amounts to roughly 1.2 million
onshore wind turbines (5 MW each). The 6.35 million MWs of installed capacity represent a
global market opportunity of €7.2 trillion (2013€), providing 20% of total global energy needs
within the next 35 years. This amounts to a global potential market of 635 million tonnes of
steel, assuming 100 tonnes of steel per MW, at a worth of a quarter trillion euros (2016€).
Solar Power
Solar PV and CSP installations, with the need for steel posts, merchant bars, and beams also
represent an immense global market opportunity for the steel industry. The 2015 global 100%
renewable energy assessment estimates 25 million MWs of utility-scale solar PV power plants,
seven million MW of rooftop solar PV systems, and 1.5 million MW of concentrated solar power
(CSP) plants that collectively could generate 60% of total global energy needs by 2050. The
global market opportunity exceeds €65 trillion (2013€). The solar power systems would occupy
less than one-third of 1 percent of land area, averaged worldwide.
As the global assessment indicates, solar and wind can provide 90% of total global energy
requirements, including power for the electrification of the transport sector and many other
energy services that currently rely on fossil fuels. The greater efficiency of electrification over
thermal combustion results in an overall global energy efficiency boost of 40%. Remaining parts
of the economy incapable of electrification could be satisfied with conversion of excess solar
and wind into hydrogen fuels, and a modest amount of biofuels where less expensive than
hydrogen fuel use.
The steel industry will also be instrumental in the electrification markets for transmission and
distribution power lines, in the pipelines necessary for transporting hydrogen fuels, as well as in
mining operations for the numerous resources that go into the wind and solar technologies.
This detailed, transparent assessment is illustrative of the economic opportunity of
substantially reducing fossil fuels and nuclear resources by 2050. The actual percentages of
wind versus solar will vary within nations, regions, and worldwide, which, beyond geographical
differences, is partly driven by the competition between the differential learning and
experience curves that continue to drive down costs and increase performance of each
technology.
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