Planetary Health

A New World Built Around Clean Energy

Our predictions for 2025 and beyond

Andrew Beebe | 12/17/2024

As the urgency to address climate change intensifies, global energy is undergoing a seismic shift. The transition to clean energy is not only here, it’s accelerating. Innovations in generative science are driving profound changes in renewable generation, transmission technologies, and data-driven user incentives that will ripple across industries.

The numbers tell the story. The International Energy Agency projected that investments in cleantech and infrastructure hit $2 trillion in 2024, roughly double the investment in fossil fuels. The U.S. slice of this global sum is small—just 15 percent—but growing sharply thanks to major incentives in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

We are especially enthused about geothermal energy. Despite renewables like wind and solar reaching relatively large scale and low cost, neither has proven capable of providing the comparable baseload capacity of coal, oil, and gas. New leaps in geothermal energy are unlocking vast new energy deposits in the earth’s crust, and generative AI technologies are making them more accessible than ever before.

Here’s a glimpse of the future we envision.

Clean energy will finally leap past fossil fuels.

The era of fossil fuels dominating the energy sector is drawing to a close. Solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower are poised to overtake fossil fuels in baseload capacity, global efficiency, and declining costs. New technologies are unlocking vast new deposits of clean energy and powering leaps in traditionally slow research quests like nuclear fusion.

Advances in battery chemistries will rewire industries.

Breakthroughs in battery technology are transforming the landscape of energy storage and consumption. New chemistries like solid-state lithium and synthetic silicon batteries promise greater energy density, faster charging times, and longer lifespans. These advancements are crucial for the scalability of distributed renewable energy, enabling industries to significantly reduce their dependence on the grid.

Carbon removal will hit overdrive.

Technologies for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) are rapidly advancing. Innovations in bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) are scaling up, making it possible to remove and store carbon dioxide far more efficiently, and for the world to meet broad climate targets.

Agriculture will transform from top to bottom.

Farming is undergoing a clean energy revolution. Renewable energy-powered machinery and precision data-driven farming techniques are breathing sustainability into a historically carbon-heavy industry. Innovations in vertical farming and lab-grown foods are also emerging, reducing the carbon footprint of food production and increasing food security.

AI will take the guesswork out of risk analysis.

Advanced algorithms and machine learning models can predict equipment failures, optimize maintenance schedules, and improve energy efficiency. By leveraging AI, businesses will be able to make more informed decisions, enhancing the reliability and resilience of renewable energy systems and reducing operational uncertainties.