Technologies for the No Subsidy Imperative

Abstract

This chapter argues that for the energy transition to succeed, it must back technologies that are able to compete without subsidies once they reach scale, and whose energy density can compete with gasoline. The only way to achieve this is through science and innovation. The chapter looks at the most promising pathways for an efficiency revolution in solar photovoltaics, wind energy, and storage. As potential breakthrough areas in solar PV, it discusses rectennas, which can reach microwave range efficiencies in the infrared and optical ranges, converting sunlight to electricity, and nano coating, which traps sunlight better in solar cells and raises efficiency. In wind energy, the chapter discusses the following breakthrough technologies: horizontal axis wind turbines; vertical axis wind turbines; bladeless turbines; high-altitude winds; and bionic coating as well as coating using nanotechnologies. Further, the chapter discusses how progress in storage compares unfavorably with advances in semiconducting, and has failed to deliver the needed progress on a logarithmic scale that we know from computing power.