Clean energy isn't scaling fast enough

Despite dramatic cost reductions, renewable energy still provides only about 30% of global electricity and much less of total energy use. We need to build clean power sources much faster to replace coal, gas, and oil across electricity, heating, transportation, and industrial processes.

This means scaling up technologies we know work, like solar and wind, while also developing next-generation sources that could provide massive amounts of clean power. The goal is making clean energy so abundant and cheap that fossil fuels become economically obsolete.

Solar panels don't work at night, and wind doesn't blow on schedule. But people need electricity 24/7, and demand peaks in the evening when solar output is dropping. Without storage, this mismatch forces utilities to keep fossil fuel plants running as backup, undermining the climate benefits of renewables.

Solving this requires technologies that can store massive amounts of energy for hours, days, or even seasons — and release it exactly when needed.

Most electrical grids were designed decades ago for large, centralized fossil fuel plants that could be turned on and off as needed. Now we're asking them to handle thousands of solar farms and wind turbines scattered across vast areas, producing variable output that changes by the minute.

The grid needs a complete overhaul — new transmission lines, smarter software, and systems that can automatically balance supply and demand in real-time across an increasingly complex network.

A typical wind farm takes 3-5 years from initial planning to operation, and large transmission lines can take a decade or more. Meanwhile, we need to build clean energy infrastructure at unprecedented speed to meet climate goals. Permitting processes are slow and unpredictable, supply chains are strained, and every project faces unique engineering challenges.

We need technologies and processes that can cut development timelines from years to months, making clean energy deployment as fast and predictable as possible.

Solar panels need silver and silicon. Wind turbines need rare earth elements. Batteries need lithium, cobalt, and nickel. As clean energy scales up, demand for these materials is exploding — but many are mined in environmentally destructive ways or concentrated in a few countries, creating supply chain vulnerabilities.

We need technologies that either use more abundant materials, recycle existing ones more efficiently, or extract necessary materials with much lower environmental impact.

The world has invested trillions of dollars in coal plants, gas pipelines, oil refineries, and other fossil fuel infrastructure — much of it built recently and expected to operate for decades. Utilities, governments, and investors who paid for this infrastructure have strong financial incentives to keep it running, even as clean alternatives become cheaper.

We need solutions that can either repurpose existing fossil fuel assets for clean energy use or provide economic pathways for early retirement without stranding investments.

Nearly 800 million people worldwide lack access to electricity, mostly in rural areas of developing countries. Traditional grid extension is often too expensive and slow for remote communities. These populations need clean, affordable energy solutions that can be deployed quickly without massive infrastructure investments.

The opportunity is huge — these communities can leapfrog directly to clean energy without ever depending on fossil fuels, if the technology is accessible and affordable.

Most energy users — from factories to households — consume power whenever they need it, regardless of whether clean energy is available at that moment. This inflexibility forces the grid to maintain expensive backup power and makes renewable integration more difficult.

We need technologies that can automatically shift energy use to times when clean power is abundant and cheap, reducing overall system costs and emissions.

Atmospheric CO2 levels are already higher than they've been in millions of years, and they'll keep rising for years even if we stopped all emissions tomorrow. To limit warming to safe levels, we likely need to actively remove billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere — not just stop adding more.

This requires technologies that can capture CO2 directly from the air or oceans and store it permanently, at massive scale and reasonable cost.