Truth To Power

Truth to Power - Episode 57

On this week's episode of #TruthtoPower, IntelStor's Founder & CEO, Philip Totaro investigates the LCOE, feed in tariffs, public finance and capital efficiency of the global onshore #windenergy market from the IntelStor Future of Renewables #marketresearch Report.
Cost of energy for onshore wind has seen significant reduction in the past 15 years. Besides the benefits brought to the industry from the economies of scale, the cost efficiencies gained have put onshore wind in direct competition with natural gas, petroleum and even coal generation.
With an average just over US$33.00 / MWhr wind energy is capable of competing with non-renewable power generation sources in most countries of the world. Average feed in tariff prices have ranged from US$69.75 / MWhr in the Americas to US$108.62 / MWhr in Africa & the Middle East.
Since 2000 a total of US$60.3 billion of public finance has been spent on onshore wind energy. A total of US$23.2 billion or 38.5% was spent in the Americas, 31.5% of total investment was provided to Europe, 16.1% in Africa & the Middle East and just 13.9% in the Asia Pacific region.
This show examines data driven insights for the energy sector, with a focus on renewables. To subscribe to IntelStor Research Notes and get early access to our latest content as well as these Truth to Power weekly editorials, visit https://lnkd.in/e98Z9qs3

Truth to Power - Episode 56

On this week's episode of #TruthtoPower, IntelStor's Founder & CEO, Philip Totaro presents the generation and efficiency of the global onshore #windenergy market from the IntelStor Future of Renewables #marketresearch Report.
Onshore wind energy has grown from a little over 30 terawatt hours globally in 2000 to more than 2.3 petawatt hours by 2025. The wind energy sector did grow away from Europe and towards the Asia Pacific region in overall percentage of the contribution to generation. By the end of 2025 Asia Pacific has 53% of the contribution to global generation, with the Americas at 24%, Europe at 23% and Africa & Middle East region still around 1%.
Capacity factor analysis for onshore wind energy indicates that the Americas region shows the highest average at over 32%. The Asia Pacific region has the worst performance due to the challenges faced by Chinese wind turbine OEMs with the maintenance of their equipment. Over time, the efficiency across all global regions has increased due to improving efficiency of new wind turbine models introduced in the past 25 years.
Nevertheless, the average capacity factor of onshore wind energy when compared to other forms of renewable energy is still relatively poor. For each 5% increment that average capacity factor can be increased via efficiency improvements in the wind turbine technology, it would result in a 2% reduction in the average cost of energy. This reduction could prove quite important as onshore wind energy continues to see a challenge from conventional power generation technologies such as coal, oil and natural gas.
This show examines data driven insights for the energy sector, with a focus on renewables. To subscribe to IntelStor Research Notes and get early access to our latest content as well as these Truth to Power weekly editorials, visit https://lnkd.in/e98Z9qs3

Truth to Power - Episode 55

On this week's episode of #TruthtoPower, IntelStor's Founder & CEO, Philip Totaro analyzes the installed capacity and market share of the global onshore #windenergy market from the IntelStor Future of Renewables #marketresearch Report.
The global market for onshore wind energy is 1.2 TW as of the end of 2025, with capacity installed in over 149 countries. Onshore wind energy may still be behind hydropower in installed capacity as of the end of 2025, but by the end of 2026 it will become the number 2 renewable energy technology installed globally. The popularity of the technology has been down to cost efficiencies on both capital expenditure and levelized cost of energy.
Europe began the past quarter century with just under 75% market share for onshore wind while the Americas had a little over 15% and the bulk of the rest came from the Asia Pacific region.
China’s global leadership has allowed the Asia Pacific region to achieve a 56.2% market share by the end of 2025. India should surpass Germany by the end of 2027 as they race to add new capacity. The rest of the world is continuing a general upward trend and another 573.8 GW of capacity should be installed globally by 2030.
This show examines data driven insights for the energy sector, with a focus on renewables. To subscribe to IntelStor Research Notes and get early access to our latest content as well as these Truth to Power weekly editorials, visit https://lnkd.in/e98Z9qs3

Truth to Power - Episode 54

On this week's episode of #TruthtoPower, IntelStor's Founder & CEO, Philip Totaro dives into the LCOE, feed in tariffs, public finance and capital efficiency of the global #hydropower market from the IntelStor Future of Renewables #marketresearch Report.
While hydropower has tickled being competitive with petroleum and natural gas more recently, it should be clear that the trend on cost of energy is gently increasing over time from below US$50 / MWhr in the year 2000 to more than US$57.00 / MWhr in the most recently reported period.
Over time, the volume of subsidies paid to power offtakers for hydropower generation has diminished as a significant amount of public funding is shifting towards other renewable energy technologies including solid biofuels, onshore wind and offshore wind.
With a total of US$170 billion for hydropower since the year 2000, the industry has seen some of the best …support for both project development as well as refurbishment and repowering over the years. Brazil has famously received more than US$39 billion for hydropower development in the past 25 years alone.
While Africa & the Middle East has the highest performance when measured by capacity factor and other measures of efficiency, their capital efficiency is the lowest at US$988,000 per installed MW.
This show examines data driven insights for the energy sector, with a focus on renewables. To subscribe to IntelStor Research Notes and get early access to our latest content as well as these Truth to Power weekly editorials, visit https://lnkd.in/e98Z9qs3

Truth to Power - Episode 53

On this week's episode of #TruthtoPower, IntelStor's Founder & CEO, Philip Totaro presents the generation and efficiency of the global #hydropower market from the IntelStor Future of Renewables #marketresearch Report.
Hydropower has made the largest contribution to overall renewable energy power generation over the years due to the efficiency with which the technology operates. Having started the year 2000 with an average around 2.47 petawatt hours they have seen almost 100% growth rate in the past 25 years to 4.81 petawatt hours at the end of 2025.
The Africa & Middle East region actually leads the world in hydropower facility average capacity factors at 42.4% average. They have achieved this by leveraging technology that is more modern than many of the installations in Europe or the Americas.
The Americas had an average capacity factor for all hydropower installations of 45 – 46% in the early part of the century. Over time that has diminished by only a few percentage points by 2025, but there was a noticeable dip between 2012 and 2022 that reflected some teething issues with new facilities in Central and South America.
This show examines data driven insights for the energy sector, with a focus on renewables. To subscribe to IntelStor Research Notes and get early access to our latest content as well as these Truth to Power weekly editorials, visit https://lnkd.in/e98Z9qs3

Truth to Power - Episode 52

On this week's episode of #TruthtoPower, IntelStor's Founder & CEO, Philip Totaro analyzes the installed capacity and market share of the global #hydropower market from the IntelStor Future of Renewables #marketresearch Report.
The global market for hydropower is 1.29 TW as of the end of 2025 with deployment in 161 countries worldwide. China leads the world in hydropower technology with 386.2 GW. Almost every country in the world has at least one hydropower facility installed except for those in water starved regions of North Africa & the Middle East.
Annual capacity additions are now between 10 – 16.5 GW annually as hydropower has peaked globally. Asia Pacific still leads the world in new capacity installed with 77.4% of new capacity additions planned in the next five years. The Americas will see just under 11% of the new capacity additions moving forward with Europe at 6.2% as well as Africa & the Middle East at 5.5%.
The global hydropower industry will end 2030 with more than 1,360 GW installed.
This show examines data driven insights for the energy sector, with a focus on renewables. To subscribe to IntelStor Research Notes and get early access to our latest content as well as these Truth to Power weekly editorials, visit https://lnkd.in/e98Z9qs3

Truth to Power - Episode 51

On this week's episode of #TruthtoPower, IntelStor's Founder & CEO, Philip Totaro looks at the LCOE, feed in tariffs, public finance and capital efficiency of the global #solar market from the IntelStor Future of Renewables #marketresearch Report.
Over the past 15 years, cost of energy reduced from over US$400.00 / MWhr to under US$50.00 / MWhr. While cost competitiveness with the global average for coal still remains elusive, the anticipated future performance improvements from perovskite based cell technology which will allow solar PV to match the cost of energy performance of onshore wind and achieve un-subsidized parity with the global price of coal based power.
Out of US$396.6 billion of public funding spent on renewable energy technologies since the year 2000, the total investment of solar PV has been just US$13.6 billion. Also, out of a total annual spend on renewable energy between US$16.2 – 34.8 billion, solar PV only sees US$478 million up to just over US$1.1 billion back in 2018.
This show examines data driven insights for the energy sector, with a focus on renewables. To subscribe to IntelStor Research Notes and get early access to our latest content as well as these Truth to Power weekly editorials, visit https://lnkd.in/e98Z9qs3

Truth to Power - Episode 50

On this week's episode of #TruthtoPower, IntelStor's Founder & CEO, Philip Totaro presents the generation and efficiency of the global #solar market from the IntelStor Future of Renewables #marketresearch Report.
 
Generation for solar PV was anemic 25 years ago compared to the 2.25 petawatt hours the industry produced by the end of 2025. By 2030, the world will have more than 3 petawatt hours of solar PV generation from the more than 3 terawatts installed.
 
Capacity factors in the Americas for solar PV lead the world with an average across the region of15.3%. Africa & Middle East is close behind at 14.2% with the Asia Pacific region a disappointing 11.5% despite such a significant installed capacity.
 
Europe’s poor performance should not necessarily be that surprising at just 8.6% average capacity factor given that the majority of the solar PV capacity is installed in latitudes which have less irradiance compared to the rest of the world.
 
While the industry continues further development along the path of non- perovskite technologies, the industry-focused research and development of perovskite-based technologies shows the most promise to dramatically improve efficiency when panels are repowered on existing project sites.
 
This show examines data driven insights for the energy sector, with a focus on renewables. To subscribe to IntelStor Research Notes and get early access to our latest content as well as these Truth to Power weekly editorials, visit https://lnkd.in/e98Z9qs3

Truth to Power - Episode 49

On this week's episode of #TruthtoPower, IntelStor's Founder & CEO, Philip Totaro digs into the installed capacity and market share of the global #solar market from the IntelStor Future of Renewables #marketresearch Report.
 
The global market for solar PV technology is 2.1TW as of the end of 2025, with global deployment in 214 countries. China is close to achieving a major milestone of more than 1 TW installed, which they should achieve before the end of 2026.
 
Almost every country in the world is seeing their solar PV capacity surge as installation costs are close to all-time lows, despite supply chain issues. Annual capacity additions for solar PV began the century at only 280 MW per year, and have surged to more than 10 X that amount by 2023.
 
By 2030, the global solar PV market will reach more than 3 TW with more than 1.9 TW or 63.7% in the Asia Pacific region. Europe will grow to a total of 562.2 GW installed followed by the Americas at 460 GW. The Africa & Middle East region will see some significant capacity growth, but will still only have just over 69 GW installed by 2030 for a global total of just 2.3%.
 
This show examines data driven insights for the energy sector, with a focus on renewables. To subscribe to IntelStor Research Notes and get early access to our latest content as well as these Truth to Power weekly editorials, visit https://lnkd.in/e98Z9qs3

Truth to Power - Episode 48

On this week's episode of #TruthtoPower, IntelStor's Founder & CEO, Philip Totaro takes a look at the feed in tariffs, public finance & capital efficiency of #renewableenergy within the European region from the IntelStor Future of Renewables #marketresearch Report.
With the exception of solid biofuels, the feed in tariffs for all renewable energy technologies has been over US$100 / MWhr. The average feed in tariff price in Europe has averaged more than the rest of the world. It is for this reason that several member states are calling for subsidies to be eliminated, and power offtake auctions to be held subsidy free.
In the past 25 years, Europe has received a total of US$88.3 billion in public finance, with a slight majority of it going to hydropower. Despite the COVID induced drop in 2020, the region consistently receives approximately US$6 billion annually which has been split between solid biofuels, offshore wind, onshore wind and hydropower.
Solar PV leads the European region on capital efficiency of public finance with just US$11,000 in public funds spent per installed megawatt. By contrast, offshore wind has received a substantial amount of public finance in Europe over the years, but it has a somewhat poor capital efficiency of US$532,000 / MW.
This further complicates the industry conversation regarding why ongoing subsidy support for offshore wind projects should be reconsidered since the projects already receive public funding support to offset some of the capital expenditure in project development.
This show examines data driven insights for the energy sector, with a focus on renewables. To subscribe to IntelStor Research Notes and get early access to our latest content as well as these Truth to Power weekly editorials, visit https://lnkd.in/e98Z9qs3