Can technological progress save us from ecological destruction? If some new clean form of energy was discovered tomorrow, could it be deployed quickly enough to decarbonize the world by 2050? A study conducted by a team led by Robert Gross of Imperial College London and published in December 2018, concluded that, on average, the adoption time of the last four major power-generation technologies was 43 years. And by the end of that time, these technologies were well established, but not yet in a dominant position. The study covers 13 major technologies, four of which are in the electricity generation sector: nuclear energy, gas turbines, photovoltaic (solar) cells and wind turbines. Here we will focus on these four, looking at their deployment in specific countries as case studies: nuclear energy in France, gas turbines in the UK, photovoltaic cells in Germany and windmills in Denmark. For each technology, the study […]