Dec 28, 2021 7:00 AM

We Are at the Dawn of the Age of Physics-Supplied Energy

Power can become cleaner, cheaper, and better. Here’s how.

In 2022, advances in engineering and computational capabilities will dramatically improve the economics of clean energy, making it a viable option for all. As the prime source of energy transitions from one branch of science to another, we will embark on an era that will markedly improve society – while also undoing the excesses of the previous age – thanks to the simple mathematics of supply and demand. In short, physics will save us.

Energy is the lifeblood of civilisation. Humanity’s 10,000-year quest for it has always been defined by two critical factors that still hold true: it has to be cheap and we’ll always need more of it.

In the beginning, we got all of our energy from biology – from manpower and the plants and foods we consumed. As our energy needs increased, we sought to leverage other sources, still using biology. We used the energy source provided by the muscles of animals, harnessing the ox, the horse, the camel and more. Let’s call this the Age of Biology-Supplied Energy.

Just over a century ago, things changed dramatically. Because of our ever-increasing energy needs, we switched from biology to chemistry. To create the energy we urgently required, we
began burning things. Let’s call this the Age of Chemistry-Supplied Energy.

Thanks to this new approach, humanity witnessed a huge explosion in global GDP per capita. This new way of getting our energy helped to bring about the modern industrialised world as we know it.

As we all now know, it also changed the world in another, more serious way. The problem with getting our energy from chemistry was that the results of all that burning went into the air, eroding the atmosphere and increasing the threat of climate change that we confront today.

Starting just a few years ago, we entered another age, with physics now primed to replace chemistry as the most economically practical source of energy. Physics – by harnessing renewable Sun and wind power – has enabled, for the first time, access to a massive source of energy that is cheaper than chemistry-provided energy, all while putting nothing harmful into the atmosphere. We are at the dawn of the Age of Physics-Supplied Energy.

Through physics and our engineering and computational skills, we are converting sunlight to useful energy far more cheaply than anything we can burn. By embracing physics, we are also solving issues regarding these energy sources, such as intermittency, while availing ourselves of their massive advantages – most prominently, their abundance. The Sun provides 10,000 times more energy than is needed by all of humanity, and unlike fossil fuels, solar energy gets cheaper as more is produced. For every doubling in solar energy production, costs fall more than 20 per cent.

Today, with the ubiquitous technology of the microprocessor, mass production and new materials, we are building the infrastructure to capture, convert and transport energy from where sunshine is abundant to where it’s needed, and to store it for use when the Sun is not shining. These are engineering challenges, nothing more – and we will continue to see solutions to them in 2022.

This new Age of Physics-Supplied Energy will not simply replace our fossil-fuel sources but grow far beyond them, because, as we make more low-cost, clean energy available to civilisation,
we will improve life in almost every way.

Get more expert predictions for the year ahead. The WIRED World in 2022 features intelligence and need-to-know insights sourced from the smartest minds in the WIRED network. Available now on newsstands, as a digital download, or you can order your copy online.