please welcome henry snaith. he s professor of physics at oxford, and through his engineering of low cost photovoltaics, henry discovered a thin film of solar cells made of perovskite. it could be a hugely significant discovery, as henry hopes it will eventually double the efficiency of solar power and halve the cost. danielle merfeld is an electrical engineer who is chief technology officer and vice president of ge renewables. ge is the biggest creator of wind turbines worldwide, and she and her team currently have over 40,000 wind turbines out in the field. she sjoining us by video link from north carolina, usa. kristian eikeland holmefjord is here from norway after braving 10 days quarantine on arrival in the uk. kristian is at the forefront of efforts to develop battery powered ships as project director of fuel cells at corvus energy.
will be 100% by 2050, and i see that very feasibly happening. we ve got 20 years of continued learning, 30 years by 2050. by the time we get there, the cost of electricity will be so much cheaper than today s cost, including storage and redistribution, that actually we ll see a step up in wealth across the world and many other places coming up to the levels of wealth that we re used to in the uk, so i actually see this as a massively exciting transition. it s a daunting change but if we embrace it, actually, this is the next transition, next step advancement for society and well being for humankind. and for the last word, danielle. so i would say i am very optimistic, knowing that prices will continue to come down, there will be more people with access to energy, living better lives, bringing more people out of poverty, because, not in spite of, this growing amount of renewable energy.
talking about where we are now, and i wanted to start with you, danielle. so, before we get started on the solutions, can we outline the challenge here? the international governmental panel on climate change has said that in order to avoid the worst ravages of the heating associated with climate change, we need renewable resources like solar and wind to provide 85% of global electricity by 2050. but where are we now, and what s the scale of the challenge that faces us? so, danielle, tell me a bit about how close we are to that 85% target? well, the good news is that wind and solar power have doubled in the last five years due to their plummeting costs. now, nearly one tenth of the world s electricity comes from wind and solar together. but if i think about it from the wind perspective, at roughly 8%, we have to get 40 plus, 40 50%. that s a huge leap from where we are today, to meet our net zero goals by 2050. so lots of work yet to do.
and through of his engineering of low cost photovoltaics, he discovered a thin film of photocells. it could be a hugely significant discovery, as henry hopes it will eventually double the efficiency of solar power and halve the cost. danielle merfeld is an electrical engineer who is chief technology officer and vice president of ge renewables. ge is the biggest creator of wind turbines worldwide, and she and her team currently have over 40,000 wind turbines out in the field. she sjoining us by video link from north carolina, usa. kristian eikeland holmefjord is here from norway after braving 10 days quarantine on arrival in the uk. kristian is at the forefront of efforts to develop battery powered ships as project director of fuel cells at corvus energy. wind, solar batteries, ships please welcome our panel. applause. so, we re going to start with
creating more jobs, internationally. my only reservation would be that there are so many people in the world who either think this is purely a technology issue, which is separate from their life, or something that they don t need to think too much about or be a part of, and as i mentioned before, the biggest challenge is how the public accepts how we manage to lobby our governments and we think about the priorities that we want to make in our society. and that s it from the engineers: clean energy here at the victoria and albert museum in london. on behalf of the bbc world service, our partners, the royal commission for the exhibition of 1851 and all of us here, a huge thank you to our brilliant engineers, kristian eikeland holmefjord, danielle merfeld and henry snaith. applause.