THAT WAS EASY:

Behind that growth, or perhaps within it, is the expansion of what the IEA calls "mass manufactured technologies": solar photovoltaics, electric cars, residential heat pumps and stationary battery storage. These products benefit from "standardization and short lead times," which means they can be produced by the millions or hundreds of millions, and manufacturers can roll out new and improved versions at a rapid clip.

For instance, between 2015 (when the Paris Agreement was signed) and 2022, solar PV added as much capacity as all of Europe's installed power generation, and heat pump sales increased to a level "approximately equivalent to the entire residential heating capacity in Russia."

These milestones are impressive, but even for those steeped in energy data, they are also a bit airless, without reference to something outside energy itself. We know that mass-manufactured clean energy technologies are growing fast - but how does that compare to other sectors and other periods of time?

This year, the IEA provides some useful analogies, setting EV batteries, solar modules and wind turbines against three innovative technologies of the past: US aircraft produced during the Second World War, the Ford Model T from 1910 to 1920 and gas turbine generators from 1970 to 1980.

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