When Peter Leighton first started working in the renewable energy space 25 years ago, there was a broad perception that renewable energy was expensive and a bit of a science experiment.
What we have seen in the last 10 years, however, is an order of magnitude decrease in the cost of renewables, specifically wind and solar, combined with an order of magnitude increase in the efficiency of both generation technologies.
Immediately prior to Covid-19, most people still saw renewables as being a bit of a fad, even though in 2018 over $200 billion was invested in renewables across the globe, more money than was invested in either the Mining Industry or the Oil and Gas Industry during the same time.
None of us can predict the long-term impact of Covid-19 on energy intensive industries such as transportation, home and office heating, and industry in general.
We do know that right now, solar and wind are the cheapest sources of new electricity in more than 2/3 of the world and are expected to be the cheapest everywhere by 2030.
One thing that Covid-19 has proven is that renewables are really quite resilient. In Q2 2020 there was a total investment in renewables of $69.9B compared to Q2 2019 investment of $70.1B, a decline of less than 1%.
Even despite the economic impact of Covid-19, the investment in renewables remains robust. Covid-19 has, and will continue to change the way our society consumes energy and the form of energy we utilise but it will not reduce our overall demand for energy.
Our company remains financially strong and committed to protecting our shareholder capital. When we started RE Royalties, our focus was on creating a sustainable business model that would be resilient and continue to generate cash flow during uncertain times.
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