The Future Electricity Grid

This report by the World Resources Institute examines the growth of renewable energy and the resulting technical, institutional, and economic challenges facing decision-makers in developing countries as they transition to a future electricity grid.

• Non-hydro renewable energy has experienced significant global growth over the last ten years, increasing six-fold from 85 gigawatts (GW) to 657 GW.
• The growth of renewable energy is driven by five primary market trends: cost and growth improvements in RE sources, advancements in energy efficiency and new technologies, instability in fossil-fuel prices and supply, increased investor and government support, and the emergence of new entities providing electricity generation.
• Decision-makers face three primary challenges in building a future grid: technology and infrastructure constraints caused by intermittent technologies and distributed generation; institutional challenges to the centralized utility model; and concerns regarding electricity pricing, equitable tariffs, and cost burdens.
• The electricity sector is seeing a shift in market dynamics characterized by the deployment of storage, variable renewable energy, and small distributed generation, alongside the rise of individual homeowners and communities as legitimate electricity generators.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). The Future Electricity Grid. https://www.wri.org/research/future-electricity-grid

Chicago

World Resources Institute. The Future Electricity Grid. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/future-electricity-grid.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=The Future Electricity Grid |url=https://www.wri.org/research/future-electricity-grid |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendfuture, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{The Future Electricity Grid}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/future-electricity-grid}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }