Approach
Investment Thesis
The world will rapidly transition to being mostly powered by clean energy. Clean Energy will be delivered by Renewable Energy (producing unlimited energy from renewable sources at near zero marginal cost) and Electrification (electricity as the energy input for all the things we use).
There are six major technologies and themes to invest in the transition to clean energy:
Solar Energy
Solar is the cheapest form of energy in the world, with installed capacity growing and prices reducing by large amounts every year. So much energy is generated that is now free or negatively priced for large portions of the day in a lot of places. The only downside is that this electricity generation only occurs during the day.
Wind Energy
Wind is the second cheapest for of energy in the world and is growing and getting cheaper, but not as fast as solar. Electricity is generated at any time of the day, making it complimentary with solar. The biggest downside is public resistance to wind turbine visibility (NIMBYism).
Batteries
Like solar, battery capacity is increasing rapidly and costs are dropping rapidly. Batteries store excess energy from wind and solar to stabilise the grid, reduce price spikes and can ensure 24/7 electricity supply. Current downside is cost, however this is changing quickly.
Electric Vehicles
Electric vehicles are better in every way compared to an internal combustion engine (ICE) car. They are powerful, quiet and cost next to nothing to fill up (at home). They are rapidly becoming the dominant car type in some countries (China, Norway, Sweden) with all countries expected to follow in the next decade or two. The only downside is the paucity of EV chargers for long distance trips.
Electrification
Despite being a quarter of the way through the 21st century we have still not shed our reliance on burning stuff to create heat: heating your home/building or hot water with gas, or industrial processes using gas or coal. This will all be replaced by electricity as it gets cheaper and technology improves, requiring a lot of electric heaters, heat pumps, and electricity infrastructure and related service providers.
Metals
All of these technologies will require much more metals (which we have in the ground and are small relative to the fossil fuels we dig up): Lithium, Copper, Silver, Nickle, Aluminium, Manganese, Rare Earth Elements, Graphite, Zinc.... We also have an opportunity to produce metals much more cleanly and cheaply with electrification, in particular Steel (from Iron Ore) and Aluminium which are currently huge contributors to global greenhouse gas emissions.