How clean energy could save us trillions. As clean energy prices fall, a fast transition to renewable energy is the cheapest option on the table. It could save us trillions in energy costs alone. Solar energy is half the cost of the cheapest fossil option and the gap will continue growing.
https://www.dw.com/en/fossil-fuel-price-tag-cost-of-energy-transition-solar-wind-future/a-75237447
Posted by mafco
5 Comments
You’d have to be really stupid to elect a leader who’d actively suppress the growth of renewables in favour of fossil fuels.
It’s also a great way to reduce the tyranny of oil.
It’s interesting, because building renewables is associated with lower rates but *mandating* them through RPS is associated with higher rates.
All those years we were told that the transition would take TriLLiOnS that we don’t have, and poor people would also need a warm house, and therefore we cannot take away their gas heater.
>The reason a rapid transition would provide more savings is because the more renewable energy technology is being made, the cheaper it’s getting.
>Economists describe this phenomenon as a “learning curve” called Wright’s Law, which shows the costs of certain technologies fall as cumulative production increases. The same pattern drove down the price of aircraft, cars, computers, and DNA sequencing over the past century.
>In the last ten years, the cost of solar panels has dropped by around 90%, largely thanks to an explosion in Chinese manufacturing capacity.
>”Solar power is the cheapest form of energy in history,” economist Gernot Wagner from Columbia Business School told DW. “This stuff is so cheap that Germans are installing it as garden fencing. It keeps the dog in and the car charged.”
>Wind power has also dropped in price by about 70% since 2014. And battery storage — vital for storing wind and solar power — is also fast improving, with prices declining by 85% compared to the 2010s.
This is why renewables have already won the race. Fossil fuels will just keep getting more expensive to extract and transport while renewables will continue to get cheaper. It doesn’t take a genius to project the final outcome.