Wind and Solar Power Have Become Amazingly Affordable

[90DayFinancier 910]

 

Costs are falling so fast, it can make more sense to build new renewable capacity than to run old coal plants.

By 

Peter R. Orszag

November 7, 2019, 9:00 AM EST

They keep getting cheaper to build.

 Photographer: David McNew/Getty Images

In the midst of otherwise depressing developments in the progress of climate change, one bit of good news shines through: The economics of renewable energy have been improving fast — especially those of onshore wind and utility-scale solar power. A new analysis of the levelized cost of energy from Lazard, the company I work for, shows that over the past year the cost of generating energy from wind projects fell by 4% and large solar projects by 7%. 

The levelized cost of any particular energy technology is the break-even price that companies investing in that technology need in order to see a competitive rate of return. In the case of both utility-scale solar and onshore wind power, this rate has dropped to about $40 per megawatt hour — which is lower than the cost of building new power plants that burn natural gas or coal. It’s even close to being competitive with the marginal costs of running the coal and nuclear plants we already have.  

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/opinion/articles/2019-11-07/wind-and-solar-power-have-become-amazingly-affordable

 

[Boketto 211]

Please don’t disseminate dangerous information, 90DF. Were you not aware that wind turbine noise causes cancer?

[90DayFinancier 910]

44 minutes ago, Boketto said:

Please don’t disseminate dangerous information, 90DF. Were you not aware that wind turbine noise causes cancer?

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

I’m not gonna touch this fallacy with a 10-foot pole.  I get enough posts about wind energy from my nuclear acquaintances.  Suffice it to say.... not any time soon.

[Boketto 211]

9 minutes ago, ALFKAD said:

nuclear acquaintances

 

That sounds rad!

[Boiler 45,519]

Just need to make the sun shine and the wind blow all the time.

[90DayFinancier 910]

6 minutes ago, Boketto said:

 

That sounds rad!

I see what you did there, and I barely REM member physics!

[Boketto 211]

3 minutes ago, 90DayFinancier said:

I see what you did there, and I barely REM member physics!

I don’t blame ya, physics can be a Bohr...

[90DayFinancier 910]

2 minutes ago, Boketto said:

I don’t blame ya, physics can be a Bohr...

quark doesn't walk into a bar and orders a drink from the bar.

[laylalex 7,284]

20 minutes ago, Boketto said:

 

That sounds rad!

I snorted!  

[TBoneTX 45,293]

NB2 studied fizzics

[Nature Boy 2.0 8,370]

If it was economically viable it would be in use on a mass scale.

 

No source of energy is going to dominate until A. We run out of current sources

B. It becomes profitable to do so.

 

The article is typical hog slop for non critical thinkers.  Have prices dropped,  yes. Anywhere near enough to make it feasible,  no.

 

Now cold  fission.  That gets me excited.  One day maybe 

[Neonred 3,564]

I read that there is a way to run your car on water...

[Boiler 45,519]

8 minutes ago, Neonred said:

I read that there is a way to run your car on water...

There is:

 

[Voice of Reason 10,298]

Just now, Boiler said:

There is:

 

While true, they are a bear to find along most interstates.