The Falling Costs of Renewable Energy

[PLC1]

The Falling Costs of Renewable Energy

Historically, cost was cited as one of the primary barriers to switching from fossil-based energy sources like oil, coal and gas to renewable energy sources like solar, wind and geothermal.

But the narrative has now changed. Plummeting costs for renewable energy technologies are making a global energy transition not only possible, but actually less expensive than the alternative.

So, let's subsidize coal.

OK

The world currently subsidizes fossil fuels to the tune of more than US$500 billion a year, dwarfing support for renewable energy by a factor of five.

 

[dogtowner]

A very interestingly worded piece.

 

[The Scotsman]

What is the cost of coal excluding externals? I bet it's much less than 7-19 cents!!

 

[dogtowner]

What is the cost of coal excluding externals? I bet it's much less than 7-19 cents!!

Note how they reference "new" plants when citing coal gas or nuke.....
Remember the regs put in place to discourage them. Not exactly apples to apples.

 

[The Scotsman]

Not exactly apples to apples.

Absolutely, got to make them solar panels and them fine wind turbines look good ..... at any cost

 

[grumpy]

The push to win over the Trump administration comes as offshore wind is on the brink of success in North America after a decade of false starts. Costs are falling dramatically. Deepwater Wind LLC completed the first project in U.S. waters in August. And in September, the Obama administration outlined plans to ease regulatory constraints and take other steps to encourage private development of enough turbines to crank out 86,000 megawatts by 2050. That's about the equivalent of 86 nuclear reactors.

"We are an industry on the rise," Thomas Brostrom, Dong's general manager of North America, said in an interview. "We want very much to come in and explain to the new administration what we can do for job creation and energy independence." [...]

To be clear, installing turbines at sea requires years of planning, and Trump may be out of office by the time some developers need federal approvals. State governments, meanwhile, remain the biggest drivers of renewable energy development, because they can mandate that utilities get a certain amount of power from offshore wind or other sources.
http://brothersjuddblog.com/archive...gn=Feed:+BrothersjuddBlog+(BrothersJudd+Blog)

 

[dogtowner]

The push to win over the Trump administration comes as offshore wind is on the brink of success in North America after a decade of false starts. Costs are falling dramatically. Deepwater Wind LLC completed the first project in U.S. waters in August. And in September, the Obama administration outlined plans to ease regulatory constraints and take other steps to encourage private development of enough turbines to crank out 86,000 megawatts by 2050. That's about the equivalent of 86 nuclear reactors.

"We are an industry on the rise," Thomas Brostrom, Dong's general manager of North America, said in an interview. "We want very much to come in and explain to the new administration what we can do for job creation and energy independence." [...]

To be clear, installing turbines at sea requires years of planning, and Trump may be out of office by the time some developers need federal approvals. State governments, meanwhile, remain the biggest drivers of renewable energy development, because they can mandate that utilities get a certain amount of power from offshore wind or other sources.
http://brothersjuddblog.com/archives/2017/02/donald_who_45.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+BrothersjuddBlog+(BrothersJudd+Blog)

Costs are down, please note the name of Brostrom's company (Dong). Job creation where ?
China makes turbines far cheaper for obvioys reasons.
Other steps to encourage is clearly government subsides.
If the industry us on the rise do they need taxpayer monew ?

 

[grumpy]

Costs are down, please note the name of Brostrom's company (Dong). Job creation where ?
China makes turbines far cheaper for obvioys reasons.
Other steps to encourage is clearly government subsides.
If the industry us on the rise do they need taxpayer monew ?

Oh I get it.. They need tax payer money..I'm still researching this one..

 

[dogtowner]

Oh I get it.. They need tax payer money..I'm still researching this one..

Even with tax dollars Chinese turbines are much cheaper if somewhat less efficie. Ando yes, China subsidizes in different ways.