Renewable energy set to be cheaper than fossil fuels by 2020, according to new report

[Rhiannon12866]

‘Turning to renewables for new power generation is not simply an environmentally conscious decision, it is now – overwhelmingly – a smart economic one’

Renewable energy will be cheaper than fossil fuels in two years, according to a new report.

Experts predict that investment in green infrastructure projects will lead to decreases in the cost of energy for consumers.

Continuous technological improvements have led to a rapid fall in the cost of renewable energy in recent years, meaning some forms can already comfortably compete with fossil fuels.

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“This new dynamic signals a significant shift in the energy paradigm,” said Adnan Amin, director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IREA), which published the report.

“Turning to renewables for new power generation is not simply an environmentally conscious decision, it is now – overwhelmingly – a smart economic one.”.


Much more: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/renewable-energy-cheaper-fossil-fuels-2020-uk-green-climate-change-global-warming-report-irea-a8160051.html

[NNadir]

1. As usual, this line completely ignores the redundant dangerous fossil fuel plants required to...

...back this crap up.

It's like saying that one's bicycle is cheap as long as one has a car to back it up.

It's selective attention. $2.3 trillion has been squandered on this crap in the last ten years alone, and it doesn't even produce 10 of the 576 exajoules of energy that the human race consumes each year.

In fact, from 2000 to 2016 all the solar and wind facilities on this planet - many of which are wearing out already and need replacement - didn't increase output by 7 exajoules.

By contrast, in the same period, the output of the coal industry - which the liars in the so called "renewable energy" industry keep calling "dead" grew by 60 exajoules.

The reason that the worst fuel grew by 60 exajoules is that the so called "renewable energy" industry didn't work, it isn't working and it won't work.

I've been hearing this crap about how cheap so called "renewable energy" will be compared to dangerous fossil fuels my whole adult life, and I'm an old man.

The so called "renewable energy" industry is just a smokescreen to divert attention from reality, and the reality is that we are now seeing carbon dioxide increases annually averaging 2.2 ppm. It's going to go up even faster if we have another half a century of predictions of how great "renewable energy" will be someday, when in fact, it has a long history of sucking wind and money.

[Finishline42]

2. Every year - actually every week - more Wind and Solar comes on line.

And it does so because they are both a manufactured product and they both get their energy source free.

This is the telling quote from the thread about Colorado Wind and Solar >>>

But it’s not just Colorado whose energy markets have been turned upside down. In November, we reported on the remarkable findings of the financial firm Lazard Ltd., which found that in many regions of North America, “the full-lifecycle costs of building and operating renewables-based projects have dropped below the operating costs alone of conventional generation technologies such as coal or nuclear.”

Our electric grid is more complicated than just talking about the total amount being used. It's more about when it's used. Wind and Solar costs are mainly up front in the construction and bringing them on line. Once you get to that point, they basically have no cost so when it's available it is the cheapest source there is. The more that they are used means the that the natgas, coal and nuclear plants aren't being used, which drives up their cost which of course means that the economics justify the investment in more wind and solar. Natgas, coal and nuclear are in a death spiral (natgas will be the last to go). It's just a matter of time...

As I've said before - it's a process.