Posted on 12/14/2023 1:00:13 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
Renewables are reaching the point where they are outcompeting fossil fuels on price — setting the stage for their predicted dominance of the energy sector by midcentury.
When it comes to the surging demand for new electric generation, wind and solar prices are now the cheapest options almost everywhere, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Building new wind and solar projects is also cheaper than running existing coal plants, according to a report from Energy Innovation, a nonpartisan climate policy think tank.
The fall in price has led to a global rush to install new wind and solar — which the IEA noted expanded by nearly 25 percent in 2023, powered by record installations.
And the IEA added that prices are falling further — particularly in the U.S., where the tax credits from the Democrats’ 2022 clean energy stimulus will begin to take full effect in 2024.
In 2021 — before the passage of the sweeping subsidies for clean energy included in that stimulus — the U.S. government estimated that no matter what, solar power was likely to make up half of U.S. electric generation by midcentury.
The country is passing a “tipping point” beyond which renewables are the status quo option, said Timothy Lenton, chair of the climate department at the University of Exeter.
Lenton said that by midcentury, even if climate policies remain no more generous than they are now, renewables will make up three-quarters of U.S. electricity production.
Lenton is a coauthor of a recent report by the Bezos Earth Fund that found power generation from renewables was doubling on average every 3 1/2 years worldwide.
This level of renewable adoption, he argued, is becoming the floor of global ambition, not the ceiling. At the United Nations climate conference (COP28) in Dubai last week, the U.S. joined 110 other nations in agreeing to triple renewable energy production.
“And if you add more climate policies, it will only go faster,” Lenton said, noting this level of growth was becoming both exponential and “hard to stop.”
“There’s a self-propelling, ever stronger feedback loop behind the transformation,” he said. The question now, he said, isn’t whether the change is going to happen. “Now it’s more about how fast or slow to go, and how hard are the incumbents going to fight to hold the status quo.”
The people who do these studies and write these articles are absolute idiots. The cost of the windmill alone or the solar cells alone is almost irrelevant. It's the TOTAL SYSTEM COST and the 30 year levelized cost of electricity that are important. These studies conveniently ignore everything needed to make a RELIABLE system with high capacity factor that can produce economical energy 24x7. None of these "renewable" pie-in-the-sky dreams can do that.
These idiots always ignore the simple fact that it is dark at night and there are many days in a row of "wind drought." You need BACKUP systems to get you through those periods, the ONLY utility-scale backup system is pumped hydro, and it's next to impossible to find a practical, new pumped hydro site or get it permitted.
The fact is that renewables require that you build a SECOND parallel power plant, either storage (pumped hydro or batteries [that do not exist]) or natural gas fired simple cycle (i.e., not a combined cycle).
When you look at all these system level costs, renewables are a big loser.
The article does point out (to its credit) that this entire renewables juggernaut is solely because of government, not market forces. Just like EVs piling up in dealer lots because the market does not want them.
"The country is passing a 'tipping point' beyond which renewables are the status quo option" -- Timothy Lenton, chair of the climate department at the University of Exeter.
The only reason there is a 'tipping point' is government interference in markets trying to solve a non-problem and thereby creating many more problems.
Unfortunately, consumers can reject EVs and buy conventional ICE cars. You cannot do that with power. You cannot reject a renewables energy company and buy from a conventional energy company. You are captive to the government that requires all energy companies to have major renewables programs.
LOL! Take away the massive subsidies and see how much of a price advantage they have.
BTW, those subsidies are not scalable to anything like the market shares some are predicting for so-called “renewables”.
That does it for me, ALL Public Buildings shall use 100% renewable energy and shall be free of fossil fuels.
The solar and wind turbine reliability is in serious doubt because of the growing use of geo-engineering aerosol spraying to block the sun to combat global warming. The spraying not only affects the solar but the wind turbines also.
And so shall all public employees.
“Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”
Hussein
And, any new building that is built must be built using equipment that runs on renewable energy, and using recycled or renewable materials.
Subsidize the hell out of “renewables” while taxing/regulating the hell out of anything in the existing infrastructure...
So yeah... steaming crock-o-shite is exactly it.
If true, investors would be in line. They ain’t.
More BS from the BS factory that is The Hill.
Serious countries don’t use energy toys to power their economies.
The fact is that renewables require that you build a SECOND parallel power plant (base load)
Also true. The warmista nutballs always leave this out. The USA has centuries worth of coal reserves to burn ultra-cleanly. Coal is my favorite for making electricity.
I was skeptical of the amount of bullshirt that was being emitted by this article. I am glad you posted some logic that invalidates the fecal material being spewed by this author.
Nope, nope and more nope....
Pure, unadulterated communist propaganda BS.
BTW, FJB and his merry band of queer flying monkeys.....
Cold Dark Nights.
That’s the Achilles Heel of intermittent wind and solar. Without a fully duplicative on-demand electricity source like Natural Gas, Coal, Nuclear or Hydro, you HAVE TO HAVE BOTH INTERMITTENT RENEWABLES AND ON-DEMAND.
So, the capital and maintenance costs are roughly DOUBLED because of the intermittent wind and sun.
Talk about an obvious boondoggle.
Total B,.S.
Let John Kerry go first.
Oil is still king.
And in 2023, the United States will produce more oil in one year than any country in the history of the world.
“Renewables are reaching the point where they are outcompeting fossil fuels on price ...”
Total and utter bull-Obamastuff.
Always remember that journalists are the folks that couldn’t pass even the most simple of STEM, or economics, courses.
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