By 2020, energy from solar panels and wind turbines will be cheaper than power made from fossil fuels, according to an International Renewal Energy Agency study. That reflects today’s rate of price decline for renewables.
The report notes that the cost of generating electricity with onshore windmills has fallen 23 percent since 2010; the cost of solar electricity plunged a whopping 73 percent during the same period.
With new cost-cutting technology already in the pipeline, alternative energy prices are expected to continue to fall at current rates, if not even more steeply.
TRENDPOST: As the price of renewable energy systems falls, developing countries will be better able to afford to build renewable, decentralized electricity systems. That will speed the demise of fossil-fuel-fired generating plants globally, especially as flow batteries and other electricity storage technologies become cheaper and more widely available.