Solar energy investment is booming – Madia Prupis
Solar investment has gone from literally nothing five years ago to quite a lot.
For the first time, solar power is becoming the cheapest form of electricity production in the world, according to new statistics released by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) on 15th December, 2016.
While unsubsidized solar has occasionally done better than coal and gas in individual projects, 2016 marked the first time that this renewable energy source has out-performed fossil fuels on a large scale. And new solar projects are also turning out to be cheaper than new wind power projects, BNEF reports in its new analysis, Climatescope.
The cost of solar in 58 developing nations dropped to about a third of 2010 levels, with China in particular adding a record number of solar projects. And as the Independent notes, solar “has proven a godsend for remote islands such as Ta’u, part of America Samoa, in the South Pacific”.
In fact, Ta’u has been able to abandon the use of fossil fuels altogether and power itself almost entirely on renew- able energy. “Solar investment has gone from nothing – literally nothing – five years ago to quite a lot” said Ethan Zindler, head of BNEF’s U.S. policy analysis.
BNEF chairman Michael Liebreich also told investors this week that “renewables are robustly entering the era of undercutting” fossil fuel prices. Unsurprisingly, developing countries are at the forefront of this advancement, having invested in clean energy economies to stave off the catastrophic effects of climate change at a greater rate than have wealthy nations.
BNEF chairman Michael Liebreich also told investors in December that “renewables are robustly entering the era of undercutting” fossil fuel prices.
Unsurprisingly, developing countries are at the forefront of this advancement, having invested in sustainable energy technologies in order to stave off the catastrophic effects of climate change at a greater rate than have wealthy nations.
“For populations still relying on expen- sive kerosene generators, or who have no electricity at all, and for those living in the dangerous smog of thickly populated cities”, Bloomberg reports, “the shift to renewables and increasingly to solar can’t come soon enough”
Source: Common Dreams, 16 Dec 2016
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/12/16/sun-solution-rises-solar-fast-becoming-worlds-cheapest-electricity-source
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References underpinning the assertions made will be found in the original article.
