Renewables Are Becoming More Affordable Every Day—And That’s Important

Here’s an article written for a nontechnical audience that simply explains why wind and solar are growing at the astounding rate we see today. Not to give anything away, but the answer is declining costs, due to bigger and better technology.  E.g., the cost of wind turbines expands linearly as they get bigger, but the performance increases far faster, due to greater swept area (which goes as the square of the blade length) and higher altitudes (at which there are high wind velocities, and power goes as the cube of velocity).

This, of course, is the theme of my most recent book, Bullish on Renewable Energy, which makes the point that the rapid migration to renewables is being driven largely by pure market economics.

As I mentioned yesterday, this theme came up in both the on-camera interviews I did at the Solar Power International show, i.e., clean energy is happening regardless of our astonishing (and “deplorable”) lack of concern for environmental stewardship and the quality of life we leave for our children.