Graphs Show Falling Pricing for Solar PV, Wind

Peter Buck sent me another article just now, accompanied by a few words:  Here’s another article (which I coincidentally also found yesterday).  This one includes graphs that seem to show that onshore wind prices aren’t falling very much but are already cheaper than most fossil generation, and that PV is falling fast and if it keeps on doing so will soon be in the fossil range. 

Thanks very much, Peter.  Of course, this will ultimately put a spear through the entire fossil industry.  Fretting about how powerful this industry is and how corruptive its influences are on our law-makers will soon be a moot point.  What they’re selling is simply becoming more relatively expensive, and the world is in the process of going elsewhere.

In fact, the cost of wind energy is so low in some places and times that it’s “curtailed” i.e., turned off, or faces “negative pricing” (meaning that operators have to pay to put in on the grid).  Power purchase agreements in the plains states in the U.S. are being signed at $0.02 per kWh, which is about half of what a kWh from coal costs—and it’s still profitable for the operators.  Currently, however, this occurs only in a few regions where supply is high and demand is low, e.g., Oklahoma.  The challenge, obviously, is to do one of four things: a) generating power in areas with high demand, b) transmitting to these areas, c) storing it locally, e.g., with compressed air energy storage, or d) synthesizing some sort of liquid fuel, e.g., high-octane gasoline or high-grade diesel, using the techniques invented by WindFuels.   I suppose we could also offer incentives for people to move to Oklahoma.  (Just kidding.)

This is the precise theme of my book (Bullish on Renewable Energy), i.e., though it’s not yet obvious to everyone, but for once, the good guys have won.  All that’s left is to clean up the aftermath of the battle and move on with our lives in the low-carbon world we soon will have created.