SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
A transformation is happening in global energy markets that's worth noting as 2016 comes to an end: Solar power, for the first time, is becoming the cheapest form of new electricity.
This has happened in isolated projects in the past: an especially competitive auction in the Middle East, for example, resulting in record-cheap solar costs. But now unsubsidized solar is beginning to outcompete coal and natural gas on a larger scale, and notably, new solar projects in emerging markets are costing less to build than wind projects, according to fresh data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
The chart below shows the average cost of new wind and solar from 58 emerging-market economies, including China, India, and Brazil. While solar was bound to fall below wind eventually, given its steeper price declines, few predicted it would happen this soon.
...
"Renewables are robustly entering the era of undercutting" fossil fuel prices, BNEF chairman Michael Liebreich said in a note to clients this week.
Will we see a sharp pivot in energy production, or a gradual tailing off of fossil fuels as renewables take hold?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday December 18 2016, @01:35AM
large energy companies are going to require time to recoup their investments in current technologies before transitioning to whatever comes next
Why is it the business of public policy whether the energy companies recoup their investments?
I'm sorry, perhaps you weren't a refugee of the 9-11 war's economic upheaval. My 7 month pregnant wife, 2 year old son and I were basically forced to move over 1000 miles to find a decent job after investment capital "reoriented" itself in the wake of the terror attacks. That relocation ended up putting us in W's back yard, next door to NASA in Clear Lake Texas. From that vantage point, it was abundantly clear that public policy is written in large part by the energy companies, particularly public policy as it relates to their profitability. Do you remember any banks that were "too big to fail" in the news lately? Same applies for the companies that "keep America on the move." Some hurricanes wipe out the off-shore refining capability? Oh, that's all right, you can fire up those old refineries on-shore, yes, yes, we know they weren't emissions compliant when they were shut down 20 years ago, and now we're asking them to run at even higher capacity than they were running back then, but, hey, we can't let the gas pumps run dry - those folks that live downwind of the refineries, they've got the best cancer treatment center in the world just there in town (and they're going to need it.)
So, sure, change is coming, but don't expect that change to include any of the big energy players losing their profit stream. Rules, regulations, and reimbursement structures are not natural constructs, they are made by people. In the U.S. they are made by people who can afford the best political connections, and big oil is firmly seated by the head of that table.
🌻🌻 [google.com]