In some parts of the world, solar power has historically been the cheapest source of electricity due to policies that promote renewable energy growth. That’s according to a new report released today by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Sunshine is free, but the technology needed to turn it into useful electricity can be expensive. To encourage more people and companies to move to solar power, countries can adjust their policies to make those devices more affordable. Today, more than 130 countries have policies that reduce the cost of building new solar installations. This is the first year the IEA has considered such policies when calculating the cost of solar energy in this annual World Energy Outlook report. After doing so, their solar power cost estimates were reduced by 20 to 50 percent per region compared to the previous year. Carbon Brief First report.
Solar is on track to become the “new king of power supply,” the report said. It expects the market to become more and more dominant in the coming decade as global efforts to curb climate change accelerate. The EU, for example, aims to generate 32 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.
“It seems like policy support is here to stay which is a pretty good thing,” says Brent Wanner, who heads power generation modeling and analysis for IIA’s World Energy Outlook. “These policy frameworks are really essential to take into account those low costs, which then show what kind of development is needed to move us towards climate ambitions.”
In most countries of the world, it is consistently cheaper to build solar farms than new coal- or gas-fired power plants, the report said. For utility-scale solar projects completed this year, the average cost of generating electricity during a plant’s lifetime (known as electricity stratification costs) in some of the world’s largest markets – the US, Europe, China and India. According to the World Economic Forum, just four years ago, the global average price for solar power was ડ 100 per megawatt-hour. About a decade ago, it was $ 300.
According to a new IEA report – the price of coal is currently between $$ 8 and $ 1 between 0 per MW – where it has been for more than a decade. The coal industry has been declining despite US efforts by the Trump administration to promote it. The IIA expects that globally, coal consumption may not return to the first level of the epidemic, but if the economy improves next year, the IAA will continue to do so.
On the other hand, the forecast for the future solar is sunny. The demand for electricity has now declined due to the epidemic, but the IEA expects that once the epidemic is brought under control and the economy improves, people’s appetite for electricity can quickly return. It also anticipates a future where solar power continues to grow at a record pace to meet growing consumer demand.
“The good news about this is that solar tech continues to improve and innovation continues to reduce those costs,” Wenner says.
