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Rhiannon12866

(202,970 posts)
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 05:55 AM Jan 2018

Rapid Wind And Solar Cost Declines Keep Pushing Fossil Fuel Further From Profitability

Rapid Wind And Solar Cost Declines Keep Pushing Fossil Fuel Further From Profitability. How Low Can They Go?

Rapid cost declines made renewable energy the United States’ cheapest available source of new electricity, without subsidies, in 2017. In many parts of the U.S., building new wind is cheaper than running existing coal, while nuclear and natural gas aren’t far behind. As renewable energy costs continue their relentless decline, they keep pushing fossil fuels further from profitability – and neither trend is slowing down.

This dynamic is apparent in the decade spanning 2008-2017, where nearly all retired U.S. power plants were fossil fuel generation, and was capped by utilities announcing 27 coal plant closures totaling 22 gigawatts (GW) of capacity in 2017. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts coal closures will continue through 2020, potentially setting an all-time annual record in 2018.


U.S. utility-scale electric generation capacity retirements 2008-2020


Despite Trump Administration actions to improve fossil fuel economics and reduce renewable energy competitiveness, updated levelized cost of energy (LCOE) data and new renewable energy projects show clean energy continues beating fossil fuels on economics, at a faster pace and in more locations than ever before. So just how low can renewable prices go?


Much more: http://www.theenergycollective.com/energy-innovation-llc/2420282/rapid-wind-solar-cost-declines-keep-pushing-fossil-fuel-profitability-low-can-go
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Rapid Wind And Solar Cost Declines Keep Pushing Fossil Fuel Further From Profitability (Original Post) Rhiannon12866 Jan 2018 OP
Whenever the sun is shining, the thermodynamic consequence of shutting a dangerous fossil... NNadir Jan 2018 #1

NNadir

(33,368 posts)
1. Whenever the sun is shining, the thermodynamic consequence of shutting a dangerous fossil...
Wed Jan 31, 2018, 07:57 AM
Jan 2018

...fuel plant for a few hours is destructive to both the economics, environmental impact and thermodynamics of a system.

If you need two systems to do what one can do alone, you are being wasteful.

The result is that neither system is economical, but if you engage in the questionable and intellectually dishonest practice of isolating one from the other you can make a specious argument to the contrary.

I know very well the very bad thinking that goes on at the Energy Collective. I used to write there, and some of my stuff still is there albeit without fair attribution.

This is a classic example of poor thinking being put up at that blog.

The solar and wind industries are trivial. In the period between 2000 and 2016 according to the 2017 World Energy Outlook the fastest growing source of energy was coal, which increased by more than 60 exajoules to represent 157 exajoules of the 576 exajoules humanity was consuming in 2016.

The solar and wind industry were producing a little over 9 exajoules, after the expenditure of more than 2 trillion dollars to produce essentially redundant systems.

The environment will be destroyed much faster if we don't stop lying to ourselves.

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