Renewable energy costs have been falling through the floor — they have fallen so fast that even cleantech enthusiasts have been shocked by increasingly low prices several times in the past year alone, and dozens of times in the past 5 years.
Once final data are in, EIA expects 24 gigawatts (GW) of new generating capacity to be added to the power grid during 2016. For the third consecutive year, more than half of these additions are renewable technologies, especially wind and solar.
Below are the 20 CleanTechnica articles from the past week or so that apparently thrilled readers the most. Following that list of the most popular articles of the week, you can also see my 30 favorites.
A former landfill for the city of Charlotte is the site for a proposed new solar farm. The property has been idle for for than half a century. The 155 acre site is one of 675 landfills scattered across North Carolina and 8 within Mecklenburg County.
Q. What will be the most important technological development over the next 10 years that will have the greatest impact in reducing climate change risks? A. RE<
A way to incentivize the use of clean energy like solar after dark — instead of gas peakers — to cover peak loads has been proposed in a white paper commissioned by Arizona’s Residential Utility Consumer Office
We’ve seen a lot of commentary on the fact that utility-scale solar power has become the least expensive source of electricity in many places. There is more than that to be found in the data in Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis, Version 10.0, however, and what it tells us is that solar and wind power have benefits apart from the simple facts that their costs are low.
This week, Anne-Sophie Garrigou, journalist at The Beam, interviewed Joseph Desmond, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Government Affairs for BrightSource Energy, a company founded in 2006 which became a leader in solar thermal technology.
These are 5 messages that I think anyone wanting a better US economy (or a better economy in practically any country), anyone wanting national energy freedom (aka energy independence), anyone wanting to advance the most cost-effective choices for electricity generation, and anyone wanting to make logical energy decisions should know and share with others.
5.4¢/kWh is on the low end of Lazard’s estimated levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for solar power plants. It’s not far below it like recent bids in the Middle East — but this is Denmark! If an immature solar market in a Scandinavian country can see an average solar price of 5.4¢/kWh — which beats the LCOE from every other new power plant option except wind — that’s a significant milestone.
