Transition to renewables pays for itself

[Admin]

REmap: Roadmap for A Renewable Energy Future, finds that doubling renewables in the global energy mix by 2030 is feasible and actually less expensive than not doing so. It can save up to $4.2 trillion annually by 2030 – 15 times more than the costs – all while achieving numerous economic, social and environmental goals.

Doubling Renewables Can Save Trillions | IRENA newsroom

[fsilk]

Hey, but what about Solyndra?? Contrary to these idiotic tax cuts for the rich that are required for any Republican candidate, a massive investment in alternative energy would actually create jobs, secure our energy future, save the climate... 

And now it turns out it makes economic sense as well..

[stpioc]

Measures to safe us from climate change do not necessarily have to come at the expense of economy dynamism as the right always claims. This is actually demonstrated in practice:

These two Scandinavian countries shed light on a challenge for all advanced economies: how to implement responsible social policies that reduce carbon emissions and provide for the poor while also innovating to expand the economy. Both Sweden and Denmark have high tax rates that support successful social policies and still leave room for innovative industries. It’s the Danish example in particular that demonstrates how social challenges like climate change can offer great opportunities for new and expanding economic activity. The goal here is to explain what factors were central to Denmark’s success.

We argue that Denmark’s cleantech development has been led by legacy manufacturing companies that were founded decades before “cleantech” was even discussed. These corporate actors, who pivoted toward cleantech during a period of economic crisis, are the missing puzzle piece; when paired with government demand-pull and (more importantly) technology-push policies, they transformed into globally competitive cleantech firms. And this phenomenon could recur elsewhere—legacy manufacturing regions in the U.S. Rust Belt could become cleantech hubs. The lesson is that cleantech hubs require far different ingredients than those required to develop a software-led innovation economy.

Energy, Security, and Climate » Lessons in Cleantech Success from Scandinavia (Pt. 2): The Importance of the Danish Manufacturing Revival

[stpioc]

The stuff is marching on..

Chile has just contracted for the cheapest unsubsidized power plant in the world, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) reports. In last week’s energy auction, Chile accepted a bid from Spanish developer Solarpack Corp. Tecnologica for 120 megawatts of solar at the stunning price of $29.10 per megawatt-hour (2.91 cents per kilowatt-hour or kwh). This beats the 2.99 cents/kwh bid Dubai received recently for 800 megawatts. For context, the average residential price for electricity in the United States is 12 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Solar Delivers Cheapest Electricity ‘Ever, Anywhere, By Any Technology’ — ThinkProgress

[stpioc]

REmap: Roadmap for A Renewable Energy Future, finds that doubling renewables in the global energy mix by 2030 is feasible and actually less expensive than not doing so. It can save up to $4.2 trillion annually by 2030 – 15 times more than the costs – all while achieving numerous economic, social and environmental goals.

Doubling Renewables Can Save Trillions | IRENA newsroom

[stpioc]

$26 trillion by 2030. That, according to the most authoritative research to date, is the amount of money humanity could save through a global shift to sustainable development..

A global shift to sustainability would save us $26 trillion - Vox

[Admin]

If the world wants to avoid some of the most serious ramifications of the climate crisis, countries will need to start shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy quickly. The problem is that building all that new infrastructure is expensive – costing the world trillions of dollars to install solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and other renewable energy systems. Yet, a new study finds that those costs might only be short-term. Transitioning nearly the entire world to an efficient and renewable energy system would cost nearly $62 trillion, according to the analysis by researchers at Stanford University.

But all that new, fancy infrastructure would also save trillions in energy costs every year afterwards – meaning the whole transition could pay for itself in less than six years. The research team looked at the costs of switching to renewables in 145 countries that, combined, emit 99.7 per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels. That included building new power plants with technologies like solar, wind and hydroelectric energy. They also included adding new electricity storage, like batteries and new technologies like electric vehicles for transportation and heat pumps for climate control in buildings. They published their results in June in the journal Energy & Environmental Science. Building all that new stuff is what would cost $62 trillion. But then they looked at the potential savings.

Private energy costs alone would drop by 62.7 per cent – or about $11 trillion each year. In less than six years, those savings would outweigh all the initial building costs. Even more savings could be factored in by incorporating all the societal costs from fossil fuels. When the researchers calculated all the money saved by avoiding things like air pollution from power plants and climate damage, they found that the world could recoup its entire investment in renewable infrastructure in less than one year. In addition to the cost savings, the researchers estimated that all this new infrastructure would create more than 28 million jobs worldwide and use less than 1 per cent of the world’s landmass.

Switching the whole world to renewable energy could pay for itself in just six years, study says

[Admin]

A UK government auction has secured a record 11 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable energy capacity that will generate electricity nine times more cheaply than current gas prices. The projects are all due to start operating within the next five years up to 2026/27 and have agreed to generate electricity for an average price of £48 per megawatt hour (MWh) in today’s money. This is nine times cheaper than the £446/MWh current cost of running gas-fired power stations.

Most of the new capacity – some 7GW – will be offshore wind. Notably, for the first time, these projects were cheaper than the 1.5GW of onshore wind or 2.2GW of solar. Once the pre-approved projects are built, Carbon Brief estimates they will generate 45 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity per year, enough to meet around 14% of current UK demand. Analysts said they would also save consumers an estimated £1.5bn per year in the late 2020s and cut annual average bills by £58, with most of the projects effectively subsidy-free.

Analysis: Record-low price for UK offshore wind is nine times cheaper than gas - Carbon Brief