New Record Low Solar Price in Abu Dhabi – Costs Plunging Faster Than Expected
21 Sep, 2016
The price of solar power – in the very sunniest locations in particular – is plunging faster than I expected. I’ve been talking for years now about the exponential decline of solar power prices. I’ve often been called a wide-eyed optimist. Here’s what those projections…
R e a d M o r eRenewables are Disruptive to Fossil Fuels
18 Feb, 2016
A shorter version of this post first appeared at the Marginal Revolution blog. Cleantech, and specifically renewables like solar and wind (and their fellow traveler energy storage) are disruptive to fossil fuels. Over the last 5 years, the price of new wind power in the US…
R e a d M o r eHow Far Can Renewables Go? Pretty Darn Far
31 Jan, 2016
This is part 4 of a series looking at the economic trends of new energy technologies. Part 1 looked at how cheap solar can get (very cheap indeed). Part 2 looked at the declining cost and rising reliability of wind power. Part 3 looked at…
R e a d M o r eHow Cheap Can Energy Storage Get? Pretty Darn Cheap
14 Oct, 2015
This is part 3 of a series looking at the economic trends of new energy technologies. Part 1 looked at how cheap solar can get (very cheap indeed). Part 2 looked at the declining cost and rising reliability of wind power. Part 3, below, talks…
R e a d M o r eHunger is at an all-time low. We can drive it even lower.
9 Sep, 2015
A few observations on hunger, extracted from the latest FAO report on The State of Food Insecurity, 2015 1. The percent of humanity that’s hungry is at an all-time low. According to FAO, 11.3% of the world is undernourished. Most of that hunger is concentrated in…
R e a d M o r eHow Steady Can Wind Power Blow?
30 Aug, 2015
This is part 2 of a series looking at the economic trends of new energy technologies. Part 1 looked at how cheap solar can get (very cheap indeed). Part 3 looks at how cheap energy storage can get (pretty darn cheap). Part 4 looks at…
R e a d M o r eHow Cheap Can Solar Get? Very Cheap Indeed
10 Aug, 2015
This is part 1 of a series looking at the economic trends of new energy technologies. Part 2 looks at the dropping price and increasing reliability of wind power. Part 3 looks at how cheap energy storage can get (pretty darn cheap). Part 4 looks…
R e a d M o r eNew Solar Capacity Factor in the US is Now ~30%
9 Aug, 2015
The capacity factor of new utility scale solar deployed in the US in 2010 was 24%. By 2012 it had risen to roughly 30%. The rising capacity factor of new solar projects is part of why the cost of electricity from new solar is dropping…
R e a d M o r eSolar Cost Less than Half of What EIA Projected
30 Jun, 2015
Skeptics of renewables sometimes cite data from EIA (The US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration) or from the IEA (the OECD’s International Energy Agency). The IEA has a long history of underestimating solar and wind that I think is starting to be understood. The US…
R e a d M o r eSolar: The First 1% Was the Hardest
18 Jun, 2015
Solar power now provides roughly 1% of the world’s electricity. It took 40 years to reach that milestone. But, as they say in tech, the first 1% is the hardest. You can see why in this chart below. As solar prices drop, installation rate rises.…
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