Treehugger
We are living in amazing times; witnessing the green revolution growing exponentially before our eyes. It's game over for fossil fuels and it can't come fast enough.
Some people might think that the recent drop in oil price is bad for the solar industry, that it'll slow down investment and reduce demand for clean energy. There might be some truth to that in the short-term, but the long-term trend is clear: Solar is going to take over the world.
This graph which I've
posted before says it all:
Now a new report (pdf) from the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, as you can imagine, a big player in oil & gas, says that "fossil fuels can no longer compete with solar technologies on price", and that the majority of the $US48 trillion needed to meet global energy demand over the next 20 years will come from renewables.
“Cost is no longer a reason not to proceed with renewables,” the NBAD report says. In some instances, the price of renewables are remarkably low. “The latest solar PV project tendered in Dubai returned a low bid that set a new global benchmark and is competitive with oil at US$10/barrel and gas at US$5/MMBtu.” This was a 200MW bid by ACWA Power at $US0.0584/kWh (5.84c/kwh), without subsidies. Of course, sunnier countries will have lower costs, but over time even cloudier places will see solar eclipse dirty sources.
Our transition to clean energy (in spite of political and industry obstruction) is happening so fast that for the first time in a long time there may be some reason for optimism for our future.