Wind and solar electricity just keep getting cheaper

New figures from Bloomberg new energy finance show the continuing fall in the cost of solar and wind generated electricity, which is now the cheapest form of power in two thirds of the world.

Their report, New Energy Outlook 2019, shows that price is driving a shift in global energy mix, with solar and wind set to provide 50 per cent of power by 2050.

Including hydro sources, renewables will provide 50 per cent of power by 2037, and 67 per cent by 2050.

In Australia in 2050, renewables will make up 78 per cent of production.

None of this is related to anything other than cost.

By 2030 the cost of renewables will be cheaper even than already commissioned gas and coal sources ‘almost everywhere’, according to BloombergNEF.

Such projections provide cold comfort for coal.

While coal’s energy share has been holding up so far, the projections show it peaks in Asia in 2026, and enters a steep decline globally in the early 2020s.

To achieve the new renewable dominated energy mix, cleaner sources will account for 77 per cent of the US$13 trillion that will be invested through to 2050.

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