Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Improving Air Quality
152
1 5 2
in the dark. Hopefully this book has helped to provide illumination across the
diverse, rapidly changing, and exciting aspects of this new path. It turns out
that this path is more like several trails that are all going in the same general
direction, often intersecting, so we have used a broad and diffuse light. There
are things going on in terms of wind, solar, and other forms of renewable energy
generation. There are ongoing advances in battery storage and the electrification
of transportation. These changes are spurring development of the smart grid,
improved electric power management, and responsive government policies.
And underlying all of these developments are people: People working out the
economics of these new pathways in entire countries, in big cities, and in agriculture. This is even leading towards a more advanced understanding of our
relationship with our global atmosphere and its climate.
16.2 Wind and Solar Energy
Within the broad goal of generating electricity without combustion and
carbon emissions, there has been tremendous recent progress in the generation of electricity from wind and solar energy. Wind is now the low- cost
alternative for generation of electricity in some locations, and the economics of solar- generated electricity has become increasingly commercially
viable (IRENA, 2019). As of 2019, wind and solar energy are the lowest- cost
sources of new power generation in most parts of the world. Moving into
the future, new wind and solar installations will begin to produce electricity
that costs less than the operating cost of existing coal- fired power plants
in many cases. IRENA’s analysis of price trends for the weighted average
cost of electricity projects $0.049/ kWh for wind and $0.055/ kWh for solar
photovoltaics (PV) in 2020 (IRENA, 2019). These values may be compared
to $0.047/ kWh for hydro, $0.056/ kWh for wind, and $0.085 for solar PV in
2018 (IRENA, 2019). The April 2019 World Economic Outlook (Bogmans,
2019) summarizes the decreases in costs of wind- and solar- generated electricity from 2009 to 2017. The levelized cost of electricity from solar PV has
decreased by 76%, and the cost of electricity from wind has decreased by
34% over this time period.
Solar, wind, and hydro generation of electricity have each become competitive, and each technology has the great advantage of producing electricity without air pollution and carbon emissions. A significant fraction
of new generating capacity that was installed in 2018 was renewable.
Approximately 45 GW of new wind generating capacity was installed in
2018 globally (IRENA, 2019). These new installations are progressively
changing the shape of the energy production sector. In Kansas, for example,
approximately 36% of electricity generation by public utilities was from
wind in 2018 (EIA, 2019).
152
1 5 2
in the dark. Hopefully this book has helped to provide illumination across the
diverse, rapidly changing, and exciting aspects of this new path. It turns out
that this path is more like several trails that are all going in the same general
direction, often intersecting, so we have used a broad and diffuse light. There
are things going on in terms of wind, solar, and other forms of renewable energy
generation. There are ongoing advances in battery storage and the electrification
of transportation. These changes are spurring development of the smart grid,
improved electric power management, and responsive government policies.
And underlying all of these developments are people: People working out the
economics of these new pathways in entire countries, in big cities, and in agriculture. This is even leading towards a more advanced understanding of our
relationship with our global atmosphere and its climate.
16.2 Wind and Solar Energy
Within the broad goal of generating electricity without combustion and
carbon emissions, there has been tremendous recent progress in the generation of electricity from wind and solar energy. Wind is now the low- cost
alternative for generation of electricity in some locations, and the economics of solar- generated electricity has become increasingly commercially
viable (IRENA, 2019). As of 2019, wind and solar energy are the lowest- cost
sources of new power generation in most parts of the world. Moving into
the future, new wind and solar installations will begin to produce electricity
that costs less than the operating cost of existing coal- fired power plants
in many cases. IRENA’s analysis of price trends for the weighted average
cost of electricity projects $0.049/ kWh for wind and $0.055/ kWh for solar
photovoltaics (PV) in 2020 (IRENA, 2019). These values may be compared
to $0.047/ kWh for hydro, $0.056/ kWh for wind, and $0.085 for solar PV in
2018 (IRENA, 2019). The April 2019 World Economic Outlook (Bogmans,
2019) summarizes the decreases in costs of wind- and solar- generated electricity from 2009 to 2017. The levelized cost of electricity from solar PV has
decreased by 76%, and the cost of electricity from wind has decreased by
34% over this time period.
Solar, wind, and hydro generation of electricity have each become competitive, and each technology has the great advantage of producing electricity without air pollution and carbon emissions. A significant fraction
of new generating capacity that was installed in 2018 was renewable.
Approximately 45 GW of new wind generating capacity was installed in
2018 globally (IRENA, 2019). These new installations are progressively
changing the shape of the energy production sector. In Kansas, for example,
approximately 36% of electricity generation by public utilities was from
wind in 2018 (EIA, 2019).