According to a recent article on the “Top 10 Tech Trends Transforming Hunamity” we’ve just passed an historic landmark. 2016 was the year solar and renewable energy became cheaper than coal.
In December, the World Economic Forum reported that solar and wind energy is now the same price or cheaper than new fossil fuel capacity in more than 30 countries.
“As prices for solar and wind power continue their precipitous fall, two-thirds of all nations will reach the point known as “grid parity” within a few years, even without subsidies,” they added.
This is one of the most important developments in the history of humanity, and this year marked a number of major milestones for renewable energy.
Here’s 10 data points that underline the historic nature of this 2016 achievement.
- 25% of the World’s Power Comes From Renewables: REN21, a global renewable energy policy network, published a report showing that a quarter of the world’s power now comes from renewable energy. International investment in renewable energy reached $286 billion last year (with solar accounting for over $160b of this), and it’s accelerating.
2. In India, Solar is Now Cheaper Than Coal: An amazing milestone indeed, and India is now on track to deploy >100 gigawatts of solar power by 2022.
3. The UK is Generating More Energy From Solar Than Coal: For the first time in history, this year the U.K. has produced an estimated 6,964 GWh of electricity from solar cells, 10% higher than the 6,342 GWh generated by coal.
4. Coal Plants Being Replaced by Solar Farms: The Nanticoke Generating Station in Ontario, once North America's largest coal plant, will be turned into a solar farm.
5. Coal Will Never Recover: The coal industry, once the backbone of U.S. energy, is fading fast on account of renewables like solar and wind. Official and expert reports now state that it will never recover (e.g. coal power generation in Texas is down from 39% in early 2015 to 24.8% in May 2016).
6. Scotland Generated 106% Energy from Wind: This year, high winds boosted renewable energy output to provide 106% of Scotland’s electricity needs for a day.
7. Costa Rica Ran on Renewables for 2+ Months: The country ran on 100% renewable energy for 76 days.
8. Google to Run 100% on Renewable Energy: Google has announced its entire global business will be powered by renewable energy in 2017.
9. Las Vegas Meets Goal of 100% Power by Renewables: Las Vegas is now the largest city in the country to run entirely on renewable energy.
10. Tesla’s Gigafactory: Tesla’s $5 billion structure in Nevada will produce 500,000 lithium ion batteries annually and Tesla’s Model III vehicle. It is now over 30 percent complete… the 10 million square foot structure is set to be complete by 2020. Musk projected that a total of 100 Gigafactories could provide enough storage capacity to run the entire planet on renewables.
If you would like to find out more about renewable energy and its benefits for you click here.
Source TOP 10 TECH TRENDS TRANSFORMING HUMANITY- Peter Diamandis of GTech Blog
