The Cost of Renewable Electricity Falls
According to Swanson’s Law, solar PV tends to become 20% cheaper for every doubling of cumulative shipped volume. Solar energy costs have continued to decrease steeply for decades. in 1977 solar panels cost $77 per watt, compare that to 2016 where the cost had fallen as low as $0.36 per watt.
A report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), shows that electricity generated by solar PV and onshore wind is set to be consistently cheaper than cost-effective fossil fuel alternatives in 2020.
Effectively, over 80% of solar PV and 75% of wind power to be commissioned in 2020 will be cheaper than that of the newest oil, natural gas, or coal-fired sources.
This news comes following a report which outlined Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2018, another report from the IRENA. This shows that the global weighted-average cost of electricity from solar power declined by 26%, with solar PV and onshore wind falling by 13%.[1]
Heat Pumps Becoming Even Cleaner
Ground source heat pumps and air source heat pumps run off of electricity. For every 1kWh of electricity used they can produce between 4kWh and 3kWh heat respectively. As such, heat pumps are the most efficient way to utilise electricity to provide heating to the home. The cleaner the electricity grid becomes - the cleaner the heat pump becomes!
Heat pumps completely replace the need for any fossil fuel alternative by producing a complete domestic heating and hot water solution.
[1] https://renews.biz/53441/renewables-costs-tumble-in-2018/