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Predictions for shift to ‘base-cost’ renewables: 10 predictions for 2017

Liebreich and McCrone: The shift to ‘base-cost’ renewables: 10 predictions for 2017 By Michael Liebreich and Angus McCrone on 20 January 2017 “………… The good news is that renewable energy has – at least on a levelized cost of electricity, or LCOE, basis – clearly achieved the long-awaited goal of grid competitiveness. More than that, in many countries it now undercuts every other source of new generating capacity, sometimes by very considerable margins.

Last year saw unsubsidized price records of $30 per megawatt-hour for a wind farm in Morocco and $29.10 for a solar plant in Chile. These must be the lowest electricity prices, for any new project, of any technology, anywhere in the world, ever. And we are still going to see further falls in equipment prices.

Super-low-cost renewable power – what we are now calling “base-cost renewables” – is going to force a revolution in the way power grids are designed, and the way they are regulated…….

Putting super-cheap, “base-cost” renewable power at the heart of the world’s grids in this way will require a revolution in the way the electricity system is regulated. Renewable power’s progress to date has been achieved mainly by subsidizing or mandating its installation, while forcing the rest of the system to provide flexibility, within otherwise unchanged regulatory environments and power market rules. The additional system costs have been material but generally affordable.

That has taken renewable energy to 20, 30 or 40 percent of supply in many markets. …….. 

………1. GLOBAL INVESTMENT TO STRUGGLE…….

10. THE CLIMATE DEBATE HEATS UP – AGAIN……. https://about.bnef.com/blog/liebreich-shift-base-cost-renewables-10-predictions-2017/

January 21, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, renewable