Solar is 20 – 50% Cheaper Than Expected: World Energy Outlook Annual Report

Some tangible progress towards Net Zero: the cost of solar power is now low enough that it can change the economics of power generation. As a result, fossil fuel plants are being written off by their bankers, one sure sign that they are becoming obsolete rapidly.

Carbon Brief (CB) summarizes the annual report with a lot of key details. The World Energy Outlook 2020 “offers four ‘pathways’ to 2040, all of which see a major rise in renewables,” CB says. “The IEA’s main scenario has 43 [percent] more solar output by 2040 than it expected in 2018, partly due to detailed new analysis showing that solar power is 20 [to] 50 [percent] cheaper than thought.”

Source: Solar Is Cheapest Energy: Renewable Energy vs. Fossil Fuels Cost

The exponential curves can work in our favor if we accelerate the development and scaling of the technology we need to drive down costs.  When the economics changes, things become possible that were not even conceivable before.