It will blow you away!
Can you guess the world’s cheapest source of energy?
According to a recent report prepared for the European Commission, the world’s cheapest source of energy is now onshore wind power, even after once other factors such as air quality, health impacts and overheads, and the costs of climate change are taken into account.
The report found that wind power costs approximately $133 per MW/h to produce, while gas and coal can cost up to $208 and $295 per MW/h each. Even as oil prices fall, wind power and other renewable energies are still more cost efficient, not to mention better for the environment. Fossil fuels only appear to be more cost-effective when one does not take into account the subsidies to gas, coal and nuclear power generators.
Policy director for the European Photovoltaic Industry Association, Frauke Thies, said to The Guardian:
“Despite decades of heavy subsidies, mature coal and nuclear energy technologies are still dependent on similar levels of public support as innovative solar energy is receiving today. The difference is that costs of solar continue to decrease rapidly. If the unaccounted external costs to society are included, the report demonstrates that support to fossil fuels and nuclear even by far exceeds that to solar.”
Learn more about this EU energy report and the economics behind the sources of power from Inhabitat’s Peter Grisby in, “Wind is the World’s Cheapest Source of Energy According to EU Report.”
(Image via Pixabay)