If you’ve followed these posts, you know that I like to write about energy and environmental issues. Last April I had a piece on The Future of Coal that took a dim view of its prospects for future power generation. This January I took Another Look at Coal and doubled down on my conclusions. And, in February I took a stab at predicting our energy future Ten Years Hence, concluding that it would increasingly be driven by solar and wind energy, electric vehicles, and battery storage. Well, last week Bloomberg Business News posted a piece on The Cheap Energy Revolution that underscores these conclusions. I encourage you to take a few minutes to look at it.
The piece begins by saying that “Wind and solar are about to become unstoppable” and that “electric cars and batteries for the grid are waiting to take over.” What makes the arguments so compelling is the fifteen charts that provide supporting data. You’ll see that investments in renewable energy are exceeding fossil fuels by two to one; that renewables – excluding hydropower – are already contributing 25% to 30% of total power generation in much of Europe and more than 25% in many US states, both blue and red; that nationally and globally, renewable energy installations continue to grow as their costs decrease; that due to increasing energy efficiency, US electricity consumption has been declining, while lower cost generation with natural gas, wind, and solar has been increasing, all at the expense of coal; and that energy productivity − $GDP per energy consumption – continues to grow.
Take a look at the Bloomberg piece. The charts speak for themselves, and if nothing else, they may challenge your assumptions about energy, where it will come from and how much it will cost.