By Charley Cameron / Source: Inhabitat

renewable

A new report released by the International Renewable Energy Association (IRENA) has exceptionally good news for the future of renewable energy. Costs are set to drop by almost 40 percent in the next two years, with solar PV leading the pack in cost decreases, and “biomass for power, hydropower, geothermal and onshore wind… all now provid[ing] electricity competitively compared to fossil fuel-fired power generation.”

The report, “Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2014,” echoes data from a recent report by Deutsche Bank, which predicts grid parity in 80% of solar markets by 2017. Indeed, we have already seen dramatic drops in the cost of solar PV over the last few years; between 2010 and 2014, the cost of utility-scale solar dropped a whopping 50 percent, and since the end of 2009, solar PV module costs have fallen 75%. In some areas utility-scale solar costs as little as USD 0.08 per kilowatt-hour. Meanwhile in markets such as France, Germany and Australia the cost of residential solar is already below that of the grid price of electricity. And these costs are all set to fall further.

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