Apr 3, 2024
For decades, the biggest pushback against renewable energy was that it was more expensive to generate than electricity that came from the burning of fossil fuels. But all that changed in 2016 when both solar and wind-generated electricity became cheaper than electricity generated by coal and natural gas, at least when using the industry-standard metric, Levelized Cost of Energy. Despite the fact that renewable energy has overcome its biggest obstacle and can now be generated cheaper than fossil fuels, investments in fossil fuels continue to increase and new renewable generation development is not keeping pace with increases in demand. What happened?
Brett Christophers is a Professor at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University. He joined the podcast this week to explain why price isn't the most important metric to look at when determining the prospects for the development of clean energy projects. His new book, "The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet", provides some answers to the question of why renewables aren't growing as quickly as we need them to, given that the price of renewables have fallen well below their fossil fuel counterparts. His critiques of capitalism, energy markets, and our fascination with the Levelized Cost of Energy are some of the most compelling arguments you're likely to hear on why we need transformative changes instead of incremental reforms to our existing economic system, especially when it comes to how electricity is bought and sold.
Read "The Price is Wrong"
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