File:Solar panel price - 1976-2019.png

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CC BY Max Roser

The price of solar electricity has dropped 89% in 10 years

In 2009, building a new solar farm was 223% more expensive than building a new coal plant. Now, it’s flipped.

Price of solar electricity is going to save consumers billions and billions of dollars - while contributing to fighting climate change...

• https://www.fastcompany.com/90583426/the-price-of-solar-electricity-has-dropped-89-in-10-years

Clean energy has already passed its economic tipping point. A 2019 report from the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute found that it was cheaper to build and use a combination of renewables like wind and solar than to build new natural gas plants. A 2020 report from Carbon Tracker found that in every single one of the world’s energy markets, it’s cheaper to invest in renewables than in coal.\

• https://www.fastcompany.com/90402331/its-now-cheaper-to-build-new-renewables-than-it-is-to-build-natural-gas-plants

• https://www.fastcompany.com/90477318/from-u-s-to-europe-to-china-to-russia-renewables-are-now-cheaper-than-coal

December 1, 2020

Why did renewables become so cheap so fast? And what can we do to use this global opportunity for green growth?

Comparing the price of electricity from new power plants in 2009 and 2019, one graph shows how the price of solar photovoltaic power (from solar panels) plummets from $359 per megawatt hour to $40, the cheapest of any of the power options on the chart and an 89% decrease.

• https://ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth

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