JREF : IEA: Solar could be dominate electricity by 2050

vendredi 2 janvier 2015

IEA: Solar could be dominate electricity by 2050

Forget the commonly-held notion that cheap oil will disrupt the development of renewables, the solar juggernaut is unstoppable

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(Reuters) - Solar energy could be the top source of electricity by 2050, aided by plummeting costs of the equipment to generate it, a report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), the West's energy watchdog, said on Monday.

IEA Reports said solar photovoltaic (PV) systems could generate up to 16 percent of the world's electricity by 2050, while solar thermal electricity (STE) - from "concentrating" solar power plants - could provide a further 11 percent.

"The rapid cost decrease of photovoltaic modules and systems in the last few years has opened new perspectives for using solar energy as a major source of electricity in the coming years and decades," said IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven.

Meanwhile, in the United States 36 states will achieve solar grid parity (i.e. the cost of generating solar power will be competitive with drawing solar from the grid):

http://ift.tt/1xh21cV

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Every time fossil fuels get cheaper, people lose interest in solar deployment. That may be about to change.

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The chart below shows how far solar will come out ahead in each state in 2016, assuming a worst-case scenario of lower tax credits. The blue bars show the anticipated cost of solar energy (assuming a conservative 20-year lifespan for the panels) minus average electricity prices. Positive numbers indicate the savings for every kilowatt hour of electricity.