For full show notes, see www.buildbigideas.com/post/cost-of-energy-solar-is-king-podcast-ep-007
The cost of generating solar electricity has dropped by an order of magnitude over the last decade. Solar is now least expensive option for generating electricity, beating out natural gas, coal, wind, and nuclear on an unsubsidized basis. This is a world-changing fact that is very optimistic for the future development of human civilization around the world. The biggest remaining challenge is that energy storage still costs almost an order of magnitude more than solar electricity generation.
"Solar becomes the new king of electricity," according to the "World Energy Outlook 2020" report published by the International Energy Agency. The report goes on to say, "With sharp cost reductions over the past decade, solar photovoltaic (PV) is consistently cheaper than new coal or gasfired power plants in most countries, and solar projects now offer some of the lowest cost electricity ever seen."
The average cost of utility-scale Solar PV has dropped from 359 $/MWh in 2009 to 37 $/MWh in 2020, according to the report "Lazard's Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis - Version 14.0." This is an order-of-magnitude drop in cost in just one decade.
Interestingly, solar energy requires energy storage and the cost of storage remains very high. The cost of wholesale energy storage averages approximately 200 $/MWh, according to "Lazard's Levelized Cost of Storage Analysis - Version 6.0." This is almost an order-of-magnitude more expensive than the cost of solar PV generation.
