Renewable energy sources like wind and solar are set to be the cheapest form of power generation in the G20 countries by 2030, according to a new study. The EU also announced that the Paris Agreement “cannot be renegotiated”. Ahead of this week’s G20 summit in Hamburg, the study also found that in half the G20 countries renewables have already been cheaper or the same price as electricity derived from coal or nuclear plants for the last two years. The study, carried out by Finland’s Lappeenranta University and published by Greenpeace Germany, calculated the costs of electricity generation in all G20 countries for the years between 2015 and 2030. It found that wind farms generated the cheapest electricity in 2015 across large parts of Europe, in South America, the United States, China and Australia. The study also predicted that technological progress will mean that solar power will be even cheaper than wind by 2030 in many G20 nations. Greenpeace Germany’s energy expert, Tobias Austrup, said “climate protection increasingly makes economic sense across the G20 as renewable energy becomes cheaper than dirty coal and nuclear”. He added that “any G20 country that is still investing in coal and nuclear power plants is wasting their money on technology that will not be competitive in coming years”.
Euractiv 5th July 2017 read more »