15/June/2020
IRENA has published a report focused on the cheaper cost of investing on renewable energy
There is an extended agreement on the relevance of the renewable power generation projects for the reduction of global CO2 emissions. However, the costs of investing on these initiatives has always been a concern.
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has released the report Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2019, a document that shows that more than a half of the new renewable energy added in 2019 achieved lower power costs than the cheapest new coal plants. This information has significant relevance in these days due to the need of getting a fast economic growth in Europe to recover from the crisis caused by the sanitary emergency situation.
According to the IRENA’s analysis, which provides rich infographics materials, the new solar photovoltaic and onshore wind power cost less than keeping many existing coal plants in operation. In addition, it says that this trend is accelerating, adding that during next year 1200 GW of current coal capacity could cost more to operate than investing on new renewable power generation.
“Solar and wind power costs have continued to fall, complementing the more mature bioenergy, geothermal and hydropower technologies. Solar photovoltaics (PV) shows the sharpest cost decline over 2010-2019 at 82%, followed by concentrating solar power (CSP) at 47%, onshore wind at 40% and offshore wind at 29%”, underlines IRENA on a statement.
Electricity costs from utility-scale solar PV fell 13% year-on-year, reaching nearly seven cents (USD 0.068) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2019. Onshore and offshore wind both fell about 9% year-on-year, reaching USD 0.053/kWh and USD 0.115/kWh, respectively, for newly commissioned projects, adds the Agency.
The conclusions of this report confirm the need of conducting R&D projects such as ROMEO, that aims to reduce the O&M costs of the offshore wind energy platforms. This European initiative, backed by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme, is committed with the reinforcement of the renewable energy and the relevance of the offshore wind to improve the green strategy of the European countries.