Been looking to get into the booming solar power market? Looking to ‘go green’ in your
household and minimize your family’s carbon footprint? Economically and environmentally speaking, the time has never been more opportune.
A report released by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), makes clear that our continued dependence on dirty, carbon rich fossil fuels must stop by the end of the century or we face “severe, widespread, and irreversible impacts.”
With this report the IPCC (the world’s top scientific organization dealing with global warming) makes it clear that battling global warming mitigation is affordable, carbon emissions will have to fall to zero, and that global poverty can only be reduced by tackling the warming issue.
One of the developments making this fight more ‘affordable’ is the drastic drop in prices for solar based energy.
A 2014 study by investment bank Sanford Bernstein finds (illustrated in the graph below) photovoltaic solar power is now cheaper than oil and Asian liquefied natural gas. The calculations are performed using MMBTU. This is the standard unit of measure for liquid fuels, often referred to as one million British thermal units.
And demand is only expected to grow. While currently solar power is responsible for less than a fraction of one percent of the world’s electricity, a recent estimate by the International Energy Agency projects solar to be the largest source of electricity by 2050.
Look for the 2015 Legislature to continue making solar a good investment for Washington. Our technological aptitude and our economics appear perfectly positioned to help us make the transition to clean renewable fuel sources.