Renewable Electricity: Insights for the Coming Decade
- Joint Inst. for Strategic Energy Analysis, Boulder, CO (United States)
A sophisticated set of renewable electricity (RE) generation technologies is now commercially available. Globally, RE captured approximately half of all capacity additions since 2011. The cost of RE is already competitive with fossil fuels in some areas around the world, and prices are anticipated to continue to decline over the next decade. RE options, led by wind and solar, are part of a suite of technologies and business solutions that are transforming electricity sectors around the world. Renewable deployment is expected to continue due to: increasingly competitive economics; favorable environmental characteristics such as low water use, and minimal local air pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; complementary risk profiles when paired with natural gas generators; strong support from stakeholders. Despite this positive outlook for renewables, the collapse in global oil prices since mid-2014 and continued growth in natural gas supply in the United States--due to the development of low-cost shale gas--raise questions about the potential impacts of fossil fuel prices on RE. Today, oil plays a very minor role in the electricity sectors of most countries, so direct impacts on RE are likely to be minimal (except where natural gas prices are indexed on oil). Natural gas and RE generating options appear to be more serious competitors than oil and renewables. Low gas prices raise the hurdle for RE to be cost competitive. Additionally, although RE emits far less GHG than natural gas, both natural gas and RE offer the benefits of reducing carbon relative to coal and oil (see Section 4.1 for more detail on the GHG intensity of electricity technologies). However, many investors and decision makers are becoming aware of the complementary benefits of pairing natural gas and renewables to minimize risk of unstable fuel prices and maintain the reliability of electricity to the grid.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis (JISEA)
- Contributing Organization:
- University of Colorado-Boulder; Colorado School of Mines; Colorado State University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University.
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1176740
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/TP--6A50-63604
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Greenhouse gas emission reduction: A case study of Sri Lanka
Nuclear-Renewable Hybrid System Economic Basis for Electricity, Fuel, and Hydrogen
Journal Article
·
Sat Dec 30 23:00:00 EST 1995
· Energy Journal
·
OSTI ID:255294
Nuclear-Renewable Hybrid System Economic Basis for Electricity, Fuel, and Hydrogen
Conference
·
Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 EDT 2014
·
OSTI ID:1165501