Lots of big news on renewable energy has come out recently. For example, did you know that in many regions building and using new renewables (like solar and wind) is now cheaper than just running old coal and nuclear plants?
According to the highly cited and respected financial firm Lazard, "the full-lifecycle costs of building and operating renewables-based projects have dropped below the operating costs alone of conventional generation technologies such as coal or nuclear".
With that in mind, perhaps it should come as no surprise that a new study by the Lappeenranta University of Technology and the Energy Watch Group shows "a global electricity system fully based on renewable energy is feasible at every hour throughout the year and is more cost effective than the existing system, which is largely based on fossil fuels and nuclear energy".
With the costs of wind, solar, and storage (and wind and solar with storage) all plummeting, it is clear that renewables are the future and that the transition to 100% carbon-neutral energy is going to happen faster than many people expect.
I'm hoping places like the United States won't be left behind, but given recent shifts in federal energy priorities I'm not very optimistic; especially given the fact that China likely just installed more solar in 2017 than the US has total (meaning cumulative, ever).
At the same time, cryptocurrenices like SolarCoin and PowerLedger, which support renewable energy production, are doing very well. SolarCoin is up about 4,000% over just the last year or so. By incentivizing production of renewable energy, these cryptocurrencies are helping catalyze the transition to cleaner (and cheaper) energy.
https://medium.com/adventures-in-volunteer-computing/cryptocurrencies-that-benefit-scientific-research-and-the-environment-f18a840336fb
