Unsubsidized wind power is now cheaper than electricity produced from new coal- and natural gas-fired power stations in Australia, according to an analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The study said that electricity can be supplied from a new wind farm at a cost of 80 Australian dollars per megawatt hour, compared to 143 Australian dollars from a new coal plant and 116 Australian dollars from a new natural gas plant. Even without a recently imposed carbon price, wind energy is 14 percent cheaper than new coal power and 18 percent cheaper than new natural gas, the study said. The analysis said that Australia’s largest banks are unlikely to finance new coal plants because of concern over emissions-intensive investments and that natural gas has become expensive as Australia exports more liquid natural gas. By 2020, the report said, large-scale solar arrays will also be cheaper than coal or gas when carbon taxes are figured in. “The perception that fossil fuels are cheap and renewables are expensive is now out of date,” said Michael Liebreich, chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Wind Energy Now Cheaper Than Fossil Fuel Power Plants in Australia
More From E360
-
ANALYSIS
How China Became the World’s Leader on Renewable Energy
-
Biodiversity
As Flooding Increases on the Mississippi, Forests Are Drowning
-
Climate
In Mongolia, a Killer Winter Is Ravaging Herds and a Way of Life
-
Energy
In Rush for Lithium, Miners Turn to the Oil Fields of Arkansas
-
Food & Agriculture
How a Solar Revolution in Farming Is Depleting World’s Groundwater
-
INTERVIEW
What Will It Take to Save Our Cities from a Scorching Future?
-
Climate
Rain Comes to the Arctic, With a Cascade of Troubling Changes
-
Health
Plastics Reckoning: PVC Is Ubiquitous, But Maybe Not for Long
-
Energy
How a Legal Loophole Allows Gas Leaks to Keep on Flowing
-
Solutions
Flying Green: The Pursuit of Carbon-Neutral Aviation Revs Up
-
TECHNOLOGY
As Use of A.I. Soars, So Does the Energy and Water It Requires
-
Cities
How Parking Reform Is Helping Transform American Cities