Renewable energy may soon start blowing winds of change in the power sector: study
Wind power is now the cheapest electricity to produce in both Germany and the UK, even without government subsidies, according to a new analysis by ‘Bloomberg New Energy Finance’ (BNEF). It’s the first time that threshold has been crossed by a G7 economy.But that’s less interesting than what just happened in the US. To appreciate what’s going on there, you need to understand the ‘capacity factor.’ That’s the percentage of a power plant’s maximum potential that’s actually achieved over time.Consider a solar project. The sun doesn’t shine at night and, even during the day, varies in brightness with the weather and the seasons. So a project that can crank out 100 megawatt hours of electricity during the sunniest part of the day might produce j.....