Solar And Wind Beat Coal

Take parts of America that have power generated from coal, solar, and wind power and compare the costs. In 74% of the cases, coal is more expensive than renewable energy. Solar and wind power have gone from curiosity to contender to clear winner within a few decades. Considering that solar and wind power also tend to employ more people, coal’s death spiral should accelerate. An industry’s death spiral can occur when fixed costs are applied to a shrinking number of customers, hence driving up the price per customer, hence creating incentives for customers to switch to the competition, hence shrinking the number of customers for the spiraling industry. At the same time, solar and wind are gaining acceptance, improving technology, improving efficiency, and spreading the costs over a growing number of customers. Unfortunately, renewables only create 17% of the US power needs, but that too was once a much smaller number. The shift to renewable energy isn’t sufficient to reverse climate change, but it does decrease one of the most significant producers of pollution.

“Coal Is On The Way Out” – The Guardian