Wind And Solar Data – May 2024

A nice and concise entry to an Ars Technica article;
“By displacing fossil fuels, wind and solar saved the US $250 billion over 4 years.”

Producing energy is more than the price at the pump, or the power station, or a household’s electrical bill. Carbon taxes are discussed to counteract the indirect effects of fossil fuels and their pollution. The counterpoint to that is less frequently quantified. The researchers basically asked the question; how much have saved thanks to renewable energy? Their answer as state above, about $250B. Considering the US population is about 340 million, that’s a per citizen saving of $735. The fossil fuel costs are at least climate and health.

“Still, the nitrogen and sulfur emissions reductions were also substantial:… That translates into avoiding about 1,400 premature deaths in 2022 alone.”

Ten years ago, many of the expected benefits were mostly theoretical backed up by some usage data. Now, we can more readily quantify the benefits of the advances from renewable energy.