This text is taken from our April 19, 2022 “Le Courrier de la Planète” newsletter. To subscribe, click here.
Since 2000, the cost of solar energy has fallen by a factor of ten. This good news, highlighted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its latest report, ensures that photovoltaic panels compare favorably, from a financial point of view, to new natural gas and coal.
How did solar become so affordable? The IPCC points out that renewable energies that can be installed in small modules, such as photovoltaic panels, have developed better than technologies that can only be deployed on a large scale, because the latter offer “fewer opportunities to learn” for manufacturers.
In the graph, the costs considered include installation, investments, operation and maintenance. The shaded area represents price variation among the projects listed.
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