<chuckle> In just 10 years… (I’m getting pretty old and it’s been so for most of my life – just another 10 years of suckling at the public teat and then you’ll see):
“WIND and solar photovoltaic will be cheaper than coal-fired electricity generation within 10 years as technology costs fall and the carbon price makes fossil fuel-based generation more expensive.“
Just one teensy little problem – the carbon [dioxide] tax won’t survive the next election and likely the mandatory “renewable energy” component will be axed too.
A significant new report into technology costs, the Australian Energy Technology Assessment, released today from the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics, estimates that solar photovoltaic and onshore wind could produce some of the lowest electricity generation costs in Australia by 2030, based on current policy settings.
Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said the report provided the most up-to-date cost estimates for 40 electricity generation technologies deployed in the Australian context.
While the report found solar photovoltaic technology could be increasingly cost competitive, onshore wind, solar thermal, wave, nuclear and geothermal technology costs were also forecast to fall and be cost competitive with some coal and gas-based technologies by 2030.
Remember the old Soviet Union’s “5 year plans”?