According to the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook 2020, “The world’s best solar power schemes now offer the cheapest electricity in history with a technology cheaper than coal and gas in most major countries.” Cheap electricity was hard to come by in previous years, but with solar power becoming more and more popular, it is now the cheapest source of electricity in history you can find. Not only is solar energy an affordable electric system, but it’s also reducing the carbon footprint on our planet.
Today, we’ll be walking you through the steps of solar and what makes it so cheap. Also, you’ll know what to expect as far as costs go if you do decide to make the investment.
The truth is, sunshine is free, but the technology and solar power systems haven’t always been. Since recently, countries are making adjustments to their policies to make an affordable electric system for solar energy more attractive. “Today, more than 130 countries have policies that lower the cost of building new solar installations. This is the first year that the IEA took such policies into consideration when calculating the cost of solar energy in its annual World Energy Outlook report. After doing so, their estimates of the cost of solar power fell by between 20 to 50 percent per region compared to last year”, according to Carbon Brief.
Solar is on track to become “the new king of electricity supply,” the report says, as prices continue to fall. It’s expected to dominate more and more of the market over the next decade, boosted by global efforts to tackle climate change. By 2030, 32 percent of sourced energy will be solar.