European Commission Report finds wind is the world’ s cheapest energy source

Wind is the World’s Cheapest Source of Energy According to EU Report, Inhabitat, by Beverley Mitchell, 10/14/14 A report prepared for the European Commission has found that onshore wind power provides the cheapest source of energy once external factors such as air quality, health impacts and expenditure, and the costs of climate change are taken into consideration. The report’s authors found that onshore wind costs around $133 per MW/h to produce, whereas gas and coal cost up to $208 and $295 per MW/h each. However, continuing a controversy that shadowed the Commission last year, extracts from the report have already been published that fail to include the external costs, which is where many of the subsidies to coal, gas and nuclear are made.

The report was prepared for the EC by consultancy firm Ecofys and gives a detailed account of the historical subsidies paid to coal, gas and nuclear power generators. When these subsidies are not taken into account, fossil fuels and nuclear appear more cost-effective than they really are. As Frauke Thies, policy director for the European Photovoltaic Industry Association told the Guardian: “Despite decades of heavy subsidies, mature coal and nuclear energy technologies are still dependent on similar levels of public support as innovative solar energy is receiving today. The difference is that costs of solar continue to decrease rapidly. If the unaccounted external costs to society are included, the report demonstrates that support to fossil fuels and nuclear even by far exceeds that to solar.” Solar, offshore wind and nuclear power all costed out at around $158 per MW/h in the report. http://inhabitat.com/

October 15, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized

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