Green News – Solar to be Better Value than Coal by the Year 2013
It has recently been calculated by the EPIA (the European Photovoltaic Industry Association) that the plummeting cost of photovoltaic panels will lead to complete cost parity with carbon fuels and traditional power sources by the year 2020. As well as that the EPIA has calculated that any electricity or energy which is generated through solar power and solar panels is going to cost precisely the same amount as electricity that is generated by those traditional sources in many countries across the EU.
The European Photovoltaic Industry Association study followed the markets in Spain, Britain, Germany, Italy and France before coming up with the full cost parity year of 2020. They came to this conclusion after pointing out that PV panel prices have fallen almost continually for 20 years in a row and that they could and should decrease by an additional 50% at the end of the decade. That will of course depend on the prevailing market conditions and the regulatory conditions that are in place. With that in mind it is the opinion of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association that Photovoltaic electricity will finish up costing consumers somewhere from 0.08 Euros to 0.18 Euros. What that means in practice is that solar energy would have fallen below the price of energy that was generated by coal and other carbon intensive fuels which currently cost somewhere around the 0.09 Euros in a lot of European countries and which are actually going to increase in price as the charges for carbon emissions go up thanks to stricter regulations.
The European Photovoltaic Industry Association report predicts that Italy will be the first country in Europe to reach cost parity and reported that if the other countries hope to keep up they are going to need to both continue to support the technology as well as remove market distortions. This is especially true in countries such as the UK, Germany and Spain where they have set up a feed in tariff that was successful but then gone on to reduce the subsidies for solar whilst continuing to support coal, gas and nuclear energy.
Green Social Media
One of my dearest friends from high school went off to college in another state after graduation, and we kind of lost touch. If it were not for Facebook we may not have ever had the chance to talk at all. Luckily, we have stayed in touch for the past few years, and we made plans to see each other while I was on a trip in Arizona, her current home state. It is very difficult for me to be surprised by her, as she is kind of a hippie when it comes to how she lives. Seriously, she was probably my most eccentric friend and still is. I cannot say that I was surprised that when she greeted me at the airport she was in some obviously second-hand clothes and driving a Prius. Being green and environmentally aware has just always been her thing. I was surprised however when we pulled up to her home, all 350 square foot of it. She lived in a tiny house, and I had heard of tiny house living, but I had never seen it firsthand. -All she needed was in the minute little place. The basics were all that was important to her, and that is what she had. She had a private bathroom, a place to sleep, an area to sit, and a small kitchen type area. I was shocked that people could live this way, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if most people chose this lifestyle our planet would probably be much healthier. -The energy that her small house uses and requires is significantly less than a typical home for one person. Not only is that reducing a big carbon footprint but her energy costs as well. Another great and green benefit to tiny house living is the fact that the house itself only takes up a small piece of land, and so that leaves room for organic gardening. -I loved visiting with my very green friend, and I have to admit that I am enamored with her choice to be so green in all aspects of her life. Sometimes I wish that I had the courage to live life that way, but instead I try to do my part by buying recycled goods and things that claim to be green. I’m certain that my friend will keep trying to encourage me to be greener, and maybe one day she will completely rub off on me.
China Invests Record Amounts in Renewables and Introduces Carbon Trading
The Chinese government has announced that they will be placing a cap on the carbon emissions which their country emits annually and will be letting the individual Chinese provinces plan and regulate their own emissions in a more organized and efficient manner. In doing this the Chinese government hopes to create a stable basis for their first carbon trading scheme which they hope will in turn bring emissions even lower. It is their intention to bring carbon emissions down to somewhere between 40-50% below 2005 levels by the year 2020.
All of this was revealed alongside the announcement of an astonishing $54.4 billion of investment in their renewables industry. The USA, by comparison, only spends $34 billion and Great Britain spends a mere $3.3 billion. There is as ever a caveat, however. Last year China’s emissions increased by 13.3% to 7.7billion tonnes and if you look at the figures since 2000 the figures are quite worrying. From 2000 onwards China’s emissions of CO2 have grown by a whopping 171% and have all but matched the rapid growth of their economy. Consequently, the massive increase of renewable technology is crucial as it will be one of the only ways that it is possible to change the ties between economic growth and carbon emissions.
Alex is a journalist and blogger. He writes on everything from finance to green tech and writes a consumer blog for Coupon Croc .