CleanTechnica reports possible energy revolution in the next few years.
“Credit Suisse says the Inflation Reduction Act will have such a tremendous impact on renewable energy that the US may see the levelized cost of electricity from renewable sources fall to less than 1 cent per kWh hour by 2025 after factoring in all tax and production credits. Now, before we get all gaga over this news, a couple of important caveats are in order.”
For the first time, the US is using its significant influence to push clean energy. Europe’e reliance on Russia for energy and desire to fire itself from reliance on Russia is another huge factor that will affect the global move to clean energy. Aside from possibly lowering family energy costs, it also allows us to take power generation out of the factors to consider when keeping or removing dams – as is part of teh conversation around keeping or removing the Leaburg Dam.
Below are some highlights from the article.
“Late last month, analysts at the investment bank Credit Suisse published a research note about America’s new climate law that went nearly unnoticed. The Inflation Reduction Act, the bank argued, is even more important than has been recognized so far: The IRA will ‘will have a profound effect across industries in the next decade and beyond’ and could ultimately shape the direction of the American economy, the bank said. The report shows how even after the bonanza of climate-bill coverage earlier this year, we’re still only beginning to understand how the law works and what it might mean for the economy.
U.S. is ‘poised to become the world’s leading energy provider,’ according to the bank. America is already the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas. The IRA could further enhance its advantage in all forms of energy production, giving it a ‘competitive advantage in low-cost clean electricity and hydrogen production, infrastructure, geologic storage, and human capital,’ the report states. By 2029, U.S. solar and wind could be the cheapest in the world at less than $5 per megawatt-hour, the bank projects. It will also become competitive in hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and wind turbines.
We are all witnesses to a tipping point in human history. There is a giant nuclear reactor in the sky that supplies all the energy the Earth needs to meet its needs. All we have to do is harvest it. (Winds are also a product of the energy we get from the sun.) Some may quibble that the US should not be telling the rest of the world what to do and there is merit to that argument, but nevertheless, it does have an outsized influence on other nations.
The Inflation Reduction Act will have knock-on effects that will reverberate around the world, particularly in countries ruled by tyrants like Russia (and China and Saudi Arabia as well). Even if you don’t like the idea of renewable energy, most of us would be happy to see the influence of those countries diminished as the demand for fossil fuels withers away.
Source: CleanTechnica