Cost: Renewables
Because the primary source of energy for wind and solar power is free, you might expect the electricity they generate to be cheap. Yet to date, wind and solar power have been more expensive to produce and to use than fossil fuel energy. This is partly because the cost of establishing new technologies is always high in the beginning. But it’s also because the best conditions for large-scale wind and solar power production are often found in remote areas, so connecting these sources to the cities that need the electricity adds considerable cost.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
One way to bring down price is to improve the efficiency of renewable energy production. Watch this video, which examines how a Chinese company is working to make renewable energy more competitive with fossil fuels.
Take Notes
Think about what you've learned on the previous two pages. What factors make the future price of fossil fuels difficult to project? What about renewable energy sources?
