Skip to Content

Renewable Sources of Electricity Are Coming Into Their Own

The International Energy Agency predicts that by 2016 more electricity will come from renewables than from natural gas.
June 28, 2013

Wind and solar power keep getting cheaper, and that’s encouraging their adoption even as government subsidies falter, a new report from the International Energy Agency concludes. In just a few years, more power will come from renewables than from natural gas, the report said.

“As their costs continue to fall, renewable power sources are increasingly standing on their own merits versus new fossil-fuel generation,” IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said in an IEA press release. The IEA notes that wind is now competitive with fossil fuels in places such as Brazil and New Zealand. Solar competes with fossil fuels for peak electricity production.

But here’s some context: while renewable energy use is growing, so is the use of coal, which means that so far, carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise (see “Renewables Can’t Keep Up with the Growth in Coal Use Worldwide”). Coal is attractive because it’s cheap, and because it produces electricity on demand—it’s not subject to the time of day or the weather.

Can the balance shift? Solar and wind power need to continue getting cheaper  (and they are), and utilities need to demonstrate technological solutions to the intermittency of renewable energy. Development of base load sources of renewable power like hydropower and geothermal can also help.

The U.S. Energy Information Adminstration has a helpful chart showing the relative costs of various electricity generating technologies, including wind, solar, nuclear, coal and natural gas (it’s here). 

Keep Reading

Most Popular

This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI

The tool, called Nightshade, messes up training data in ways that could cause serious damage to image-generating AI models. 

The Biggest Questions: What is death?

New neuroscience is challenging our understanding of the dying process—bringing opportunities for the living.

Rogue superintelligence and merging with machines: Inside the mind of OpenAI’s chief scientist

An exclusive conversation with Ilya Sutskever on his fears for the future of AI and why they’ve made him change the focus of his life’s work.

How to fix the internet

If we want online discourse to improve, we need to move beyond the big platforms.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.