The Expense of Renewables Is Outweighed by the Health-Care Savings They Provide

So says new research by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, who have studied the economic impact of clean-energy installations in the U.S. Their analysis of wind and solar systems between 2007 and 2015, published in Nature Energy, suggests that climate gains and health benefits from improved air quality brought about by clean energy were worth $87 billion to America during that time. The bulk of those savings are a result of averting as many as 12,700 premature deaths across the country, which would have otherwise been caused by polllution from traditional electricity generation methods like burning coal and gas. The $87 billion is, according to the team, “comparable to estimates of total federal and state financial support." In other words, the cost of renewables has been more than worth it over the last decade—and the best news is that they continue to get cheaper.