Summary/Lead:
So much happened in our climate change world in 2018 that we are printing this article in two parts: The Bad, and The Good. We started with the bad. If you missed Part One, you can see it HERE. (ADD LINK) Now we present Part Two—The Good. While US leadership resoundingly reversed decades of climate pollution reform, as statements in the continuing parade of scientific reports became dominated by post-apocalyptic descriptions, and as climate change caused catastrophes seemed to be popping up everywhere, renewable energy costs are now cheaper than the cheapest fracked gas, electric vehicle purchases skyrocketed, utility scale battery costs plummeted, some of Trump’s environmental rollbacks have failed, carbon capture costs plummeted, and new policy directions have emerged.
Alternative Energy Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels
Levelized and unsubsidized new utility scale renewable energy generation costs are now cheaper than the cheapest fracked gas. New wind and solar projects are a third less expensive than the cheapest fracked gas, less than half the cost of coal and geothermal, and a third the cost of solar thermal towers and nuclear. Levelized costs represent the economic evaluation of the complete cradle to grave costs of a given technology using apples to apples comparisons.
In 2018, more than four in ten coal plants globally were operating at a loss. The question is not when coal will shut down, but how can coal be shut down fast enough to minimize losses.
Based on Paris Climate Commitments of keeping warming below 2 degrees C, The US alone could save $78 billion by switching to alternative energy according to Carbon Tracker. Sierra Club says 281 coal fired power plants have been shut down.
Bloomberg said a record 20 coal plants shut down or were scheduled to shut down in 2018. Rueters said that 150 coal plants are scheduled to shut down in the next 10 years. FERC said that new wind and solar installations are expected to be triple the fossil fuel and nuclear installations by 2021 making the total wind and solar installed about 24 percent of all US electricity generation.