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7. Solar is catching up fast. Since 2014 the average global cost of solar has
come down by a third – meaning that in some countries, it is now a cheaper
option to build a new solar power plant than a coal or gas one. According to
Bloomberg, this is the case in US, Australia and much of Europe. IRENA
says “solar PV is competing without financial support even in regions with
abundant fossil fuels (IRENA, 2016).”
8. Bloomberg predicts that new solar will be cheaper than new coal in China,
India, Mexico and Brazil by 2021 – and throughout Asia as a whole by the
mid-2020s. And from 2030, wind and PV will start to undercut existing coal
plants on an operational basis in some countries, like China and India,
meaning that coal plants built now increasingly look like stranded
investments as they would become unprofitable after only a third of their
normal lifespan.3
9. In the last seven years alone, costs of key RE solutions have significantly
reduced. Solar photovoltaic (PV) module prices dropped by over 80 per
cent; while wind turbine prices decreased in price by 30 to 40 per cent. The
global weighted average cost of electricity from solar PV fell by 73 per cent
between 2010 and 2017 to USD 0.10 per kilowatt-hour (/kWh), while
onshore wind fell by 23 per cent to USD 0.06/kWh (see International
Renewable Energy Agency, 2018).4
Renewables in the Philippines
10. In contrast to global trends, where renewable energy generation already
constitutes the bulk of power sector capacity additions since 2012, the
Philippine renewable energy sector still has to play catch up. As of 2015,
wind energy has only provided 216 megawatts (MW) of installed power
capacity (Global Wind Energy Council, 2015); solar energy contributed 122
MW (International Energy Agency, 2016); and geothermal energy provided
1,870 MW (Bertani, 2015). These additions are still minimal compared to
the extent of unexploited Philippine renewable energy potential (see
Jacobson, et al., 2018).
11. Supporting a Philippine renewable energy transition also significantly reduces
air pollution, particularly in the country’s major cities. The cost of pollution
to public health are enough justification for escalating the energy transition.
Recent estimates suggest that these health, environmental, and climate
benefits would, in sum, save up to six times more than the additional costs
associated with reconfiguring the energy sector, all while creating thousands
of jobs in the process.5 A Stanford University study, for instance, notes that
about 126 thousand construction jobs and another 102 thousand operation jobs
where a person is employed for 40 consecutive years can be created with a
100 per cent renewable energy Philippines (Jacobson, et al., 2018). The same
3
4
BNEF 2017, https://about.bnef.com/blog/global-wind-solar-costs-fall-even-faster-coal-fades-even-china-india/
IRENA 2018 Renewable Cost Database, http://www.irena.org/costs/.
Jacobson, M, et al., 2018, 100% wind-water-sunlight energy for all countries, Excel Spreadsheet,
http://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/AllCountries.xlsx
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