The Outlook for Renewable Energy

by Lydia Miller, Senior Vice President at Dana Investment Advisors 

The last decade was quite a remarkable period for renewable energy growth. In 2019, estimates indicate new capacity additions were slightly more than 70 percent renewables and over half of newly commissioned utility-scale renewable power generation provided electricity at a lower cost than the cheapest new fossil fuel powered source.

These are significant milestones, especially so, given that they are driven by the incredible cost declines that occurred during the decade. The chart (in the article) illustrates these cost declines and Solar Photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation stands out with the most dramatic decline, approximately 80 percent. Expectations over the next few years are for further price declines across renewables. 

However, energy growth, in whatever form, is severely challenged by COVID-19 and its economic aftershocks and collateral damage. There is simply no getting around this. Challenged economic growth is an energy-demand shock. This makes deploying and converting to renewables more difficult. It is one thing to add renewable capacity to satisfy growing demand and quite another to replace existing infrastructure while demand is flat, declining, or uncertain, when all eyes are on credit worthiness, and when government stimulus is so heavily relied upon. 

Read Lydia's full article that includes insights on - What drove these cost declines?, Her Investment Strategy and of course, her Outlook for the strongest players in the RE field, all here -  https://greenmoney.com/the-outlook-for-renewable-energy 

=====