This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Energy Released “6 Charts that Will Make You Optimistic About America’s Clean Energy Future”. These charts track the cost and installed capacity of wind and solar power, energy-efficient LED lighting, and electric vehicles. This author’s favorite of the six charts shows just how far prices have fallen for these technologies:
Included in this chart are the cost reduction curves for five key energy technologies:
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Land-based wind
Distributed solar photovoltaic (PV)
Utility-scale solar PV
Batteries for electric vehicles
Light emitting diode (LED) bulbs
All told, the cost of each of these technologies dropped between 41% - 94% from 2008 to 2015. The other charts that made the Department of Energy’s list show the corresponding technology adoption rates that occurred with these price drops.