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All Together Now! U.S. Department of Energy Sums Up Why We Should Be Optimistic About Clean Energy

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Energy Released “6 Charts that Will Make You Optimistic About America’s Clean Energy Future” that track cost declines and rising use of some key technologies.

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.