
Solar and Wind Power Investors Get More Bang for Their Bucks - spenrose
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-18/solar-and-wind-power-investors-get-more-bang-for-their-bucks
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spenrose
"Much of this spending-installation correlation comes from investment in more
expensive offshore wind, which generates more power per megawatt than onshore
turbines. Also, onshore turbines are more efficient and produce much more
power now, on average, than they did 15 years ago. In terms of investment and
capacity, it’s “spend the same, get the same,” but in terms of the cost of
power generated, it’s “spend the same, get more generated power at a lower
cost.”

Solar’s paradigm is different: “Spend more, get more,” then “spend the same,
get much, much more.”

Solar investment has increased by a factor of 11 since 2004. Solar
installations have increased by a factor of 110. Today’s solar asset builders
invest an order of magnitude more money than they did 15 years ago, and they
build far more generation capacity. And, like wind projects, today’s solar
projects generate significantly more energy than those built 15 years ago."

