Originally published at Consultant Dan. Read the original article.
As predicted, renewable energy is gaining the price edge over old energy. In Australia and the US, wind energy is beating the business model of gas, coal and nukes.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance recently reported that unsubsidised wind energy is now cheaper than electricity from new-build coal- and gas-fired power stations in Australia.
The study found that even without a carbon price, wind energy is 14% cheaper than new coal and 18% cheaper than new gas. A new wind farm can supply electricity at a cost of $80 per megawatt hour, compared with $143 a megawatt hour from a new coal-fired power plant or $116 from a new natural gas station when the cost of carbon emissions is included.
BNEF’s research on Australia shows that since 2011, the cost of wind energy has dropped by 10% while solar PV fell by 29%. In contrast, the cost of energy from new coal plants remains high and is still rising, which suggests that in future the Australian economy will be powered by renewable energy while investment in fossil fuels will be limited.
This is of course excellent news for the environment, the economy and the renewable energy sector.
Meanwhile, in New Mexico there’s been more positive news for wind energy after a subsidiary of the region’s energy supplier Xcel Energy announced it was seeking to invest in 700MW of additional wind energy, citing low costs, and resulting in a saving of more than $590 million in fuel costs over 20 years.
The wind energy will be sourced from three wind farms in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
Once the world has woken up to the fact that renewables make good economic sense as well as being the best choice for the planet, we will be on track to quit coal for good.
yes2renewables.org 
If this is so, can you explain to me why South Australia, which has the highest number of turbines of all of the states, also has the highest power prices in Australia? The report also mentions that the costing is done on unsubsidized wind power, to my knowledge, there is no unsubsidized wind power, because it is not viable without Government subsidies.
“Wind farms have low operating costs and they tend to offer their energy to the market at low prices. The availability of lower priced generation when the wind is blowing can assist in keeping market prices low” AEMO
The price point is for new projects coming on line as opposed to power from already established coal / gas stations. Hence the cost in SA ect. The real point here is that the starting gun went of a long time ago in the race to dig up fossil fuels while there still worth something. It is incredible that we will risk damage to the water table and arable land, let along degrading priceless wilderness area for a resource which will only become less valuable over time, while at the same time viable farming land and wildenss areas will only increase in value.