Issue Date: May 31, 2004
There is a prominently held view that dissemination of renewable energy technology is marred by high costs. It's true that a few technologies like wind power have become cheaper, but others are still expensive. Solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind energy now cost one-tenth of what they did in the early 1980s. Today a wind energy plant costs just about the same as a coal-fired thermal power plant of the same capacity; it could be even cheaper at places with high wind speeds.