Solar power charge: global momentum

19 years of free electricity from solar panel payback.

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Expensive and volatile fossil fuels are spurring electrification of the world’s energy system, which is being achieved with ever-faster deployment of ever-cheaper renewables, driven by investment and deployment in the world’s biggest – and biggest emitting – economies.

This will bring energy bills down, as consumers also benefit from falling payback periods for installing rooftop solar, now just under six and a half years. Payback periods for solar combined with battery storage are also falling rapidly, becoming more economic in some places even than standalone solar, given savings in use of power at other times.

In the UK, utility scale solar combined with battery storage is already cheaper than generation by gas, offering a cheaper opportunity for managing intermittency and balancing the power grid.

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