According to the  International Renewable Energy Agency, IRENA’s latest report with the right policies in place, the cost of electricity from solar and wind power technologies could fall by at least 26% and as much as 59% between 2015 and 2025. The global weighted average cost of electricity could fall by 26% from onshore wind, by 35% from offshore wind, by at least 37% from concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies, and by 59% from solar photovoltaics (PV) by 2025, the report finds. Renewable electricity will reach 45 percent of the global power mix by 2030, up from 23 percent at the moment, said Adnan Amin, head of the International Renewable Energy Agency. “This is a remarkable transformation from just two, three years ago.” The number of countries with renewable energy targets reached 173 this year, from 43 in 2005, and 146 countries have support policies to incentivize renewables. Sure, Germany has seen dramatic growth, but it’s the U.S. that has really undergone a revolution. Now, the U.S. produces 2.5 times the amount of wind energy and 20 times more solar than it did five years ago. “It’s a global change,” Amin said. “It’s not a change where Europe, through its enlightened leadership, is encouraging people to make a change. Countries around the world are seeing the possibility of change and they are taking that possibility proactively.”

These developments will have their effect on the upcoming proposals of the EU Commission on EU’s electricity market design, the EU Parliament Industry Committee on June 14, 2015 voted in favor of an own-initiative report by European People’s Party (EPP) MEP Werner Langen. “Electricity should be able to move freely to where it is most needed, wanted and valued,” Langen said. The EHA is pointing to the need to ensure that this eletricity will be as green as posssible using grid managemnent solutions that allow increased integration of RE.

(Photo Hamburg wind powered H2 station)