Cost: adopting clean energy saves you money
Fossil energy prices are volatile. Clean renewable energy has lowered costs and is reassuringly predictable into the future.
Electricity and energy form major parts of the cost base of large companies. Prices becoming increasingly volatile in recent years has led to two problems:
• Predictability: it is becoming more and more difficult to predict costs with any reasonable degree of accuracy in the coming years
• Cost inflation: despite the lack of predictability, it is widely expected that costs will continue to rise for the foreseeable future. This is partly due to reducing reserves of fuels, and partly as a result of increasingpollution control measures.
One of the major benefits of a clean power technology is the low and predictable annual operating costs. In the case of operating a wind turbine, the costs are excitingly low, commonly at around 20% of revenue. Predictability is a bonus, too, as insurance, servicing and maintenance are stable costs. Solar energy is similar. Biomass technologies are clearly subject to fuel costs and so are less predictable, but the use of waste streams can often provide long-term security. Carbon reduction through clean energy can bring both cost-effectiveness and stability to energy.
What’s more, as clean renewable energy equipment is ever more widely used, its costs keep coming down.These modern technologies are now becoming cost-competitive in their own right.