Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming

by Paul Hawken

Goldman Sachs research paper published in June 2016 stated simply, “wind provides the lowest cost source of new capacity.” The cost of both wind and solar includes production tax credits; however, Goldman Sachs believes that the continuing decline in wind turbine costs will make up for the phasing out of tax credits in 2023. Wind projects built in 2016 are coming in at 2.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. A Morgan Stanley analysis shows that new wind energy production in the Midwest is one-third of the cost of natural gas combined-cycle plants. And finally, Bloomberg New Energy Finance has calculated that “the lifetime cost of wind and solar is less than the cost of building new fossil fuel plants.” Bloomberg predicts that wind energy will be the lowest-cost energy globally by 2030. (This accounting does not include the cost of fossil fuels with respect to air quality, health, pollution, damage to the environment, and global warming.)