Hi All

I just finished some interesting reading about the economic viability of wind and solar energy. It included this report about the plummeting cost of solar, this story about the falling cost of already inexpensive wind power, and this article about what reductions in energy storage costs would be needed to pivot to 100% renewable. All of these documents pointed to a relatively near future in which a mix of wind + solar + storage + flexible grids would be cheaper than fossil fuels.

However, none of these documents mentioned that the financial battle between dirty and clean energy is not taking place on a level playing field. According to the IMF, governments spent $5.2 trillion on fossil fuel subsidies worldwide in 2017, amounting to 6.4 percent of the global gross domestic product. Furthermore, there's also an enormous security cost associate with fossil fuels. For example, the US spends $81 billion a year protecting oil supplies.

I would love to see a cost comparison between renewables and fossil fuels with all subsidies removed, a meaningful carbon tax applied, and security costs factored in. I'm only guessing, but strongly suspect that on this level playing field, renewables plus storage would already be a much more affordable energy source than fossil fuels.

What can we do to persuade governments to create a level playing field?