Thursday 15 September 2022

‘Switching to renewables could save the world more than £10tn’

Making the switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy could save the world more than £10 trillion.

That’s according to research from Oxford University, which claims that making the urgent switch to go green now would provide huge savings for businesses, with renewables at their lowest price and gas at its highest.

“We should go full speed ahead with the green energy transition because it's going to save us money,” stressed Professor Doyne Farmer from the Oxford Martin School.

The researchers compared the extensive fiscal data on fossil fuels with the less extensive data on renewables – but still found that while fossil fuel prices have maintained a similar price, when considering inflation, renewables have seen a consistent drop of 10% each year.

The study claims this is likely to continue, using ‘probabilistic modelling’, which is where a comparison of similar technologies and investments is used to predict the market.

Wind and solar are the cheapest options on the market – however, the analysts claims that the next step is to understand the best means to store this excess energy, saving businesses and governments even more money.

“Our latest research shows scaling-up key green technologies will continue to drive their costs down and the faster we go, the more we will save,” added lead author Dr Rupert Way.