Clean energy has crossed a threshold that once seemed decades away. According to a July 2025 C.E. report from the International Renewable Energy Agency, 91 percent of new renewable power projects commissioned in 2024 C.E. cost less to build and operate than any new fossil fuel alternative — making the economic case for coal and gas nearly impossible to defend on price alone.
At a glance
- Renewable energy costs: Onshore wind delivered electricity at an average of $0.034 per kilowatt-hour in 2024 C.E. — 53 percent cheaper than the lowest-cost fossil fuel option available.
- Renewable capacity growth: A record 582 gigawatts of new renewable capacity came online globally in 2024 C.E., avoiding fossil fuel use valued at roughly $57 billion.
- Battery storage savings: The cost of utility-scale battery energy storage systems has fallen 93 percent since 2010 C.E., reaching $192 per kilowatt-hour in 2024 C.E.
Why the price crossover matters
For most of the 20th century, supporting renewable energy meant accepting a cost premium. That trade-off has disappeared. Solar photovoltaic projects now deliver electricity at an average of $0.043 per kilowatt-hour — 41 percent cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives, according to IRENA’s Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2024 report. Onshore wind is even more competitive.
When the cheapest available technology is also the cleanest, the policy debate shifts fundamentally. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres put it directly: “Clean energy is smart economics — and the world is following the money.” Financial markets are already moving in that direction, with renewable energy attracting substantially more investment than fossil fuels in 2024 C.E.
IRENA Director-General Francesco La Camera noted that renewables currently in operation avoided up to $467 billion in fossil fuel costs globally in 2024 C.E. alone. That figure represents real savings to governments, utilities, and households — not a projected future benefit.
What this means for developing economies
For nations that never built extensive coal or gas infrastructure, the implications are especially significant. Many developing countries now have a direct path to modern, reliable electricity — at lower cost and without locking in decades of carbon emissions. This dynamic mirrors what happened with mobile phones, where countries bypassed landline networks entirely.
The financing picture reinforces the trend. The International Energy Agency has tracked a growing gap between clean energy and fossil fuel investment globally, reflecting where institutional investors and development banks see durable long-term returns.
Public health is part of the math, too. Fossil fuel combustion remains the leading driver of outdoor air pollution worldwide. As renewables displace coal and gas generation, those health costs fall — a benefit that shows up in hospital systems and labor productivity even when it doesn’t appear directly on an energy bill, as the World Health Organization has documented.
What’s still slowing the transition
The picture is not without complications, and IRENA’s report is candid about them. Geopolitical tensions, trade tariffs, and raw material bottlenecks pose risks that could temporarily raise costs — particularly in solar panel manufacturing and wind turbine components.
In Europe and North America, structural barriers including permitting delays, limited grid capacity, and higher balance-of-system costs mean prices remain elevated compared to Asia, Africa, and South America. A striking example from the report: onshore wind costs were similar in Europe and Africa at around $0.052 per kilowatt-hour in 2024 C.E., but the cost structures differed sharply. European projects were capital-expenditure driven, while African projects bore a much higher share of financing costs — with assumed cost of capital ranging from 3.8 percent in Europe to 12 percent in Africa.
Grid modernization remains one of the most underfunded pieces of the transition. Building generation capacity faster than the infrastructure to carry that power creates real inefficiencies, and the IEA has flagged grid investment as a critical bottleneck in both mature and emerging markets. The gains of the past decade are real — but how quickly and equitably the transition continues depends on choices being made right now.
For more on how the generation mix has shifted in recent years, see renewables now making up at least 49% of global power capacity — and for context on the kinds of large-scale progress that compound quietly over time, U.K. cancer death rates hitting their lowest level on record offers a useful parallel.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Engineer News Network
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Renewables now make up at least 49% of global power capacity
- U.K. cancer death rates down to their lowest level on record
- The Good News for Humankind archive on climate and energy
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