Solar and Wind Electrifying Parts of Asia and Africa for the First Time

I predict the next half-century will see a great number of reports like this one on islands of renewable energy that are generated and consumed off-grid.  This article explains how a region of India has built a large microgrid for Ladakh, its northernmost state – one whose communities previously had spotty electricity from diesel generators, or, in some cases, none at all.

According to the article:

The high cost of DG (distributed generation) in Ladakh, currently INR25-28/kWh (US$0.47-0.52), makes renewable energy very competitive. Off-grid solar PV-generated electricity worked out over 20 years’ system-life in Ladakh currently comes to INR16-18/kWh ($0.30-0.34). And the cost of solar keeps falling due to technological development and scalability.

Again, I predict that large regions of Asia and Africa will find that distributed generation using solar and wind will electrify parts of the world for the first time, improving the lives of hundreds of millions of people without installing a single fossil fuel plant.