Fossil Fuels Will Soon Be Obsolete

A reader offered this quote from Buckminster Fuller:  “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

So true.  And I was especially happy to see this because it’s the guiding thought behind my most recent book, Bullish on Renewable Energy. We’re now at the point in our civilization’s development of energy technology at which the fossil fuel empire is rapidly becoming obsolete.

Best of all, there’s nothing that anyone can do about this; it’s inexorable. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or how many politicians you can buy when electricity derived from wind is far less expensive on a levelized cost of energy basis than electricity that comes from coal-fired power plants.  Yes, this is the case in just a few locations in the U.S., but they are becoming larger and more plentiful with each passing month.

Many aspects of technology are conspiring to make this happen; not only is the new generation of wind turbines far more cost-effective than ever, but we also are seeing better power transmission and cheaper energy storage of various types, including electric transportation, i.e., charging EV batteries with off-peak wind.

It won’t be long.