Abstract
We are witnessing a huge growth of clean energy technologies during the last 15 years, spearheaded by government policies. Can this growth be sustained through challenges of economic crisis, the complications of achieving higher penetration of variable renewables, and high socioeconomic costs of slowly winding down fossil fuel sector? This paper will argue that the clean technologies are now technically and economically viable with much lower level of support and that new financial mechanisms built on grid parity and hourly markets will enable the continuation of the transition process. Policies should now be directed towards decreasing fossil fuel subsidies and other barriers to renewables. Also, the technologies needed to enable the increase of penetration of variable renewables, such as flexible combined and Rankine cycle power plants, and smart energy systems based on demand side management, including through the integration of power, heat, water, and transport systems, are now at various levels of readiness. The integration will slowly enable the transition from a power system in which supply is following demand to a power system in which demand is following variable supply. The main issue will be the growing opposition from fossil fuels sectors, which are starting to be hurt by the new technologies.
Published Version
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