The Clean Energy Revolution is happening now. According to a study titled Revolution…Now, just updated by the Department of Energy this fall, clean energy deployment is accelerating and prices are declining.
Zero Energy Homes and Positive Energy Homes, with their rooftop solar, LED lighting, and potential for powering electric vehicles are at the center of spreading this revolution.
Roof Top Distributed Solar
Over 8 gigawatts of distributed rooftop solar were installed in 2014. That is the amount of energy produced by 16 ordinary coal power plants. As of the summer of 2015, there have been almost 800,000 rooftop PV installations, providing almost 10,000 MW capacity – almost as much as the capacity of newly installed utility-scale power plants. And the good news is that while roof top solar is growing fast, the costs are steadily coming down – see the chart below. And the best news is that roof top solar costs are expected to fall by another 16% to 33% by 2020.
Highly Efficient LED Lighting
At the same time, 78 million LEDs have been installed since 2012 and the cost for this energy saving technology has come done by almost 90% since 2008. LEDs could account for over 80% of all lighting sales by 2030, as a result of improved performance and increased cost savings compared to conventional lighting, saving Americans $26 billion per year in electricity costs.
Electric Vehicles
Almost 300,000 electric vehicles have been sold through 2014, and costs for EVs are falling, with the cost of EV batteries falling by close to 70% since 2008. Several automakers plan on delivering 200-mile range EVs for less than $40,000 by the end of 2017.
Zero Energy Homes are at the Center of the Clean Energy Revolution
Zero Energy Homes and Positive Energy Homes are at the center of this Clean Energy Revolution. Roof top solar and LED lighting are key components in the success of a Zero Energy Home. As more Positive Energy Homes are being built, owners will find how convenient and economical it is to power their electric vehicles from their solar collectors. As these, and other technologies, such as heat pump hot water heaters and heat pump minisplits, become more economical, Zero and Positive Energy Homes will become more and more mainstream. As Zero and Positive Energy Homes become more mainstream, these energy saving technologies will become even more economical.
All of us involved, or about to be involved, in the Zero Energy Home Revolution can be proud that we are at the center of this Clean Energy Revolution.
