Autonomous Vehicle Consultant

According to a report from the PEW Charitable Trusts (2010 edition), “…the United States fell to third place among G-20 members, one year after it had lost top billing and slid to second place…For a variety of reasons, the United States’ competitive position appears to be eroding. Stimulus funding that helped the clean energy industry recover from sharp recessionary declines will expire this year, and there is little indication of any significant policies or incentives to fill the gap in the near future. In fact, investors have noted ongoing uncertainty in the United States policy as a key reason that capital is sitting on the sidelines, or looking for certainty and opportunity abroad. Concerns include a lack of clarity on the direction of energy policy, uncertainty surrounding continuation of key financial incentives (e.g., production and investment tax credits) and disproportionate support for century-old fossil energy sources.”

Conclusions: governments support wind and solar energy technologies with various subsidies out of necessity because these technologies are not able to stand on their own in the market place. Only when the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for renewable energy technologies is on a par with that of fossil fuel energy generation technologies will the need for government subsidies abate and that may not happen for another ten years. This issue was discussed in one of my previous posts.