FALSE: RENEWABLE ENERGY IS NOT JUST A MONEY-MAKING SCHEME
Written by Odhiambo Shem on October 14, 2022
A twitter post claiming that renewable energy is just a money making scheme is not true.
“Renewable energy is indeed a huge money making scheme, just like oil was a century ago, only cleaner”, reads the claim.
For the past 150 years or so, humans have relied heavily on coal, oil, and other fossil fuels to power everything from light bulbs to cars to factories. Fossil fuels are embedded in nearly everything we do, and as a result, the greenhouse gasses released from the burning of those fuels have reached historically high levels.
According to the National Geographic, renewable energy usually tops the list of changes the world can implement to stave off the worst effects of rising temperatures. That’s because renewable energy sources such as solar and wind don’t emit carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming.
Hannah Ritchie, the head of research at Our World in Data, states all energy sources have negative effects. But they differ enormously in size: as we will see, fossil fuels are the dirtiest and most dangerous, while nuclear and modern renewable energy sources are vastly safer and cleaner.
Source: ourworldindata.org
The World Economic Forum states that electricity from utility-scale solar photovoltaics cost $359 per MWh in 2009. Within just one decade the price declined by 89% and the relative price flipped: the electricity price that you need to charge to break even with the new average coal plant is now much higher than what you can offer your customers when you build a wind or solar plant.
Source: Our World In Data
We looked into the claim that renewable energy is a money-making scheme and found it to be false. It misleads the public in countering climate change.
This fact-check was produced by Sky 106.1 FM with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, International Fact-Checking Network, and African Fact Checking Alliance network.
