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Firm Renewables Challenge Fossil Power
Coverage from Edie, Impakter, and others
Solar and wind are increasingly undercutting new coal and gas on cost, while battery storage and hybrid system design are making renewable electricity more dependable around the clock.
IRENA reports that more than 90% of large-scale renewable capacity added in 2025 was cheaper than the lowest-cost new fossil alternative, with further declines expected for firm solar and wind through 2035. The main barriers are now less about generation costs than grid upgrades, project timelines, financing access, and sectors where low-carbon alternatives remain limited.
The story now places more emphasis on renewables’ cost advantage over new fossil power and adds a new quantified claim about avoided fossil-fuel spending. It also sharpens the framing of the main constraints as grid modernization, financing, and hard-to-abate sectors rather than broader deployment challenges.
The story broadens from a narrow focus on firm solar-and-storage economics to a wider view of renewable power as a firm, competitive electricity source across hybrid systems and hard-to-electrify applications. The current version also adds new stakeholder emphasis on utilities and industrial users, and explicitly identifies aviation and cement as sectors still lacking easy renewable substitutes.