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Renewables Risk Taking Longer to Match Fossil Fuels on Price

  • BloombergNEF pushes back back forecast for wind and solar
  • Coronavirus has hit economy and cut cost of fuel to make power
Wind turbines operate beyond an open cast lignite mine in Merzdorf, Germany.

Wind turbines operate beyond an open cast lignite mine in Merzdorf, Germany.

Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
Updated on

Europe’s hopes that green power will soon beat out fossil-fuels on costs will fade unless governments implement shrewd policies to support renewable after the coronavirus crisis.

Propped up over decades by hundreds of billions of euros of government subsidies, power from wind and solar was slated to undercut coal, and even natural gas as soon as a year. But those estimates were made before the health crisis gutted energy demand and sent oil prices below zero for the first time, according to according to a report by BloombergNEF.