Technological improvements have led to plummeting costs for various renewable energy resources. Renewable energy creates energy without emitting carbon dioxide and is a leading solution in the efforts to mitigate climate change. As climate change becomes harsher, the need to transition to an electricity grid serviced largely by renewable energies becomes more apparent. Whether or not renewable energies can service the entire grid in a cost-effective manner is currently debated by experts. This study evaluates the total costs of servicing North Carolina’s grid with renewable energy or natural gas. This study concludes that natural gas is currently the more economically viable option. However, in the near future, renewable energies will have a cheaper total cost. As renewable energy becomes cheaper, there will be an influx of renewable energies to the grid, and with them a lot of challenges with maintaining the stability of the energy grid.
Author: Matthew Bravante, Class of 2019
Faculty Advisor: Carol Hee, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School