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I read this and got excited. Sent it to a friend of mine who was managing the governmen-funded solar programs in Israel and got the following response:
- I would be very surprised if it would become a major element in the energy mix. Wind and Solar are the name of the game. Geothermal is too site-specific and too expensive.
- this chart (levelized cost of electricity), for example. Is complete bullshit. solar and wind are 30-50$ / MWh nowadays. so basically this potential "breakthrough" would bring, at best, Geothermal energy to the existing costs of solar and wind
So I asked "So someone did not do their homework?"
- No my dear friend, if you need massive breakthrough just to get to the high ranges of costs of where wind and solar are NOW, when improvement in those markets will put them at, say, 20-30$/MWh by the time that this magical breakthrough would come... that’s not such a great plan. That is not to say that with 50$/MWh GT won't have a place in the energy mix. There are other renewable technologies more expensive then that, such as Offshore wind or Waste to Energy, and I would also assume that in some geographic areas where radiation and/or wind regime are low - GT can be competitive with them... but it's anecdotal. the future is Onshore wind and solar PV, +batteries and from a certain point and on - hydrogen.
I guess it is not so spectacular but could mean that geothermal will become relevant.
And this recent analysis seems to support the reduction in costs for offshore wind and solar
https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-and-levelized-cost-of-storage-2020/