Solar is cheap

Because sunshine is free, the cost advantage over fossil fuels will continue to increase. “Solar is cheap and it’s only going to get cheaper,” she said in an interview.

Coal will attract $1.6 trillion of investment, gas will draw $1.2 trillion and nuclear will bring in $1.3 trillion in investment over the next 25 years. Developers will spend $2.4 trillion on wind farms.

That spending will bring new opportunities for the world’s energy poor. More people will gain access to electricity through systems that combine solar panels and battery storage than from earlier efforts to build new power grids in regions that lack electrical infrastructure, said Jigar Shah, a clean-energy financier and the founder and former chief executive officer of SunEdison Inc., the best-performing solar company.