Here are the big hurdles to the global push to build up renewable energy WSOC TV [Video]

The world’s governments have agreed they want to triple renewable energy by 2030, a goal laid out at the U.N. climate summit in December.

But right now, the post-pandemic global economy is throwing up obstacles that will need to be overcome if the goal is going to be met.

Here are the big hurdles to solar, wind and other renewable energy projects:

COSTLY CREDIT

Central banks in Europe and the U.S. have raised interest rates to combat inflation. That hits renewables harder than it does investment in fossil fuel projects.

Renewables have much higher up-front costs to build wind farms, solar arrays and more, and that borrowing costs money. After that, operating costs are negligible since the wind and sun are free, of course — but high interest rates have made it harder to get new projects off the ground.

In many cases, the answer is raising the agreed price of the electricity flowing to the grid to cover the added costs.

INFLATION

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