Escalation of military-political conflicts, tougher with sanctions, and restrictions on the supply of Russian energy carriers, arise more and more questions on the competitiveness of alternative energy sources. The article considers the current stage of world energy sector transformation in terms of the alternative energy sources development and highlights the factors contributing to the increase in the share of renewable energy sources in the structure of the global energy balance. Economic and technological indicators of alternative energy in comparison with traditional energy sources are studies; and the most competitive alternative sources are identified. The authors analyzed a number of economic and technological indicators, including specific capital investments per 1 kW of input power; installed capacity utilization factor; the ratio of received to expended energy; the cost of energy production, taking into account the full life cycle of the equipment. An analysis of the dynamics of indicators makes it possible to identify the main trends and structural shifts, study changes over time, and assess the prospects for the technologies development. Based on a retrospective analysis of global weighted averages, a forecast of capital and production costs is given using the example of solar energy facilities, and an assumption is made about further cost optimization in the field of green energy production. The authors assessed alternative energy marginality in the context of countries, identified the most cost-effective types of energy in the regional context. Some of alternative energy advantages are consider in terms of the absence of the cost of raw materials in the structure of production costs (with the exception of nuclear and bioenergy). Problems and outlines development prospects are discussed. The complex effect in the implementation of alternative energy projects is assessed.
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