Taking a Ride on the Learning Curve

            Looking unusually glum, Pete sat sulking on the curb when…Whoosh! Solomon went whizzing by.  Moments later…Swish! back flew Solomon almost before Pete had a chance to look up.  Zipp! Sol raced by a third time but screeched to a halt right in front of his old rival, Pete Rolleum.  “Why so gloomy?” Sol Arre asked. “Oh yeah.  I almost forgot; you never jumped on a rapid Learning Curve did you. 

           “Nope,” Pete frowned.  “I never really got it.  I mean, people loosely use the term ‘learning curve’ to mean how fast they pick up a new skill.  I never understood that the Learning Curve is actually a mathematical concept that can identify trends of how fast the cost for a manufactured product will drop dependent upon how fast that product’s use expands.  Me and my fossil fuel buddies never developed that trend.  We’re pretty much stuck at the same (inflation adjusted) spot pricewise as we were some 140 years ago.  But you’re whizzing all over the place!”

            “Oh, you bet I am!  Batteries, wind energy and I having been cruising on a steep learning curve for years.  Our costs are dropping dramatically as our use is expanding rapidly.  It’s almost hard to believe, but I cost over 1,000 times less than when I was first commercially available in 1958.  Now, I’m the least expensive source of energy around, and I’m riding that curve to even lower costs.

            “And here’s the thing.  The more quickly humans expand solar, wind and battery use, the more quickly our costs will drop even further.  Graphs of our trends-lines from an Oxford University study* show that adopting me and my pals as rapidly as possible will increasingly save money while reducing harmful emissions.  Some folks claim it’s too costly to transition to clean energy.  But because of our steep learning curves, transitioning isn’t a cost at all; it’s a huge savings worth trillions of dollars over the coming decades.
 
            “Sorry to say pal, but humans would be wise to tip their hats to you and your buddies and say, ‘Thanks for your service, but we’re investing in clean energy from now on,’” Sol confided.  “Because the benefits are just too good to delay any further on this, our only home, where we’re all forever …Earthbound.”
 
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