I think the important element is the inflection. Resources go up in price as they are used. Manufacturing goes down in price as capital is recouped. The art

I think the important element is the inflection. Resources go up in price as they are used. Manufacturing goes down in price as capital is recouped. The article you link shows wind and solar being cheaper than natural gas in several scenarios, unless I misread it. However over time natural gas - as a resource - will get more expensive as it becomes more scarce and harder to extract and demand goes up. In contrast, solar will get cheaper over time as capital expenditure is recouped, economies of scale kick in, and technological improvements are discovered and implemented. Solar may not have crossed the cost of natural gas yet, but it is all but inevitable now, with eg China having a very mature manufacturing industry for solar and the Middle East expressing ever growing demand for it. The writing is on the panel. Edit: it's worth noting that at least in the US it looks like natural gas has been heavily subsidized by naive investors and ultra low interest rates since 2009 - see eg http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-18/us-shale-gas-industry-countdown-disaster http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-18/us-shale-gas-indust... -- but that's probably coming to a head soon.