The following is a contributed article by Tony Seba and Adam Dorr, co-founder and research fellow, respectively, at RethinkX.

Imagine having an energy system that generates three times more electricity we use today for a fraction of the cost (even free!) while generating no greenhouse gases or toxic waste. Imagine repatriating and growing energy-hungry industries, creating millions of jobs, trillions of dollars in societal wealth, and vastly improving our quality of life — while saving money. Incumbents would say it’s not possible. We have heard that before — but they’ve been proven wrong and we’ve been proven right.

We are on the cusp of the most profound disruption of the energy sector since the advent of electricity itself over a century ago. The costs of solar photovoltaic power, onshore wind, and lithium-ion battery energy storage (SWB) have plummeted over the last two decades, and they will fall another 70%, 40% and 80% respectively during the 2020s as their adoption continues to grow exponentially worldwide. The convergence of SWB now offers an electricity solution that coal, gas, nuclear and other conventional energy technologies can no longer compete with.

In our new report, we show that 100% SWB electricity systems are both physically possible and economically affordable by 2030 for those regions that choose to lead the disruption. Our analysis uses a tool we call the “Clean Energy U-Curve” to explain that there is a fundamental cost tradeoff between energy generation (solar and wind) and energy storage (batteries). When we optimize the balance between the two, we find that the least expensive 100% SWB system will have three to five times more total generating capacity than today’s grid but require only 35 to 90 hours’ worth of batteries, depending on geography.

In California, for example, a 100% SWB system with 3.8x more generating capacity than the state’s existing grid would need only 37 hours’ worth of batteries. The cost to build these assets between now and 2030 would be $115 billion. That’s $11.5 billion for ten years, or 0.35% of California’s $3.2 trillion GDP. The cost of electricity from this system would be less than 3 cents per kilowatt-hour, which would not only be the cheapest available option for new power generation but would be less expensive than continuing to operate most conventional power plants in the state as well.

The disruption of coal, gas and nuclear power is now inevitable. No new investment in these technologies is rational going forward, and their existing assets will become stranded during the 2020s. But that’s just the beginning.

A 100% SWB system will have extraordinary new properties, the most counterintuitive of which is that it will produce up to three times more energy than today’s grid. The reason why is that any SWB system must be designed to fully meet electricity demand during the most challenging times of year such as the cloudy weeks of winter when the days are shortest, and as a result it will naturally be able to produce much more power the rest of the time.

This in itself is a familiar pattern, since mechanisms of all kinds – including our own bodies – are built for the maximum stress they are likely to encounter. The difference here is that solar panels and wind turbines can utilize their full latent capability at virtually no additional cost, unlike coal, gas, or nuclear power stations. So all of that electricity is effectively free.