The race for renewable energy has passed a turning point. The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas, and oil combined. And there's no going back.
The shift occurred in 2013, when the world added 143 gigawatts of renewable electricity capacity, compared with 141 gigawatts in new plants that burn fossil fuels, according to an analysis presented Tuesday at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance annual summit in New York. The shift will continue to accelerate, and by 2030 more than four times as much renewable capacity will be added.
"The electricity system is shifting to clean,'' Michael Liebreich, founder of BNEF, said in his keynote address. "Despite the change in oil and gas prices there is going to be a substantial buildout of renewable energy that is likely to be an order of magnitude larger than the buildout of coal and gas."
Well that is nothing but good news for our planet, our children, and our children's children.
As for those of us living in states that are almost totally reliant on oil or coal production?
Well we better put on our thinking caps and find ourselves another source of revenue.
Hopefully one that does not help to destroy our planet.
In other news:
ReplyDeleteGulf Stream is slowing down faster than ever, scientists say - Environment - The Independent
http://tinyurl.com/lalvkgv
This is good news! It will be even better when nuclear energy is no longer included in the renewable energy category.
ReplyDeleteIf we can switch all electrical generation to clean, then oil and gas will last longer for those technologies that can't switch yet.
ReplyDeleteI have photovoltaic panels on my roof. But I also have a natural gas furnace, hot water heater, stove and dryer. I hang clothes when I can and I can always switch out the dryer, furnace and hot water heater and add more photovoltaic panels to the roof. But I will be loathe to give up my vintage O'Keefe and Merrit stove. It's an older model where the pilot is always on so it is always burning some gas. But it is perfect for bread and I'm going to try my hand at yogurt next. I have a feeling it will be perfect for that too.
Even in Alaska you can have solar (At least during spring/summer/fall!) and especially wind energy. solar is getting more and more efficient.
ReplyDeleteIt all depends on the Koch brothers - if they deem it to be profitable for themselves, then they will encourage it. Right now, they are too much invested in coal and oil. Maybe eventually they will see the light (but I won't hold my breath!).
If done properly, you can generate your own electricity and the electric company has to buy any excess back at the current market value. We're having our retirement home built, it's not that much more than building a conventional home, but to get certified Energy Star, you can't make many changes from the plans you submit, plus we get a tax write off.
ReplyDeleteKind of like frackers do , only you own and maintain everything. What got me was we need a secondary source of heat/electricity in case we're snowed in for several months, which ain't happening anytime soon.
Not in my area.
DeleteSeveral times we've tried to get bills passed that the local utility has to buy back excess power generated and they've lobbied to kill them every time. Last time was under Schwarzenegger. I put photovoltaic in 10 years ago with a larger converter specifically so I could add panels once they started to buy power.
I'm still waiting.