A few interesting tidbits from the table in the article:
1) Coal is seeing a dramatic decline! The decrease in electricity generated by coal in 2015 was four times the increase in renewable (wind+solar) electricity generated. In fact, it was more than all other electricity increases combined. This is great for the environment, and not just from a carbon perspective, also from an ash and air pollution perspective. (But unfortunately bad for the areas where coal mining is the sole economic driver)
2) The total amount of electricity generated actually declined significantly (~5%) in 2015. Since we're not seeing a dramatic economic crash, does this point to efficiency gains, weather, or something else? Hopefully, we'll begin realizing more 'negawatts' - the most efficient watt-hour of electricity is the one that is never produced.
3) From a PV perspective, I live in an area attractive to solar power both physically and economically, yet only a handful of my neighbors have installed solar panels. There's still a LOT of room to grow!
2) we ARE SEEING A DRAMATIC ECONOMIC CRASH IN THE WEST.
electricity rates in europe have skyrocketed and this is part of the artificial scarcity of electricity , and the suckout of savings that is draining the european economy by rising costs (electricity costs as input to industrial goods) and declining supply ( of money that could have been spent or saved and reinvested in other things other than ridiculous high cash payments for electricity)
Fossil fuels account for 67% of the power generation in the US. Coal was replaced with another fossil fuel: natural gas. Solar accounts for less than 1%. So, yes, there's a lot of room for solar to grow.
the smartest energy investors from the green energy bubble which burst 3 YEARS AGO NOW, have all basically concluded that we are not YET at the tipping point, accelerating up the curve, of scaling the construction of industrial solar .
perhaps the cheerleaders who pout about our 'slow' progress are doing us a service by trying to motivate us. but i also see them as pesky and annoying.
while some measure of r&d benefits from the feedback loop of failure to industrialize or failures learned from in the industrialization of extant technologies, ------the reality is that basic r&d needs to be done. much much more of it.
pushing relentlessly for industrialization at a stage in time where the technology IS NOT YET READY TO SCALE RELATIVE TO OUR EXISTING BASE---------is just foolishness and a waste of money.
BETTER TO SPEND THE MONEY IN R&D, THAN TO WASTE TOO MUCH OF IT ON NON-SCALEABLE SYSTEMS.
"China aims to have 100 gigawatts (GW) of wind power capacity by 2020, and the nation’s leaders plan to expand installed solar capacity to 20 GW during the same period. These are truly astonishing goals, and, if China even comes close to accomplishing them, it will become the world’s renewable energy leader. But there is a problem. Total Chinese electricity generation capacity is 900 GW currently; with seven percent [GDP] growth, that means the nation’s electricity demand in 2020 will be something like 1800 GW. Wind and solar together would supply less than seven percent of that. The only thing likely to boost that percentage much would be a dramatic reduction in growth of energy demand to, say, two percent annually."
I like this from The End of Growth (2011) by Richard Heinberg.
As much as the numbers are incredible we are really undermining the amount of energy produced by fossil sources.
Similar problem with nuclear.
Are we really on the exponential road to sustainability? I hope so.
This quote isn't recent, is it? Because it takes 10 years of 7% growth to double[1], and China's economy is becoming less energy intensive over time, so no, it's not going to double power usage in 4 years.
1) Coal is seeing a dramatic decline! The decrease in electricity generated by coal in 2015 was four times the increase in renewable (wind+solar) electricity generated. In fact, it was more than all other electricity increases combined. This is great for the environment, and not just from a carbon perspective, also from an ash and air pollution perspective. (But unfortunately bad for the areas where coal mining is the sole economic driver)
2) The total amount of electricity generated actually declined significantly (~5%) in 2015. Since we're not seeing a dramatic economic crash, does this point to efficiency gains, weather, or something else? Hopefully, we'll begin realizing more 'negawatts' - the most efficient watt-hour of electricity is the one that is never produced.
3) From a PV perspective, I live in an area attractive to solar power both physically and economically, yet only a handful of my neighbors have installed solar panels. There's still a LOT of room to grow!