Nice Bloomberg article here. Renewable of Wind and Solar are now cheaper than coal, oil, gas, nuclear. No big need for subsidies to make them competitive.
But, there’s also no need, quite the contrary given the externality costs, for subsidizing fossil fuels!
Nice article with great graphics show the fall in price for wind and solar.
Category: Wind Power
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Renewable energy of Wind and Solar no longer needs subsidies
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ECO:nomics | The Wall Street Journal
ECO:nomics | The Wall Street Journal:
The WSJ’s big forum on ECOnomics seems to have been a great learning and sharing session for divergent ideas on how to blend economic growth/development with environmental needs.
A special report in the WSJ on Wed, April 13, 2016 offers several takes and interviews covering the spectrum of associated topics.
A couple base statistics are that coal generated electricity has dropped from half of all US generation to less than 1/3 within about 10 years. The big gain is Nat Gas, but that too is changing. In 2015 solar was the #1 install base with 9.5 gw (37% of new), NatGas 8 gw (31%), wind 6.8 gw (26%). Only 4% new nuclear and fractions of other.
Related to the switch from coal to NatGas, this is only a stop-gap measure: moving from one really bad non-renewable, coal; to a relatively better non-renewable, NatGas. Michael Brune from the Sierra Club comments on the methane and other issues that brings NatGas closer to parody with coal (really ugly vs. relatively ugly).
Coal is really taking a hit, as Peabody goes bankrupt this week, bringing down all of the big coal companies. No victory laps here; the pain and suffering in the mining communities is going to be horrendous. (Also, bankruptcy doesn’t mean the mines will all stop, just that the debt associated with the companies will replace the equity positions.)
Even against crashing oil/coal prices, solar & wind are winning major solid footing. Even with the likelihood of subsidies going away, are now starting to be very price competitive (especially if you consider externality costs). BUT when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine (night) we still need regular power generation. Or battery-type storage.
You have to marvel at the gain of renewables during the second year of record low fossil fuel costs. That is really, really impressive.
Check out all the articles on the ECOnomics conference and interviews at the special business & energy section of the WSJ: http://www.wsj.com/news/types/journal-reports-energy
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What just happened in solar is a bigger deal than oil exports
What just happened in solar is a bigger deal than oil exports:
Interesting how the BIG move in solar/wind in the USA is so tied to subsidies. At least for the next 5 years. But, soon, especially with the volume of growth encouraged by the subsidies, there will no longer be a need for subsidies.
The really big loser all around is (dirty) coal. Once the health and environmental costs of coal are factored in, coal moves from our cheapest source of electrical energy to one of our worst. As well, wind and solar are improving in performance rapidly.
And then there are the environmental factors of coal that start to get uglier and uglier once you start to count pollution, the health and safety issues and the contribution to greenhouse gases. Other types of energy like oil and natgas are increasingly throwing coal under the bus, too.
So, renewable electrical energy could be really booming over the next 5 years with the continued subsidies. Those subsidies are being phased out; but it all looks like an excellent plan forward toward a more renewable USA.
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Power Struggle: How the Energy Market Could Shift in 2016 – Bloomberg Business
Power Struggle: How the Energy Market Could Shift in 2016 – Bloomberg Business:
Wow. Absolutely perfect assessment of the energy world, past and future.
With pretty graphics to go along with the trends in energy.
So what will be the energy source(s) of the future.
The one thing for sure, is that it won’t be coal. As the rest of the world gets out of coal, so will the 2.3B people in China and India. They simply can’t afford the pollution and health costs that come free with cheap coal.
The assessment seems puts energy into perspective, and indicates how a clear transition from one form to another (wood to coal, and coal to oil) might not be what we can expect to look forward to in the future.
Don’t want to ruin the ending, you will have to watch all 3 minutes of the video to find out what to expect in the energy world.
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Solar and wind just passed another big turning point, Cheaper n Better
Solar and wind just passed another big turning point:
So solar and wind power generation is reaching a threshold where renewable energy is cheaper than fossil fuel-based power in Germany and UK. That is before counting the subsidies for renewables, and ignoring the massive externality costs of our historically favorite dirty black fuel.
Note the discussion of the virtuous cycle of renewable fuels. As base load power moves up from 5% renewables the costs of traditional power plants becomes more expensive, essentially they become more peak-power generators and less base-load power.
Solar has the added advantage of offing more distributed power generation, usually at the point of use. So solar starts to really cut down on the massive loss of power over distribution channels.
In the US, really cheap NatGas is a no-brainer decision for converting coal plants. It is so much cleaner in all respects. But new fossil fuel power plants will be harder and harder to justify to shareholders and to the PSC.
In the meanwhile, nuclear sits on the sidelines, leaving fission and fusion as a non option in the foreseeable future.
If momentum builds for homeowners and businesses to move to at-source power generation (say Solar City), the building momentum could be a real game-changer.