Feed - in tariffs on fossil energy imports to the United States would surely end up reducing demand for fossil fuels as more and more
renewable capacity became available — which is exactly what you would want to see happen if you are serious about slowing the rate of global warming.
Not exact matches
Even massive debt - financed spending will not help unless the projects are intentionally designed to durably enhance the long - term productivity of the U.S. economy, to avoid duplicative
capacity, and to relieve constraints that threaten to
become binding in the future (personally, I remain convinced that
renewable energy should be central to that list).
However, the good news is that 2015 was the first year ever recorded where
renewable energy sources surpassed coal to
become the world's largest source of electricity
capacity.
Rapid deployment of solar photovoltaics (PV), led by China and India, helps solar
become the largest source of low - carbon
capacity by 2040, by which time the share of all
renewables in total power generation reaches 40 %.
The flexibility offered by conventional thermal
capacity, Berberich said,
becomes progressively more vital as the ISO integrates more
renewables.
In the European Union,
renewables account for 80 % of new
capacity and wind power
becomes the leading source of electricity soon after 2030, due to strong growth both onshore and offshore.
And newer technologies like large - scale battery storage and production of hydrogen are
becoming economic, because they harness cheap power from excess
renewable capacity.
In spite of the current challenging conditions in Ukraine,
renewable energy has already
become a dynamically developing sector in the country, providing the bulk of newly installed
capacity.
«Texas Decision Could Double Wind Power
Capacity in the U.S.,» Renewable Energy Access, 4 October 2007; coal - fired power plant equivalents calculated by assuming that an average plant has a 500 - megawatt capacity and operates 72 percent of the time, generating 3.15 billion kilowatt - hours of electricity per year; an average wind turbine operates 36 percent of the time; Iceland geothermal usage from Iceland National Energy Authority and Ministries of Industry and Commerce, Geothermal Development and Research in Iceland (Reykjavik, Iceland: April 2006), p. 16; European per person consumption from European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), «Wind Power on Course to Become Major European Energy Source by the End of the Decade,» press release (Brussels: 22 November 2004); China's solar water heaters calculated from Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), Renewables Global Status Report, 2006 Update (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 2006), p. 21, and from Bingham Kennedy, Jr., Dissecting China's 2000 Census (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, June 2001); Philippines from Geothermal Energy Association (GEA), «World Geothermal Power Up 50 %, New US Boom Possible,» press release (Washington, DC: 11 Apri
Capacity in the U.S.,»
Renewable Energy Access, 4 October 2007; coal - fired power plant equivalents calculated by assuming that an average plant has a 500 - megawatt
capacity and operates 72 percent of the time, generating 3.15 billion kilowatt - hours of electricity per year; an average wind turbine operates 36 percent of the time; Iceland geothermal usage from Iceland National Energy Authority and Ministries of Industry and Commerce, Geothermal Development and Research in Iceland (Reykjavik, Iceland: April 2006), p. 16; European per person consumption from European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), «Wind Power on Course to Become Major European Energy Source by the End of the Decade,» press release (Brussels: 22 November 2004); China's solar water heaters calculated from Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), Renewables Global Status Report, 2006 Update (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 2006), p. 21, and from Bingham Kennedy, Jr., Dissecting China's 2000 Census (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, June 2001); Philippines from Geothermal Energy Association (GEA), «World Geothermal Power Up 50 %, New US Boom Possible,» press release (Washington, DC: 11 Apri
capacity and operates 72 percent of the time, generating 3.15 billion kilowatt - hours of electricity per year; an average wind turbine operates 36 percent of the time; Iceland geothermal usage from Iceland National Energy Authority and Ministries of Industry and Commerce, Geothermal Development and Research in Iceland (Reykjavik, Iceland: April 2006), p. 16; European per person consumption from European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), «Wind Power on Course to
Become Major European Energy Source by the End of the Decade,» press release (Brussels: 22 November 2004); China's solar water heaters calculated from
Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21),
Renewables Global Status Report, 2006 Update (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 2006), p. 21, and from Bingham Kennedy, Jr., Dissecting China's 2000 Census (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, June 2001); Philippines from Geothermal Energy Association (GEA), «World Geothermal Power Up 50 %, New US Boom Possible,» press release (Washington, DC: 11 April 2002).
(11/15/07) «Ban the Bulb: Worldwide Shift from Incandescents to Compact Fluorescents Could Close 270 Coal - Fired Power Plants» (5/9/07) «Massive Diversion of U.S. Grain to Fuel Cars is Raising World Food Prices» (3/21/07) «Distillery Demand for Grain to Fuel Cars Vastly Understated: World May Be Facing Highest Grain Prices in History» (1/4/07) «Santa Claus is Chinese OR Why China is Rising and the United States is Declining» (12/14/06) «Exploding U.S. Grain Demand for Automotive Fuel Threatens World Food Security and Political Stability» (11/3/06) «The Earth is Shrinking: Advancing Deserts and Rising Seas Squeezing Civilization» (11/15/06) «U.S. Population Reaches 300 Million, Heading for 400 Million: No Cause for Celebration» (10/4/06) «Supermarkets and Service Stations Now Competing for Grain» (7/13/06) «Let's Raise Gas Taxes and Lower Income Taxes» (5/12/06) «Wind Energy Demand Booming: Cost Dropping Below Conventional Sources Marks Key Milestone in U.S. Shift to
Renewable Energy» (3/22/06) «Learning From China: Why the Western Economic Model Will not Work for the World» (3/9/05) «China Replacing the United States and World's Leading Consumer» (2/16/05)» Foreign Policy Damaging U.S. Economy» (10/27/04) «A Short Path to Oil Independence» (10/13/04) «World Food Security Deteriorating: Food Crunch In 2005 Now Likely» (05/05/04) «World Food Prices Rising: Decades of Environmental Neglect Shrinking Harvests in Key Countries» (04/28/04) «Saudis Have U.S. Over a Barrel: Shifting Terms of Trade Between Grain and Oil» (4/14/04) «Europe Leading World Into Age of Wind Energy» (4/8/04) «China's Shrinking Grain Harvest: How Its Growing Grain Imports Will Affect World Food Prices» (3/10/04) «U.S. Leading World Away From Cigarettes» (2/18/04) «Troubling New Flows of Environmental Refugees» (1/28/04) «Wakeup Call on the Food Front» (12/16/03) «Coal: U.S. Promotes While Canada and Europe Move Beyond» (12/3/03) «World Facing Fourth Consecutive Grain Harvest Shortfall» (9/17/03) «Record Temperatures Shrinking World Grain Harvest» (8/27/03) «China Losing War with Advancing Deserts» (8/4/03) «Wind Power Set to
Become World's Leading Energy Source» (6/25/03) «World Creating Food Bubble Economy Based on Unsustainable Use of Water» (3/13/03) «Global Temperature Near Record for 2002: Takes Toll in Deadly Heat Waves, Withered Harvests, & Melting Ice» (12/11/02) «Rising Temperatures & Falling Water Tables Raising Food Prices» (8/21/02) «Water Deficits Growing in Many Countries» (8/6/02) «World Turning to Bicycle for Mobility and Exercise» (7/17/02) «New York: Garbage Capital of the World» (4/17/02) «Earth's Ice Melting Faster Than Projected» (3/12/02) «World's Rangelands Deteriorating Under Mounting Pressure» (2/5/02) «World Wind Generating
Capacity Jumps 31 Percent in 2001» (1/8/02) «This Year May be Second Warmest on Record» (12/18/01) «World Grain Harvest Falling Short by 54 Million Tons: Water Shortages Contributing to Shortfall» (11/21/01) «Rising Sea Level Forcing Evacuation of Island Country» (11/15/01) «Worsening Water Shortages Threaten China's Food Security» (10/4/01) «Wind Power: The Missing Link in the Bush Energy Plan» (5/31/01) «Dust Bowl Threatening China's Future» (5/23/01) «Paving the Planet: Cars and Crops Competing for Land» (2/14/01) «Obesity Epidemic Threatens Health in Exercise - Deprived Societies» (12/19/00) «HIV Epidemic Restructuring Africa's Population» (10/31/00) «Fish Farming May Overtake Cattle Ranching As a Food Source» (10/3/00) «OPEC Has World Over a Barrel Again» (9/8/00) «Climate Change Has World Skating on Thin Ice» (8/29/00) «The Rise and Fall of the Global Climate Coalition» (7/25/00) «HIV Epidemic Undermining sub-Saharan Africa» (7/18/00) «Population Growth and Hydrological Poverty» (6/21/00) «U.S. Farmers Double Cropping Corn And Wind Energy» (6/7/00) «World Kicking the Cigarette Habit» (5/10/00) «Falling Water Tables in China» (5/2/00) Top of page
Renewable energy analyst Vaclav Smil lays out the major drawbacks with wind and solar: The energy it produces is intermittent, there is marginal storage
capacity, it is still too costly, and it takes too long to scale up to
become a meaningful substitute for coal.
But he wholly fails to explain what the implications of the variability problem is (the need for overbuild of generation
capacity and expensive / unfeasible large - scale energy storage), nor whether, if an effort is made to deal practically with these problems in real national electricity grids, the «increasingly cheaper»
renewables will ever
become cheap enough (when all relevant real - world factors are considered) and reliable enough (without natural gas «backup»), to actually substitute for and displace fossil fuels (or nuclear) at the scale required.
note 43, and Global Wind Energy Council, Global Wind 2006 Report (Brussels: 2007), p. 4, with
capacity factor from National
Renewable Energy Laboratory, Power Technologies Energy Data Book (Oak Ridge, TN: DOE, August 2006); Flemming Hansen, «Denmark to Increase Wind Power to 50 % by 2025, Mostly Offshore,»
Renewable Energy Access, 5 December 2006; Global Wind Energy Council, «Global Wind Energy Markets Continue to Boom - 2006 Another Record Year,» press release (Brussels: 2 February 2007), with European per person consumption from European Wind Energy Association, «Wind Power on Course to
Become Major European Energy Source by the End of the Decade,» press release (Brussels: 22 November 2004); China water heaters calculated from
Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century,
Renewables Global Status Report, 2006 Update (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 2006), p. 21, and from Bingham Kennedy, Jr., Dissecting China's 2000 Census (Washington, DC: Population Reference Bureau, June 2001); Iceland National Energy Authority and Ministries of Industry and Commerce, Geothermal Development and Research in Iceland (Reykjavik, Iceland: April 2006), p. 16.
Over the past few years, wind, solar, and natural gas have made up nearly all new electric generating
capacity in the U.S. And earlier this year, wind energy surpassed conventional hydropower to
become the country's largest
renewable resource, with enough installed to power 25 million homes.
That's if coal fired energy stored in dams magically
becomes renewable and the unused
capacity is as great as Neil says.
We are entering the era of «base - cost
renewables», in which wind and solar are cheaper than fossil - based technology, and therefore
become the default choice for new
capacity.
By contrast, in the «stretch» scenarios, it is assumed that interconnection creates a European market for the UK's excess power, and that it
becomes economic to build much more
renewable capacity in the UK - with up to a 35GW supergrid interconnection.