The US Energy Information Administration has this week predicted that electricity generated from wind energy will surpass that from hydroelectricity, the previously-dominant renewable energy source in the US.
GE announced its fourth quarter and full-year 2017 results this week, and its renewable energy division GE Renewable Energy highlighted its own performance, including a total of $10.4 billion worth of orders and $10.3 billion of sales.
A new report published by the International Renewable Energy Agency has concluded that onshore wind, hydropower, geothermal, and bioenergy-for-power projects commissioned during 2017 were largely found to be on par with fossil fuel-based electricity technologies, while solar PV costs are expected to halve by 2020.
With the United States pulling out of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, China has solidified its position as the dominant global clean energy powerhouse in 2017, and is set to lead the way in clean energy which is expected to lead the way in global power capacity additions for at least the next two decades.
Coal and nuclear stakeholders are using this week’s cold snap to argue against renewable energy, but the evidence so far indicates that the 20th century baseload model is out of step with 21st century weather patterns.
Every year, the California Energy Commission releases its Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) report, which gives details about the mix of energy experienced by all utilities within the state during the preceding 12 months. The report for this year, released in November, shows that all three of the state’s investor-owned utilities — Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric — are projected to derive 50% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. That is a full decade ahead of schedule. PG&E reports it used 32.9% renewable energy in the past year. The figure for SoCal Edison was 28.2%. San Diego Gas & Electric led the pack with 43.2% renewable energy.
France has passed new legislation banning the extraction of fossil fuels by 2040 as it seeks to become a leader in the transition to renewable energy.
The Wisconsin Conservative Energy Forum says it will try to educate Republican leaders about the virtues of clean renewable power. It’s going to be a tough sell in Cheesehead Nation.
So that’s HVDC and why the electricity you use will increasingly come through HVDC transmission. It gets more power delivered over longer distances, it’s increasingly economically viable, it works better underground, it works better underwater, it can dodge NIMBYs and it reduces the challenge of variable renewable generation. It’s one of the top innovations in the world of electricity, and it’s coming soon to a grid near you.
A new study has found that wind and solar indirect lifecycle emissions are not only on the lower scale compared to other generation technologies, but would result in only minor indirect greenhouse gas emissions if a full decarbonization of the global electricity sector was achieved with these technologies.
