Shanghai’s Unbelievable Pollution Problem Started The Week Badly, Ended Worse

[Correll]

But solar, wind, and other clean energy? They’re expanding. Last year, they attracted a record $329 billion in investment—nearly six times the total in 2004, according to a report this month by Bloomberg New Energy Finance or BNEF. Wind and solar also installed a record amount of power capacity.

The clean energy revolution is not entirely immune to cheap oil, which has lowered prices at the pump. In the United States, where gas prices are now below $2 a gallon in many places, sales of SUVs rose last year while those for electric vehicles fell after several years of growth. Yet globally, sales of EVs continue to increase.

“We’re not saying there’s no impact, but we’re not seeing a significant impact yet,” says Angus McCrone, BNEF’s chief editor. “There’s a lot of momentum behind clean energy.”
Why Solar and Wind Are Thriving Despite Cheap Fossil Fuels

And now that the installation of grid scale storage has began, solar and wind will only continue to go down in price. Even natural gas cannot compete.

Every time I dig in to check the claimed numbers I find that solar and wind are only competitive because of government subsidies.

Maybe some day they will actually be competitive.


But not today.

Quit lying. You do not 'dig' into the numbers at all, you just flap ignorant yap. Otherwise you would link to your sources, as I do.

Sure I have. It takes time. and motivation, which I currently lack. But I have done so in the past, and every time, somewhere, you find it.

Solar and wind is not ready.

 

[Old Rocks]

Electricity enabled by fossil fuels trades at roughly 7-7.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, but just outside L.A. a new plant currently in the works is set to 3.6 cents per kilowatt-hour. Elsewhere, in Dubai, a bid worth a record-breaking US 2.99 cents per kilowatt hour was accepted. Solar energy is already cheaper than coal in the world’s second most populated country, India.

All of these prices were made subsidies not included, unlike coal, gas or oil which amount to $452 billion each year across G20 states.

Last December, Congress extended the federal investment tax credit which gives a tax credit of 30 percent of the value of solar projects. Under the new scheme, the 30 percent solar tax credit will extend through 2019 and then decline gradually to 10 percent in 2022. After 2022 the credit will be eliminated for residential solar installations and will continue at 10 percent for commercial ones.

Meanwhile, fossil fuels will still be subsidized even though the tech is centuries old. Apparently, solar and wind deserve subsidies only for a couple of years until they’ve matured, which if fair in this context, but not in the larger one where fossil fuels still retain enormous subsidies. This is essentially a form of disloyal competition.

Despite this setback, solar energy contractors are already working hard to push the solar energy kilowatt-hour price tag down to the point where it’s least just as cheap as fossil fuels post-2020 — tax credits or not.

That’s a nationwide plan, in the United States, because solar energy is already cheaper without subsidies than subsidized fossil fuels in many sunny places. So far, 30 million Americans enjoy clean solar energy that’s cheaper than their fossil run utility electricity.

Solar energy now cheaper than fossil fuels even without subsidies

Solar and wind are going to push coal out of the market very soon, and natural gas out a couple of decades down the road.

Sure it is. I've been hearing that song for decades.


Can't be bothered to dig though your numbers today. In the past, these claims have always been false.

LOL Can't be bothered. LOL In other words, you cannot find anything that contradicts the figures from a credible source.

 

[Old Rocks]

Welcome to the PowerWeb Renewable Energy data and information section. On this page, we provide detailed charts and data from the leading publishers of the latest Wind Energy and Solar Photovoltaic (PV) forecasts. At this time, our data is limited to Wind and Solar but we may add other key segments, such as hydroelectric power. The data covers the world market for Wind and PV installations and we present both total cumulative installations and annual net new installations. In the following, we measure installation output by megawatts (MW) and gigawatts (GW).

Wind & Solar (worldwide) Wind Total Capacity Wind New Installations Solar Total Capacity Solar New Installations
2017 Forecast: 564.9 GW 68.0 GW 355.0 GW 67.0 GW
2016 Preliminary: 496.9 GW 64.0 GW 285.0 GW 61.0 GW
2016-2017 Change +13.7% +6.3% +24.6% +9.8%

Wind Cumulative Installations Wind Net New Installations Solar Cumulative Installations Solar Net New Installations

Wind & Solar Energy Installation Data: 2000-2015 Actuals + 2016-2020 Forecast
The world market for renewable energy is booming and accounts for a small but rapidly growing share of total world energy consumption. In 2015, total investments in clean energy reached a new high of $329 billion worldwide. 2015 was a stellar year for the wind industry setting a new record with more than 63 GW installed, which brought the global total capacity to 433 GW. China led the way with a record 31 GW of new installed capacity, breaking the nation's previous record set last year. China now has more than 145 GW of wind power installed or more than the European Union. In 2015, China was the first nation ever to invest more than $100 billion in renewable energy in one year.

From being an expensive curiosity in research labs and on satellites in the 1980s, solar power has become a major challenger to conventional electricity generation technologies. The global solar PV industry experienced a new year of growth in 2015 reaching a total capacity of 229 GW, or more than 100 times the capacity in 2000. More than 50 GW of PV systems were installed globally in 2015 (40 GW in 2014). The forecast for 2016 and 2017 is 61 GW and 67 GW of global net new installations, respectively. In 2015, utility-scale PV systems dominated the global solar market, accounting for 32.6 GW equal to a 2/3 share of new installations.


Global Wind & Solar Installations in Gigawatts (GW)
Go to top of page
Global Cumulative Installations 2000-2020e

Wind Energy and Solar | Installed GW Capacity - Global and by Country

Don't we all wish we had a bank account with that growth rate. Given that the first grid scale storage is now being installed, that growth curve will increase, and coal and gas plants will be shut down as the costs of the renewables continue to come down. Solar and wind definitely are ready, up and running, the future of energy.