Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumCheap Coal Is Dead. Long Live Renewable Age (Part 1)
"...In March, the power generating arm of Indias largest conglomerate, the Tata Group, announced that it was shifting its investment strategy from coal-fired thermal plants to wind and solar renewable projects. Coal projects, Tata said, were becoming impossible to develop, and investment in them had stopped.With this declaration, one of Asias biggest energy players confirmed an emerging reality. The U.S., Europe, Russia, Australia and Japan all had created modern consumer economies dependent on abundant, cheap fossil-fuel energy. In the 21st century that is no longer viable; the high-carbon growth path is closing...."
By Carl Pope, Bloomberg
June 20, 2012
"Sustainable Energy for All" is the main theme for this week's Rio+20 United Nations gathering in Brazil. The challenge of making energy both accessible and sustainable has grown more complicated in the past year or so, and also more exciting. These are tough times for coal and other high-carbon sources of energy, while the news about clean energy is more promising.
In March, the power generating arm of Indias largest conglomerate, the Tata Group, announced that it was shifting its investment strategy from coal-fired thermal plants to wind and solar renewable projects. Coal projects, Tata said, were becoming impossible to develop, and investment in them had stopped.
With this declaration, one of Asias biggest energy players confirmed an emerging reality. The U.S., Europe, Russia, Australia and Japan all had created modern consumer economies dependent on abundant, cheap fossil-fuel energy. In the 21st century that is no longer viable; the high-carbon growth path is closing.
The reason is cost. Oil has long been expensive, because low-cost oil producers such as Saudi Arabia have learned to demand high prices by limiting supplies and refusing to sign long-term price agreements. Coal had always been different traded locally, on both long-term concessions and short-term spot contracts. Two years ago, China and India could supplement their domestic coal supplies with imports from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa. Some of the cheapest coal mines serving China in 2010 were in Indonesia, where Indias Adani Power Ltd. and Tata were purchasing coal mines and building their own shipping and port facilities to ensure they could supply a wave of huge new power projects.
Geologically Abundant
While coal is geologically more abundant than oil, cheap coal, close to population centers, is not. The biggest ....
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/06/cheap-coal-is-dead-long-live-renewable-age-part-1??cmpid=GeoNL-Thursday-June21-2012
freshwest
(53,661 posts)kristopher
(29,798 posts)As investment in renewables grows, they become ever more attractive economically and the process accelerates...
"Further investment depends on the future market design"...
Future market design equals either 'centralized thermal' (which includes fossil fuels and nuclear) or distributed renewables.
21 June 2012
On June 20, German utility RWE said it was permanently withdrawing from building nuclear power plants and has also put on hold any plans for new fossil-fuelled projects. RWE, which operates nuclear reactors in Germany and owns a stake in the Netherlands only atomic power plant, has already withdrawn from the Horizon project in the UK, a nuclear joint venture with E.ON.
Chief executive-designate Peter Terium told journalists that the company is pulling out of nuclear because the financial risk is no longer acceptable and is unreasonable for our shareholders. Terium, who will take over as chief executive next month, said that decision was taken because of uncertainty over German energy policy.
...The plan to suspend until further notice any fossil-fuelled power plants is unexpected, and Terium said the freeze will stay in place until there is some clarity on the future of Germanys energy regulatory framework. Further investment depends on the future market design, he added.
...
http://www.hazardexonthenet.net/article/51192/RWE-pulls-out-of-nuclear-sector-and-puts-fossil-fuel-plants-on-hold.aspx?AreaID=2
Blanks
(4,835 posts)... switching to solar and wind will have an effect on the production of windmills and PV (perhaps concentrated solar power also). With an increase in the number of people working on it; there should be more innovation and improved manufacturing processes.
I especially hope that this spurs improvement in stirling engines. I've believed for some time that concentrated solar power would be more prevalent were it not for the lack of a good affordable stirling engine.
India has been using biogas for cooking for a while; hopefully this shift will benefit a lot of people.
kristopher
(29,798 posts)But as the OP shows, the economics are pushing them in the right direction.
The benefit of CSP isn't going to manifest itself as economic value for quite a while yet. As far as production of electricity goes, it is now more costly than PV; that means the storage element has to provide enough added value to compensate for the shortfall. Until renewable penetration is far higher than it is now and there is a carbon tax of some sort the role of storage is going to grow much more slowly than the rest of the renewable infrastructure.
I'd recommend keeping your eyes on Africa; I think the latent potential for early adoption of renewables there is far greater than most people realize.