Renewables Sources of Electricity Are Coming Into Their Own

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/516656/renewables-sources-of-electricity-are-coming-into-their-own/

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Kevin Bullis
June 28, 2013
[font size=5]Renewables Sources of Electricity Are Coming Into Their Own[/font]

[font size=4]The International Energy Agency predicts that by 2016 more electricity will come from renewables than from natural gas.[/font]

[font size=3]Wind and solar power keep getting cheaper, and that’s encouraging their adoption even as government subsidies falter, a new report from the International Energy Agency concludes. In just a few years, more power will come from renewables than from natural gas, the report said.

“As their costs continue to fall, renewable power sources are increasingly standing on their own merits versus new fossil-fuel generation,” IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said in an IEA press release. The IEA notes that wind is now competitive with fossil fuels in places such as Brazil and New Zealand. Solar competes with fossil fuels for peak electricity production.

But here’s some context: while renewable energy use is growing, so is the use of coal, which means that so far, carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise (see “Renewables Can't Keep Up with the Growth in Coal Use Worldwide”). Coal is attractive because it’s cheap, and because it produces electricity on demand—it’s not subject to the time of day or the weather.

Can the balance shift? Solar and wind power need to continue getting cheaper (and they are), and utilities need to demonstrate technological solutions to the intermittency of renewable energy. Development of base load sources of renewable power like hydropower and geothermal can also help.

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[Hydra]

1. We should have been here 30 years ago

Dirty power gets huge subsidies while clean power gets mocked for being "too expensive."

That's even before we discuss things like the Deepwater Horizen Disaster or Fukishima.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Perhaps we should have

However, we cannot go back and change our past, only only hope is to change our future.

[Hydra]

3. I know, and people are still fighting it

Fracking, Keystone, "clean" coal.

I've been fighting for it for years- we need to get to 100% renewable and clean ASAP. It may be too late for the climate, but we'll need it anyway.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. If it's too late for the climate…

…it’s too late for us.

[Hydra]

5. Pretty much

The people that will have to go underground will need to figure out geothermal and other clean methods.

I figure we're beyond the tip point as of last year, personally. Storms of the Century every season, Arctic ice almost disappeared, and now we find out that Antarctic ice has been melting from the bottom so we're a lot further along in this process than we thought.

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. I wouldn’t count on living underground

Food will need to come from somewhere…

I suppose with sufficient time…

[Hydra]

7. I'm not volunteering for it

But you saw those tornadoes in the Midwest? The Droughts? Hurricane Sandy?

You won't be able to live above ground in a consistent fashion soon. The people who are determined to survive will have to move underground and adapt to constant 50 degree temps, no natural sunlight and like you said, a much more difficult time growing food and raising animals.

We're a survivor species though- people will move underground, underwater, anyplace that will allow a decent survival rate.

[GliderGuider]

8. Yes, we are a survivor species.

Any species that comes back from something like Toba in only 75,000 years is going to be around for a while yet.

The problem we'e thinking about here isn't 10,000 years out, though. It's going to play out over the next 50 years or less. I don't think we're going to go underground, though. Those of us who live in crap locations but are able to relocate are going to move. And if there are already people in the place we want to move to, well - we'll work it out like we have for the last 50,000 years. Our leaders will tell us that going underground like moles represents ignominious defeat, while going to war for other people's land is glorious. I can hear the slogans now: "It's better to die for land like heroes than to hide under it like cowards!"