Renewables Dethrone King Coal
https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/renewables-generated-more-power-than-coal-in-april

For the first time ever, renewable energy supplied more power to the U.S. electricity grid than coal-fired plants for 47 days straight. The run is impressive because it trounces the previous record of nine continuous days last June and exceeds the total number of days renewables beat coal in all of 2019 (38 days).

the figures for April speak volumes: wind, hydropower, and utility-scale solar sources produced 58.7 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity compared with coal’s 40.6 TWh—or 22.2% and 15.3% of the market respectively.

In reality, the gap between the two sources is likely to be much larger, says Wamsted. That’s because the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) database, where IEEFA obtains its data from, excludes power generated by rooftop solar panels, which itself is a huge power source.

The first time this happened was last year, also in April. The month marks “shoulder season,” he says, “when heating is coming off but air-conditioning hasn’t really kicked in yet.” It’s when electricity demand is typically the lowest, which is why many power plants schedule their yearly maintenance during this time.

Spring is also when wind and hydropower generation peak

With the pandemic placing most of the country in lockdown and economic activity declining, the EIA estimates that U.S. demand for electric power will fall by 5% in 2020. This, in turn, will drive coal production down by a quarter. In contrast, renewables are still expected to grow by 11%.

“Renewables have been on an inexorable rise for the last 10 years, increasingly eating coal’s lunch,”

A decade ago, the average coal plant generated as much as 67% of its capacity. Today, that figure has dropped to 48%. And in the next five years, coal production is expected to fall to two-thirds of 2014 levels—a decline of 90 gigawatts (GW)—as increasing numbers of plants shut.

“And that’s without policy changes that we anticipate will strengthen in the U.S., in which more than a third of people are in a state, city, or utility with a 100% clean energy goal,”

The transition towards renewables is one that’s being observed all across the world today. Global use of coal-powered electricity fell 3% last year, the biggest drop on record after nearly four decades. In Europe, the figure was 24%. The region has been remarkably progressive in its march towards renewable energy—last month saw both Sweden and Austria closing their last remaining coal plants, while the U.K. went through its longest coal-free stretch (35 days) since the Industrial Revolution more than 230 years ago.

But coal is still king in many parts of the world. For developing countries where electricity can be scarce and unreliable, the fossil fuel is often seen as the best option for power.

The good news, however, is that the world’s two largest consumers of coal are investing heavily in renewables.

Today, renewable energy sources offer the cheapest form of power in two-thirds of the world, and they look set to get cheaper. They now provide up to 30% of global electricity demand, a figure is expected to grow to 50% by 2050. As a recent United Nations report put it: renewables are now “looking all grown up.”

Heavy dependence on oil, gas, and coal may dissipate sooner than you think as the infrastructure matures around alternative sources like wind and solar.

A news release went out from Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office, saying that New York was going to divest its vast pension-fund investments in fossil fuels. The state, Cuomo said, would be “ceasing all new investments in entities with significant fossil-fuel-related activities,” and he would set up a committee with Thomas DiNapoli, the state comptroller, to figure out how to “decarbonize” the existing portfolio.

The Kapaia project is a combination 13MW SolarCity solar farm and 53MWh Tesla Powerpack station on the island of Kauai. In partnership with the KIUC (Kauai Island Utility Cooperative) the project will store the sun’s energy during the day and release it at night. The station (along with Kauai’s other renewable resource solutions including wind and biomass) won’t completely keep the island from using fossil fuels but it will temper the need. In addition to using Tesla’s station to battle the island’s incredibly high electric bills, it’s also part of a long-term Hawaii-state plan to be completely powered by renewable energy sources by 2045.

Tesla’s new solar energy station will power Hawaii at night
Energy generated during the day will power Kauai when the sun goes down.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/03/08/teslas-new-solar-energy-station-will-power-hawaii-at-night/

Renewable energy supplies are great because they produce power without filling the air with pollution. Yet, once the sun goes down solar panels become pretty useless. But Tesla and Hawaii have a solution that’ll use the sun’s rays both day and night using Powerpacks built at the Gigafactory.

The Kapaia project is a combination 13MW SolarCity solar farm and 53MWh Tesla Powerpack station on the island of Kauai. In partnership with the KIUC (Kauai Island Utility Cooperative) the project will store the sun’s energy during the day and release it at night. The station (along with Kauai’s other renewable resource solutions including wind and biomass) won’t completely keep the island from using fossil fuels but it will temper the need.

In addition to using Tesla’s station to battle the island’s incredibly high electric bills, it’s also part of a long-term Hawaii-state plan to be completely powered by renewable energy sources by 2045.

In an effort to improve air quality, the Chinese government has canceled over 100 coal-fired power plants in 11 provinces — totaling a combined installed capacity of more than 100 gigawatts. Reuters reports:

In latest move, China halts over 100 coal power projects
http://in.reuters.com/article/china-coal-idINKBN1511A2

China’s energy regulator has ordered 11 provinces to stop more than 100 coal-fired power projects, with a combined installed capacity of more than 100 gigawatts, its latest dramatic step to curb the use of fossil fuels in the world’s top energy market.

A transformation is happening in global energy markets that’s worth noting as 2016 comes to an end: Solar power, for the first time, is becoming the cheapest form of new electricity.

World Energy Hits a Turning Point: Solar That’s Cheaper Than Wind
Emerging markets are leapfrogging the developed world thanks to cheap panels
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-15/world-energy-hits-a-turning-point-solar-that-s-cheaper-than-wind

At least 6 major countries, including Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland, have all recently — several within the past few weeks — announced the imminent phase-out of all coal-fired power plants. Electrek reports

6 major countries have recently announced imminent phase-out of all coal-fired power plants
https://electrek.co/2016/11/25/6-major-countries-phase-out-coal/

As of late, the idea of getting rid of coal in their own national electricity grid has become a popular one among several major nations across the world. At 6 least major countries, including Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and now Finland, have all recently announced the imminent phase-out of all coal-fired power plants.

Several of the announcement have been made just in the past few weeks since the Paris Agreement became effective earlier this month.

Earlier this week, Canada, which has already significantly reduced its use of coal to about 7% of its energy generation, announced a phase of the resource by 2030. The country’s strong hydropower should keep dominating its energy generation, but the country has also been investing in wind and solar to make up the difference.

A week before Canada’s announcement, France announced a more aggressive timeline of 2023 for its own phase-out of coal, but it should be more easily achievable since they have already reduced the use of coal to 3% of their electricity generation – thanks to a strong local nuclear industry.

As of last week, Germany official approved its Climate Action Plan 2050, which technically includes a phase-out of at least half the coal-fired power plants by 2030 and the rest could follow by the end of the 2050 timeframe of the action plan.

Finland is the latest country to join the group, but it also announced a more aggressive solution of simply banning entirely the use of coal to produce energy by 2030. The country gets about 12% of its electricity from coal, which it has to import.

Who’s going to be next? It’s unlikely to be the US, which gets about 33% of its total electricity generation from coal.

Two Chinese firms plan to build a solar power plant in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, which has been off limits since a devastating explosion contaminated the region with deadly radiation in 1986. GCL System Integration Technology (GCL-SI), a subsidiary of the GCL Group, said it would cooperate with China National Complete Engineering Corp (CCEC) on the project in Ukraine, with construction expected to start next year.

Chinese solar firm to build plant in Chernobyl exclusion zone
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-solar-chernobyl-idUSKBN13G0DM

“There will be remarkable social benefits and economic ones as we try to renovate the once damaged area with green and renewable energy,” Shu Hua, the chairman of GCL-SI, said in a press release.

The 1-gigawatt plant was part of the group’s plan to build an international presence, he added.

“Ukraine has passed a law allowing the site to be developed for agriculture and other things, so that means (the radiation) is under control,”

In a bid to protect farms from urban encroachment, China has been trying to encourage the use of damaged or contaminated land for solar and wind power projects, with plants now operating in subsidence-hit regions of Shanxi, the country’s top coal province.

China is the world’s biggest solar power generator, with 43 gigawatts of capacity by the end of last year. It is also the world’s top manufacturer, producing 72 percent of global solar power components in 2015, according to a research note by Everbright Securities last week.