TED Talk Video Recommended for All Citizens
This video here is very impressive and you should watch it! Despite the title, Gore starts with a long and terrifying account of what climate change is doing. So what’s his case for optimism?
Quoting Al Gore: “So the answer to the first question, “Must we change?” is yes, we have to change. Second question, “Can we change?” This is the exciting news! The best projections in the world 16 years ago were that by 2010, the world would be able to install 30 gigawatts of wind capacity. We beat that mark by 14 and a half times over. We see an exponential curve for wind installations now. We see the cost coming down dramatically. Some countries—take Germany, an industrial powerhouse with a climate not that different from Vancouver’s, by the way—one day last December, got 81 percent of all its energy from renewable resources, mainly solar and wind. A lot of countries are getting more than half on an average basis.
“More good news: energy storage, from batteries particularly, is now beginning to take off because the cost has been coming down very dramatically to solve the intermittency problem. With solar, the news is even more exciting! The best projections 14 years ago were that we would install one gigawatt per year by 2010. When 2010 came around, we beat that mark by 17 times over. Last year, we beat it by 58 times over. This year, we’re on track to beat it 68 times over.
“We’re going to win this. We are going to prevail. The exponential curve on solar is even steeper and more dramatic. When I came to this stage 10 years ago, this is where it was. We have seen a revolutionary breakthrough in the emergence of these exponential curves.
“And the cost has come down 10 percent per year for 30 years. And it’s continuing to come down.
“Now, the business community has certainly noticed this, because it’s crossing the grid parity point. Cheaper solar penetration rates are beginning to rise. Grid parity is understood as that line, that threshold, below which renewable electricity is cheaper than electricity from burning fossil fuels. That threshold is a little bit like the difference between 32 degrees Fahrenheit and 33 degrees Fahrenheit, or zero and one Celsius. It’s a difference of more than one degree, it’s the difference between ice and water. And it’s the difference between markets that are frozen up, and liquid flows of capital into new opportunities for investment.
“This is the biggest new business opportunity in the history of the world, and two-thirds of it is in the private sector. We are seeing an explosion of new investment. Starting in 2010, investments globally in renewable electricity generation surpassed fossils. The gap has been growing ever since. The projections for the future are even more dramatic, even though fossil energy is now still subsidized at a rate 40 times larger than renewables. And by the way, if you add the projections for nuclear on here, particularly if you assume that the work many are doing to try to break through to safer and more acceptable, more affordable forms of nuclear, this could change even more dramatically.
“So is there any precedent for such a rapid adoption of a new technology? Well, there are many, but let’s look at cell phones. In 1980, AT&T, then Ma Bell, commissioned McKinsey to do a global market survey of those clunky new mobile phones that appeared then. “How many can we sell by the year 2000?” they asked. McKinsey came back and said, “900,000.” And sure enough, when the year 2000 arrived, they did sell 900,000—in the first three days. And for the balance of the year, they sold 120 times more. And now there are more cell connections than there are people in the world.
“So, why were they not only wrong, but way wrong? I’ve asked that question myself, “Why?”
“And I think the answer is in three parts. First, the cost came down much faster than anybody expected, even as the quality went up. And low-income countries, places that did not have a landline grid—they leap-frogged to the new technology. The big expansion has been in the developing counties. So what about the electricity grids in the developing world? Well, not so hot. And in many areas, they don’t exist.
“There are more people without any electricity at all in India than the entire population of the United States of America. So now we’re getting this: solar panels on grass huts and new business models that make it affordable. Muhammad Yunus financed this one in Bangladesh with micro-credit. This is a village market. Bangladesh is now the fastest-deploying country in the world: two systems per minute on average, night and day.
“And we have all we need: enough energy from the Sun comes to the Earth every hour to supply the full world’s energy needs for an entire year. It’s actually a little bit less than an hour.
“So the answer to the second question, “Can we change?” is clearly “Yes.” And it’s an ever-firmer “yes.”
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I keep seeing things like this. What this story leaves out, though, is huge.
Richard Heinberg’s new book, which can be read online free, called Our Renewable Future, surveys what it would take to transition to a 100% renewable world.
A zillion major challenges…it’s not just producing electricity, there’s also the transport sector, the agriculture sector, the things oil is used for aside from energy like plastic and fertilizer–there are potential solutions to most of these hurdles but accomplishing all of them at once, immediately (which is when it needs to be done) well–seems a bit unlikely.
Mary Wildfire, Spencer, WV
West Virginia’s Mountain View Solar racking up new projects
By Marla Pisciotta, State Journal, September 15, 2016
Installing solar panels on the rooftops of a business or residence is just plain common sense, according to Colin Williams, vice president of sales and marketing for Mountain View Solar.
Williams said solar power isn’t just for businesses; it’s for residential homes, churches and schools. MVS does installations throughout West Virginia and is licensed in five other states and currently employs 20 people.
MVS has installed the largest solar array in the state on a university and is the first energy company to install more than 300 panels on a roof of a hotel in Harpers Ferry. The company installed more than 1,600 solar array panels at the American Public University in Charles Town, which is the state’s largest project.
Other installations include churches, funeral homes, schools, a beer distributor in Martinsburg, a wastewater treatment plant in Hurricane and the Morgan County courthouse. The 100-room Clarion Hotel and Conference Center was fitted with 289 solar panels. “The length and cost of installation depends on the size of the project,” Williams said.
The Clarion received a USDA REAP grant, which covered 25 percent of the project cost, Williams said. The Clarion project took two weeks to install. A typical residential array may take a day or two to install and could cost between $15,000 and $25,000.
Williams said 30 percent of that is a federal tax credit, which helps offset the cost of the system. “It takes about 10 to 12 years to recoup the cost,” he said. “Equipment is warranted 25 years. It’s an excellent long-term investment.”
“Commercial projects will see a return on their investment in about six years,” Williams said.
Williams said back in the 1970s solar panels heated hot water and had a short life span. Solar photovoltaic, also called PV, is the technology required to convert solar energy to electricity.
“Solar photovoltaic, means light/power, taking light and turning it into electricity,” Williams said. “Electric instead of water — electric can be used for anything.”
Williams said the solar industry is experiencing rapid growth.
“The company becomes busier in the fourth quarter of the year when people start making home improvements before the end of the year,” Williams said.
He said it’s one of the fastest growing sectors of our economy. Williams said West Virginia gets 95 percent as much sunlight as Florida, and gets far more sunlight than Germany. Right now Germany is leading the world in solar deployment.
WIND POWER: EASY, BREEZY, BEAUTIFUL
Watch a GIF map of U.S. wind power growing like crazy.
< < Courtesy of the Natural Resources Defense Council >>
Over the past 10 years, the country has shifted from pale to dark blue, representing an increase in the gigawatt hours we’re capturing from the breeze.
Though wind power only supplied 4.7 percent of U.S. electricity in 2015, we’re getting better at harnessing energy from the zephyrs blowing overhead, especially in the West and the Great Plains. And those turbine blades are poised to keep on turnin’: Renewable energy generation is on track to double from 2015 levels by 2021.
By the looks of this map, the Southeast has some catching up to do!
Source: http://grist.org/briefly/watch-a-gif-of-u-s-wind-power-growing-like-crazy/