Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Western Europe and Scandinavia have been held up as leaders in moving to a low-carbon future in electricity generation, but the reality is very mixed. Scandinavia benefits from its large hydroelectric resources, relative to population size, and therefore has a very low electricity carbon footprint. France is low carbon due to its predominantly nuclear-based generating capacity.
As captains of the fossil fuel industries and their lobbyists prepare to take over the White House – appointed by a President elected by a minority, claiming to represent the people on an anti-elite ticket yet possessing by far the highest cumulative wealth of any cabinet ever – they will face evidence breaking out all around them of a fast-moving global energy transition threatening to strand the fossil fuels they seek to boost.
Authors Richard Heinberg and David Fridley in their recent book Our Renewable Future make the case for a society that runs on 100 percent renewable energy. But they don’t pull any punches, giving us both the good news and the bad news.
The global energy transition remains in a state of net forward momentum as of the end of November.
Ireland is one of the most advanced countries in energy transition, getting over a quarter of its electricity from renewables.
The cost of wind power has been falling steadily again since the 2008 price spike, and newer projects have been coming in at 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, making them very competitive with natural gas fired power and ranking among the very lowest-cost ways to generate electricity. But can wind prices keep falling, or have they bottomed out?
"I don’t know what comes next. I just know that the people are going to continue to resist, and it’s a great moment to be alive."
Trump’s win will slow climate action and renewables, but as the reactions at COP 22 show already, he will fail in his fossil promises
The post-Paris climate negotiations should not be viewed as a stand alone process.
Although futurists aren’t supposed to make predictions, the notion that our energy system is switching much more quickly than expected from fossil fuels to renewables, and that solar energy will be at the front of that change, suddenly doesn’t seem so controversial.
Let’s acknowledge that the situation we are in, as depicted in Part 1, is complex.
The transition to 100% renewable energy raises profound questions for the future of our communities and infrastructure.
