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Renewables Overtake Coal As World's Largest Source of Power Capacity (ft.com)

The world's largest source of power capacity is now renewables, as roughly half a million solar panels were installed every single day last year. In addition, two wind turbines were erected every hour in countries such as China, according to the International Energy Agency. Financial Times reports (Editor's note: may be paywalled; alternate source): Although coal and other fossil fuels remain the largest source of electricity generation, many conventional power utilities and energy groups have been confounded by the speed at which renewables have grown and the rapid drop in costs for the technologies. Average global generation costs for new onshore wind farms fell by an estimated 30 percent between 2010 and 2015 while those for big solar panel plants fell by an even steeper two-thirds, an IEA report published on Tuesday showed. The Paris-based agency thinks costs are likely to fall even further over the next five years, by 15 percent on average for wind and by a quarter for solar power. It said an unprecedented 153 gigawatts of green electricity was installed last year, mostly wind and solar projects, which has more than the total power capacity in Canada. It was also more than the amount of conventional fossil fuel or nuclear power added in 2015, leading renewables to surpass coal's cumulative share of global power capacity -- though not electricity generation. A power plant's capacity is the maximum amount of electricity it can potentially produce. The amount of energy a plant actually generates varies according to how long it produces power over a period of time. Coal power plants supplied close to 39 percent of the world's power in 2015, while renewables, including old hydropower dams, accounted for 23 percent, IEA data show. But the agency expects renewables' share of power generation to rise to 28 percent by 2021, when it predicts they will supply the equivalent of all the electricity generated today in the U.S. and E.U. combined.

4 of 340 comments (clear)

  1. Power != energy by Scareduck · · Score: 0, Troll

    That this still needs to be pointed out shows just how dangerous and naive the green left still is.

    --

    Dog is my co-pilot.

  2. Re:Renewables will never work by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Or you could actually read the fucking article and understand that renewables have a low capacity factor and don't actually generate that much power.

    But please be an arrogant fucktard and assert something that no one has ever said.

  3. Re:Renewables will never work by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: -1, Troll

    So, is it time to go back to all the nay sayers who have over the past 10 years asserted this point was impossible, and say "I told you so"? Or will they just continue to assert that the numbers are all lies, and only coal can make electricity?

    Truth no longer matters. You see the craziest shit put out by the deniers. Even to the point of their lack of understanding the entire power generation physics We still have people who think they are scoring points by pointing out that the sun goes down at night, so you can't use solar.

    --
    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  4. Re:Subsidies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Why are the four replies to the 'Renewables will never work' comment modded down? So you can't see any logical rebuttals, that's why. That's how the Left operate. Idiotic, incompetent, arrogant scumbags. Nation-wreckers.
    'Renewable' energy cannot provide sufficient power without backup from non-renewable energy.