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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.
Yes, they've been doing exactly that with oil for generations. The petrochemical corporations have even persuaded governments to fight wars on their behalf.
The effect on the competition has been devastating.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Exactly.. We spent $2 trillion dollars and over 4,000 lives to protect Oil Company interests in the middle east.
That's a huge subsidy that doesn't get counted as a subsidy.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
The headline is wrong, as usual. In fact even reading the summary shows you it can't be right:
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
So renewables are around half of what coal is. If you look at the original article, even just the sub-header, you'll see that:
153 GigaWatts of renewables make up over half the new capacity added globally.
That's "new capacity added so far this year", not "total capacity" as the headline here claims.