Five Things To Remember While Explaining Climate Change

How to persuade people that climate change is real

Alexander Maki, November 28, 2017

“…[The Trump administration has asked for $12 billion to help communities fight climate-change-related flooding…[W]e don’t know whether Trump has actually come to agree with the scientific consensus that humans have caused a drastic change in Earth’s climate…But the news prompts the question: What exactly does change minds about climate science? Research suggests that a variety of messages can influence people’s agreement with the scientific consensus that the Earth is warming and humans are contributing to it. And different people may respond differently to different kinds of messages…[First, a] growing body of research on climate change communication…[shows that,] in general, matching messenger to audience leads to more effective messages…[Second,] tailoring messages to fit the audience’s values can make people more willing to believe climate science…[Third, educating] people about the science can make a difference…[but it is not clear that] metaphors or narratives can help…[Fourth, emphasizing] risk may spur people to action…[Much research] suggests that when people experience extreme weather or have noticed changes in the local weather, they are more likely to believe that climate change is occurring…[And] research suggests that when individuals and communities feel that they can help mitigate climate change, they’re more likely to act…” click here for more

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Ten Reasons To Back Solar

10 Facts About Solar Energy That Might Surprise You

Travis Hoium, November 26, 2017 (Motley Fool via Nasdaq)

“…1. Solar power is the most abundant energy source on Earth…Every ounce of oil, every lump of coal, and every cubic foot of natural gas could be left in the ground if only we could capture one hour's worth of solar energy each year…2. Solar panel costs have fallen 99% since 1977…3. Solar Energy is cheaper than fossil fuels…4. Solar power plants can last 40 years or more…5. China is the world leader in solar energy ... by a lot…6. California is the U.S. star in solar…7. 39% of new electricity production capacity installed in 2016 was solar…8. Solar is the fastest energy source to deploy…9. There's probably a solar panel near you…Target (NYSE: TGT) is the largest corporate solar energy buyer, with 147.5 MW of solar generation, and Walmart (NYSE: WMT) is second with 145.0 MW…10. Utilities are giving people solar options…The bottom line is that solar is booming around the world, and the trend shows no signs of slowing down…” click here for more

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How The Tax Debate Misunderstands Wind

Fact Check: What critics are getting wrong about wind power during the tax reform debate

Greg Alvarez, November 21, 2017 (Into The Wind)

“…[Skeptics of wind power are using the House tax reform proposal] to spread misleading information, especially about the Production Tax Credit (PTC) that has unleashed the private capital needed for wind to scale up…The reality is that tax credits for wind energy are already in the midst of an orderly phaseout and will be gone after 2019. In the meantime, this policy is achieving its goals: creating tens of thousands of new jobs, triggering massive investment in rural America, and generating affordable electricity…[But the House’s tax reform proposes] deep cuts in the value of the remaining tax credits…[and new retroactive rules] that companies cannot go back in time to comply with…[It threatens] projects already underway with cancellation…[and puts at risk] 60,000 U.S. jobs and $50 billion of private investment in new infrastructure…[Yet conservatives continue to spread] false and misleading information about wind…The Senate’s tax reforms do] by U.S. wind workers and all the rural Americans who are counting on this new cash crop to revitalize their communities…” click here for more

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The Climate Change-Child Bride Linkage

Why climate change is creating a new generation of child brides; As global warming exacerbates drought and floods, farmers’ incomes plunge – and girls as young as 13 are given away to stave off poverty

Gethin Chambelain, 26 November 2017 (UK Guardian)

Editor’s note: This lengthy and detailed piece of superb reporting deserves more space than the NewEnergyNews format can give it. Click through and read it.

“It was the flood that ensured that Ntonya Sande’s first year as a teenager would also be the first year of her married life. Up to the moment the water swept away her parents’ field in Kachaso in the Nsanje district of Malawi, they had been scraping a living…Afterwards they were reduced to scavenging for bits of firewood to sell…So when a young man came to their door and asked for the 13-year old’s hand in marriage, the couple didn’t think about it for too long, lest he look elsewhere. Ntonya begged them to change their minds. She was too young, she pleaded. She didn’t want to leave. But it was to no avail. Her parents sat her down and spelled it out for her: the weather had changed and taken everything from them. There was not enough food to go around. They couldn’t afford another mouth at the table…That night she lay down in bed for the first time with the man she had never seen before and followed the instructions of her aunt, who had coached her on the important matter of sex. Ten months later, she gave birth to their first daughter…Everyone has their own idea of what climate change looks like…But for more and more girls across Africa, the most palpable manifestation of climate change is the baby in their arms as they sit watching their friends walk to school…” click here for more

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Smart Home Mrkt To Boom 10X In 10 Years

The Smart Home; Integrated Hardware, Software, and Service Platforms for the Smart Home: Global Market Analysis and Forecasts

4Q 2017 (Navigant Research)

“…Homes that act intuitively and intelligently through an ecosystem of communicating devices, software, and services can enrich consumers’ lives by fostering increased comfort, awareness, convenience, and cost and energy savings…The automation and data stemming from smart technologies [into the cloud] can enable the home to become a dynamic grid asset that helps shift and shed load, generate clean energy, and contribute to grid reliability…[M]any challenges must be overcome…[because fragmented standards and protocols create] interoperability issues…[But the smart home concept] is gaining traction, and smart home solutions likely represent the future of the residential Internet of Things (IoT) and a vital component of the digital grid. According to Navigant Research, global smart home platform revenue is expected to increase from $4.2 billion in 2017 to $39.5 billion in 2026…” click here for more

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Pace Of EV Boom Steps Up

Global Electric Car Sales Jump 63 Percent

Anna Hirtenstein, November 20, 2017 (Bloomberg News)

“…Sales of battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids exceeded 287,000 units in the three months ended in September, 63 percent higher than the same quarter a year ago and up 23 percent from the second quarter…China accounted for more than half of global sales as its market for electric cars doubled amid government efforts to curb pollution…[Bloomberg New Energy Finance] expects global EV sales to surpass 1 million units this year for the first time. The market for electrified transport is starting to pick up speed as charging infrastructure becomes more accessible and manufacturers roll out models with longer driving ranges. In 2017, many established carmakers from Jaguar Land Rover to Volvo Cars announced plans to bring electric versions of their vehicles to market in the next few years…Several governments have also announced targets for cleaner transport…France and the U.K. said they will ban sales of new gasoline and diesel-burning cars by 2040, while the Netherlands is targeting that all new cars sold by 2030 will be emissions-free. China -- the world’s largest auto market -- is mulling its own ban, and even California is considering following suit…” click here for more

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Online Deniers Falsely Used NASA Study About Antarctic Melt

No, NASA Antarctica study didn’t discredit climate change science

Amy Sherman, November 20, 2017 (PundcitFact via PolitiFact)

“…[An online news headline referenced a real study by NASA but falsely suggested] the study debunks climate change advocates. A NASA scientist involved in the study…[said] the headline is inaccurate…[The study found] a geothermal heat source called a mantle plume lies deep below Antarctic Marie Byrd Land, explaining some of the melting that creates lakes and rivers under the ice sheet…The heat source isn’t new or increasing, but may help explain why the ice sheet collapsed so rapidly in an earlier area of climate change and remains unstable…[But the] NASA study is about the bottom of the ice sheet. Climate change has had an impact on the top of the ice sheet. Warmer ocean waters intruding on the ice shelf causes the ice shelves to break up. When grounded ice sheets exit the land and go into the water that causes sea level rise…[The researchers say nothing] in the study has anything to do with climate change…We rate [the online news story’s] claim False.” click here for more

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The EV As A Mini Power Plant

How your electric car could be 'a virtual power station'

Theo Leggett, 21 November 2017 (BBC News)

“…There are currently more than a billion vehicles on the road worldwide…The overwhelming majority run on petrol or diesel…But [m]anufacturers are investing heavily in developing both hybrid and pure electric models to help meet tightening emissions standards…Towns and cities want to impose restrictions on conventional cars to reduce pollution; and in the long term, some countries…want to ban them altogether…[The] number of electric cars is almost certainly going to increase dramatically over the next few years…But will we be able to generate all the electricity that millions of battery-powered vehicles will require? [The anticipated demand may not be as high as it would seem because ‘smart charging’] will allow vehicles to draw power only when it is readily available, avoiding peak periods, while ensuring that they are fully charged when their owners need them…[And it could] go a step further…[Vehicle to Grid, or V2G, may use software to regulate the charging level of multiple EVs as] energy storage devices…[that] provide specific services back to the grid…” click here for more

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New Energy Price Knocks Coal, Nuclear Out Of The Market

New study reaches a stunning conclusion about the cost of solar and wind energy; Building new renewables is now cheaper than just running old coal and nuclear plants.

Joe Romm, November 20, 2017 (ThinkProgress)

“In one of the fastest and most astonishing turnarounds in the history of energy, building and running new renewable energy is now cheaper than just running existing coal and nuclear plants in many areas…[According to Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis (LCOE) 11.0, the cost for utility scale solar and wind power in North America] dropped 6 percent last year, while the price for coal remained flat and the cost of nuclear soared by approximately] 35 percent versus prior estimates…[That is driven by increased capital costs at various nuclear facilities currently in development and prices nuclear power] out of the market for new power…[It is more expensive to operate conventional energy sources in the developing world than it is in the United States. So the advantage renewables have over conventional sources is even larger in the rapidly growing electricity markets like India and China…The lifecycle cost of electricity from new nuclear plants is now $148 per megawatt-hour, or 14.8 cents per kilowatt-hour, while it is 5 c/kwh for utility scale solar and 4.5 c/kwh for wind. By comparison, the average price for electricity in United States is 11 cents per kWh…” click here for more

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The U.S. Is Starting To Get It

Battered by extreme weather, Americans are more worried about climate change; After months of intense hurricanes, heat waves, and droughts, a survey finds a record number of Americans worried about climate change

Dana Nuccetelli, November 20, 2017 (UK Guardian)

“…Americans are still poorly-informed about the causes of global warming. Only 54% understand that it’s mostly human-caused, while 33% incorrectly believe global warming is due mainly to natural factors…[even though] the lastest science shows humans are responsible for 1°C global surface warming over the past 150 years – approximately 100% of the warming we’ve observed…[According to the just-released Climate Change In The American Mind, Americans are nevertheless growing increasingly concerned about climate change. A record 22% are very worried about it (double the number in the March 2015 survey), and 63% of Americans are at least somewhat worried about climate change. That’s probably because they perceive direct climate impacts – 64% of survey participants think that global warming is affecting the weather, and 33% said it’s having a big influence…Americans also connecting the dots to specific extreme weather events. About 54% said that climate change worsened the extreme heat waves, wildfires, and hurricanes that pummeled the country in 2017…” click here for more

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New Energy Buying Goes Mainstream

NREL Study: ‘Demand For Green Power Is Ubiquitous’ In The U.S.

Joseph Bebon, November 16, 2017 (Solar Industry)

“…The U.S. voluntary green power market continues to grow, with about 6.3 million voluntary customers buying 95 million MWh of renewable electricity in 2016, a 19% increase in sales from 2015…[and the] voluntary green power market represents about 28% of all U.S. non-hydro renewable electricity sales [according to Climate Change In The American Mind]. The vast majority of green power customers are residential…[but] large non-residential customers have driven significant increases in green power sales in recent years. Non-residential customers – especially corporations – are finding new ways to procure green power through power purchase agreements and innovative utility renewable contracts. Electricity customers can also purchase green power through utility green pricing, unbundled renewable energy certificates, competitive suppliers, community choice aggregations, and community solar…[D]emand for green power is ubiquitous; customers buy green power in every state in the U.S. in both urban and rural areas. Green power generation is similarly widespread, with contributions from every state and 18 different states generating more than 1 million MWh of green power in 2016…” click here for more

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House, Senate To Face Off Over Wind Support

U.S. House Tax Bill Bad for Wind Energy; Renewable projects fare better under the Senate’s tax reform measure.

Sonia Smith, November 17, 2017 (Texas Monthly)

“Abundant wind, a self-contained electrical grid, and renewable friendly subsidies led Texas to become the national leader in wind energy…[Wind turbines have replaced pump jacks on the state’s landscape. Its installed] wind capacity has more than doubled in the last seven years, to 21,450 megawatts…[But] the U.S. House approved a bill provision that would retroactively cut the production tax credit (PTC) for wind, geothermal, and “closed-loop” biofuel facilities]. Critics say these changes, if they make it into law, will chill growth in the [industries] and derail billions of dollars worth of planned projects…[The renewable energy PTC provides a 2.3-cent per kilowatt hour tax incentive for the first ten years’ output of renewable plants that broke ground in 2015 and 2016. Under a] 2015 phaseout deal, projects breaking ground this year receive 80 percent of the credit, while those starting construction in 2018 and 2019 would get 60 percent and 40 percent respectively…[The House plan cuts the 2.3-cent-per-kilowatt-hour tax credit to 1.5 cents and retroactively changes eligibility. Provisions in the Senate version of the bill protect the PTC. The differences will force a showdown before the bill can be sent to the president]…” click here for more

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Green Roofs To Fight Climate Change

Green roofs to reduce the effects of climate change

November 13, 2017 PhysOrg)

“…[Between 512 acres and 1830 acres of green roofs in the city of Seville, Spain, could reduce the effects of climate change…[This between 11 and 40 percent of the buildings in the city…[According to The role of green roofs in climate change mitigation, there are two options for addressing climate change. One is attacking] at its origin, by eliminating or reducing the human factors that contribute to it (such as, reducing emissions, controlling pollution, etc.)…[The other is] developing strategies that allow for its effects to be reduced, such as…increasing green areas in cities…[by using] the tops of buildings as green roofs…The installation of these gardens would provide better insulation for the buildings, which would mean energy savings for their owners. A sufficient number of green roofs would result in an improvement in environmental conditions, contributing to a reducing pollution and cushioning the effects of climate warming…” click here for more

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Solar Tariffs Threaten National Security

Cracking down on foreign-made solar panels would make U.S. less secure

Norman R. Seip, November 13, 2017 (Washington Post)

“…The U.S. International Trade Commission is proposing tariffs on imported solar energy panels for Trump to approve. That [kind of protectionism] may be tempting for the president…[But it] would hurt our national security, cost veterans their jobs and increase power bills for everyday Americans…Over the past seven years, the price of solar has dropped by 70 percent, giving our military a cost-effective, reliable, flexible source of electricity for its operations. The tariffs proposed would significantly raise the cost of solar energy, jeopardizing the financial viability of solar projects at U.S. military bases across the globe and threatening our long-term security interests…The military is our country’s single largest energy consumer…[W]hen the military is forced to rely on a single source of fuel to power its global operations, the consequences can, quite literally, be devastating…[Also, the solar] sector employs 260,000 American workers, including 23,303 veterans…[An Energy Department program, Solar Ready Vets,] is connecting our nation’s highly skilled veterans to solar industry jobs. With tariffs, tens of thousands of these solar workers, including many veterans, will lose their job within months. The impact will continue for years…” click here for more

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Unions Back Great Lakes Wind

Electrical, steel workers lead show of support for the Icebreaker Wind project proposed for Lake Erie

James F. McCarty, November 13, 2017 (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

"North America's first freshwater offshore wind farm scheduled to be constructed in Lake Erie next year is receiving a strong boost from electrical and steel union workers and entrepreneurs and business owners who support the project's job-creation and clean energy potential…Certification by the Ohio Power Siting Board is required before construction can begin on the $126 million, six-turbine wind farm planned for a site about eight to 10 miles northwest of Cleveland in Lake Erie…[T]he Lake Erie Energy Development Corp., the nonprofit development group that is guiding the project, will be monitoring and analyzing the potential impact of the turbines on birds, bats and fish…[LEEDCo] expects the environmental surveys will confirm their risk assessments showing that Icebreaker will have minimal adverse impact on fish and wildlife…[Birding groups who oppose the plan fear] the potential for high mortality rates due to collisions by birds and bats into the spinning fan blades…[The National Audubon Society is withholding] judgment until the wildlife surveys are completed…” click here for more

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Sponge Cities Can Help The Climate Fight

China is Building 30 “Sponge Cities” to Soften the Blow of Climate Change

Chelsea Gohd, November 12, 2017 (Futurism)

“...One consequence of our warming world is increasingly frequent and more severe flooding. This is especially problematic in growing, crowded cities...[China’s Sponge City Initiative will, by 2020, make 80 percent of urban areas in China able to] re-use at least 70 percent of their rainwater...Strategies include using permeable surfaces and green (meaning that it incorporates plant-life) infrastructure. The concept has so much potential that other cities around the world, like in Berlin, are looking to become more spongy...Increased natural disasters will be a consequence of climate change that threatens all countries around the world...China is taking a firm stand against [life-threatening] flooding with this initiative…From advanced drainage systems to roadways capable of absorbing water and creative planting, sponge cities are getting increasingly innovative in how they might be able to better fend off treacherous floodwaters...[But this is] just a band-aid for a much bigger problem…[U]nless we make radical, global changes, humanity will feel more and more severe effects of climate change...” click here for more

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Surf’s Down – Wave Power Travails

Whatever happened to wave power?

Dave Elliot, November 11, 2017 (Environmental Research Web)

“…The average rated capacity of wave energy devices over the past three years (2015-2017) was 70% lower than (in) the period between 2000 and 2014. In contrast tidal stream saw a 124% increase in the average rated capacity during the same period…Many wave devices have been tested and some are still under test, but it has proved harder to extract energy from the often turbulent wave environment than from the relatively calm undersea tidal flows. There have also been funding and program management issues, [according to Examining the Effectiveness of support for UK Wave Energy innovation since 2000: Lost at Sea or a new wave of innovation?. It found] that a major institutional barrier was ‘the overwhelming emphasis on full-scale device demonstration, with a view to ‘fast tracking’ progress to commercial array-scale projects before the underpinning early- to mid-stage R&D had been performed…Underpinning these developments was a poor understanding of the scale of the innovation challenge and the associated time and funds required…” click here for more

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Powering Homes With Car Batteries

How Your Electric Car Could Help Power Your Home

Thomas Hornigold, November 12, 2017 (Singularity Hub)

“..[F]ossil-fuel lobbyists and renewable energy skeptics [argue the sun and wind are not] always available...[but] it’s generally acknowledged we’re going to need better batteries to achieve a goal of 100 percent renewable energy...[B]attery research and development and manufacturing must be vastly improved before this is a truly scalable solution...[One concern is the installation cost but] batteries may have a specific advantage...[Many households will have access to a ready-made battery in their electric cars] which could be used to help power the home...[This] matches up very well with the way that many people use their cars... [Less than a third of [a car’s] battery power could provide all the energy your home needs for a full day…[T]his is not a catch-all solution. The key word for the electric grid of the future should be flexibility—an infrastructure that is capable of receiving electricity from a multitude of sources, spread out over a variety of different locations, meeting intermittent supply and demand needs…” click here for more

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Beatle Paul McCartney’s Diet For Climate Action

Sir Paul McCartney Slams Pres. Trump's Climate Change Denials: 'Forget About Him We Can Do Something'

Gil Kaufman, November 6, 2017 (Billboard)

“…[Sir Paul McCartney’s One Day a Week] encourages people to go just one day a week without eating animal products to help the environment….[He calls it ‘part of the solution’ and a way to respond to ‘someone like Trump’ who calls climate change ‘a hoax’ because it is a way to say] ‘forget about him, we can do something’…[McCartney called] Trump's attitude about climate change ‘madness’ and accused the president of reversing…[advances in the fight against climate change. The McCartney film was released ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference this week and focuses on animal agriculture as an under-covered aspect of climate change…[The film, which is intended to raise awareness of the need for action,] is narrated by McCartney and features his music…” click here for more

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The Wind Bargain Gets Better

Report: Developing a wind farm is cheaper than ever

Heather Richards, November 5, 2017 (Caspar Star-Tribune)

“…New wind power costs between $30 and $60 dollars per megawatt hour, not counting a federal tax subsidy. It’s cheaper than solar, gas and coal. Add in the federal helping hand and the cost of new wind falls to between $14 and $52, according to [Lazard’s latest annual Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis (LCOE 11.0)]…[Power Company of Wyoming’s] Chokecherry Sierra Madre wind farm is under construction for the first phase of a 1,000 turbine farm…And Rocky Mountain Power, the state’s largest utility, would like to repower their entire wind fleet in the state, as well as bring 1,100 new megawatts online...[For those opposed to the federal tax subsidy to wind and supportive of Wyoming’s struggling coal sector, wind gets an unfair deal…[but the Lazard report shows wind] is simply beating traditional power sources on its own…Last year, coal would have had a break-even of between $60 and $143 per megawatt hour…A combined cycle natural gas plant’s break-even cost is between $42 and $78 per megawatt hour…[and nuclear] is between $112 and $183…” click here for more

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Why Red States Like New Energy

The U.S. solar industry's new growth region: Trump country

Nichola Groom, October 12, 2017 (Reuters)

“…[T]he solar power industry is booming across Trump country, fueled by falling development costs and [federal tax incentives], which many Republicans in Congress continue to support…[E]ight of the 10 fastest-growing U.S. solar markets between the second quarters of 2016 and 2017 were Western, Midwestern or Southern states that voted for Trump, with Alabama and Mississippi topping the list. And solar firms are ramping up investments in these regions…[This] illustrates the complexity of green power politics in Washington and casts doubt on whether the administration can boost the coal and nuclear sectors while subsidies continue to the fuel growth of competing wind and solar…With falling development costs, solar firms now see strong prospects [even in conservative states with New Energy mandates]…The estimated costs of solar power generation have dropped 85 percent since 2009, making its unsubsidized cost competitive with natural gas in the sunniest locations…Solar and wind energy firms have become important constituents in some Republican-led states because they employ about 300,000 people nationwide - six times the number working in the coal industry…[This] directly undermines Trump’s goal of boosting the coal industry…” click here for more

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Jamie Lannister Calls For Resisting Climate Change

Game of Thrones Star Sounds the Alarm on Climate Change; Actor and UNDP Goodwill Ambassador Nikolaj Coster-Waldau reports from the frontlines of global warming in Greenland and the Maldives.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, November 6, 2017 (National Geographic)

“…[It's hard to feel climate change’s one- or two-tenths of a degree per year increase…[but in Greenland and the Maldive Islands] the effects of climate change are easily visible to the naked eye and eerily similar…[B]oth Maldives and Greenland have a widely dispersed population and face infrastructural challenges for services as basic as waste disposal. The residents living in villages scattered across the islands depend largely on fishing for income and sustenance…As temperatures rise, Greenland’s magnificent ice caps are melting at a quickening pace while rising sea levels and increasing storm surges are eroding the picture-perfect beaches of the Maldives.

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Climate change is not only threatening to erase the very characteristics that make these two places as unique and beautiful as they are; it’s also directly impacting the local economies and way of life…In Greenland, the fast-melting ice sheet is pouring 300 billion tons of ice into the ocean each year, which harms important coastal ecosystems, local food and water supplies and is a major contributor to rising sea levels…[In the Maldives, rising] sea levels and increased occurrences of storm surges and tidal waves are destroying people’s livelihoods and compromising freshwater reserves…” click here for more

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It’s Official (Again) – The Climate Is Changing And Humans Are The Cause

Federal report blames humans for global warming and its effects

Timothy Cama and Devin Henry, November 3, 2017 (The Hill)

“…[Humans are the primary driver of climate change, causing higher temperatures, sea level rise, agriculture problems and more [according to the first volume of the Fourth National Climate Assessment from more than a dozen federal agencies…Many of the report’s conclusions directly contradict the Trump administration’s positions on climate change…[including its claim that it is not clear that] human-caused greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are the primary cause of climate change…[T] he Climate Assessment plainly states that is the case…[It reports that it is ‘extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause’ of the rising global average temperature evidenced by] ‘changes in surface, atmospheric, and oceanic temperatures; melting glaciers; diminishing snow cover; shrinking sea ice; rising sea levels; ocean acidification; and increasing atmospheric water vapor’…The report cites ‘thousands of studies conducted by researchers around the world’ that show evidence of a warming globe…[and] includes dire warnings about the impact of climate change on human activities…” click here for more

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The New Energy Gets More Amazing

Levelized Cost of Energy 2017

November 2, 2017 (Lazard)

“…As LCOE values for alternative energy technologies continue to decline, in some scenarios the full-lifecycle costs of building and operating renewables-based projects have dropped below the operating costs alone of conventional generation technologies such as coal or nuclear… [According to Lazard’s latest annual Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis (LCOE 11.0), this] is expected to lead to ongoing and significant deployment of alternative energy capacity…[T]he levelized cost of energy for both utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) and onshore wind technologies are down approximately 6% from last year…[T]he gap between the costs of certain alternative energy technologies (e.g., utility-scale solar and onshore wind) and conventional generation technologies continues to widen as the cost profiles of such conventional generation remain flat (e.g., coal) and, in certain instances, increase…[T]he estimated levelized cost of energy for nuclear generation increased ~35% versus prior estimates, reflecting increased capital costs at various nuclear facilities currently in development…” click here for more

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Triple The $$$ Needed To Stop Climate Changing

The Energy 202: Clean energy investment needs to triple to halt catastrophic warming, finds new report

Dino Grandoni, October 31, 2017 (Washington Post)

“…[T]o keep the planet under 2 degrees Celsius warmer compared to pre-industrial levels, the global economy needs to triple its annual investment in low-emissions technology — from $750 billion per year between 2010 and 2015 to $2.3 trillion per year going forward until 2040 [according to Derisking Decarbonization: Making Green Energy Investments Blue Chip. The] cost of alternative energy technologies — in particular, solar panels — has plummeted in recent years, [but] another crucial resource needed to deploy renewables — financial capital — has proven to be, unlike sunlight, exhaustible…In the first half of the decade, private institutional investors — which include pension, mutual and sovereign wealth funds alongside billionaires — invested a total of $3.4 trillion in the world economy per year, the analysis found. That means at current investment levels, two out of every three dollars invested per year would need to go toward clean energy to halt catastrophic warming — a tall order for which investors seem to have little appetite…[And pension] and mutual funds, which together held more than half of all assets among institutional investors in 2015, tend to invest money conservatively because they, unlike high-net-worth individuals, aim to protect the retirement accounts of middle-class workers…” click here for more

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Text Messages Fighting Climate Change

Californians Are Keeping Dirty Energy Off the Grid via Text Message; When power demand rises, OhmConnect sends out a text to customers: cut your energy use and you'll earn money. It's keeping demand spikes under control.

Erica Gies, October 30, 2017 (Inside Climate News)

“When Julie Waltz Madziarczyk's phone chirps to tell her that the electricity grid needs her to save power for an hour the next day, she sets a reminder. And at the appointed time, she walks around the house…[pulling plugs and flipping switches. It is a routine that takes about five minutes. She has found it is not] a hardship going without electricity for an hour, about once a week…[She is not a hard-core environmentalist. She earned more than $800 in the last year for responding to text messages from OhmConnect, which] passes along payments from grid operators…[OhmConnect aggregates its network of hundreds of thousands of residential subscribers] across the territories of California's three major utilities…Together these people supply a vital service to the grid: keeping it in finely tuned balance by tweaking demand for power instead of maxing out supply…It's called demand response, and it pays in more ways than one. To the utility, a burst of conservation is worth as much as a burst of power…Managed this way, the grid runs smoothly…[and reduces] greenhouse gas emissions…” click here for more

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