Three Ways New Energy Is A Good Bet

3 Trends to Watch in Renewable Energy in 2019; Wind and solar power will continue to elbow their way onto the electric grid this year, but that's just the beginning.

Maxx Chatsko, March 23, 2019 (The Motley Fool)

“…[For the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, the U.S. agreed to voluntarily cut total carbon emissions at least 26% from 2005 levels by 2025. By the end of last year it had reduced energy-related carbon emissions -- the great majority of total emissions -- 13% from that benchmark…The bulk of the reduction to date has come from retiring coal-fired power plants and replacing the generation with [New Energy and] natural gas…The decarbonization gains should continue for the foreseeable future thanks to the flood of electric vehicles that are about to hit the market and a nearly insatiable appetite for renewable energy projects among electric utilities…The United States counted over 96,000 megawatts of installed wind power and 64,000 megawatts of solar power at the end of 2018. That generated close to 10% of the country's total electricity production, but the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects the share of modern renewables in the grid to accelerate going forward.

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Wind and solar could reach 11% of total electric output in 2019 and 13% in 2020…[E]nergy storage markets are developing virtually overnight…[T]he United States installed a record 311 megawatts of energy storage in 2018, which should double in 2019 and triple in 2020…[Most forecasts] fail to include two next-generation renewable power sources likely to emerge by 2030: offshore wind power and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS)…The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reports that over 23,000 megawatts of offshore wind projects could be put into production by 2030, enough to generate about 3% to 4% of the country's total electricity…EGS is still in the earliest stages of development…[but] DOE thinks the United States has at least 100,000 megawatts of next-generation geothermal potential…” click here for more

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