2013 was a momentous year for the clean energy industries, markets and consumers. Here are some highlights worth noting.
In fact 2013, was the first time in history renewable sources created
more NEW electricity than any other resource
Renewable sources now account for nearly 16% of total installed U.S.
operating generating capacity: water - 8.30 percent, wind - 5.21 percent,
biomass - 1.32 percent, solar - 0.59 percent, and geothermal steam - 0.33
percent. This is more than nuclear (9.22%) and oil (4.06%) combined.
Solar installations are surging in the USA. Think progress recently
reported on the US solar industry’s growth, “2013 is likely to be the first
time in more than 15 years that the U.S. installs more solar capacity than
world leader Germany.
GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association have informed, by the end of
the year, more than 400,000 solar projects will be operating across the U.S.
and installations will have grown 27 percent over 2012, with a 52 percent
growth rate in the residential sector alone, according to GTM’s forecast.”
The first marine energy connection to the USA utility grid. Ocean
Renewable Power Company, which after five years of planning, installed an
underwater turbine 2,200 feet from the Maine shore.
Concentrated solar is on the path to over 1.3 GW of new U.S. generation
with Ivanpah and Solana now on-line and two more bring built in 2013. Both solar generation plants have 11 hours of storage for evening generation.
Geothermal also heating up. As of August 2013, 11,765 megawatts of
(gross) geothermal power are operating globally in addition to several hundred
MW in the final stages of construction. By the end of 2013 the global
geothermal market is expected to reach 12,000 MW of geothermal capacity. By the end of the decade with several hundred MW of new geothermal power becoming operation per year. In 2013, some of the first demostration enhanced geothermal system (EGS) projects provided electricity to grids in Australia and the U.S.
California leads the states notably for “on bill” financing energy
efficiency and renewable energy, and in September becoming the first state to
mandate electricity storage on the grid. Not to be seen as weak-kneed, the
state PUC set a 1.3-GW mandate for energy storage on the grid by 2020. Battery
technologies are in an upswing, as is pumped hydropower, and compressed storage.
Other key findings of the poll include: The percentage of Americans who
agree there is solid evidence of a changing climate has steadily increased
since 2010. The Duke poll found 50 percent of Americans are convinced the
climate is changing and another 34 percent say it is probably changing; this is
an increase from other recent polls. 54 percent feel climate change is
primarily the result of human activity (the highest level in the past couple of
years).
The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently concluded, “Renewable
energy sources could account for nearly half of the increase in global power
generation through 2035," according to its 2013 edition of the World
Energy Outlook. "Wind energy and solar energy could make up 45 percent of
that expansion in renewables,” the report said.
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