Luxy Images / Getty Images
By Jo Harper
Investment in U.S. offshore wind projects are set to hit $78 billion (€69 billion) this decade, in contrast with an estimated $82 billion for U.S. offshore oil and gasoline projects, Wood Mackenzie data shows. This would be a remarkable feat only four years after the first offshore wind plant — the 30 megawatt (MW) Block Island Wind Farm off the coast of Rhode Island — started operating in U.S. waters.
<p>According to the Department of Energy (DOE), there are 28 US offshore wind projects in the planning stage, with the biggest clusters along the East Coast, from Massachusetts to Virginia. There are also 15 active commercial leases for offshore wind development in the U.S. and if they are fully built, there is the potential to support approximately 25 GW of offshore wind capacity.<span></span></p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/offshore-us-wind-power-blown-on-course/a-54121338" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2646394500#/" target="_self"></a></em><em></em></p>
<p>Wind energy, both onshore and offshore, is now the US's top choice for new power, with 39% of new utility-scale power sector additions at 107 GW — enough to power 32 million homes. It is also the largest renewable energy source in the country, supplying over 7% of the nation's electricity.</p><p>The domestic offshore wind market is smaller than the onshore sector, where capacity is now over 100 GW, but growing. "The shift of investment towards offshore wind in the US is due to a decreasing amount of leasable space on land because an increasing number of landowners and communities are objecting to local siting," says Annie Hawkins, Executive Director, Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA).</p><p>"From an environmental perspective, there is a limited amount of space that can reasonably be developed without significant impacts to ocean ecosystems and the existing ocean resource economy," Hawkins adds.</p><p><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/has-the-wind-been-taken-from-the-sails-of-europes-renewable-future/a-50886866" target="_blank">Europe has long been the global leader in offshore wind generation</a>, with the U.S. focused on developing land-based wind facilities. According to industry body WindEurope, overall offshore capacity for European nations is 22 GW, with 4,000 offshore wind turbines erected in the waters of 11 countries, with a combined power generation capacity of 15.8 GW, enough to supply around 15 mid-size cities.</p>
Corporates Shift
<p>Helping to drive offshore growth, U.S. corporate buyers <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/cities-leading-the-transition-to-renewables/a-42850621" target="_blank">are increasingly relying on wind energy to power their businesses</a>. Walmart and AT&T are the two top corporate wind buyers, while 14 newcomers entered the wind market in 2019, including Estée Lauder and McDonald's.</p><p>"Oil and gas companies have jumped into the U.S. offshore wind market, where they can transfer expertise in offshore fossil fuel development to clean energy investments," says Max Cohen, principal analyst, Americas Power & Renewable research at Wood Mackenzie. Many international oil and gas companies have already recognized this huge potential and entered the US offshore wind market, including Orsted, Equinor and Shell.</p><p>"Given the recent tumult in oil prices, fossil fuel companies may more and more be looking to diversify their portfolios, particularly with assets that are contracted or offer returns uncorrelated with oil and gas," Cohen says. "Offshore wind is an area where they may have a comparative advantage, and they can then leverage the experience with that technology to make the leap to onshore wind, solar, and other renewable technologies," he says.</p>East Coast leads the way
<p>"There is enormous opportunity, especially off the East Coast, for wind. I am very bullish," said former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. "Market excitement is moving towards offshore wind. I haven't seen this kind of enthusiasm from industry since the Bakken shale boom," he said.</p><p>Offshore wind initiatives require excessive upfront spending: a 250 MW venture costs about $1 billion, based on International Energy Agency data, but as costs fall the tipping point after which costs fall faster gets nearer</p><p>"The opportunity has been created by Northeastern states seeing the large price declines for offshore wind in Europe," says Cohen. Onshore wind is historically the lowest cost renewable resource, but is at its most expensive in the Northeast, he adds. "But costs are falling slower than for other technologies," he says.</p><p><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/german-firms-welcome-says-new-jersey-governor/a-45961888" target="_blank">In New England and New York the intense "Not-In-My-Backyard" culture</a> (NIMBYism) also makes offshore wind potentially easier to build, Cohen adds. States along the East Coast are aiming to develop over 28 GW of offshore capacity by 2035, with 16 GW of new targets announced in 2019 alone. To help meet these targets, states and utilities selected 4,404 MW of offshore wind capacity through state-issued solicitations in 2019.</p><p>Offshore wind has also benefited from targets set by east-coast states for electrical energy. New York state aims to have 9,000 MW of capability by 2035. New Jersey has dedicated to have 7,500 MW, while Virginia's governor in April signed the 'Clean Economy Act' which requires at the least 5,200 MW of offshore wind by 2034. Massachusetts is committed to purchasing 1,600MW of offshore wind by 2027.</p><p>"The US has a vast offshore wind energy resource with a technical potential of more than 2,000 gigawatts (GW), or nearly double the nation's current electricity use," says Samuel Brock of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA).</p>
Jobs and Coastal Revitalization
<p>U.S. wind energy now supports 120,000 US jobs and 530 domestic factories. A study by the University of Delaware predicted that the supply chain needed to build offshore turbines to feed power to seven East Coast states by 2030 would generate nearly $70 billion in economic activity and at least 40,000 full-time jobs. An American Wind Energy Association's (AWEA's) March 2020 report estimated that developing 30,000 MW of offshore wind along the East Coast could support up to 83,000 jobs and $25 billion in annual economic output by 2030.</p><p>Having said that, not all of the jobs are American jobs. The offshore wind developers with commercial leases in the US are all foreign companies. There is growing interest from the shipbuilding sector in the Gulf of Mexico in partnering with offshore wind companies to provide services. As a result, some of the US oil trade associations have submitted comments supporting certain aspects of offshore wind. "However, it is unclear to what extent offshore wind developers plan to use US vessels and crew, and the existing projects did not incorporate US vessels or labor at all," Hawkins says.</p>From Your Site Articles
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A new battery will help the UK store power generated by the Walney offshore wind farm, the world's largest of its kind. Ashley Cooper / The Image Bank / Getty Images
Construction is starting on what will be the world's largest liquid air battery, The Guardian reported Thursday.
<p>The project, known as the CryoBattery, will also be the first commercial <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/battery-storage/" target="_self">battery</a> of its kind. It will be housed near Manchester in the UK and help the country store <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">renewable energy</a>. When it is completed, it will store 250 megawatt hours of energy, almost double what the world's largest chemical battery, the Tesla battery in South Australia, can store.</p><p>"This revolutionary new Cryobattery facility will form a key part of our push towards net zero, bringing greater flexibility to Britain's electricity grid and creating green collar jobs in Greater Manchester," UK Energy and Clean Growth Minister Kwasi Kwarteng said in a government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/greater-manchester-to-house-to-worlds-largest-liquid-air-battery" target="_blank">press release</a>. "Projects like these will help us realise the full value of our world-class renewables, ensuring homes and businesses can still be powered by green energy, even when the sun is not shining and the wind not blowing."</p>
<p>The UK government is backing the project to the tune of £10 million. It is due to be completed by 2022 and, when it is, it will be able to power as many as 200,000 homes for five hours.</p><p>The government explained how the battery will accomplish this:</p><blockquote>The CryoBattery works by using electricity to cool and compress air, turning it into liquid and storing it in industrial sized containers. It then feeds the liquid through a turbine, turning it back into electricity and pumping it back into the grid when it is needed.</blockquote>
<p>The battery is being developed by Carlton Highview Storage, a partnership between UK independent power station developer Carlton Power and long-term energy storage firm Highview Power Storage, <a href="https://www.current-news.co.uk/news/worlds-largest-liquid-air-battery-received-10m-from-beis" target="_blank">Current reported</a>.</p><p>Highview chief executive Javier Cavada told The Guardian that liquid air batteries could be built anywhere.</p><p>"Air is everywhere in the world. The main competitor is really not other storage technologies but <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a>, as people still want to continue building gas and coal-fired plants today, strangely enough," he said.</p><p>For his part, Carlton Power chief executive Keith Clarke told Current his company looked at several energy storage solutions and settled on Highview's "because it is scalable, clean, can deliver the grid services we need, and can be deployed now."</p><p>The UK gets a third of its electricity from renewable energy and is home to the world's largest offshore <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind">wind</a> farm, the government said. Storing that energy when it is not needed can help the UK meet its <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/theresa-may-net-zero-carbon-emissions-2638788121.html" target="_self">goal</a> of going carbon neutral by 2050.</p>
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View of a windmill farm in the Tehuantepec Isthmus region, Mexico, on July 27, 2017. PATRICIA CASTELLANOS / AFP / Getty Images
By Sam Edwards
The Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico is one of the windiest places on earth. Hemmed in by two mountain ranges, the flat strip of land between the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico is a natural wind tunnel. A single gust can flip over cars. It's the perfect place for turbines.
<p>The unique geography of the isthmus has brought it mixed fortunes. Union Hidalgo, once a sleepy, agrarian town, is among the predominantly indigenous communities in the area that began experiencing a "wind rush" in the 2000s. Some dubbed it "La Nueva Conquista" — the new conquest — as large, often European, corporations hurried to harness the isthmus' natural power.</p><p>Like so many in this area, Guadalupe Ramirez's home in Union Hidalgo is dwarfed by seemingly endless rows of wind turbines.</p><p>In 2009, Ramirez, an indigenous Zapotec housewife-turned-activist now in her 60s, signed a 30-year lease for her land to be used for a wind power project. She has been fighting ever since to ensure others are better informed than she was before making a similar deal.</p><p>"We want people to be informed of what will come [with new wind parks], to know that it won't just bring benefits but also many problems," she told DW. "When people have all the facts, it won't be so easy to convince them."</p><p>Ramirez and other activists argue that Mexico's wind farms bring little or no economic benefit to the local community. They also compete for space with small-scale farming, the main source of income for many in the town.</p><p>The principle problem, though, lies with the fraught consultation process. Under Mexican law indigenous communities should be given a deciding vote on projects but in practice, activists say, the information they are given beforehand is often incomplete or misleading, and those opposed to new developments sometimes face harassment and intimidation.</p><p>Ramirez is now placing her hopes on an ongoing legal battle that could shape the course of clean energy in Mexico by halting the latest controversial project before construction begins.</p>
Clean Energy at a Price
<p>The Gunaa Sicaru wind park is planned to be built next to Union Hidalgo. Run by French energy giant EDF, it would provide 252 megawatts of power. But first it needs approval from locals through an ongoing public consultation. And as for many multinational-backed wind parks in Oaxaca, that's proving a challenge.</p><p>In a country historically reliant on oil revenue, wind power and other renewables could bring a transition to cleaner energy. But Alejandra Ancheita, director of NGO ProDESC, warns green power must not replicate the environmental harm and mishandling of local communities typical of the global fossil fuel sector.</p><p>"Renewable energy projects can't be justified solely on the basis they are creating clean energy," Ancheita told DW. "It's not 'clean energy' if it isn't developed with a strict respect for the local communities where the project will be built."</p><p><span></span>ProDESC's legal team represents a group of Union Hidalgo residents in an injunction against EDF and local authorities, alleging violations of the consultation process. The NGO claims the local authorities and EDF failed to provide accurate information on the project's impacts and distributed misleading translations from Spanish to Zapotec.</p>Community Conflict
<p>Ramirez and other local activists say oil runoff from the turbines that already dominate the landscape pollutes waterways, while the sound of the wind farms — many of which are close to towns — disturbs residents and local birdlife.</p><p>But while Ramirez and others fight to prevent further damage to their land, some in Union Hidalgo support the development, particularly those who can earn a steady income from leasing their land.</p><p>"It's creating a lot of division in our community," Ramirez said.</p><p>According to a report by the Berlin-based <a href="https://www.ecchr.eu/fileadmin/Publikationen/ECCHR_PP_WINDPARK.pdf" target="_blank">European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights</a> (ECCHR), conflict in the community escalated in 2018, after critics of the project were condemned as "enemies of development" in the EDF consultation meetings.</p><p>ProDESC and ECCHR said in a formal letter last year, that the company needed to do more to prevent conflict in the community.</p><p>EDF told DW it had met its obligations in the consultation process for Gunaa Sicaru but it was the Mexican authorities who ultimately bore the responsibility for ensuring residents were informed and free to make a decision. EDF has received no reports of threats against critics of the Gunaa Sicaru project, the company added.</p><p>The Oaxaca state government did not respond to DW's request for comment.</p>Future of Clean Energy
<p>Mexico, one of the world's top 15 carbon emitters, has committed to producing 35% of its electricity from clean energy by 2024. Renewables have drawn significant interest from investors since a reform opened the sector to private investment in 2013. Both the solar and wind sectors reported record growth last year.</p><p>But observers fear the future of renewables is uncertain under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrado. Lisa Viscidi, from think tank The Inter-American Dialogue, told DW that regulatory changes under the current administration are undermining incentives to invest in the sector. Winning consent from communities in Oaxaca has been another significant challenge. A 2019 report authored by Viscidi on Mexico's first clean energy auction found several projects had been delayed due to a failure to get the community on board.</p>Alternative Development
<p>The challenges of wind energy in Oaxaca are not unique.</p><p>The transition to renewables will be an "epochal shift" in most countries, says Cymene Howe, an anthropologist with Rice University in Texas and author of a book about wind energy in Oaxaca. That's because energy infrastructure will move into parts of the planet untouched by fossil fuel industries.</p><p>"[It will be] a fundamental shift in how we imagine landscapes, what land is to be used for, who lives there and who has responsibility," she said. "This is a new frontier."</p><p>In Union Hidalgo, Ramirez says the conflicts over wind parks have already forced some people to move elsewhere searching for work or new land to farm. She fears that if Gunaa Sicaru goes ahead, the town will soon be bordered on most sides by wind turbines and unable to grow.</p><p>"No one is coming here to force us off our land. [But] one day we'll have to leave ourselves because we won't be able to handle being surrounded," Ramirez said.</p><p>For her, it is not about stifling wind power development, but empowering locals to shape it — for example through community-owned wind parks that would funnel profits back into the local community.</p><p><span></span>"Development can take many forms," Ramirez said.</p>From Your Site Articles
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April 2020 was the first month ever that renewables generated more electricity than thermal coal in the United States every single day. Crady von Pawlak / Getty Images
By Fino Menezes
April 2020 was the first month ever that renewables generated more electricity than thermal coal in the United States every single day, while across the Atlantic, the United Kingdom's rapid decarbonization of its electricity grid has achieved another significant milestone – completing a whole month (30 days) without coal power for the first time in 138 years.
Renewables Surpass Coal in U.S. Power Generation Every Day in April
<p>April 2020 was the first month in U.S. history that renewables generated more electricity than coal on every day of the month. That's based on new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) and compiled by the nonprofit <a href="https://ieefa.org/ieefa-update-renewables-surpass-coal-in-u-s-power-generation-throughout-the-month-of-april-2020/" target="_blank">Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)</a>.</p><p>The daily consecutive run of renewables over coal began on March 25 and continued for 40 straight days through May 3. That breaks the previous record of just nine continuous days.</p><p>The strong output from utility-scale solar, wind, and hydropower is based on several factors, including low gas prices, warmer weather, new renewable capacity connecting to the grid late last year, and lower power demand because of the coronavirus.</p><p>IEEFA <a href="https://ieefa.org/ieefa-update-renewables-surpass-coal-in-u-s-power-generation-throughout-the-month-of-april-2020/" target="_blank">reported</a>: "Coal's high cost has made it increasingly one of the last fuel choices for many utilities, a trend reflected by its declining market share for electric generation: just 15.3% in April, according to preliminary EIA figures.</p><p>"In January, coal's market share fell below 20% for the first time in many decades — and possibly for the first time in the entire history of the U.S. power industry — ending at 19.9%.</p><p>"EIA figures also show its share continued to erode, falling to 18.3% in February and 17.3% in March. As recently as 2008, coal's market share was above 50% in the months of January, February and March."</p><p>IEEFA had previously <a href="https://ieefa.org/ieefa-update-renewable-generation-is-set-to-surpass-coal-in-2021/" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://ieefa.org/ieefa-update-renewable-generation-is-set-to-surpass-coal-in-2021/" target="_blank">forecasted that power generation from renewables</a> would likely surpass coal-fired generation in 2021, an important milestone in the energy transition that is well underway. But in the first quarter of 2020, renewable generation unexpectedly exceeded coal, and with this strong performance continuing in the second quarter, there is an increasing chance that the milestone could occur this year.</p>U.K. Goes a Month Without Coal Power for First Time for 138 Years
<p>The United Kingdom's rapid decarbonization of its electricity grid has achieved another significant milestone – completing a whole month (30 days) without coal power for the first time in 138 years, <a href="https://ieefa.org/u-k-electricity-goes-coal-free-for-a-month-a-first-in-138-years/" target="_blank">reported</a> The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) this week.</p><p>The milestone was reached on Sunday 10 May (U.K.) time and celebrated by National Grid ESO, the organization that runs the grid and is responsible for keeping the lights on nationwide. It was the first time this occurred since coal power was first used on the U.K. power system in January, 1882, at Holborn Viaduct.<br></p><p>Within a few years, there will be no coal generation at all – with the remaining plants shuttered, and one or two converted to gas by 2025. National Grid aims to be able to operate a fully zero emission grid when weather conditions allow from 2025, and is accelerating its adoption of new technologies and management systems that will allow it to side line gas power plants when possible.<br></p><p>Just a few days before the new month-long coal-free milestone, National Grid released its latest end of year planning report outlining the main achievements it has made in the long path to a fully decarbonized grid before 2050.</p><p>"We're really proud of our zero carbon targets," National Grid wrote in a blog a few days earlier. "In May 2019 there was a 2-week period where there was coal free operation of Great Britain's electricity system. This has quickly been beaten after the record breaking sunlight in April."</p><p>It noted that the carbon intensity of the electricity system has halved over the last five years, and is down 60 per cent when compared to 2013. "The recent <a href="https://www.nationalgrideso.com/news/day-life-energy-forecasting-manager" target="_blank">low demand for energy</a> due to COVID-19 has dramatically reduced the use of fossil fuel based generation, and this has been supported by our optimized renewable generation," it says.</p><p>"And as supply changes, so to does demand, as renewables capacity and smart grid functionality increases further to enable the side-lining of gas power plants when possible."</p>From Your Site Articles
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Wind turbines generate electricity at the San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm near Palm Springs, California, with snow-covered Mt. San Jacinto in the background on Feb 27, 2019. Robert Alexander / Getty Images
Renewable energy in the U.S. has beaten coal as the country's leading electricity source for a record 40 days.
<p>The record, <a href="https://ieefa.org/ieefa-update-renewables-surpass-coal-in-u-s-power-generation-throughout-the-month-of-april-2020/" target="_blank">reported</a> by the <a href="https://ieefa.org/" target="_blank">Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis</a> (IEEFA) Monday based on U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, far surpasses the previous record of nine days during April 2019. It suggests that the falling energy demand due to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> lockdowns could lead renewables to generate more electricity than coal overall for the first time this year.</p><p>"IEEFA had <a href="https://ieefa.org/ieefa-update-renewable-generation-is-set-to-surpass-coal-in-2021/" target="_blank">forecasted that power generation from renewables</a> would likely surpass coal-fired generation in 2021, an important milestone in the energy transition that is well underway," the group wrote. "But in the first quarter of 2020, renewable generation unexpectedly exceeded coal, and with this strong performance continuing in the second quarter, there is an increasing chance that the milestone could occur this year."</p>
<div id="ff4e6" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="334d4be4838cb92d6f2cb71c495b1902"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1257400871660462090" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">IEEFA had forecasted that power generation from #renewables would likely surpass coal-fired generation in the U.S.… https://t.co/4tknDUCPbT</div> — IEEFA.org (@IEEFA.org)<a href="https://twitter.com/ieefa_institute/statuses/1257400871660462090">1588622703.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>In 2019, renewables only beat out coal for a total of 38 days. April was their most successful month, when they generated more electricity than coal for a total of 19 days. April of 2019 was <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/renewables-beat-coal-us-april-2639001918.html" target="_self">also the first month</a> when renewables generated more electricity than coal in the U.S. overall.</p><p>This April, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hydropower" target="_self">hydropower</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind" target="_self">wind</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar" target="_self">solar</a> generated more electricity than coal for every day of the month, but clean power's winning streak actually began March 25 and has extended at least to May 3, IEEFA said.</p><p>Green energy's success is down to a number of factors, IEEFA explained:</p><ol><li>Low gas prices</li><li>Warmer weather</li><li><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/us-renewable-energy-capacity-coal-2638790502.html" target="_self">Increased renewable energy capacity</a> added to the grid last year</li><li>Decreased energy demand due to the coronavirus lockdowns</li></ol>
<p>Falling energy demand is a boon for renewables because coal is more expensive, meaning it is usually cut first by utilities when demand falls, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-lockdowns-renewable-energy-overtakes-coal-record-40-days/" target="_blank">CBS News explained</a>. This has played out internationally as well. The International Energy Agency (IEA) <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/greenhouse-gas-emissions-coronavirus-lockdowns-2645880717.html" target="_self">reported last week</a> that only renewable energy sources had grown in 2020 so far and were expected to continue growing, while all the major <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a> were in decline.</p><p>"This is a historic shock to the entire energy world. Amid today's unparalleled health and economic crises, the plunge in demand for nearly all major fuels is staggering, especially for coal, oil and gas. Only renewables are holding up during the previously unheard-of slump in electricity use," IEA Executive Director Dr. Fatih Birol said at the time. "It is still too early to determine the longer-term impacts, but the energy industry that emerges from this crisis will be significantly different from the one that came before."</p><p>The IEEFA data also affirms that coal is on the way out despite the efforts of President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> to bolster the industry, as CBS pointed out. And while the pandemic may have accelerated the shift, it did not cause it. As early as January, coal's market share fell below 20 percent for the first time in decades, IEEFA said. Several utilities have also promised to phase out coal-fired plants between 2030 and 2050, <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/496181-renewable-generation-surpasses-coal-for-40-straight-days" target="_blank">The Hill reported</a>.</p><p>"The fate of coal has been sealed, the market has spoken," University of Texas energy expert Michael Webber told The Guardian in 2019. "The trend is irreversible now, the decline of coal is unstoppable despite Donald Trump's rhetoric."</p>
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Trump Admin Sits on $43 Billion Intended for Clean Energy Loans While Unemployment Soars
01 May
Politics
In September 2011, the DOE issued a $90.6 million loan guarantee to finance Alamosa, a 29.3-MW high concentration photovoltaic solar generation project in Colorado. The project started commercial operations in April 2012 and created 75 construction jobs and hundreds of supply chain jobs across several states. U.S. Department of Energy
While the nation struggles to find ways to put money in peoples' pockets and to ramp up the economy so people can get back to work, over $43 billion in low-interest loans earmarked for clean energy projects sits undistributed by the Trump administration, according to The New York Times.
<p>The president has long questioned the efficacy of renewable energy sources, has suggested that <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind">wind</a> turbines cause cancer, and championed <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal">coal</a> as a clean and efficient source of power. Despite his reluctance to champion green energy infrastructure, some lawmakers and energy experts think it is unacceptable that tens of billions of dollars that Congress long ago authorized, with bipartisan support, has not been dispersed.</p><p>"We're searching high and low all over Washington, DC, for money to put people back to work and here we have more than $40 billion," said Dan Reicher, executive director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University, who served at the Energy Department in the Clinton administration, to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/climate/clean-energy-loans-coronavirus-trump.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "This is the moment to really put these programs back in gear."</p><p>The loans passed through Congress well before the coronavirus forced nearly 30 million people into unemployment. However, they have been held up by the Energy Department.</p>
<p>"They haven't put out any or almost any of these loans since he's become president," said Representative Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/climate/clean-energy-loans-coronavirus-trump.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported. "There's an ideological or political aspect to this. The president is not someone who seeks to promote the clean energy sector."</p><p>Holding up the loans during the pandemic seems particularly strange since the money could help many people to start working. Anne Reynolds with the Alliance for Clean Energy told <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2020/04/19/dead-in-the-water-new-yorks-clean-energy-sector-looks-for-a-jump-start-1277764" target="_blank">POLITICO</a> that energy efficiency companies have laid off between 40 and 50 percent of their workforce.</p><p>In New York, for example, the state saw layoffs to nearly 5,000 clean energy jobs in March. Congressman Pallone said that the renewable energy sector had created more than 3 million jobs.</p>
<p>"These utility-led programs could drive significant job and economic growth statewide as we step out of our current pause," said Reynolds, as <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2020/04/19/dead-in-the-water-new-yorks-clean-energy-sector-looks-for-a-jump-start-1277764" target="_blank">POLITICO</a> reported. "We are at risk of losing a skilled and trained workforce as work is stalled, and job losses and furloughs accelerate."</p><p>While an injection of capital would help restart green energy projects and allow companies to hire back employees, there is little reason to believe the Trump administration will issue any of the loans.</p>The last new project to be approved under the loan program was in 2016, under the Obama administration. To get the money out of the government's hands and into an investment in renewable energy infrastructure, Pallone said he plans to find a way to address the unspent loans in the next stimulus.
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Cities and counties across the country are choosing to create community choice aggregation (CCA) programs, sometimes known as community choice energy or municipal aggregation.
<p>In this alternative system, municipalities can secure the electricity supply and determine the electricity portfolio on behalf of their customers, while still relying on existing infrastructure to deliver the electricity. By aggregating the demand for electricity, local communities can negotiate rates and increase their use of renewables. CCAs allow for communities to have more control over their electricity sources, lessening the control investor-owned utilities can exert on a community.</p>
How Does It Work
<p>The first step to achieving a community choice aggregation program is ensuring that the proper legislation is in place at the state-level. Several U.S. states have passed legislation that allows local municipalities to enact CCA programs, including California, Illinois, Rhode Island, New York, Massachusetts, Ohio and New Jersey.</p><p>This legislation removes the regulations around who controls the electric utilities in a certain region and allows for a local municipality to procure power independently. If a municipality chooses to enact a program under these laws, consumers within a CCAs control are given the option to participate, typically through an opt-out model, where the default is enrollment. While customers can choose to stick with the existing utility option, CCAs often provide an appealing competitive rate and more renewable options. </p><p>Municipalities are choosing to take on this new role in order to provide a benefit to their residents. With CCAs, local governments are able to go directly to the power providers, and negotiate contracts on behalf of their customers — residents and businesses. Since they are negotiating these contracts on behalf of a large aggregate of customers, the municipality has more negotiating power to reduce the purchasing price from the supplier and reduce rates to their customers, all while demanding a higher renewable energy mix.</p><p>CCAs are not only providing lower costs and more renewable choices, but they also:</p>
<ul> <li>Support green jobs through the increasing demand for renewable energy.</li></ul><ul> <li>Encourage technological developments.</li></ul><ul> <li>Create innovative programs for customers to choose their renewable portfolios.</li></ul><ul> <li>Reduce greenhouse gas emissions.</li></ul><ul><li>Reinvest in local communities.</li></ul>
<p>As more states begin passing legislation to allow CCAs to be formed by municipalities, several cities and counties are setting the example for how these programs can be successfully managed.</p>
Marin County, California
<p><a href="https://www.mcecleanenergy.org/" target="_blank">Marin Clean Energy</a> (MCE) launched in 2010 as California's first CCA program, following the passage of Assembly Bill 117, which gave communities the ability to purchase power on behalf of residents and businesses.</p><p>Marin County joined with three neighboring counties, as well as several other unincorporated regions and cities in the greater Bay area, to create MCE. Through this program, customers can choose between 60 percent renewable, 100 percent California-based renewable, or 100 percent locally sourced solar electricity portfolios.</p><p>For MCE to provide more renewable energy, local development of renewable energy projects has increased — and with it so have the number of available green jobs.</p><p>MCE reports that from 2010 to 2018, they've eliminated over 340,000 metric tons of carbon emission while helping cities and counties achieve their greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals. MCE serves more than 255,000 customers across 34 communities around the Bay Area.</p>Albany, New York
<p>In early March 2020, the City of Albany voted to create a CCA program to provide a competitive electricity rate with renewables to its residents.</p><p>By partnering with Municipal Electric and Gas Alliance (MEGA) and 13 other municipalities, Albany will offer an alternative utility provider to residents than the existing utility. Residents within the city's jurisdiction will automatically be enrolled in this program unless they choose to opt-out. Albany's CCA program features structure that allows residents to choose the percentage of renewables in their energy portfolio and will help facilitate Albany's transition to 100 percent renewable electricity.</p><p>Albany hopes this new program will help stabilize electricity costs by using its group purchasing power and competition, and ultimately reduce costs and deter predatory practices of energy telemarketers and door-to-door sales.</p>Massachusetts
<p>The towns of Melrose and Brookline have shown that CCA programs can also be successful in Massachusetts. The CCA program in Melrose has been providing the town with 5 percent renewable electricity since 2016. This program, one of the first for the state, relies primarily on wind projects in Massachusetts and Rhode Island to procure this electricity and provide it to customers though the CCA program.</p><p>The program has been widely supported due to its success stabilizing electricity rates, while providing a cleaner option. </p><p>Brookline Green Energy provides four choices for its customers with different amounts of additional renewable energy, ranging from zero percent to 100 percent. This is currently the largest amount of renewable energy provided by any utility in the state.</p><p>Additionally, Brookline Green Energy is committed to providing competitive prices by fixing its electricity costs through 2022, at which time they'll re-leverage their aggregate purchasing power to negotiate a new contract with electricity providers. This program is expected to reduce the town's overall carbon emissions by over 8 percent, a huge step toward reaching its goal of being carbon neutral by 2050.</p>What Can You Do?
<p>Want your county to lead the way in fighting the climate crisis? Through asking your county to join the <a href="https://www.climaterealityproject.org/climatecoalition" target="_blank">County Climate Coalition campaign</a>, your county can join a growing coalition of counties across the nation dedicated to taking local climate action.</p><p>Join your local Climate Reality chapter to get involved in promoting innovative solutions to the climate crisis, including community choice aggregation, in your own community. You and your chapter can learn the best ways to urge your own county's elected officials to take regional action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. <a href="https://www.climaterealityproject.org/climatecoalition" target="_blank">Learn more now</a>.</p><p>Across the country, everyday Americans are joining <a href="https://www.climaterealityproject.org/chapters" target="_blank">Climate Reality chapters</a> and working together for practical climate solutions in communities from sea to shining sea.</p><p>These friends, neighbors, and colleagues are bringing clean energy to their towns, fighting fracking developments, and so much more. Most of all, they're making a real difference for our climate when it matters — and you can too.</p>From Your Site Articles
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An artist's rendering of AeroMINES along the edge of a roof and combined with solar arrays. Sandia National Laboratories
By Andrea Thompson
Solar panels perched on the roofs of houses and other buildings are an increasingly common sight in the U.S., but rooftop wind systems have never caught on. Past efforts to scale down the towering turbines that generate wind power to something that might sit on a home have been plagued by too many technical problems to make such devices practical. Now, however, a new design could circumvent those issues by harnessing the same principle that creates lift for airplane wings.
<p>Overall, electricity generated by renewable sources has grown in the U.S. in recent years, and wind power has been a major driver of that trend. It accounts for more than 40 percent of electricity from renewables in the U.S. (though only 7 percent of all electricity production). Unlike solar energy cells, which are limited to collecting energy during daylight hours, wind turbines can run all night in any place with the right conditions—namely, in open plains or gentle hills with consistently sufficient wind speeds. But in addition to those requirements, large turbines need open space, which is not always available near towns and sprawling cities. Installing rooftop wind systems on homes and city buildings could help harness more of this resource.</p><p>When it comes to wind power, size matters. The amount of energy an individual turbine can generate is proportional to the area its blades sweep—so devices that are small enough to fit on a roof are less powerful. "What's kept distributed wind from being successful is that most of the systems are basically miniaturized wind turbines," says Brent Houchens, a mechanical engineer at Sandia National Laboratories. The smaller devices do not produce enough energy to be cost-effective. Plus, their quickly spinning blades create noisy vibrations, and their many moving parts are more prone to breakage. Compared with passive rooftop solar panels, wind turbines have the potential to be quite high-maintenance.</p>
<p>Houchens and his colleagues think they have engineered a solution that overcomes these obstacles by borrowing from a fundamental principle of air flight. The curved shape of an airplane wing—called an airfoil—alters the air pressure on either side of it and ultimately produces lift. Houchens' colleague Carsten Westergaard, president of Westergaard Solutions and a mechanical engineer at Texas Tech University, says he hitched two airfoils together so that "the flow from one airfoil will amplify the other airfoil, and they become more powerful." Oriented like two airplane wings standing upright on their side, the pair of airfoils directly face the wind. As the wind moves through, low pressure builds up between the foils and sucks air in through slits in their partly hollow bodies. That movement of air turns a small turbine housed in a tube and generates electricity.</p><p>Thanks to this design, the device—which the researchers call an AeroMINE ("MINE" stands for Motionless, Integrated Extraction)—can pull wind energy from a larger area (essentially, the AeroMINE's rectangular face) than its turbine blades could on their own in a traditional setup. Houchens likens such standard turbines to cookie cutters that leave wasted dough behind. The new device makes use of all the available wind, allowing it to extract more energy.</p>
<p>AeroMINEs also do not generate the same vibrations and noise as regular turbines; they are "less noisy than a ventilation fan," Westergaard says. The relative simplicity of their design means there are fewer moving parts to malfunction. The turbine, which is housed inside a building, would be easier to access if it does need repairs. This arrangement also keeps the blades isolated from any contact with people or wildlife. The team is designing the system so that it could be used in conjunction with rooftop solar panels, plugging into the existing infrastructure to harvest the energy they generate.</p><p>"I do think this technology could be groundbreaking" for areas with good wind conditions, says Luciano Castillo, a mechanical engineer at Purdue University, who is not involved in the project but has worked with Westergaard in the past. He also thinks the simplicity of AeroMINEs could make them a good option for developing countries, because the new devices do not require specialized parts or tools and are relatively easy to fix. Castillo and Westergaard both see the potential to use the design underwater to harness tidal energy as well.</p>
<p>Jay Apt, co-director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center, who is also not involved in the project, agrees that the simplicity of the design is attractive. But he is unsure whether the system can be scaled up to efficiently generate energy at a low enough cost in a real-world setting. Houchens says that with suitable wind conditions, he and his colleagues think AeroMINEs can be competitive with the current cost of rooftop solar power.</p><p>The team, which has received funding from Sandia and the Department of Energy, has tested scaled-down models in wind tunnels to fine-tune the design. In June the researchers have plans to test a four-meter-tall version of the device on a single-story mock building at the Scaled Wind Farm Technology (SWiFT) facility, part of Texas Tech's National Wind Institute.</p>
<p><em style="">This story originally appeared in <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/" target="_blank">Scientific American</a></em> <em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>
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Solar panel installations and a wind turbine at the Phu Lac wind farm in southern Vietnam's Binh Thuan province on April 23, 2019. MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP via Getty Images
Renewable energy made up almost three quarters of all new energy capacity added in 2019, data released Monday by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) shows.
<p><br/></p>
<p>That's a record breaking figure, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/06/new-renewable-energy-capacity-hit-record-levels-in-2019" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. As is the fact that more than one third of global power is now provided by renewable sources like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind" target="_self">wind </a>and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar" target="_self">solar</a>. But IRENA Director General Francesco La Camera warned that governments must not backtrack on this progress as they work to jump start their economies in the wake of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic.</p><p>"In responding to today's crisis, governments may be tempted to focus on short-term solutions," he said, according to The Guardian. "Yet distinctions between short-, medium- and long-term challenges may be deceptive. The pandemic shows that delayed action brings significant economic consequences."</p>
<p>Overall, the report found that renewable energy added slightly less overall capacity in 2019 compared to 2018, at 176 gigawatts (GW) compared to 179. However, the amount of new fossil fuel power added also declined, The Guardian pointed out. Renewables also grew 2.6 times more than <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a> and made up 72 percent of new energy capacity added, the report found.</p><p>"Renewable energy is a cost-effective source of new power that insulates power markets and consumers from volatility, supports economic stability and stimulates sustainable growth," La Camera said in a press release. "With renewable additions providing the majority of new capacity last year, it is clear that many countries and regions recognise the degree to which the energy transition can deliver positive outcomes."<br></p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="faf754a5956580fd7dede349f06403d6"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2mw7Ohm_3Ng?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<p>Renewable energy grew by 7.6 percent in 2019. On a regional level, 54 percent of that growth occurred in Asia. When it comes to power sources, 90 percent of the growth was driven by solar and wind, which increased by 98 GW and around 60 GW respectively.</p>
<div id="01e09" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a8723fd1b1635524d4e6ecc457763ad1"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1247194856730046469" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#Renewableenergy capacity additions in 2019 took #renewables share of all global power capacity to 34.7%, up from 3… https://t.co/dW1lUHsBzH</div> — IRENA (@IRENA)<a href="https://twitter.com/IRENA/statuses/1247194856730046469">1586189400.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>However the 2020 outlook may be less bright, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/06/the-coronavirus-is-hitting-renewable-energy-supply-chains-factories.html" target="_blank">CNBC reported</a>. There are concerns that the coronavirus pandemic and the plummeting of oil prices may decrease renewable energy investments, and there are already signs that the virus is interfering with renewable energy supply chains.</p><p>For example, Wood Mackenzie projected on Monday that 3 GW of wind and solar installation in India could be delayed because of the coronavirus lockdown and noted that the solar sector in India was heavily dependent on photovoltaic imports from China, which were impacted by the virus.</p><p>Meanwhile, the Global Wind Energy Council said in late March that wind's previously projected growth over the next five years would "undoubtedly be impacted by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, due to disruptions to global supply chains and project execution in 2020."</p><p>WindEurope said 18 manufacturing sites in hard-hit Spain and Italy are now closed, though the majority of the continent's wind turbine factories remain open.</p><p>"As an existential threat, the multi-faceted fallout from coronavirus … now sits alongside climate change as a defining challenge of our time," La Camera wrote, as CNBC reported.</p>
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In Germany's Hunsrück village of Schorbach, numerous photovoltaic systems are installed on house roofs, on Sept. 19, 2019. Thomas Frey / Picture Alliance via Getty Images
Germany's target for renewable energy sources to deliver 65% of its consumed electricity by 2030 seemed on track Wednesday, with 52% of electricity coming from renewables in 2020's first quarter. Renewable energy advocates, however, warned the trend is imperiled by slowdowns in building new wind and solar plants.
<p>The federal BDEW energy and water federation and Baden-Württemberg state's ZSW solar and hydro research center observed a 7% percent renewables jump from 44.4% in the same period last year, in comparison to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> consumption.</p><p>Wind, especially offshore wind turbines, solar panels and other sources generated 77 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) compared to 67 kWh in the first quarter of 2019.</p><p>Using the standard EU's electricity consumption measurement, Germany's total, also from conventional <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/natural-gas" target="_self">gas</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/nuclear" target="_self">nuclear</a> plants, amounted to 148 billion kWh.</p>
<p><br>The 7% jump in renewables came despite conventional plant closures and pandemic impacts on industry, officials said, while also noting "special effects" such as record winds in February and plentiful sun in March that benefited turbines and voltaic panels.</p><p>That trend could, however, not be extrapolated for the whole of 2020, warned the BDEW and ZSW, pointing to local objectors and current investor indecision.</p><p>Some residents, arguing on health and scenic grounds, resist the building of more wind turbines and the laying of extra arterial power lines to transmit electricity captured at North Sea wind farms to Germany's industrial south.</p>
<p>The record figures stand in contrast to investment deterrents, which if not quickly removed would make Germany's target of 65% self-sufficiency unreachable, said BDEW head Kerstin Andreae.</p><p>Germany's pandemic-induced economic woes compounded the situation, Andreae added.</p><p>Given the current downturn, ZSW executive board member Frithjof Staiss contended that investors would turn to renewable energy projects that were less fraught with risk than the current "volatile share market."</p><p>The renewables record, noted the BDEW and ZSW, was achieved despite the shutdown of Germany's Philippsburg 2 nuclear power plant at the end of 2019 and the placing of brown coal power plants on standby to cover emergencies.</p><p>Using another measure, gross electricity produced, the two groups calculated that with exported electricity included in their calculation, renewable sources made up 49% of Germany's gross electricity production in the first quarter of the year.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/renewables-make-up-over-half-of-germanys-power-mix/a-52986924?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">DW</a>.</em></p>
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Wave power in Portugal. The oceans' energy potential is immense. Luis Ascenso, via Wikimedia Commons
By Paul Brown
The amount of energy generated by tides and waves in the last decade has increased tenfold. Now governments around the world are planning to scale up these ventures to tap into the oceans' vast store of blue energy.
<p>Although in 2019 the total amount of energy produced by "blue power" would have been enough to provide electricity to only one city the size of Paris, even that was a vast increase on the tiny experiments being carried out 10 years earlier.</p><p>Now countries across the world with access to the sea are beginning to exploit all sorts of new technologies and are intending to scale them up to bolster their attempts to go carbon-neutral.</p><p>Blue energy takes many forms. One of the most difficult technically is harnessing the energy of waves with devices that produce electricity. After several false starts many successful prototypes are now being trialed for commercial use. Other experiments exploit the <a href="https://www.surgewatch.org/definition/tidal-range/" target="_blank">tidal range</a> – using the power of rapidly rising and falling tidal streams to push water through turbines.</p><p>The most commercially successful strategies so far use underwater turbines, similar to wind turbines, to exploit the tidal currents in coastal regions.</p>
<p>More ambitious but along the same lines are attempts to capture the energy from the immense ocean currents that move vast quantities of water around the planet.</p><p>Also included in blue energy is <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/ocean-thermal-energy-conversion" target="_blank">ocean thermal energy conversion</a>, which exploits the temperature differences between solar energy stored as heat in the upper ocean layers and colder seawater, generally at a depth below 1000 meters.</p><p>A variation on this is to use <a href="https://www.oceanenergy-europe.eu/ocean-energy/salinity-gradient/" target="_blank">salinity gradients</a>, the difference between the salt content of the sea and fresh water entering from a large river system. Some of these schemes are being used to produce fresh drinking water for dry regions rather than electricity.</p><p>The potential from all these energy sources is so great that an organization called <a href="https://www.ocean-energy-systems.org/" target="_blank">Ocean Energy Systems</a> (OES), an offshoot of the <a href="https://www.iea.org/" target="_blank">International Energy Agency</a>, is pooling all the research in a bid to achieve large-scale deployment.</p><p>There are now 24 countries in the OES, including China, India, the U.S., most European nations with a coastline, Japan, Australia and South Africa. Most of them have already deployed some blue energy schemes and are hoping to scale them up to full commercial use in the next decade.</p><p>As with <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind" target="_self">wind</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar" target="_self">solar</a> when they were being widely developed ten years ago, energy from the oceans is currently more expensive than <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a>. But as the technologies are refined the costs are coming down.</p>
<h3>Profiting Already</h3><p>Already China has encouraged tidal stream energy by offering a feed-in tariff three times the price of fossil fuels, similar to the rate used in many countries to launch solar and wind power. One Chinese company is already finding this incentive enough to feed power into the grid and make a profit.</p><p>Among the leading countries developing these technologies are Canada and the United Kingdom, the two countries with the highest tides in the world. Canada has a number of tidal energy schemes on its Atlantic coast in Nova Scotia, with several competing companies testing different prototypes.</p><p>Scotland, which has enormous potential because of its many islands and tidal currents, has the largest tidal array of underwater turbines in the world. The turbine output has exceeded expectations, and <a href="https://simecatlantis.com/projects/meygen/" target="_blank">the MeyGen company</a> is planning to vastly increase the number of installations.</p><p>But this is only one of more than 20 projects in the UK, some still in the research and development stage, but many already being scaled up for deployment at special testing grounds in Scotland's Orkney islands and the West of England.</p><p>OES chairman <a href="https://www.eng.ed.ac.uk/about/people/mr-henry-f-jeffrey" target="_blank">Henry Jeffrey, from the University of Edinburgh</a>, said <a href="https://www.etipocean.eu/resources/oes-annual-report/" target="_blank">the group's new annual report</a> communicates the sizable global effort to identify commercialization pathways for ocean energy technologies.</p><p>Both Canada and the U.S. can now see big potential, and political leaders across Europe have identified ocean energy as an essential component in meeting decarbonization targets, fostering economic growth and creating future employment opportunities.</p>
<h3>Lower Costs Essential</h3><p>"Our latest report underlines the considerable international support for the marine renewable sector as leading global powers attempt to rebalance energy usage and limit global warming. The start of this new decade carries considerable promise for ocean energy," he said.</p><p>However, Jeffrey warned that while the sector continued to take huge strides forward, there were several challenges ahead "centred around affordability, reliability, installability, operability, funding availability, capacity building and standardization.</p><p>"In particular, significant cost reductions are required for ocean energy technologies to compete with other low-carbon technologies."</p><p>Currently the cost of wind power, taking into account construction costs over the turbines' lifetime, is being quoted as around €0.8-10 (one eighth to one tenth of a Euro, about £0.07-9 or US$0.9-11) per <a href="https://electricityplans.com/kwh-kilowatt-hour-can-power/" target="_blank">kilowatt hour</a>, but this is still going down.</p><p>The European target is to get tidal stream energy down to €0.10 by 2030 and wave power down to €0.15, which would also make them competitive with fossil fuels if gas and coal were obliged to pay for capturing and storing the carbon dioxide they produce. </p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/blue-energy-revolution-comes-of-age/" target="_blank">Climate News Network</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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