A gentlemen doing his own start up in green asked me to explain clearly what are some examples how going renewable is the business trend of the markets and the government.
Real Examples Renewable Energy Shows Promise Now!
Seth Leitman | The Green Living Guy
So as I have written in a few posts in 2012:
1. DOE announced on March 1 the start of an initiative to capture wind energy off U.S. coasts. As part of a planned six-year, $180 million initiative, an initial $20 million will be available this year as the first step in supporting up to four innovative offshore wind energy installations. These offshore wind projects will accelerate the deployment of breakthrough wind power technologies that will help diversify the U.S. energy portfolio. Offshore wind resources in the United States are estimated at more than 4,000 gigawatts.
The demonstration projects will help address key challenges associated with installing utility-scale offshore wind turbines, connecting offshore turbines to the power grid, and navigating new permitting and approval processes. In addition to the new funding, DOE is continuing to work with partners across the federal government to implement a comprehensive offshore wind energy strategy, conduct resource assessments, and streamline siting and permitting processes.
2. Emerging from the global economic recession, investments in renewable energy technologies continued their steady rise in 2011, with total new investments in renewable power and fuels (excluding large hydropower and solar hot water) reaching $257 billion, up from $220 billion in 2010. In a year marked by falling costs for renewable energy technologies, net investment in renewable power capacity was $40 billion greater than investment in fossil fuel capacity, according to new research conducted by the Worldwatch Institute’s Climate and Energy program (www.worldwatch.org) for the Institute’s Vital Signs Online service.
Total renewable energy investments in industrial countries in 2011 accounted for 65 percent of global investment, increasing 21 percent to $168 billion overall. In contrast, the 35 percent of global new investment that went to developing countries increased 10 percent, to $89 billion. Of that sum, China, India, and Brazil accounted for $71 billion in total investment. Investment in India grew 62 percent——the highest growth rate for any single country over 2010 totals. In 2011, “financial new investment” in renewable energy installations (a category that excludes small-scale projects and R&D) in industrial countries outpaced investments in the developing world, but in 2010 investments in this category in developing countries had surpassed those in industrial countries for the first time.
A major development in 2011 was the dominance of solar power in technology-specific investments——driven by a 50 percent reduction in price over the year——with $147.4 billion invested in solar compared with $83.8 billion for wind projects and $10.6 billion for biomass and waste-to-energy technology. Although this was not the first time solar surpassed wind in total investment, it was the first time that this involved such a wide margin.
3. Recently I reported that a new study shows the transition to clean energy would reduce consumer energy costs by $83 billion, in addition to greatly reducing air pollution and water use.
The new report used wind and solar output modeled how the power system would operate with a cleaner fuel mix in 2030 and 2050. Without even using technologies such as demand response and renewable energy forecasting, the study found that current electric reliability would be maintained at current levels in all hours of the year in the study scenario of wind and solar providing around 37% of the electricity on the power system.
Wind energy provided more than 20 percent of the electricity in Iowa and South Dakota last year, and more than 10 percent in seven other states. Xcel Energy’s Colorado utility system has frequently obtained more than 55% of its electricity from wind energy, the main grid in Texas has gone as high as 32%, and the utility system in Portugal has gone above 90% on some occasions. Dozens of wind integration studies in the U.S. and Europe have found that wind energy can provide more than 40% of total electricity on an annual basis without any reliability concerns.
Source: Power of Wind
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