After more than four decades of relying on subsidies, Denmark’s renewable energy industry is ready to survive on its own much sooner than anyone expected. The Danish energy minister, Lars Christian Lilleholt, says that “in just a few years,” renewable energy providers won’t need state support anymore. He says it’s a development he couldn’t have imagined as recently as last year. “We’re now very close to arriving,” he said in an interview in Copenhagen on Monday, after receiving a set of recommendations from a government-appointed panel on Denmark’s energy future.
Denmark Preparing to End Renewable Energy Subsidies: ‘We’re Now Very Close’ | Greentech Media
Amazing stuff, weren't these alternatives supposed to run on subsidies forever..
Useful charts on the future of energy demand here:
China will remain the number one energy consumer in 2035. The transport sector will sustain oil demand growth and China will still be the world's second largest consumer of oil, after the US, in 2035. Its rate of demand growth, though, is slowing, while others speed up. India has the fastest growing energy demand, increasing at an annual average of 3 percent from now to 2035, by which time the country's population will outpace even China's. Renewables will surge from 22 percent to 54 percent of total installed capacity, while oil consumption rises 80 percent.
Coal Down, Renewables Up, India on the Rise in 2035 Energy Outlook | Greentech Media
Fortunately, most of the policies that really matter -- in terms of accelerating renewable energy -- are actually still made at the state level. By that I'm referring to renewable portfolio standards, net metering, interconnection standards, rate design, state tax credits, etc., that really dictate the markets for clean energy around the country. I think the will is very strong to continue what we've started, and I have actually seen an increase in activity and interest here in California. Aurora: Speaking of renewable portfolio standards, California’s RPS sets the ambitious goal of obtaining 50 percent of the state’s electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Can you provide a quick update on where we are? Are there major hurdles for California to overcome in order to achieve this target sustainably? Hochschild: Today, 27 percent of the state’s electricity is from renewable sources; that's up from 12 percent renewables in 2008. And we're on a path not just to hit 50 percent, but to exceed it.
Q&A: The State of Clean Energy With David Hochschild of the California Energy Commission | Greentech Media
The government is under pressure to reconsider its commitment to a new generation of nuclear power stations after the cost of offshore wind power reached a record low. Experts said green energy had reached a tipping point in the UK after two windfarms secured a state-backed price for their output that was nearly half the level awarded last year to Britain’s first new nuclear power site in a generation, Hinkley Point C. Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, said the breakthrough should prompt a rethink of the government’s energy plans, which have pencilled in atomic plants at Wylffa in Wales, Sizewell in Suffolk and Bradwell in Essex. “The spectacular drop in the cost of offshore wind is extremely encouraging and shows the need for a radical reappraisal by government of the UK’s energy provision,” he said.
Nuclear plans 'should be rethought after fall in offshore windfarm costs' | Environment | The Guardian
Yesterday brought news from the UK that offshore wind prices have fallen by half in the past two years and are now – for the first time – lower than nuclear and gas. This is an exciting breakthrough, perhaps the biggest ever for the renewable industry in Britain. It is no longer just academics and campaigners pushing clean energy for scientific and idealistic reasons. Now the market has bought into the hard-headed business case – and ahead of time. The speed of this transformation has stunned industry observers and delighted climate campaigners, who see it as part of a faster, and cheaper, worldwide takeup of wind and solar power than was forecast
Hurricanes wreak the havoc of climate change – but is a green energy solution in sight? | Jonathan Watts | Opinion | The Guardian
In March I went to see Henrik Poulsen, the boss of Dong Energy, in Copenhagen. Never heard of him or his company? You are not alone, but the chances are he is keeping your lights on. The largely unknown story of his company is worth telling because it is genuinely revolutionary. Dong stands for Danish oil and natural gas. It was, like Shell and BP, involved in fossil fuel exploration and production. But in less than a decade it has become an 85% offshore wind company, and is divesting its coal, oil and gas interests. By 2023, Dong Energy will be very close to zero carbon. That is a pretty staggering transformation in a very short space of time.
But it doesn’t end there. This isn’t just a hymn to the glory of an oil and gas company, it’s also a paean to the UK’s “greenest government ever”. Thanks to its support, the price of offshore wind energy has dropped by half in less than two years. By the 2020s, it will be as cheap or cheaper than any other form of power generation. It’s just become much cheaper than nuclear, even taking into account the additional costs associated with the wind’s intermittency. And in any case, this is less of an issue at sea where the winds are more constant..
Wind power is now cheaper than nuclear – the energy revolution is happening | John Sauven | Opinion | The Guardian
Back in April of 2016, I wrote about an exciting new technology for which construction was just getting underway: the Net Power natural gas power plant. It promised to capture its own carbon dioxide emissions, not in a separate, expensive, power-intensive process like conventional carbon-capture facilities, but as part of the combustion cycle. The company claimed that the technology will ultimately enable it to produce power at prices cheaper than conventional fossil fuel power plants — with carbon capture built in. Net Power had just started work on a small, 50 MW power plant in La Porte, Texas, meant to demonstrate that the technology can work.
As of last year, the plant completed construction. And as of this week, it has achieved “first fire” and is running a battery of tests meant to ensure that everything is working up to snuff. If all goes well — lead designer and chemical engineer Rodney Allam recently told Nature, “we’re still smiling” — the plant will begin generating electricity in earnest later this year. The company plans to build another 300 MW plant for sometime in 2020.
Fossil fuel electricity, without pollution: Texas has a new power plant - Vox
A gas-fired power plant in Scotland may be able to generate ultra-low carbon power at a cheaper cost than nuclear, according to its developers. The engineers behind the Caledonia Clean Energy Project (CCEP) claim a scheme to strip the carbon emissions from the flue of a gas-fired power plant could be developed through a Government contract worth between £80 and £90 a megawatt hour. The project would be a lower cost to the consumer than high-profile new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point C in Somerset, and produce just a tenth of the carbon emissions of a traditional gas-fired power plant.
Scottish breakthrough in carbon-capture technology