IEEFA has published its U.S. Power Sector Outlook 2021. Its authors, Dennis Wamsted, Seth Feaster and David Schlissel summarise and explain the projections. They say that coal and gas are set to become the biggest losers as renewable generation climbs quickly. The future for wind and solar – coupled with storage to address intermittency - is looking very good. They present estimates from NextEra (the largest renewable energy developer in the … [Read more...]
How to keep winter ice off a Wind Turbine’s blades
Nearly 800GW of wind power have been installed worldwide so far, with plenty more to come. But the Texas freeze in February showed how vulnerable wind turbines are to ice. Hui Hu at Iowa State University summaries his team’s research into solving a problem that can cut generation by 20% or even shut down turbines completely. He explains why existing de-icing solutions for airplane wings offer only a partial solution. Metal airplane wings can be … [Read more...]
We’re making much more progress decarbonising Electricity than Transport. Why?
In the OECD, since 2000, electricity sector emissions have fallen by 8% while transport emissions have actually increased by 5%. The best performers like the UK recorded drops in both: 40% and 6% respectively. In the U.S. it’s 25% and 0%. Catherine Wolfram at the Haas School of Business asks why transport is still going in the wrong direction, given the power sector’s progress. She posits three theories. Rich nations are outsourcing … [Read more...]
U.S. EIA predicts Renewables will surpass Coal by 2021
Renewable electricity generation in the U.S. has risen so fast in the last 10 years that it’s expected to surpass coal by 2021, according to the latest report from the nation’s Energy Information Administration (EIA). This would have been “unthinkable” in 2010, says Dennis Wamsted at IEEFA. Back then, nationwide, utility-scale solar generated 1.29bn kWh and wind 94.6bn kWh. By 2021 solar will have risen almost a hundredfold to 122bn kWh and wind … [Read more...]
Renewable hydrogen “already cost competitive”, says new research
Jocelyn Timperley at Carbon Brief has interviewed the lead author, and the critics, of this new report titled “Economics of converting renewable power to hydrogen”. The research says renewable hydrogen is already proving competitive for niche, high-intensity users in Germany and Texas. Future technological improvements, combined with expected changes to subsidies and CCS requirements, can make it so for large-scale industrial users in the next 10 … [Read more...]
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