QUICK NEWS, January 15: “Stupendously” Expensive Climate Change; New Energy Almost half Of 2017’s New U.S. Generation; Record Competitive Prices For New Energy
“Stupendously” Expensive Climate Change Unchecked climate change is going to be stupendously expensive
Ryan Cooper, January 15, 2018 (The Week)
“Climate change is first and foremost a threat to human society…[and one way that threat] is going to be expressed is through economic damage…[U]nchecked climate change is going to be terrifically expensive…[though] economic projections tend to be wildly inaccurate…[T]he amount of damage will depend greatly on what humans do in the future, and there have been few studies on what damage would be like under higher warming scenarios of 3 degrees or above…But we can say the damage is going to be very large — indeed, it's already quite bad. NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information estimates that 2017 was America's most expensive year for climate disasters of all time, with 16 disasters costing over $1 billion (more than three times the 1980-2017 average, after accounting for inflation) and a total cost of over $300 billion. That's about 1.5 percent of total GDP — or enough to pay for a $300 per month child allowance for every parent in America, with some left over…[And this] year is already off to a bad climate start…[T]he faster we move on climate policy, the cheaper it will be…[E]very year of delay adds $500 billion to the world total of necessary investment…” click here for more
New Energy Almost half Of 2017’s New U.S. Generation Nearly half of utility-scale capacity installed in 2017 came from renewables
January 10, 2018 (U.S. Energy Information Administration)
“…EIA expects about 25 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale electric generating capacity to have been added to the power grid during 2017, nearly half of which use renewable technologies, especially wind and solar. Another 3.5 GW of small-scale solar net capacity additions are estimated to have come online in 2017…Of the renewable capacity additions in 2017, more than half came online during the fourth quarter…[largely] because of timing qualifications for federal, state, or local tax incentives…Monthly U.S. renewable electricity generation peaked in March at 67.5 billion kilowatthours, or 21% of total utility-scale electricity generation. In late spring, the melting snowpack from a winter characterized by higher-than-average levels of precipitation increased hydroelectric generation, while strong wind resources in March also produced a peak in monthly wind generation for the year…Most renewable generation in 2017 came from the Western census division…” click here for more
Record Competitive Prices For New Energy This is how coal dies — super cheap renewables plus battery storage; New Colorado wind farms with batteries are now cheaper than running old coal plants
Joe Romm, January 10, 2018 (ThinkProgress)
“Solar, wind, and battery prices are dropping so fast that, in Colorado, building new renewable power plus battery storage is now cheaper than running old coal plants. This increasingly renders existing coal plants obsolete…Xcel Energy [just] reported dozens of shockingly low bids it had received for building new solar and wind farms, many with battery storage…The median bid price in 2017 for wind plus battery storage was $21 per megawatt-hour, which is 2.1 cents per kilowatt-hour…[which is thought] to be lower than the operating cost of all coal plants currently in Colorado…The median bid price for solar plus battery storage was $36/MWh (3.6 cents/kwh), which may be lower than about three-fourths of operating coal capacity…[T]he average U.S. residential price for electricity is 12 cents/kWh…[B]y definition, half of the bids are below the median price…[There were] 87 bids for solar plus storage…There were 96 bids for wind power alone — at a median price of 1.8 cents/kwh…What XCel Energy has shown us is that the price for battery storage is dropping so fast, adding it to a solar or wind project increases the total price only modestly. And that’s a game-changer…” click here for more
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