QUICK NEWS, September 18: Attribution Science Affirms Climate Change Impacts; Solar Bouncing Back
Attribution Science Affirms Climate Change Impacts Climate change is real. Welcome to the new normal.
Eugene Robinson, September 17, 2018 (Washington Post)
“…Tropical cyclones are nothing new, of course. But climate scientists say that global warming should make such storms wetter, slower and more intense — which is exactly what seems to be happening…Climate change is a global phenomenon…Every human being on the planet has a stake in what governments do to limit and adapt to climate change…[S]cientists are now cautiously making the first serious attempts to gauge the impact of climate change on specific weather events such as storms, monsoons, droughts and heat waves…The most ambitious attempt to quantify the link between climate and weather — a blue-chip international consortium called World Weather Attribution — has not yet made an attempt to estimate any possible effect that global warming may have had [this year’s storms…[But] the Climate Extremes Modeling Group at the Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, estimated Sept. 12 that Florence would produce 50 percent more rainfall than if human-induced global warming had not occurred…[W]armer water is more easily evaporated, which means there is more moisture available to fuel a storm…and to be released by such storms as rainfall…
If humankind suddenly stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, we would still have to adapt to the climatic changes we have already set in motion. The excess carbon dioxide we have pumped into the atmosphere will remain there for thousands of years. We will be coping with massive tropical storms, tragic coastal and riverine flooding, deadly heat waves and unprecedented wildfires for the rest of our lives…[W]e should be trying to reduce carbon emissions and keep global warming to a manageable level. With the landmark Paris agreement, the nations of the world agreed to try. But [the current] administration has already proposed weakening restrictions on carbon emissions from automobiles and coal-fired power plants. And last week, there were reports that the administration also wants to loosen rules governing the release of methane, which traps even more heat than carbon dioxide…Climate change is no longer theoretical. It is real…” click here for more
Solar Bouncing Back Utility Solar Procurement Booms as Residential Market Stabilizes in Q2 2018
September 13, 2018 (GTM Research)
The U.S. solar market has experienced a tumultuous few quarters since the government last year began considering tariffs on imported solar modules and cells, but data for the second quarter of 2018 show signs of a turnaround in the market…Utility solar project procurement soared in Q2 2018 as component prices declined and home solar installations steadied after a 15 percent contraction last year, according to the latest U.S. Solar Market Insight Report…This is the first quarter where the data clearly show that tariffs took a bite out of the solar market. Some previously-announced projects were canceled or delayed due to the tariffs.
In Q2 2018, the U.S. market installed 2.3 GWdc of solar PV, a 9% year-over-year decrease and a 7% quarter-over-quarter decrease, despite the fact that module prices fell sharply in Q2 due to lower demand in China…[An acceleration of solar deployment is forecast for] the second half of 2018 driven by utility-scale projects… 8.5 gigawatts of utility PV projects were procured in the first six months of the year, the most ever procured in that timeframe…[and that is expected to continue] as developers look to secure projects they can bring online before the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) steps down to 10 percent in 2022…Module prices are at their second lowest mark in history even with the addition of a 30 percent tariff…[The 5-year forecast for utility-scale solar has been upped] by 1.9 gigawatts. That is still 8 percent lower than was projected before the tariffs were announced…Community solar continues to see rapid growth…” click here for more
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