[ralfy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', 'M')y first comment is that the Club of Rome report shows that if we continue with BAU, then we are facing catastrophe. We need to change course, and that was what was proposed in the other thread I referred to. In fact, we are starting on the alternative path toward clean energy growth gradually right now. We have have been following the course outlined by the original study as pointed out by an Australian group recently.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')ur research does not indicate that collapse of the world economy, environment and population is a certainty. Nor do we claim the future will unfold exactly as the MIT researchers predicted back in 1972. Wars could break out; so could genuine global environmental leadership. Either could dramatically affect the trajectory.

[Graeme]

Monte, The point is that there are other possible futures besides the dystopian one you are promoting. Here are more recent examples:

India uses coal tax to help fund 21GW of new solar development

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Indian government has today announced the approval of 21GW in new solar development with over US$800 million in government funding made available.

The new solar projects will predominantly use Viability Gap Funding (VGF).

VGF is available due to India’s ‘polluter pays’ system. Coal companies pay INR50 (US$0.80) per tonne of domestically produced, and imported coal.

These polluter fees are channelled onto the National Clean Energy Fund, operated by the Ministry of Finance, and awarded to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

The national government is providing INR5050 crore (US$809 million) in total, for two solar development schemes, one for at least 20GW of ‘ultra mega’ solar power parks, and another for 1GW of on-grid solar.


The two schemes are in line with reports of India raising its solar ambitions to 100GW by 2022, and reports of solar parks being mapped out last month to meet solar advocate Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s election ambitions.

[ralfy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', 'M')onte, The point is that there are other possible futures besides the dystopian one you are promoting. Here are more recent examples:

India uses coal tax to help fund 21GW of new solar development

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Indian government has today announced the approval of 21GW in new solar development with over US$800 million in government funding made available.

The new solar projects will predominantly use Viability Gap Funding (VGF).

VGF is available due to India’s ‘polluter pays’ system. Coal companies pay INR50 (US$0.80) per tonne of domestically produced, and imported coal.

These polluter fees are channelled onto the National Clean Energy Fund, operated by the Ministry of Finance, and awarded to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

The national government is providing INR5050 crore (US$809 million) in total, for two solar development schemes, one for at least 20GW of ‘ultra mega’ solar power parks, and another for 1GW of on-grid solar.


The two schemes are in line with reports of India raising its solar ambitions to 100GW by 2022, and reports of solar parks being mapped out last month to meet solar advocate Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s election ambitions.

[Graeme]

No it doesn't.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', 'M')onte, The point is that there are other possible futures besides the dystopian one you are promoting.

[Graeme]

My impression is that you are a messenger of despair and anarchy. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'd like to re-post an article that I posted in this thread.

The Club of Rome’s Next Act

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') was privileged to address the attendees at the Annual Meeting on “Financing the Energy Transition.” In my speech, I addressed three interconnected monumental challenges:
Mobilizing the estimated $44 trillion (that’s Trillion with a “T”) of investment required between now and 2050 for renewable energy technologies and critical energy efficiency, (see the International Energy Agency’s recent report);

The $20 trillion stranded asset challenge referred to above; and

The overarching context of limits to growth, which implies a corollary limits to investment a challenge no economic system has ever had to contemplate.

Jane Jacobs once said, “it’s not how big you grow, it’s how you grow big.”

As we reflect on the prescience of the Club of Rome’s seminal work on limits to growth, nothing could be more important at this pivotal moment in time. Future growth and development, beginning with the energy system that fuels it, and the business models that define its qualities, will need to evolve as living systems have done over billions of years, to more intricate, regenerative systems.

Watch for the Club of Rome’s next act, shifting from prescient diagnosis, to a search for genuine solutions, rooted in a systemic level understanding of the forces at play. We can say for sure that there are limits to mindless growth. Regenerative economies nurture mindful growth and development. This is the future we had better embrace.

[ralfy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', 'N')o it doesn't.

[Zanstel]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ralfy', '
')With profits and returns on investment, credit levels grow, and they have to be backed up with increasing energy and material resource use. That's economic growth, which is what BAU is about.

[Graeme]

Zanstel, Thanks. Help seems to come from the most unexpected quarters. I associate BAU with exploitation of FF, which is what we should be trying to avoid. We can still have economic growth when we use efficient, low-carbon RE. Here are a couple of examples of urban areas heavily promoting and using RE:

How A Small German Town Became A Renewable Energy Miracle

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'R')enewable energy is attractive to many not just for its environmental benefits, but because it means independence from electrical utilities.

Now, one small town in Germany has achieved that dream--and then some.

ALSO SEE: World's First Entirely Renewable-Energy Place: Wind-Swept Scottish Island

The town of Wildpoldsried--in southern Bavaria--produces 500 percent more energy than it needs, according to a recent Navigant Research blog post.

With a population of around 2,600 people, Wildpoldsried undertook an ambitious effort to transform its energy use through new solar, wind, biogas, and hydro-electric infrastructure.

The various projects were funded largely with government subsidies.

The goal was for Wildpoldsried to produce all of its own electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Obviously, it's well ahead of schedule.

However, what was good for the town also presented a problem for local utility Allgäuer Überlandwerke GmbH (AÜW), which had to determine how to integrate excess power into the grid.

The solution was an experimental management system co-developed with Siemens and called Integration of Regenerative Energy and Electrical Mobility (IRENE).

[ralfy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zanstel', '
')No. Profit doesn't imply growth.

[ralfy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', 'Z')anstel, Thanks. Help seems to come from the most unexpected quarters. I associate BAU with exploitation of FF, which is what we should be trying to avoid. We can still have economic growth when we use efficient, low-carbon RE. Here are a couple of examples of urban areas heavily promoting and using RE:

How A Small German Town Became A Renewable Energy Miracle

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'R')enewable energy is attractive to many not just for its environmental benefits, but because it means independence from electrical utilities.

Now, one small town in Germany has achieved that dream--and then some.

ALSO SEE: World's First Entirely Renewable-Energy Place: Wind-Swept Scottish Island

The town of Wildpoldsried--in southern Bavaria--produces 500 percent more energy than it needs, according to a recent Navigant Research blog post.

With a population of around 2,600 people, Wildpoldsried undertook an ambitious effort to transform its energy use through new solar, wind, biogas, and hydro-electric infrastructure.

The various projects were funded largely with government subsidies.

The goal was for Wildpoldsried to produce all of its own electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Obviously, it's well ahead of schedule.

However, what was good for the town also presented a problem for local utility Allgäuer Überlandwerke GmbH (AÜW), which had to determine how to integrate excess power into the grid.

The solution was an experimental management system co-developed with Siemens and called Integration of Regenerative Energy and Electrical Mobility (IRENE).

[Zanstel]

Ralfy. A trend is not a law nor a dependence.

You are in a circular endless loop of arguments.
Capitalism requires profit which requires growth because requires profit.

You are mixing things too. Global trends doesn't imply any necessity for business. Business doesn't need growth to work. You can see a lot of old business that, if you discount monetary inflation, had been frozen or shrunk on some period without bankruptcy.

To see old trends without understand the variables and conditions that rule them goes to a bad predictions
Global trends shows past growth simply because we had grow, not because growth is needed.

If a small business could face a crisis, there is no reason because whole economy couldn't make the same.
Of course, there will be some business less ready for change that will disappear, and others new will be created, but this is not something new.

You vision about basic sectors failing are an exaggeration because people spend before in basic sectors before other things, so a lot of business related to unnecessary or less important services will be shrinking or disappear before.
That means a lot of energy that allow the face the crisis by a time until the growth of renewable allow go to a steady state of things.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Graeme', 'M')y impression is that you are a messenger of despair and anarchy. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zanstel', ' ')Global trends shows past growth simply because we had grow, not because growth is needed.

[ralfy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Zanstel', 'R')alfy. A trend is not a law nor a dependence.

[Graeme]

In California and Iowa, Advanced Energy Means Lots of Jobs

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')his week and last, the AEE Institute published first-ever surveys of advanced energy employment in California and Iowa. Both states are known as advanced energy standouts, each in its own way. California is an across-the-board leader in climate and energy policy, with a strong greenhouse gas law and a 33 percent renewable energy standard. Iowa gets more than a quarter of its electricity generated by wind and its farms contribute greatly to the nation’s renewable fuels capacity. But now we can state with certainty that those noteworthy characteristics translate into thousands of businesses and tens of thousands of advanced energy jobs – in California, hundreds of thousands.

Here are the top-line findings from the two reports:

The advanced energy industry in California is, not surprisingly, California-sized – over 431,000 workers in more than 40,000 businesses. That’s almost double the employment in the state’s marquee motion picture, television, and radio industries, and two-and-a-half times the number of workers in aerospace. Rural Iowa has 22,600 advanced energy employees in 1,400 businesses, more workers than in crop production, trucking, or animal production. In California, 2.4 percent of the total state workforce is engaged in advanced energy commerce; in Iowa, 1.3 percent.

In both states, employers say they are planning to add more workers next year: In Iowa, after a slight decline last year (due to the on-again, off-again federal production tax credit), 6 percent employment growth in advanced energy is expected in the coming year; in California, next year’s job total is expected to jump a whopping 17 percent, to more than 500,000.

[Graeme]

Here Are 5 Countries Where Solar Power Is Making a Revolution

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')eveloping countries of the global south don’t have enough electricity. Sometimes rural populations are only just now getting electricity. Ironically, many of them can leapfrog conventional power and go straight to solar and wind. Indeed, in the next generation, renewables will be a central element in national development.

SunEdison has been awarded a contract to build 350 megawatts of utility scale solar plants in Chile. But what is important here is that SunEdison will be able to generate the electricity more inexpensively than if it had used coal or natural gas or nuclear, and does not need any subsidy to produce this result. If this comparative cost advantage is true now, the advantage will grow rapidly over the next decade.

Coal demand will likely continue to rise slightly globally for a few years, inasmuch as the coal plants are already built, whereas most renewable energy requires up front investment. But India has an interesting idea. Its government will use taxes on coal to help fund 21 gigawatts of new utility scale solar energy! That is the rough equivalent of 20 small nuclear reactors!

[Graeme]

Renewable Energy Review: Brazil

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')evelopers, manufacturers, investors and other renewable energy industry stakeholders need to know where the next big market is going to be so that they can adjust their business decisions accordingly.

Since 2003, global consultancy Ernst & Young has released its Country Attractiveness Indices, which ranks global renewable energy markets by analyzing investment strategies and resource availability. The indices are updated on a quarterly basis and the most recent report can be found here.

Here is the firm’s assessment of Brazil.

Solar Scores Big

After hosting the first-ever FIFA World Cup game to be powered by solar energy, thanks to the 6,000 solar panels installed on the Mineirão Stadium, Brazil's solar ambitions are about to get even bigger. Around 400 projects representing 10.8 GW of capacity have already been shortlisted for the October reserve auction, the first national power auction to split out solar capacity from other technologies. Through such allocations, the Government expects to contract around 3.5 GW of solar power between 2014 and 2018, compared to just 11 MW of installed capacity currently. Successful projects securing these 20-year PPAs will need to be operational by October 2017.

Seeking Fair Prices

Solar actually made its debut in Brazil's national power auctions last October, with around 6 GW of projects cleared to bid. However, with average solar PV prices of R$250/MWh (US$112), projects have been unable to compete with wind bids averaging just R$130/MWh (US$58) in recent auctions, resulting in no solar contracts being awarded. The decision to ring-fence solar projects within October's reserve auction therefore represents a very deliberate move by the Government toward a technology that it previously deemed to be too expensive.

[Graeme]

The switch to renewable power is a battle we cannot afford to lose

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')ince the final gavel fell at the Lima climate talks earlier this month, discussions have centred on one question: what did the talks actually accomplish?

After two weeks of intense negotiation, governments settled on a draft text that will hopefully lead to a successful global climate deal in Paris next December. While opinions vary regarding the success or failure of the outcome, there is another story emerging outside the negotiation room.

This year’s conference represented a highly-significant shift in the positive momentum to act on climate change. While negotiators engaged in contentious debates, businesses, non-governmental organisations and local authorities stepped forward to present their own climate initiatives and committed to more action on the ground.

In this shift, renewable energy took centre stage.

According to the Nazca Climate Action portal (named after Peru’s famous geoglyphs), 319 cities and 261 companies are taking action on climate change. Of the 913 total actions recorded so far, 402 relate to energy efficiency and 242 relate to renewable energy.

Private sector initiatives – such as RE100 and the Global Investor Statement on Climate Change – have also emerged to encourage businesses and investors to phase out fossil fuels in favour of renewable energy.

National governments are following suit. Peru plans to generate 60% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2024; Chile doubled its total renewable power capacity in 2014; Germany and Sweden will be carbon-free by 2050. The list goes on, including 144 countries with renewable energy targets, 50 countries supporting a total phase-out of carbon emissions by 2050 and 100 countries supporting zero emissions by 2100.

This action, and the hope it generates for an attainable solution to climate change, is being partly fuelled by the increasingly strong business case for renewable energy. Renewable energy is now the most cost-competitive source of power in many parts of the world.