Renewable Energy Could Phase Out Coal Within 20 Years

 

According to the WorldWatch Institute, investment in new renewable electric and heating industries amounted to an estimated USD $71 billion in 2007, an increase of USD $51 billion since 2002. The organization believes that clean energy could topple coal fired power generation within the next 20 years.

Coal still currently accounts for 40 percent of the world's power and has wreaked an incredible toll on the environment over the years. Aside from being a major factor in skyrocketing carbon dioxide emissions, the burning of coal is responsible for a substantial amount of mercury levels in our atmosphere and is a significant contributor to the formation of acid rain. The mining of coal has destroyed vast swathes of habitat and poisoned many rivers and streams. While coal is still plentiful, renewable energy, according to the Institute, is more abundant than all the fossil fuels combined.

In its report, Low-Carbon Energy: A Roadmap, The WorldWatch Institute states cleaner energy sources could see the retirement of hundreds of coal-fired power plants by 2030. The removal of these coal fired power generation facilities could reduce global carbon dioxide emissions by a staggering 33%.

Recent investment into renewable energy has seen prices for clean power plummet, with wind power now costing just under US six cents per kilowatt-hour on average in the USA, which is cheaper than than natural gas and on par with coal.

The report states that a major push for the reduction in coal and oil use in favor of renewable energy sources such as wind energy and solar power will not only lessen the effects of the looming climate crisis, it will also stimulate the currently unstable global economy, creating millions of new jobs around the world. By 2006, the U.S. renewables industry had already 386,000 jobs compared with 82,000 jobs in the coal industry.

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A Sobering Energy And Emissions Report For Victoria

 

Victoria’s first comprehensive State of Environment Report was recently released with unsettling statistics on energy consumption in the state, particularly in relation to coal fired electricity generation and the lack of solar power uptake.

The report states that current patterns of resource use in Victoria are unsustainable and the Victorian ecological footprint is triple that of the world average, with energy generation and consumption having the biggest impact.

Some of the statistics in the report include:

• Victoria’s  energy consumption has increased by over 80% over the last three decades and based on current trends, consumption will increase by close to 40% by 2030.
• In excess of 85% of greenhouse gas emissions generated in Victoria originated with the energy sector.
• 95% of Victoria’s electricity is source from the combustion of brown coal, the most emissions intensive source in Australia. 
• Electricity is close to six times more polluting than natural gas per unit of energy delivered in the state
• Only 4% of Victoria's electricity comes from renewable energy sources with solar power contributing just 0.006%.
• Electricity companies are extracting approximately 100,000 million litres of surface water per annum, around one quarter of the total water
  consumption of metropolitan Melbourne in 2006–07.
• A further 120,000 million litres of groundwater is extracted each for the mining of coal, oil and gas for the state
• Between 1990 and 2006, Victoria’s total greenhouse gas emissions skyrocketed by 12%

Author of the report, Victoria’s Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability headed by Dr Ian McPhail, has recommended The Victorian Government conduct a study to identify and overcome barriers to the development of a network of distributed renewable energy and gas-fired electricity generators in order to delay the need for more brown coal electricity generation.

Download the full report - State of the Environment Victoria 2008 (PDF)

News for Wednesday 03 December, 2008

 

• Getting Serious on Rooftop Solar
  

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