While the idiot Liberal Party of Australia sucks coal knobs - here is some of what the rest of the world is doing.

We in Australia ought to be paying like 5c a Kwh - but instead with the bum fuckers of the liberal party and all their dirty deals with the coal mining industry - and the power grid generators, companies like Origin Energy (arseholes) are charging 45c a Kwh......

So while these cock fondling fuckwits, talk about getting rid of wind turbines and shutting down the renewable energy industry in Australia and digging up continent sized holes in the land scape, and fucking everything that moves within 2000Km and locking up everyone who protests at this despicable shit, by inventing laws so "they can do it to us" - this is what the rest of the planet is up too.

Renewable energy targets - Oh no, can't have that, should eliminate the 20% by 2050...

While the UK is aiming to meet it's target of 30% by 2020.




https://cleantechnica.com/2016/03/31/uk-renewables-break-new-records-bill-prices-drop/

UK Renewables Break New Records As Electricity Bills Drop

March 31st, 2016 by Joshua S Hill

New figures published by the UK Government have highlighted the record performance of the country’s renewable energy industry during 2015.
According to new figures published (PDF) by the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), 2015 saw renewable energy generate a record 24.7% of the country’s electricity, an increase of 5.6% on 2014 numbers. As a result, electricity bills across the country are falling.

Specifically, wind energy saw its contribution grow 26%, so that wind energy is now powering 9.8 million households in the UK. Solar output increased even more, growing 86%, while bioenergy grew a modest 28%. In total, renewable electricity generation in 2015 was 83.3 TWh, an increase of 29% over 2014’s 64.7 TWh.

Meanwhile, coal output was 27% lower than it was in 2014, due primarily to the closure of numerous coal mines around the country. Coal imports were also down, dropping 39%, as generators’ demand for coal fell 24%, its lowest level ever.

Parallel to renewable energy’s record growth is the slowly declining cost of electricity prices for the average consumer. Figures published by the DECC (PDF) revealed that the average household electricity bill had decreased by £8, or 1.4%.

“These excellent figures show that renewable energy is delivering huge amounts of clean electricity right now, and that overall energy costs are coming down – including wind energy,” said Maf Smith, RenewableUK’s Deputy Chief Executive. “Putting the consumer first means putting renewables first. As old coal turns off, renewables are quietly taking its place, delivering energy security and value for money. It makes more sense than ever to fully support and take advantage of our natural resources.”

However, the UK’s Renewable Energy Association has raised concerns that this growth may still not be enough to meet the country’s 2020 targets.
“On the face of it, it appears that the government will meet its renewable electricity target of 30 per cent by 2020,” said James Court, Head of Policy and External Affairs at the Renewable Energy Association. “In reality, due to the significant failure to increase the rate of renewables in the heating and transport sectors, the REA projects that we will clearly miss our overall renewable energy target.

“We would have to meet the target of 44 to 45 per cent renewable electricity by 2020 to achieve our legal targets. There is a desperate need for policy certainty and a clear electricity plan that doesn’t gamble everything on new nuclear, in addition to urgent action for renewable heat and transport.”


http://blogs.mprnews.org/updraft/2016/04/wind-energy-setting-records-in-minnesota/

Wind energy setting records in Minnesota

Paul Huttner April 29, 2016, 2:47 PM 1

It’s not your imagination. It’s been windier than usual lately across Minnesota.
April is the windiest month of the year on average in Minnesota. And this April our winds have blown harder than average.

I had the pleasure of talking with University of Minnesota Professor and excellent MPR weather and climate contributor Mark Seeley during MPR’s Climate and Health event this week in Rochester, Minn.
Mark tells me winds this April have been blowing harder than usual. Here’s a brief excerpt from Mark’s Weather Talk post this week.

April lived up to its reputation for the windiest month on the Minnesota calendar with average wind speeds ranging from 12 to 15 mph and nearly half the days of the month producing peak wind gusts over 30 mph. Several observers reported days with wind gusts over 40 and 50 mph.

 

 

Wind gusts at MSP Airport Friday. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Federal Aviation Administration
Taking advantage of the wind

I’ve been looking into some specifics on how all that wind is working to generate electric power in Minnesota. I’ve asked Randy Fordice from Xcel Energy for some details about wind energy output from Xcel’s wind program.


Wind turbines at Xcel Energy’s Grand Meadow, Minn., generation site.  Xcel Energy

  It turns out our winds have been producing some unprecedented power production across the Upper Midwest lately.
On one day last November, more than 50 percent of Xcel’s total energy output was produced by wind. That’s a pretty remarkable fact for renewable energy, and one that might have been unthinkable just five or 10 years ago.
Here are some excerpts from my email exchange with Randy Fordice at Xcel Energy.

Hi Paul,
Over the past number of years Xcel Energy has been able to increase the amount of wind energy on its system due to pretty sophisticated wind forecasting software we have developed.
The technology has enabled us to better site wind resources in areas we will get more production, as well as better pair wind energy with fossil fuel plants to provide the amount of electricity we need to meet our customers’ use. It’s also enabled us to ramp down coal plants at times of heavy wind production.

Randy elaborates on the record amount of wind energy produces recently.

October 28, 2015 at 9:00 pm. We hit a new maximum hourly generation record of 1,899 megawatts of electricity coming from wind energy. That’s enough electricity to power about 1.4 million average homes.
Nov. 8, 2015: 41.3 percent of the energy we produced that day was from wind energy, another new record.
November 9, 2015, 2:00 am: 53.4 percent of our generation was from wind energy, a new hourly wind generation record for Xcel Energy’s Upper Midwest system.

I asked Randy about how much of Xcel’s totals energy is currently produced by wind.

Paul, as of the end of 2015 we have 13.7 percent of our electricity in the Upper Midwest is from wind energy. We are on track to exceed 25 percent (renewable) energy by the end of this year.

If Xcel meets the projected 25 percent goal of energy through renewables by the end of this year that is pretty remarkable to me as a weather scientist and climate journalist. It is another benchmark in the story of just how quickly the shift to renewable energy is happening.

Sunset at Xcel Energy’s Grand Meadow, Minn., generation site. Xcel Energy
Climate change and wind speeds

Many of you have asked me about how climate change may be affecting wind speeds in Minnesota. The still-early data seems to be inconclusive at this point.
Here’s another excerpt from Mark Seeley’s Weather Talk post this week.

MPR Listener question
It has been very windy this spring, and in fact it seems wind speeds have been higher across southern Minnesota in recent years. Is this a result of climate change?

Answer

This question has not been comprehensively addressed by the atmospheric and climate science community yet. The few studies so far have yielded mixed results, suggesting a decline in mean wind speeds for some Midwest locations, and an increase in others.
Analysis of the data over decades is difficult because the instruments used to measure wind speed by the NOAA-National Weather Service have changed over time. Fewer mechanical anemometers (spinning cups) are used and more sonic anemometers (the type that use sound wave attenuation to measure wind speed) are used today.
Many projections made by climate models suggest that mean winds speeds may increase over time across the Great Lakes States, including Minnesota, but we have not yet validated this projection with real measured data.

A good overview of wind measurements and trends in our region can be found from an Iowa State University publication.

https://cleantechnica.com/2016/04/29/india-attracted-14-billion-renewable-energy-investment-3-years/

India Attracted $14 Billion In Renewable Energy Investment In 3 Years

April 29th, 2016 by Saurabh Mahapatra

Investment trends in India’s renewable energy sector over the last few years have proven that the market remains of the most attractive and fastest growing clean energy markets in the world.

The Minister of New & Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal, recently told the Indian Parliament that the country attracted Rs 90,841 crore (around $14 billion) over the last 3 financial years in renewable energy investments, that is, between FY2013–14 and FY2015–16.

The minister also reported that the government provided financial incentives worth Rs 6,541 crore (around $1 billion) during the same period. This financial support includes capital cost support for setting up projects, as well as generation-based incentives for power generation.

The wind energy sector remained the most attractive one for the investors who poured in Rs 46,831 crore (around $7 billion). This was followed by the solar power sector, which received investments worth Rs 30,440 crore ($4.5 billion). Bioenergy projects received Rs 7,382 crore ($1.1 billion) of investment while small hydropower projects attracted Rs 6,187 crore ($0.92 billion).

Over the last few years, investment in the wind energy sector has increased again after the government re-introduced financial incentives such as accelerated depreciation. Annual capacity addition in the wind energy sector has been up since then, increasing to 3.3 GW in FY2015–16. However, investments are likely to fall starting next financial year when the incentives are reduced or withdrawn.

Investment in the solar power sector is expected to increase significantly over the next few years and overtake wind energy as the most attractive sector. Over the next 6 years, India plans to add over 33 GW of wind energy capacity and more than 93 GW in solar power capacity.