Herr Wallace

For some reason you've restricted your attempted coal belittlement to Germany. What is your take on increasing coal use in the more rapidly growing Chinese and Indian economies?

Noting also increased use of oil and gas in the US and Russian economies.

Meanwhile use of renewables runs at around 1% or less worldwide.

Pete

China's government passed laws to cap coal use starting in 2015. The total amount to be consumed will be set at 2011 levels which are 6% below what was burned in 2012.

The Chinese people are starting to put a lot of pressure on the government to do something about air quality. The government has canceled plans to build new coal plants in some of the most populated areas. They are also installing a lot of wind and solar.

China has significant inland water problems. A very large percentage of their fresh water goes to coal mining and coal plants. There's a lot of pressure to reduce coal use and free up water for agriculture.

India has the same water problems. Plus they (like China) have to import diesel to haul coal from mines to plants. That makes coal an expensive fuel and makes wind and solar much more attractive.

Both countries are moving toward renewables for both economic and air quality reasons.

China had said that they would be able to stop their increase in CO2 production by 2030. Recently they rolled that back to 2025. I think China is very serious about global warming and we may see them hit peak CO2 even sooner.

"Reactors are only being built with government (taxpayer) money. The free market won't touch them." How many $ have governments put into wind and solar? How many birds killed by nuclear reactors as opposed to wind farms? How much acreage of land used by wind farms as opposed to reactors? Jim, you are a conservationist, rare and endangered wildlife are being decimated by whirring blades...??

Were the $ (trillions) in 'green' clean energy subsidies factored into your costings of nuclear, perhaps a different equation would result?

Oh, I missed the US.

The US is closing 150 coal plants in the next couple of years (some are already closed). We've got a small number on which construction started years ago and are now being completed, but only a half dozen or so. Basically no new coal plants have been permitted in the last few years and with the rapidly dropping cost of NG and renewables it's unlikely any more coal plants will be built in the US.

Oil use in the US is dropping. Our drivers are driving less (more public transportation use) and our vehicles are getting more efficient. We use oil for only ~1% of our electricity. Basically for emergency generators.

Natural gas prices are coming off their low and that is starting to cut into NG use and sending utilities looking for more wind and solar contracts. Wind is already cheaper than new CCNG and solar in the Southwest is about tied.

We're about to see storage increasing on the grid and that will push NG off.

It's not going to be an overnight transition away from fossil fuels. It will take decades, but it's started and with the still rapidly falling price of solar things are speeding up.

Now, Australia. With the price you pay for electricity I expect you'll be solar and storage champs. Your rooftop solar is about half what we pay. You are definitely out in the lead there.

Thanks Bob

Yes certainly China has some attractive sounding policies and intentions just like Australia's longish term aspirations.

For some reason China and India, as purportedly "developing countries", appear to be reluctant to sign on to the same level of Kyoto style agreements that the West Europeans have signed.

Just a point about "renewable" energy. If hydro-electricity is included renewable energy looks promising. However fresh-water is a diminishing resource given irrigation and city use. Amounts for wind power, solar and sea-wave power look comparatively tiny compared to hydro-power, hydrocarbons and nuclear.

Pete

Bob Wallace,

@ Bob Wallace “No wind farm workers have been killed by the wind nor have any solar farm workers been killed by sunshine”.

Rubbish. The UK alone has had 1446 wind turbine related accidents over the last five years to Sept 2013, with 144 deaths. Plus 440 deaths related to solar power.

The bad news for you is that the rest of your posts are even less factual.

How about you do some research rather than wishful speculation before you operate your keyboard.

OLO is no place for bulltishers like you!