Clean Energy Advances, Despite Our Idiot in the Oval Office
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Obviously the Trump administration is doing whatever it can to reinforce dirty energy and the monstrous global corporations that support it. But despite his bluster, he ain’t bringing back coal jobs in West Virginia. Everybody knows that, even people in West Virginia. Well, everyone but Trump. Anyway, the news on clean energy advances is actually pretty good.
Global investment in clean energy fell in 2016 — and that’s largely a good thing.
The world spent less money to build even higher amounts of renewable electricity compared to 2015, according to a report released Thursday. That means wind, solar, and other technologies are becoming cheaper, and in many places they’re now cost-competitive with coal and natural gas.
Companies and governments added a record 138,500 megawatts of new wind, solar, biomass, waste-to-energy, geothermal, small hydro and marine sources in 2016, the report found. That’s up 8 percent from the 127,500 megawatts added the previous year.
If it is costing less to produce more renewable energy, this is a very, very good sign for all of us. Even those who hate hippie energy. Clean energy, not counting enormous hydropower dams, now make up 11.3% of the world’s electricity, up from 10.3% a year ago.