More good news. In April, wind power generated more electricity than coal for the second month in a row, according to the latest available data from the Energy Information Administration. Wind briefly surpassed coal once before in April last year, but this time it’s by a much larger margin and for two consecutive months.
It was inconceivable to me 20 years ago that we would be at this point today . I didn’t believe that we would get here this quickly. This is one of the reasons why I support efforts for wind energy off the coast of Washington. We have no time to lose in fighting climate change, and the rising levels of CO2 in our atmosphere. It is threatening our very existence and virtually every scientist in the planet is in agreement with this. There are certainly downsides to every single project possible but the need for generating more electricity everywhere we can in an environmentally neutral way has never been more important.
The next time you hear of wind energy project and hear objections to it. Please be willing to be open minded to the bigger picture as to why this is needed.
Filed under: Alternative energy., Global Warming, Olympic Peninsula |
Both wind and solar are now regularly exceeding coal production. At mid-day, solar is providing more than half of total electricity in California — about half from utility solar and half from rooftop solar.
The PNW imports electricity from California during the day (and sells power back to them at night), taking advantage of the flexibility in the Columbia River hydro system.
The pace of changes also surprises me. Today Bloomberg released a report that EV battery costs have dropped so much (more than 50% in 2 years) that EVs are now cheaper to build that gasoline cars. This is showing NOW in China, and will be here in a year or two.