Burlington, VT Claims 100% Renewable Electricity Production

I used to live in Burlington, and my wiseass friends and I, sitting out in coffee shop chairs on Church St., would occasionally catch Mr. Bernard Sanders, once mayor, then US Representative, briefcase or manilla folder bursting with documents in hand, hair a wind-blown mess, bustle by like Hermes on some Mt. Olympus errand (he took his job quite seriously even then), and crack jokes we thought were pretty absurd at the time about him running for POTUS (let's keep our fingers crossed), so this achievement warms the cockles of my otherwise frozen, indifferent heart...

Burlington, VT claims 100% electric power from #renewables. http://t.co/EF4IynvWhW Even if it's really less, say, 90%, still impressive.

— Planet Evans (@ExoplanetEvans) February 8, 2015

Renewables are not a pipe dream, people. They can reduce our emissions significantly. They just have to be as important to the rest of us as they are to the citizens of Burlington, VT.

What Could We Have Accomplished with This Money?

That growing number above includes both the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. Even if you believe, like I do, that Afghanistan was a necessary military operation (however poorly-supplied and bungled), whereas Iraq was an inexcusable blunder right from the start (to put it mildly), you still have to admit we will end up wasting trillions in a region of the world where our true ambitions could not be any clearer.

And, no, I don't care that you're tired of hearing about it. I'm tired of trillions of American tax dollars continuously going up in smoke for the benefit of a few politically well-connected corporations, and then being lied to again and again about how — magically — nothing ever amounts to subsidy for these companies. No, really, our information-phobic economic system simply masks reality (if you had any anti-"lefty" interest in assailing the source, you will note that it's Forbes for both the previous, contradictory links, and thank you very much in advance for not being so predictable). Our tax dollars vanish, and hardly anyone cares to be, at the very least, honest about it. Talk about tiresome.

Let's just set aside the needless tragedy of all the American and Iraqi lives lost, and those lost by other countries, and how the real cost of this war can never truly be calculated in a meaningful manner. I will leave that grim discussion to more capable hands, because I won't do it justice. What I do wish to address is the fact that trillions of US tax dollars were squandered just so Big Oil could get its hands on Iraq's impressive reserves, when we could have invested it in our own energy independence and space-faring goals, and be well on our way to generating most or all of our electricity needs in a sustainable way (as far away from the reach of religious fundamentalist zealots as you can get, to boot), and maybe even a good chunk of our total national energy demands besides.

Know what else I'm not interested in, my little confused denier troll friends? Hearing how oil is not used much to generate electricity. No shit, geniuses. Why do you think I distinguished between electricity and total power requirements in the paragraph above? And, while we're at it, what exactly do you think these companies have been doing with their obscene oil profits, hmmmmm?

Send in the troops on somebody else's dollar, let them make the blood sacrifice to deal with the rebellion, saunter in to collect the spoils after much of the smoke clears, then use the revenue to take control of electricity generation back home where it's safe and comfy and cozy with no IEDs going off, suffer ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY for all the lives lost, and have conservative financial publications defend you so vigorously and rabidly your true, hidden business model doesn't even get discussed. Nice work, if you've got the right connections to pull it off.

No, Wind Turbines Are NOT the "Cuisinarts of the Sky"

The Institute of Energy Research (IER) thinks it's cute (even cuter than I think I am with my video above, which is bound to tick someone off for no good reason...probably someone who doesn't read the whole post). Problem for the IER is its true intentions when spreading hyperbolic fabrications like this are rather plain and obvious: it's a well-known fossil fuel industry front with a vested interest in, shall we say, something short of true renewable power success.

And while we're at it, no, you cannot spray hot sauce into the air around thermal solar plants, hold out a plate, and get rewarded with a stack of Buffalo wings.

The report, compiled by the USFWS’s National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory, describes the results of examinations of 233 carcasses of birds found at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) south of Las Vegas, the Desert Sunlight facility near Joshua Tree National Park, and the Genesis Solar project west of Blythe in Riverside County.

233 dead birds total at three power generation sites, and we are now gonna call them the "microwaves of the desert?" Puh-lease.

I guess that makes nuclear plants regular ole radioactive Tweetie meat grinders, and fossil fuel-driven power stations fine, feathered slaughterhouses on overdrive.

• Wind farms kill roughly 0.27 birds per GWh.
• Nuclear plants kill about 0.6 birds per GWh. (2.2x wind)
• Fossil-fueled power stations kill about 9.4 birds per GWh. (34.8x wind)

Buildings and windows the Winged Black Plague.

Building collisions, and particularly collisions with windows, are a major anthropogenic threat to birds, with rough estimates of between 100 million and 1 billion birds killed annually in the United States.

And pets named Sox or Mittens who have wrested control of the Internet from humans a veritable avian extinction event.

America’s cats, including housecats that adventure outdoors and feral cats, kill between 1.3 billion and 4.0 billion birds in a year, says Peter Marra of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C.

On top of this ridiculous fossil fuel industry-funded "cuisinarts of the sky" misinformation, you unfortunately get at least one misguided celebrity (who also happens to be a screwball antivaxxer) helping to sink a policy-making knife right into the back of booming renewables. It should come as no surprise to anyone that we have zilcho functioning offshore wind farms in the US presently.

Look, people, we all need to stop falling for these silly distractions and devious lies. Wind power generation, when sited properly and run with the habits and needs of local wildlife in mind, is NOT what birds, other animals, or the environment itself have to worry about. Watch the Audubon video below to find out what really is.



I know at least some of you mean well, when questioning wind power, but can we keep our binoculared eyes on the real prize, my little wayward birdwatcher friends, please? Thank you.

Impressive Renewables Gains Threatened by Shortsighted Policy

The International Energy Agency (IEA) released a medium-term market report for renewable energy today. Despite what you may have heard from clueless, arse-backward deniers about renewable power production losing ground/support, the forecast's executive summary detailed some pretty impressive recent gains.

In 2013, renewable power capacity expanded at its fastest pace to date. Renewable power generation continued to grow strongly, reaching almost 22% of the global mix, compared with 21% in 2012 and 18% in 2007. Globally, renewable electricity generation is now on par with that of natural gas, which remained relatively stable in 2013. Investment in new renewable power capacity topped USD 250 billion globally in 2013 and is likely to remain at high levels.

Hydropower deployment reached 41 GW in 2013, partly due to the early commissioning of new capacity in China. But the return of hydro availability to more normal levels in China and the effects of drought in Brazil caused global hydropower generation to expand by less than 2% year-on-year compared to over 4% in 2012. Non-hydropower reewable generation grew rapidly by almost 16% year-on-year, similar to the rate in 2012. New solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity (+39 GW) surged in 2013, led by China and Japan, where deployment is incentivised through attractive feed-in tariffs (FITs).

Though smaller, solar thermal electricity (STE) additions were equivalent to the record level achieved in 2012, and offshore wind was deployed at its highest level to date, with the start of several large projects long under development.

Global biofuels production rose by almost 7% in 2013 to reach over 115 billion litres (L), 3 billion L higher compared with that predicted by MTRMR 2013. In Brazil, ethanol output was boosted by a higher-than-expected sugar cane harvest that led to a 2 billion L additional ethanol production compared to th eprevious forecast. In the United States, ethanol production rose marginally in 2013, as the effect of elevated corn prices resulting from an extensive drought in the previous year was mitigated after the 2013 corn harvest. Biofuels output, adjusted for energy content, accounted for 3.5% of global oil demand for road transport in 2013, versus 3.4% in 2012 and 2.0% in 2007.

However, the IEA analysis warns that unhelpful policy choices will threaten further progress.

Onshore wind additions (+34 GW) were their lowest since 2008, largely due to a drop in new capacity in the United States stemming from policy uncertainty over the renewal of federal tax incentives at the end of 2012.

Meanwhile, the geography of biofuels policy support is shifting; while backing for increased biofuels volumes is waning in several key markets–the United States, the European Union and Brazil–it is expanding in newer non-OECD markets, such as Southeast Asia.

Among renewable power technologies, solar PV is the only source expected to exceed global 2DS targets in 2020, boosted by cost declines and an increasingly rapid scale-up in non-OECD markets. Meanwhile, notable shortfalls may occur in bioenergy for power, onshore wind and hydropower, which are all mature and relatively cost-effective technologies. Policy support for bioenergy has waned in some OECD countries, and developments face the challenge of establishing sustainable feedstock supply chains. Onshore wind can face challenges related to local acceptance, as in some European markets, and requirements for the build-out of the grid and further integration measures to reach higher levels of penetration, as in China and Europe.

It goes on to make the following recommendations.

Nevertheless, this conservative outlook is not inevitable–with certain market and policy enhancements, the most dynamic renewable technologies could grow faster through 2020 than in this report’s baseline case (see "Enhanced Case" below).

Overall, policies will remain vital to stimulating investment in capital-intensive renewables and stimulating greater development.

Broadly speaking, achieving enhanced renewable deployment would require alleviating some of the challenges enumerated above and repeated through this report. These include, but are not limited to, the rapid clarification of policy uncertainties in some markets; the implementation of stable and sustainable policy frameworks that give greater certainty about the long-term revenue streams of renewable projects; greater measures to ensure the grid and system integration of variable renewables; the implementation of fair rules and appropriate electricity rate design for allocating the costs and benefits from fast-growing distributed solar PV; improved reductions in non-economic barriers; and faster-than-expected decreases in renewable technology and generation costs.

And IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven had this to say.

"Renewables are a necessary part of energy security. However, just when they are becoming a cost-competitive option in an increasing number of cases, policy and regulatory uncertainty is rising in some key markets. This stems from concerns about the costs of deploying renewables. Governments must distinguish more clearly between the past, present and future, as costs are falling over time. Many renewables no longer need high incentive levels. Rather, given their capital-intensive nature, renewables require a market context that assures a reasonable and predictable return for investors. This calls for a serious reflection on market design needed to achieve a more sustainable world energy mix."

In other words, if policymakers remove their craniums from their posteriors, the growth over the past few years can continue and even improve for some forms of renewable power generation.