Good to see the old cut and paster is still on the coal lobby payroll. No discussion, no opinion, no thinking,
just a copy from a dodgy website.
Couldn't even cut the article properly I notice ? Quality work.
Firstly, the article is from " The Global Energy Policy Forum ". A well known lobby group backed by the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in the UK.
To the article. The article suggests that renewables have been a big waste of time. That they have achieved nothing. They add a chart that is conveniently cut off in 2015.
The author points out that emissions are continuing to rise and tries to use that as a basis for his argument.
Ironically it is that point that highlights that we need to do more with renewables to offset this increase.
We are entering a period where the third world is rapidly modernising. They are doing in a decade or two what the West took a century to do and they represent nearly half of the global population. So, we need to ramp up the transition if anything.
He also pulls out the old subsidy argument. Let's ignore the fact that if you wanted to build a coal or nuclear plant in Australia ( or the UK ) it would have to be subsidised.
Subsidies for renewables are being wound back globally. China has recently announced a policy where renewables must compete on merit. Solar and wind projects around the world are being bid on a zero subsidy basis. So while the industry needed to be subsidised in order to get going, it is now largely starting to stand on it's own feet.
To the point that independant studies now show that on a LCOE , renewables are actually cheaper than fossil in 2019. Those economics are likely to improve significantly in the nearish future.
He then goes on to criticise environmentalists saying it is their fault rather than the failure of politicians to act. The same politicians that the GWPF lobby the crap out of.
The author very selectively cherry picks small parts from the World Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency. Trouble is , if you actually go to the website, it tells a vastly different story about the situation going forward.
" Renewables will have the fastest growth in the electricity sector, providing almost 30% of power demand in 2023, up from 24% in 2017. During this period, renewables are forecast to meet more than 70% of global electricity generation growth, led by solar PV and followed by wind, hydropower, and bioenergy. Hydropower remains the largest renewable source, meeting 16% of global electricity demand by 2023, followed by wind (6%), solar PV (4%), and bioenergy (3%). "
https://www.iea.org/renewables2018/
So, no cut and pasting the opinion of a ' think tank ' from me. No selective cherry picking of articles hoping that people won't read the whole the whole story.
Sorry coal lobby , you're going to have try a bit harder than that.
