87 Countries Have Reached Clean Energy Tipping Point
Clean energy has a tipping point for mass adoption, and 87 countries have reached it, drawing at least 5% of their electricity from wind and solar, according to bloomberg.com.
Renewable energy includes solar power, electric cars, grid-scale batteries and heat pumps. The US hit 5% in 2011 and surged past 20% renewable electricity last year. If the trend continues, wind and solar will account for half of US power-generating capacity just 10 years from now. Reaching net-zero goals requires both cleaning up the power grid while expanding what gets plugged into it.
According to Bloomberg.com, the most difficult challenge in cleaning up the grid is providing flexible sources of power. During California’s record heat wave in September, batteries helped prevent a blackout by storing up excess power in the morning and then deploying it during the early-evening hours. Nat Bullard, an early stage climate technology investor at Voyager Ventures believes that pairing of batteries with renewables is only likely to accelerate, and “There will be more batteries next year, whereas the nuclear fleet is not going to grow any time soon.”
The solution for replacing fossil fuel boilers for heating is the electric heat pump. Heath production is responsible for roughly half the world’s final energy consumption, and electric heat pumps can reduce energy consumption as much as 70%. Heat pumps have replaced about 20% of boilers in Europe, saving consumers more than $100 billion a year.
Transportation is responsible for a quarter of the world’s energy consumption, and the US is the latest country to pass the critical EV tipping point: 5% of new car sales powered only by batteries. If the US follows the trend established by 18 countries that preceded it, a quarter of new car sales could be electric by the end of 2025.
According to Bloomberg.com, the way we produce and use electricity is undergoing a series of simultaneous transformations that will ultimately determine the scale of climate change. These various technologies collectively make up their own sort of early-stage tipping point for building a climate-safe energy system. The date by which the world will successfully cross that threshold is the biggest question that remains.
