renewable energy

Renewable energy sources such as wind farms, solar farms and hydropower sources were built at a record pace in 2015 according to a new report. The amount invested in Renewable Energy was also double what was spent on coal and gas power stations. The reports results were gathered prior to the climate change agreement in Paris at the end of 2015, an agreement which is expected to increase spending on renewable energy due to carbon emission targets being set.

More than half of new energy added to the United States electricity grid was from renewable energy sources, with the amount of new electricity generated from fossil fuels falling. 68% of new energy added to the grid came from renewable energy sources, which has now been the biggest source of new electricity generation for two year running.

Financial giant Goldman Sachs has announced that it is planning on investing $150 billion in projects such as solar farms, wind farms and upgrading buildings so they are more energy efficient. The target for Goldman Sachs is to invest this money by 2025, which follows their previous target of investing $40 billion into clean energy by 2012.

The small island of El Hierro located in the Canary Islands has became the first remote location in the world to be powered totally by renewable energy. The island is now powered by wind turbines and a hydro plant to provide green energy.

Any excess electricity produced by the wind turbines is used to pump the water kept as sea level up to the reservoir. If the wind is not strong enough to provide the whole island with the required energy, the hydro plant will start to produce energy to compensate.

Barack Obama will take what has been described as ‘the biggest step to tackling climate change’ when he announces his revised Clean Power Plan. President Obama has been very vocal throughout his two terms in office about the effects of climate change, and has recently been quoted saying ‘climate change is not a problem for another generation, not any more.’

Plans for the UK’s Green Investment Bank to be privatised have been slammed by a number of pro green Conservatives, who feel it would be a step in the wrong direction for the conservatives green policies. The Green Investment bank was set up by the coalition government as an organisation which invested public money into renewable energy projects. It was viewed by many as a huge success, and one of the only green energy policies that actually worked under the coalition government.

The European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) has claimed that the European Commission needs more powers to ensure that its members meet the 27% renewable energy pledge by 2030. The paper released by EWEA claimed that the European Commission must be hard on those states that were not pulling their own weight, and instead expected other countries to go beyond the target and make up for their short fall.

Ikea has announced that it has hit its target to use 100% renewable energy across all of their Nordic operations by 2015, and remain on course to produce as much renewable energy as they use worldwide by 2020.

The falling price of solar panels has meant a huge increase in the use of solar energy in recent times. It has been predicted that solar energy will account for 4% of the UK’s overall energy usage by 2020.

The increased use has caused the government to end its subsidies for solar projects that they count as large-scale, a move that has came under a great deal of criticism. Critics state that the end of subsidies could cause the market to become uncompetitive and make it even harder for solar power to compete with fossil fuels.