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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday April 19 2017, @07:11PM   Printer-friendly

Meanwhile, a report from Scottish Renewables suggests that onshore wind farms could compete subsidy-free in the UK, as long as they were allowed to take part in the country's competitive auction process. (Known as contracts for difference, or CfD, the competitive auction process does not currently include onshore wind.)

Finally, while the loss of incentives and tax credits might have less impact than it once did—thanks to ongoing cost reduction and technological improvement—we are right to be concerned that political obstructionists can still do a lot of damage to the future of renewables. (The exclusion of wind from the aforementioned CfD process in the UK is one example.) But here too, there are signs of progress—because oil giant Shell is lobbying for the Dutch government to quadruple its offshore wind target for 2030 to an installed capacity of a whopping 20 gigawatts (GW). As Shell joins the likes of Statoil—which recently quit tar sands in favor of offshore wind—the shift of political and lobbying power starts to shift.

More signs that the pivot point in the energy economy is upon us.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Thursday April 20 2017, @02:16AM (1 child)

    by frojack (1554) on Thursday April 20 2017, @02:16AM (#496661) Journal

    Ok, other than the corporate welfare aspects of government subsidies in general, I really don't see the problem with tax breaks (that's really what we are talking about here) for solar installations, regardless of size.

    If the damage from coal power affects all of society then the benefit of wind/solar accrues to all of society by the same amount. The more of these put into operation the more everybody benefits. Even if you don't use that power.

    I can't think of much that the government would do with the tax revenue they didn't get which would benefit everyone as immediately (to say nothing of long term). So I have no problem of incentives to get people to invest heavily in any of these technologies.

    Now if we could just start building some of these new STORAGE projects that always seem 25 years away we would be in great shape.

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  • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday April 20 2017, @02:47AM

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Thursday April 20 2017, @02:47AM (#496669) Journal

    This seems uncharacteristic of you but I'm very glad to hear it. Unfortunately, the fossil fuel industry doesn't give a damn about externalities--and yes, the costs to society you mention are "externalities" to them.

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