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The UK generated 19.2% of its electricity from wind, solar, and hydropower in 2014. The country's demand for electricity has also fallen 10% over the last 5 years.
Change doesn't happen in a linear fashion.
Indeed, those of us who have been pushing for a low carbon future would have been forgiven for thinking it was a futile cause just a few years ago. Yet now, change seems to be picking up pace. Dramatically. The latest example of this is news from the UK, reported over at Business Green, that renewables made up 19.2% of the country's power supply last year, up from just 14.9% a year earlier. At the same time, both coal and nuclear dipped, while gas increased its share a little bit too. Digging into what those renewables actually were, it looks like wind and solar were up 16.6% on the previous year, due mainly to new capacity, while hydropower was up 26%. (This was the result of heavier rainfall, so can't necessarily be counted on year-over-year.)
We're going to be seeing many more stories like this in the next few years. It's already been reported that Germany generated 30% of its electricity from renewables in 2014. As industrialized countries, they could well find energy independence through renewables confers key competitive advantages and many positive externalities (such as better air quality). Will the United States ever follow suit?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 02 2015, @07:24PM
Somebody should fix the bad modding of that comment. It was the first comment in the story, for crying out loud. It can't be redundant!
Whoever modded it "-1, Redundant" should never be allowed to moderate again. Abusive moderation like that should be punished with a perpetual moderation ban.
Any past mods made by this abusive moderator should be retroactively removed, too. If this abuser fucked up this badly once, it has probably happened every time.