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.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 20 2017, @04:30AM
I concur with the statement that storage or at least smoothing power differences over time is the key to really make use of wind and solar. In the meanwhile such power sources will make the power grid unstable and in some cases require shunting the power to a plain heater.
There's wave power at sea to be had to.