The world nears peak fossil fuels for electricity

Coal and gas will begin their terminal decline in less than a decade, according to a Bloomberg analysis

about their placement, the capacity factors of renewables are increasing. Some wind farms in Texas are now achieving capacity factors of 50%, according to BNEF. Improving capacity factors make renewables more attractive. But capacity factors of gas and coal plants are also changing. Once a solar or wind project is built, the marginal cost of the electricity it produces is pretty much zero, while coal and gas plants require more fuel for every new watt produced. If you’re a power company with a choice, you choose the free stuff every time.

China,thebiggestandfastest-growing polluter, became a major global environmental concer n over the last few decades. But that perception is changing fast. China’s country will need to invest in a variety of energy sources to meet this overwhelming new demand. India has hundreds of millions of people with little or no access to electricity, and the country sits atop a mountain of coal. It intends to use it.

A new polluter to worry about The transformation continues

BNEF’s outlook for carbon dioxide emissions has improved significantly over the last year, in spite of cheap fossil fuel prices. The shift to renewables is happening shockingly fast — but not fast enough to prevent perilous levels of global warming. Without additional policy action by governments, global carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector will peak in the 2020s and remain relatively flat for the the foreseeable future. That’s not enough to prevent