Read more“I don’t see any problems with reliability, and I say bring on more renewables.”
– Colette Honorable, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, speaking at a conference sponsored by the federal Energy Information Administration.
Read more“Coal is now largely irrelevant in New England.”
– Gordon van Welie, president and CEO of ISO New England in a story about grid reliability remaining stable even as coal continues to fall off as a baseload electricity generating resource.
Study: replacing coal poses no harm to grid
|
Western utilities buy 3X more wind than planned
|Read moreThe Mississippi Pubic Service Commission requests a “solution that eliminates ratepayer risk for unproven technology and assures no rate increase.”
– Mississippi Public Service Commission in a news release directed at Southern Co. subsidiary Mississippi Power, in which it gave the utility 45 days to abandon its beleaguered and massively over-budget seven-year, $7.5 billion effort to construct a carbon-capture-and-storage coal-burning power plant.
Read more“Coal’s competitive advantage is fast evaporating. It cannot compete with renewables on cost, and storage and smart management of the grid have made the need for new baseload redundant. Coal is yesterday’s technology – the only thing new coal has going for it is inertia.”
– Kobad Bhavnagri, the lead author of Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s New Energy Outlook 2017 in Asia-Pacific report.

Renewable energy is thriving in Trump country
|European nations set bold offshore wind target
|Records detail billions in overruns at SC nuke plant
|Report: Utah solar can save ratepayers $400M
|Minn. utility looking to grow wind, solar portfolio
|Read more“The whole utility paradigm has shifted. We really are doing our ratepayers a disservice by not considering all viable options.”
– Reiko Kerr, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s senior assistant general manager of power systems, regarding a decision by the utility to put a hold on a $2.2 billion plan to rebuild several old natural gas power plants while it studies clean energy alternatives.
Calif. regulators halt plan for costly gas plants
|Santa Barbara, Portland join renewable cities
|
Coal mining jobs creep up then decline again
|Corp. clean energy: Not Just for Google, Apple
|World’s largest coal co. retiring 37 mines in India
|Read more“The cost declines that we are seeing with these technologies are so steep that it becomes a matter of time as to when they start crossing over and becoming competitive in different ways. These things are getting cheaper faster than we thought even a year ago.”
– Seb Henbest, lead author of Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s latest annual New Energy Outlook report, discussing the predicted dominance of solar, renewables and lithium-ion batteries in the global energy mix by 2040.

Renewables to dominate global power by 2040
|Read more“A lot of West Virginians understood that they were rolling the dice with Trump. … [They] realize there is not going to be a gigantic return of coal.”
– West Virginia professor and historian Chuck Keeney, who has written extensively on the state’s coal industry and its miners,
Taiwan plans for $59B in clean energy finance
|
Renewables meet 10% of U.S. demand for 1st time
|HS solar project will save $2 million in energy costs
|
Cost of Europe’s wind energy still dropping
|Calif. Senate passes bill for 100% clean energy
|Wind co. offers free job training for coal miners
|