U.S. becomes top wind producer, solar next

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKTRE5115B520090202

U.S. becomes top wind producer, solar next

Mon Feb 2, 2009 7:52pm GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States overtook Germany as the biggest producer of wind power last year, new figures showed, and will likely take the lead in solar power this year, analysts said on Monday.

Even before an expected "Obama bounce" from a new President who has vowed to boost clean energy, U.S. wind power capacity surged 50 percent last year to 25 gigwatts (GW) -- enough to power more than five million homes.

Political and business leaders worldwide have urged "green growth" spending on clean energy to fight both recession and climate change.

…

The United States is also expected to overtake Germany this year as the world's biggest producer of solar power, aided by its far sunnier climate, Jefferies analyst Michael McNamara told Reuters on Monday.

…

[Jackpine Radical]

1. Any country with

Rush Limbaugh in it is automatically the largest wind producer.

Producing POWER from the wind is a different story.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Are you saying Rush doesn't have power!?

"OK, so maybe he isn't an idiot, but you have to admit, he is big and fat."

[david13]

4. Not wind. Hot air. n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

5. Methane.

Rush is one of the nation's major emitters of greenhouse gases.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Wind energy gathers steam, US biggest market: survey

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gko0QmIaJ8jg0oNeiaU3ql5VRwPw

Wind energy gathers steam, US biggest market: survey

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Global wind energy capacity surged by 28.8 percent in 2008, as the United States became the world's leading market, an industry survey showed Monday.

The Global Wind Energy Council said the US and China showed the strongest growth in wind energy as the global electric-generating capacity rose to 120.8 gigawatts at the end of 2008.

"These figures speak for themselves: there is huge and growing global demand for emissions-free wind power, which can be installed quickly, virtually everywhere in the world," said Steve Sawyer, secretary general of GWEC.

"Wind energy is the only power-generation technology that can deliver the necessary cuts in carbon dioxide.

…

[NNadir]

6. That's not hard to do at all.

It's easy, because solar and wind have been such weak performers through decades and decades and decades of hype, the chief function of which is to make yuppie consumers to feel less guilty about being yuppie consumers. That is to say the whole game is about denial, denial of responsibility, and denial of consequences.

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/alternate/page/renew_energy_consump/table1.html

Solar and wind are trivial forms of energy, just as they have been for well more than half a decade of hype here.

Combined, all the wind plants in Denmark, for instance, can't produce as much energy as the smallest nuclear reactor in New Jersey, the Oyster Creek Nuclear Reactors, the reactor that so many ignorant people are trying to destroy on the grounds that they are ignorant.

[NickB79]

7. 25 GW of wind is a good start, but the US currently produces 400 GW from coal

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/northamerica/engsupp.htm

"In 2000, North America had about 967 gigawatts of electric power generation capacity. The capacity shares were Canada (111 gigawatts), Mexico (37 gigawatts) and the United States (819 gigawatts)."

50% of the electricity in this country is generated by burning coal.

25 GW from wind is only 1/16 that which we get from coal right now in the US :-( On top of that, China installed 90 GW of coal-burning infrastructure last year alone!

I point this out not to poo-poo wind and other alternative energy, but to point out that we have to really, REALLY step up the pace of things in our transition away from fossil fuels. For our society, much less our species, to stand a snowball's chance in hell of getting through the next century or two, we had better start building a lot faster than we have been.