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Utility solar dethrones coal as the cheapest power source in Asia

Baua Electric

Photo: China News Service Renewable energy costs in Asia last year were 13% cheaper than coal and are expected to be 32% cheaper by 2030, according to a new study. This is significant because it marks a shift toward making renewables increasingly competitive with coal, a mainstay in APAC’s energy mix.

Asia 52
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BNEF: steel industry set to pivot to hydrogen in green push; additional $278B for clean capacity and retrofits

Green Car Congress

Efforts to decarbonize steel production are central to the net-zero aspirations of China, Japan, Korea and the European Union. But continuing to build new coal-fired plants will leave producers with only bad options toward a net-zero future by 2050. Retrofit or close any remaining coal-fired capacity by 2050.

Hydrogen 221
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Bloomberg NEF forecasts falling battery prices enabling surge in wind and solar to 50% of global generation by 2050

Green Car Congress

The arrival of cheap battery storage will mean that it becomes increasingly possible to finesse the delivery of electricity from wind and solar, so that these technologies can help meet demand even when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. Coal emerges as the biggest loser in the long run.

Wind 220
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BNEF report finds hydrogen promising decarbonization pathway, but carbon prices and emissions policies required

Green Car Congress

This is equivalent to gas priced at $6-12/MMBtu, making it competitive with current natural gas prices in Brazil, China, India, Germany and Scandinavia on an energy-equivalent basis. Renewable hydrogen can be made by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, using electricity generated by cheap wind or solar power. MMBtu) in 2050.

Hydrogen 221
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From Scooters to High Speed Rail, China is Electrifying

Plugs and Cars

China is electrifying. When I was studying China and Mandarin Chinese 35 years ago, “Red” China was unrecognized by the US, literally, and dark in a way difficult to imagine now. Just as today we can look at a nighttime satellite image and see the black void that is recalcitrant, unelectrified North Korea, once that was China.

China 133
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Perspective: Despite Solyndra’s death, the future of solar energy is sunny

Green Car Congress

With subsidies long in place for nuclear, coal and gas in the US along with the cheap cost of production for coal and natural gas, solar is essentially competing with that $0.10/kWh The US has 1,750 MW of PV planned for 2011 and currently employs 100,000 people, more than coal mining or steel manufacturing.

Solar 246
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Opinion: The End Of An Era: Is The US Petrodollar Under Threat?

Green Car Congress

Recent trade deals and high-level cooperation between Russia and China have set off alarm bells in the West as policymakers and oil and gas executives watch the balance of power in global energy markets shift to the East. Russia and China Cozy Up. by Andrew Topf of Oilprice.com. Reign of the USD.

Russia 225