article thumbnail

US shift toward wind and solar will cut coal, make EVs cleaner

Green Car Reports

Increased use of renewable energy will help reduce electricity generation from coal and natural gas power plants, according to the U.S. The EIA forecasts that wind and solar will together account for 16% of total electricity generation in 2023, up from 14% in 2022 and 8% in 2018.

Cleaner 159
article thumbnail

IEA: global energy demand rose by 2.3% in 2018, fastest pace in the last decade; CO2 emissions up 1.7%

Green Car Congress

Natural gas emerged as the fuel of choice, posting the biggest gains and accounting for 45% of the rise in energy consumption. Gas demand growth was especially strong in the United States and China. Solar and wind generation grew at double-digit pace, with solar alone increasing by 31%. to 33 Gigatonnes (Gt) in 2018.

2018 207
article thumbnail

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

Green Car Congress

This year’s outlook is the first to highlight the significant impact that falling battery costs will have on the electricity mix over the coming decades. BNEF predicts that lithium-ion battery prices, already down by nearly 80% per megawatt-hour since 2010, will continue to tumble as electric vehicle manufacturing builds up through the 2020s.

Wind 220
article thumbnail

California cap-and-trade spending doubles to $1.4 billion in 2018; xEV rebates, affordable housing, wildfire prevention, public transit

Green Car Congress

From rebates for electric and plug-in vehicles to energy efficiency and solar installations that are reducing home energy costs, more than 125,000 individual projects were completed in 2018. Saving 161 gigawatt hours of electricity through energy efficiency projects, enough to power more than 15,000 homes for a year.

article thumbnail

IEA: global energy investment stabilized above $1.8T in 2018; security and sustainability concerns growing

Green Car Congress

Global energy investment stabilized in 2018, ending three consecutive years of decline, as capital spending on oil, gas and coal supply bounced back while investment stalled for energy efficiency and renewables, according to the International Energy Agency’s latest annual review. trillion in 2018, a level similar to 2017.

2018 191
article thumbnail

BloombergNEF: solar, wind, batteries to attract $10T to 2050; curbing emissions long-term will require other technologies

Green Car Congress

Deep declines in wind, solar and battery technology costs will result in a grid nearly half-powered by the two fast-growing renewable energy sources by 2050, according to the latest projections from BloombergNEF (BNEF). Electricity demand is set to increase 62%, resulting in global generating capacity almost tripling between 2018 and 2050.

Wind 207
article thumbnail

As states continue to use less coal for electricity, driving electric vehicles becomes even cleaner

Green Car Congress

Battery electric vehicles are only as clean as the energy source used to generate the electricity that powers them. Natural gas. This brief study analyzes, for each individual state, the changes from 2018 to 2020 in the use of coal (one of the two most polluting energy sources) to generate electricity. Geothermal.

Coal 334