Do you think that the fossil fuel power industry’s days are slowly coming to an end?
Well I hope so, and soon, for the next generations sake.
With countries like Germany, who are setting their sights on becoming fossil fuel free for electricity by 2050, the province of Ontario, Canada set to close down their last coal fired power plant at the end of 2014, and with wind turbines and thermal solar renewable energy plants accounting for a greater percentage of total electricity generation each progressive year, it looks like coal fired electricity generation is no longer the utility of choice.
Even China are ramping up domestic renewable energy installations, and the Japanese are replacing the lost nuclear capacity at Fukishima with a 1 GW wind farm.
So to rub a little salt into the wound, I found this short video that plots the demise of the fossil fuel industry against Gandhi’s quote (which may have been misattributed to him). Its only a few minutes long and worth a look although it may not be an accurate trajectory of the reliance of coal, crude oil and natural gas, but it is hopeful.
“First they ignore you. They they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.”
It is a good message that things are changing. I’m hoping for a win in all corners of the globe.
If we have any chance of avoiding runaway climate chaos, we as a race really need to ramp up the replacement of all coal fired power plants within a very short time frame.
Maybe Paul Gilding was right when he predicted in his book The Great Disruption, that the Great Awakening (with reference to climate change action) would happen happen around 2018.
All we need is some solid political climate change action in the USA and a big decrease in coal usage world wide, and we could really get somewhere fast. Lets hope that words are followed by decisive actions.
What do you think? Are we even close to a win for renewable energy, and the demise of coal as an electricity generation fuel?