[GPSCC-chat] wiind power report

[Jim Doyle]

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1. China put in a massive 21 gigawatts of new wind power 
<http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/renewables/china-dominates-but-us-wind-energy-market-rebounds> 
in 2014, half of all the wind power
installed in the entire world that year and four times as much as the US.

China’s wind installations increased 40% over 2013. Lower oil prices are 
not expected to
affect the continued rapid growth of renewables, since petroleum is 
mainly used in transport,
not electricity production.

2. Turkey has announced that it will try to add 
<http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1335068/analysis-turkey-outlines-ambitious-wind-target> 
20 gigawatts of wind energy to its
electricity production capacity in only 8 years. Turkey is taking this 
step in part
because it has few hydrocarbons of its own, such that free fuel like 
wind is very
attractive to investors there. In part, it is attempting to remain in 
line with European
targets for green energy, since it is in the queue for European Union 
membership.
(Although it is unlikely that Turkey will be admitted to the EU, it is 
good for Turkey
to keep aiming at European standards.)

3. Australia has just opened the world’s first large-scale wave power 
<http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-first-wave-power-plant-is-officially-operational> 
facility.
It will power a naval base.

4. The Jordanian government has announced its determination 
<http://thenomad.info/all-6000-of-jodrans-mosques-to-run-on-solar-energy/> 
to install solar panels
on the roofs of all 6,000 of the country’s mosques.

5. Germany cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 5 percent in 2014 
<http://www.dw.de/renewables-help-cut-german-co2-emissions/a-18176835>.
The country increased energy efficiency, grew its economy, and increased 
the
percentage of electricity generated by renewables from 25% to 28% year 
over year.

One German state, Schleswig-Holstein,now gets 50% of its electricity 
from wind power.
Germany also lucked out with the weather– 2014 was unusually mild. 
Still, the CO2
output would have declined even without this latter factor. In contrast, 
in 2014 the US
increased its CO2 output over the previous year.

6. In the UK in January,
wind turbines generated an impressive 14% of all the electricity used in 
the isles. 
<http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/41296/record-breaking-january-for-uk-wind-energy/> 


Wind powered the equivalent of 8.7 million UK homes.
On January 2, for a single day, wind provided almost one third 
<http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Wind-energy-breaks-new-records-start-year/story-25961403-detail/story.html> 
of all the electricity
generated in Britain. The UK has 12 gigawatts of installed wind capacity.

7. Denmark produced almost 40% of its electricity from wind in 2014, 
<http://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1330530/europe-european-wind-energy-data-proves-positive>
having doubled that figure in a decade.