This is survival of the fittest. This is do or die. This is: the winner takes it all. Not just Eminem lyrics, but also the rule of thumb to the evolving renewable energies market. The country making the most strides forward in the renewable energy market is allegedly Britain, if a report by FT.com is to be believed. The report says thanks to the £10 billion cash injection into renewable energy, Britain has “quietly” become the leader in the market.
Allegedly, over the last year, renewable sources provided more energy to the UK than coal. FT points out that the industrial revolution began in the UK, which would mean that if the Godfather of industrial expansion could use more renewable energy than fossil fuel agents, it’s a win for renewable energies.
James Court, head of policy at the Renewable Energy Association said: “There are now solar PV modules installed on over 800,000 homes and businesses [in the UK].” He also says the UK possesses the “largest offshore wind industry, nearly 30 grid-scale energy storage facilities, and several biomass power plants.”
Elsewhere, American company SunEdison, who was a renewable energy firm, has filed for bankruptcy under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. You can read their entire press release HERE. Does this relate to a slump in solar energies in the United States? SunEdison has a promising future ahead of them. Any time a renewable energies company files for bankruptcy, something in the industry must have gone wrong, or else it’s just mismanagement.
The Columbia University’s, David Sandalow, discussed the future of solar energy with the New York Times due to SunEdison’s filing for bankruptcy. He detailed three factors that will drive the solar energy industry forward:
- Solar module costs: They have fallen by 80 percent since 2007. Solar is cheaper than the competition.
- Governments around the world will throw their support behind solar power
- Integration of solar technologies into grids is “easier than many thought”
According to Sandalow, these factors will ensure that solar energy does not simply die in places like the United States.
Furthermore, the Department of Energy in the United States is backing solar somewhat, and putting $25 million into a project titled Enabling Extreme Real-Time Grid Integration of Solar Energy, which is part of the Grid Modernization Initiative. The $25 million will reportedly fund 10 to 15 solar software and hardware solutions. This on top of the $220 million that was pumped into the DOE for research and development of grid modernization. The United States is not giving up on solar anytime soon.
“Our ongoing grid modernization work will help accelerate the widespread adoption of the clean energy resources that will define our low-carbon future. This funding will help that mission by supporting industry partners working to integrate, store, and deploy solar energy throughout our electric grid,” said Lynn Orr, science, and energy undersecretary at the Department of Energy.
