Renewables-info.com

The rapid growth of wind energy installations throughout the United States has been remarkable. In fact, in the last ten years U.S. has tripled its wind power capacity, and wind is together with hydropower the largest source of renewable energy in the country. The only downside of this US wind energy story is the fact that offshore wind energy sector is still pretty much in its infant phase of development.

So far, the only offshore wind farm in United States is a small commercial wind farm off the Rhode Island coast which is really not something United States can be proud of.

This is in stark contrast with wind projects developed on land. According to the Wind Energy Association there are more than 56,800 wind turbines on land, located in 41 states.

The majority of energy experts say that this is because construction costs of offshore wind energy farms are huge. There is also the need for supplying rare-earth metals needed to build these offshore wind turbines such as neodymium.

By 2050, the UK is planning to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to zero and become the cleanest country across the world.

On a yearly basis as of October 2018 though, an estimated 500 million tonnes of CO2 were being emitted in the UK. Guidance from the Committee on Climate Change has been formally sought by the government about how and when the UK could bring this number down to zero though, with the move prompted from the release of a UN report which warned that CO2 emissions must be entirely stopped if dangerous climate disruption is to be avoided.

The climate minister for the UK, Claire Perry, commented to BBC News: "The report was a really stark and sober piece of work — a good piece of work. Now we know what the goal is, and we know what some of the levers are.

"But for me, the constant question is: what is the cost and who's going to bear that, both in the UK and in the global economy. The question is: what does government need to do, where can the private sector come in, and what technologies will come through?"

Here, Audi dealership Vindis highlight just how much of a challenge the UK has set itself, by focusing on just three things that must change throughout the nation if the target is to be achieved.

Climate change has been at the forefront of our attention in recent years, with attitudes towards the change differing dramatically. There have been spiralling changes in weather which are having catastrophic impacts to different parts of our planet. That, alongside other damaging effects of human action, including plastic in our oceans seeping into the food chain, and the world has decided nearly unanimously that enough is enough.

What is the Paris Agreement and its accompanying 2020 targets?

Governments across the globe have been joining forces to try to find an answer to our problems. Nearly 200 countries within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) came to a consensus in 2015 to cut greenhouse emissions and have committed to limit temperature rises worldwide by no more than 2C above pre-industrial times. In fact, the aim is to limit this further, to 1.5C if possible. Progress will be reviewed every five years and financial funding from donor nations will go to less developed countries.

However, we still must commit to huge efforts in a bid to achieve a positive end result. A recent UN report suggests that the world actually needs to triple its current efforts to meet the 2C target.

Nevada is one of the nation's renewable energy leaders. In 2017, Nevada ranked second in the nation in electricity generation from geothermal energy and fourth in utility-scale generation from solar energy according to the official EIA report. These two renewable energy sources supplied 19% of Nevada’s utility-scale net electricity generation.

Nevada is making further steps to add more renewable energy to its portfolio.  A few days ago it was reported that The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) approved NV Energy's Integrated Resource Plan, which will bring 1,001 megawatts of new renewable energy projects to Nevada, including the 100 megawatts of battery storage capacity.

Three of these renewable energy projects will be located in northern Nevada and three will be located in southern Nevada. All projects are expected to be completed and working by the end of 2021.

Norway is by far the largest producer of hydroelectricity in Europe, and also the sixth largest producer in the world.  This rich Scandinavian country is blessed with plentiful hydro resources and is certainly making the most of it. 

Norway has very long history of using hydropower resources, for instance Hammeren power station in Maridalen outside Oslo that become operational in 1900 is still delivering electricity, after more than a century.

According to the most recent reports 98% of country's electricity production is based on hydropower. At the end of 2016, Norway’s hydropower resources combined for over 31 GW installed capacity.