Fossil fuel power demand has 'peaked worldwide': analysis

Good.

how emerging markets are already "leapfrogging" fossil fuel infrastructure and heading straight for green power generation.

Too bad Japan among other nations, remains fossilized because the fossils controlling business and government will not move away from what they know, which is burn, burn, burn.

I'm all for green power generation especially if life cycle cost analysis shows it's superior to burning huge amounts of fossil fuels. One more advantage of NOT burning so much coal, oil and gas is improvements to the environment, particularly air quality.

Conservation is also needed. Reduce, reuse and recycle.

I am all in favour of reducing the fossil fuel usage but I question the statement that fossil fuel usage, especially oil has peaked. To build out the new green energy structure will require huge amounts of energy itself, most of which will be from fossil fuel especially oil.

Ultimately yes fossil fuel will fade away but of necessity not yet.

The irony is too much.

Over privilege westerners telling poor third world people how to live and what and what not they can have.

wait till Africa and and the rest of the Indian subcontinent get on a 24 hr grid, thats when the real fun begins.

Over privilege westerners telling poor third world people how to live and what and what not they can have.

I’ve read the report the article is based on, it contains none of that. Its just describing how fossil fuel use has peaked in most countries and increased demand in the developing world is mostly being met with the rollout of renewables since that is the most cost efficient in most countries.

Worldwide, coal is still the single largest source of power. China, the US, Japan and India are the largest users of coal.

Japan has stopped building new coal power generating plants.

The US has and is reducing the number of its coal power plants.

China is still constructing new power plants based on burning coal.

India has reduced its reliance on burning coal, but may continue to build more such plants.

Keep using coal until it is all gone. It is recycling old plants and dinosaurs anyway; that's a good thing isn't it?

Two years ago Los Angeles Department of Water and Power signed a contract for utility-scale PV plus battery storage the cost of which is untouchable by fossil or nuclear power.

"The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is preparing a potentially world record-setting power purchase agreement (PPA) for solar + storage at 1.997 cents and 1.3 cents per kWh, respectively.

LADWP presented the 400 MW solar, 800 MWh storage project to the city's Board of Power and Water Commissioners on June 18, previewing its planned July 23 submission for approval. The solar + storage contract would beat out the previous U.S. record, a 2.376 cents per kWh solar project proposed by NV Energy in June 2018, with both the Nevada and California projects under developer 8Minute Energy."

wait till Africa and and the rest of the Indian subcontinent get on a 24 hr grid, thats when the real fun begins.

Africa has an abundance of hydropower being developed and some African nations generate more power than they can use, allowing the excess to be exported. Big dams have their environmental problems too but carbon emissions are not one of them.

Two years ago Los Angeles Department of Water and Power signed a contract for utility-scale PV plus battery storage the cost of which is untouchable by fossil or nuclear power.

The batteries don't last all night. They are good for four max, less if demand is high. Once the batteries go flat the grid needs something else. My namesakes (desert tortoises) are disturbed by the solar installations btw. No beauty queens in this pageant.

We now have studies which show we can close 74% of coal plants in the US, replacing them with renewables plus battery storage, and still save money, instead of letting the coal plants age out.

My own household and two electric cars is primarily powered by the grid-connected PV system on our roof.

Solar and battery, hydropower, wind and nuclear are not the only ways available to make zero carbon emission power. The maritime industry may be leading the way.

https://gcaptain.com/wartsila-conducts-full-scale-engine-tests-using-hydrogen-and-ammonia-fuel/

We now have studies which show we can close 74% of coal plants in the US, replacing them with renewables plus battery storage, and still save money, instead of letting the coal plants age out.

I agree coal is a lousy fuel from an environmental standpoint but batteries do not last more than four hours. They also need to be heated at night, which depletes them even more rapidly. Battery power for night is not the solution.

Do the conservative losers can understand this basic thing someday???..

@Kentarogaijin No, of course not. Considering population growth and urbanization also your solar or wind energy dream bubble will burst immediately. If you plaster the landscape and agricultural area or sea coastal regions with solar panels, wind power generators etc, then maybe , that still must be calculated too, everything is getting a little bit cleaner and cheaper, but all the many humans will have no place to settle and starve to death. It’s very easy to understand too, isn’t it?

While hydro, wind and solar are well known there are other renewables out there.

We have geothermal (ground source heat pumps) and air source heat pumps.

https://dandelionenergy.com/geothermal-heat-pump-frequently-asking-questions

Tidal energy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_power

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/tidal-energy/

Wave energy

https://openei.org/wiki/Wave_Energy

River Current energy (not using dams)

https://marinerenewables.ca/facts/river-current-energy/

You can get methane (biogas) from methane digesters which can use cattle, hog and poultry manure

https://extension.psu.edu/biogas-from-manure

https://www.wiscontext.org/what-manure-digesters-can-and-cant-do

https://www.biocycle.net/poultry-litter-digestion/

https://www.regenis.net/features/poultry-farm-digesters

https://www.dvoinc.com/poultry.php

A digester can process other farm wastes, such as milkroom waste water, straw, corn husks, grass, and leaves, with or instead of dairy cow manure. Beef, hog, and poultry manure are being used in digesters, although poultry manure digesters require further research.

As for storage batteries, there are a lot of options out there (Wikipedia has a whole page on battery types alone) and more are on the way as research continues.

We also need to find ways to lower our energy usage. Insulating buildings, using CFL or LED lightbulbs, buying more energy efficient appliances, etc. will all help but alone nothing is going to solve our energy reliance problem.

A digester can process other farm wastes, such as milkroom waste water, straw, corn husks, grass, and leaves, with or instead of dairy cow manure. Beef, hog, and poultry manure are being used in digesters, although poultry manure digesters require further research.

The resulting gas when burned to make power is no cleaner than natural gas. It still creates CO2 emissions. Renewable? Yes. Clean? No. We have to do better.

Natural gas isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

They are always working on ways to better clean the gas and to capture and use the CO2.

Also, better to get the energy from that waste and reuse it rather than to ruin the land by over fertilizing it.

Steve Conrad, yep agree with what you say, no one technology is the sole solution but a mix is along with being more frugal and environmentally friendly in our use of resources generally. PS. digesters can also deal with household food waste, ours is collected and goes to a digester not far away, what is left after the process is sold to farmers as manure and goes back to the land.