Press "Enter" to skip to content

New Power in September All Wind and Solar

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission says the United States added 433 megawatts of new electrical production capacity last month. Every erg-per-second of that juice came from renewable energy installations. 300 megawatts of wind power, 133 megawatts of solar power—all green. Take that, Koch Brothers!

Speaking of whom, the fossil-fuel lobby is working to destroy the Production Tax Credit that would boost American wind power production even more. Remember, that's the same position Mitt Romney takes, wanting to shut down more South Dakota jobs.

We should be thrilled to see a whole bunch of electricity placed online that doesn't require burning up more finite resources. Wind and sunshine don't run out... at least not for another five billion years. We should celebrate shifting more of our energy to clean sources and vote out those who would keep rejiggering our laws and economy to favor faster consumption of dirty fuel that will run out just for short-term profit.

4 Comments

  1. JoeBoo 2012.10.25

    The key to helping our energy problems with renewable energy is changing petroleum products to electrical and then increasing the electrical grid with renewable energy.

    That is a 3 step plan 1, would be increasing/updating the grid, making it more efficient so loss is not occurring on the grid.
    step 2 is converting more vehicles to electrical. I know people like to make fun of the Chevy volt, but in 2 years they have driven 84 million miles on electricity saving roughly 4.9 million gallons of fuel. If we can get that to 10 million gallons of fuel saved per year with 1 vehicle we greatly increase the capacity in % of our refineries. Again crude oil (KXL) is not the problem in the United States its more refinery output. (the reason they want KXL)
    The other part of the vehicle part is trying to get more public transportation on electricity. If buses, trains, and taxi's could go to 10-15-20% electricity again way more petroleum available for the the population. Which again lowers prices, lessons the need for pipelines, ect.

    The last is more on the personal level of converting petroleum to electrical. Going from propane and heating fuel furnaces to electrical heat, and electrical heat pumps. Farmers going from diesel irrigation to electrical. Golf courses going from gas carts, to electrical.

    I think all of those things can allow for the renewable electrical % to increase without affecting the grid output. While lowering the amount of petroleum used.

  2. caheidelberger Post author | 2012.10.25

    Let's do more with less, Joe! That's the surest route to energy independence.

  3. Stan Gibilisco 2012.10.25

    As I continue to mull over the idea of going off-grid, possibly to Montana where some properties of that sort still exist within my budget, one fact emerges as clear as a bright day in the Black Hills: I'll have to conserve energy in ways, and to an extent, that I never before have done.

    So, one way or another, shall we all.

Comments are closed.