Good News for the Environment! Renewable Energy Sources Grow at Record Pace in 2015
While much of the publicity about the environment centers on gloom and doom, in some ways we are meeting the challenge to help make the Earth a more hospitable place for all living things. For example, Phys.Org, reports that renewable energy sources grew at a record pace in 2015 worldwide:
“Overall spending on green energy rose 5% from 2014 to $286 billion, with China accounting for more than a third of total investment worldwide. Developing countries spent more on renewable power than rich ones for the first time last year, driving the fastest increase in sources of green energy on record, a study said Wednesday [June 1, 2016].”
Highlights of the Renewables Global Status report include:
- Global investment in renewable power in 2015 more than doubled the total spent on new coal and natural gas-fired power generation.
- China made the biggest investment in renewable energy sources, accounting for more than a third of the global increase.
- India, Mexico, Chile and South Africa also had major increases in spending on renewables.
- A total of 147 gigawatts of capacity was added during 2015, the largest increase ever and roughly equivalent to all Africa’s generation capacity.
Wind and solar power were the biggest winners, with more than half of all money committed to renewables in 2015 spent on harnessing the sun’s energy, according to the report. But investment in other types of renewable energy, such as biofuels and hydropower, fell, while the use of alternative fuels in transport continued to lag behind other areas.”
Among the nation’s leading environmental engineering firms, HSA Golden provides expertise in renewable energy technologies as well as a wide range of consulting services for energy applications. These services include site selection, permitting, biofuels, landfill gas (LFG) and solar energy.
