Raify, I know you are aware of sustainability issues. These are discussed elsewhere on this board (sustainability, circular economy, overshoot, etc). Many companies are also aware and already working on this. These challenges will get resolved eventually.
ROCK, That amount was for the first round of prizes for the DOE Sunshots Initiative. I can't tell you what total investment for innovation has gone (or will go) into all RE companies (see "Has Fracking killed RE" thread). That information is on this board somewhere (e.g.
IEA World Investment Outlook 2014 thread).
SRI assets reached $6.57 trillion at the start of 2014, up from $3.74 trillion at the beginning of 2012, the US SIF Foundation revealed in its biennial "Report on US Sustainable, Responsible and Impact Investing Trends 2014." At this new level, investment strategies that integrate some form of environmental, social and governance criteria account for more than one out of every six professionally managed investment dollars in the United States. That’s nearly double what it was only two years ago.
In any case, you shouldn't feel so smug because in terms of new
capacity of FF versus RE, the FF industry has already lost the race.
The race for renewable energy has passed a turning point. The world is now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal, natural gas, and oil combined. And there's no going back.
The shift occurred in 2013, when the world added 143 gigawatts of renewable electricity capacity, compared with 141 gigawatts in new plants that burn fossil fuels, according to an analysis presented Tuesday at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance annual summit in New York. The shift will continue to accelerate, and by 2030 more than four times as much renewable capacity will be added.
Here's the current situation for Europe:
Europe’s energy revolution marches on: one-third of power supply now renewableENTSO-E’s annual overview of the European electricity market, Electricity in Europe 2014, which has recently been released, testifies to the steady expansion of renewables generation taking place in the EU electricity sector:
33% of electricity produced in the EU now comes from renewables, of which 18.5% is hydropower and 14.4% “other renewables” (mostly wind and solar power). In 2011 hydropower supplied 15.3% and other renewables just 9.3%. The share of fossil fuels has gone down from 48.6% in 2011 to 40.5% in 2014. Nuclear power has remained stable despite the German nuclear phase-out.
energypostAnd India:
India Just Upped Its Solar Target Five-Fold, Will Install More Solar This Year Than GermanyOn Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian Cabinet approved increasing the country’s solar target five times to a goal of reaching 100 gigawatts, up from 20 GW, by 2022.
The new solar capacity will be nearly split between residential and large-scale solar projects, with some 40 GW expected to be generated from rooftop installations and the remaining 60 GW coming from larger, grid-connected projects, such as solar farms.
“With this ambitious target, India will become one of the largest green energy producers in the world, surpassing several developed countries,” reads the announcement. “Solar power can contribute to the long term energy security of India, and reduce dependence on fossil fuels that put a strain on foreign reserves and the ecology as well.”
thinkprogress