Going All In with Renewable Energy
Is the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy crazy, idealistic or achievable?
Elisa Wood, Contributing Editor
September 27, 2013 | 21 Comments
After a monster tornado wiped out Greensburg, Kansas in 2007, killing 11 people, the community decided to rebuild with meaning. It set out to become one of the world's greenest communities.
Today the town is among a growing number of jurisdictions that generates all of its electricity from renewable energy.
Greensburg achieved a goal that many see as pie-in-the-sky. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore several years ago drew jeers from his political critics when he proposed that the U.S. go all green within a decade. The jury remains out about the plausibility of a U.S.-size economy functioning with all renewables anytime soon. But Greensburg, with a population of less than 1,000 people, has demonstrated that it can work on a small scale. Others have done the same, among them Güssing, Austria; King Island, Australia; and Naturstrom, Germany.
It's not just cities with the ambition. Eight nations are 100 percent renewable or moving in that direction: Denmark, Iceland, Scotland, Costa Rica, Maldive Islands, Cook Islands, Tuvalu, and Tokelau. Add 42 cities, 49 regions, 8 utilities and 21 organizations, and going 'all green' looks like a bona fide trend.Times have changed since the mid-2000s when a group that included the late Hermann Scheer, TIME magazine's 'Hero for the Green Century', first explored the idea. The group formed the Renewables 100 Policy Institute, but in the early years found that the concept was too "bleeding edge" for established non-profits, which declined to sign on.
"Now that is starting to change," said Diane Moss, the institute's founding director. The Renewables 100 Policy Institute held its first international conference in April, drawing a crowd of more than 200 people. The presenters were not from the fringe of the green world, but were representatives of established advocacy organizations, elected officials, corporate executives and the head of the California Independent System Operator Corp.
"If we want to fill our goal on a global scale it is important that regions like California, like Germany or other regions unify together in a movement to 100 renewable," said Harry Lehmann, Director of the German Federal Environment Agency at the conference. "We have to share our experience."
Today, the Renewables 100 Policy Institute is actively supporting the trend and reports on global progress via the Go 100 percent Renewable Energy project it created. An interactive map on the site tracks those pursuing and achieving the all-renewables goal. (The site is the source of the numbers above on how many jurisdictions the movement encompasses.)
full article here (plus some choice comments from yours truly and Leon Lemoine )
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/09/going-all-in-with-renewable-energy