Here comes the sun

When unpopular dumb dumb Donald Trump said “solar isn’t working so good” during one of his hateful spews, everyone and anyone who could read beyond a first grade level said to themselves that’s not right. Trump’s statements aped other conservative politicians who continue to lie to their constituents by telling them that the times aren’t changing—coal can still be king. Inside Climate News explains that 2016 shattered many people’s expectations of clean energy’s speedy growth and application around the world.

In 2016, almost two-thirds of new power capacity came from renewables, bypassing net coal generation growth globally for the first time. Most of the expansion came from a 50 percent growth in solar, much of it in China. In the U.S., solar power capacity doubled compared to 2015—itself a record-breaking year—with the country adding 14.5 gigawatts of solar power, far outpacing government projections. In the first half of 2017, wind and solar accounted for 10 percent of monthly electricity generation for the first time.

Two reports from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) show that our country’s “predictions” on the growth of solar energy around the world were far too modest.