Good And Bad News: Global investments in wind power surged during the first half of 2018. At The Same Time Solar is slipping

[franco + 96]

The good news for clean energy is global investments in wind power surged during the first half of 2018. The bad news? Solar is slipping. Financing for wind farms totaled $57.2 billion from January through June, up 33 percent from the same period in 2017, Bloomberg NEF said in a report. Solar investments declined 19 percent to $71.6 billion. The divergent trends demonstrate that investments in clean energy continue to hold steady, even as China slows development of solar farms. On balance, clean energy investments have been virtually flat so far in 2018, at $138.2 billion. The trends are apt to continue for the remainder of the year, BNEF chief editor Angus McCrone said. “Solar will see a continuation of the same trend with the solar market in China cooling off,” McCrone said in an interview.

[Pavel + 384]

Geothermal is next...

[Petar + 76]

You can harness wind in water with the same technology. Solar only works when the sun's out and creates shade, which I would think would get the green crowd spun up in the fact it would be killing plants. Try going solar in the Arctic circles. Wind would work great there..

[damirUSBiH + 327]

Recently I read about wind turbine on streets in Turkey. They create energy from traffic and can generate 1KW per hour. Enough power for two homes...

[NickW + 2,714]

3 hours ago, Pavel said:

Geothermal is next...

Good or Bad news?

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

7 hours ago, Pavel said:

Geothermal is next...

Geothermal is not quite as simple as the descriptive would have it.  The problems in part stem from the corrosive nature of the underground, which will corrode metals and require the piping to be stainless steel.  I recall that a geothermal well was drilled on an island in the Caribbean, might be St. Lucia, and a power plant installed.  The water was injected into the well and steam was tapped to spin the turbine.  But the water picked up all manner of corrosive components underground, and it ate away at everything.  The result: the installation was abandoned. 

My guess is that successful geothermal will be site-specific, where locations blessed with benign underground chemical environments can be drilled and tapped, those with corrosive environments not attempted.  Can improved materials make a dent?  Probably, but that would be trial and error (expensive) and advanced coatings on materials (expensive).  not exactly a clear picture. 

[Sebastian Meana + 278]

Well there's a large advantage for wind turbines, they work in the night, in the day, in the rain, in the snow, not only when is shiny, wind power in specific areas along with pumped storage can work as a peak demand energy source.