This is the visible part of a viable strategy that will hopefully transform the way we use and produce energy. Right now and for the forseeable future, Wall Street has decided that nukes and carbon sequestered coal is too expensive to finance, so neither is going anywhere soon.
A bunch of legitimate regulatory deadlines are coming up on existing coal fired plants, which means that expensive scrubbers are going to have to be installed or they will have to be retired. Utilities are now trying to develop strategies to promote energy efficiency, which dollar for dollar has the biggest bang for the buck, so if they can be rewarded for SAVING instead of PRODUCING energy, more of those plants can be retired instead of upgrading. them, and any increased energy needs can be provided by adding solar and wind instead.
The Energy Information Agency sees no reason why this technique can't result in 20% of US electrical capacity being produced by 2020, which makes sense, since some states like Iowa are already there.
Renewable distributed energy generation such as wind and solar accounts for just 0.2 percent of global electric capacity, but that’s about to change, according to Pike Research.
Pike estimates that the renewable distributed energy generation (RDEG) market will triple and become more of a viable alternative to traditional power generation. The RDEG market will see system revenue increase from $50.8 billion in 2009 to $154.7 billion in 2015. That jump equates from 5.9 gigawatts in 2009 to 15.1 gigawatts in 2015.
In other words, renewable energy will still be a small chunk of capacity, but a growing one. Pike estimates that falling prices will accelerate use of renewables, but better business models, policies and technology are still needed.
The hotbeds for RDEG will be Europe and China. India is another potentially large market for renewables. China is the region to watch most closely because renewables have the best chance for cost parity with traditional power there.
