As consumers, people are able to choose how they affect the environment with the purchases they make. Consumers can shape how they consume energy in 2017 and make better decisions that can affect many generations to come.
Also the solar and renewable energy industries are constantly evolving and sometimes, changing unexpectedly. This will continue into the New Year and beyond. Below are the things to keep an eye out for in 2017 according to Renewable Energy World.
There have been reports that China is already leading solar PV manufacturing and deployment. With the uncertainty surrounding the new United States energy and climate policy, China has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to move its policy positions forward despite some disturbing signals from Beijing. Beijing clearly does not want big deployments of distributed rooftop PV, however, most other countries do exactly the opposite. Watch out for a large Chinese energy tax that will make rooftop PV more attractive to consumers and businesses.
With global warming on everyone’s radar, sources for energy are a big concern for many businesses. Thus, companies like Google that house large warehouses of servers are moving towards renewable energy. This year, Google will operate entirely on renewable energy sources and selling excess energy.
The global transportation sector is turning electric faster than anyone could have imagined a year ago. But to charge an electric vehicle with electricity from a coal-fired power plant does not make any sense because it will emit carbon dioxide through combustion engines in the plant. Elon Musk of Tesla was not the first person to realise this and take necessary action, but the Japanese company Honda with its defunct CIGS factory a few years ago. But with Tesla’s merger with Solar City, there may be alliances formed in the near future and solar and transportation will grow further this year.
Solar power was the cheapest form of energy in 2016, and while it may have had some setbacks last year, solar power will speed up the momentum for installation in homes, schools and hospitals according to the Economic Times. Plans are also in place to expand the rooftop program to government buildings by providing target-based incentives. In China, the price of PV cells has peaked and it’s predicted that the rush will surely come because the recent policies continue to stimulate the Chinese domestic market demand in the first half of 2017.
The Paris Agreement now is in force and Germany is shutting down all its nuclear power plants. So there should be enough global investments in renewable and clean energy sources, with photovoltaics as the most natural choice in replacing non-renewable sources in order to keep promises made in Paris. Once the politicians start to take action on their respective policy commitments, solar PVs will be on capacity expansion again.
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