Year in Review: Renewables on the “S Curve” – the Accelerating Shift
December 27, 2021
We are now on the accelerating upward sweep of an “S-curve” in the deployment of renewable energy, as well as battery storage. Above, I spoke to researcher Jonathan Koomey and energy visionary Tony Seba on the accelerating pace of renewable deployment. The historical example that kept coming up was John Kennedy’s bold plan to put a man on the moon in less than a decade.
Setting goals and taking first steps is the most important thing. “Our choices now create options later,” Koomey told me.
“Everything we do creates new options…doors will open, opportunities will present themselves that we couldn’t even have imagined.”
Koomey is an independent researcher, having lectured at Stanford, and worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab for 2 decades. Below, I paired him with Saul Griffith, and MIT PhD, and winner of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award”.
One of my most valuable “go to” resources on solar is Josh Pearce, formerly of Michigan Tech, where I interviewed him in 2020, just before the Covid shutdown – he is now at Western University in Ontario.
Below, more details on the S-curve and the speed of adoption from Jonathan Koomey and Tony Seba.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
December 27, 2021 at 2:43 pm
Of course, there’s no mention of the cancer of eternal growth on a finite planet. The faster you grow, the more shattering the impact when you hit the edge of the Petri dish. We’re infinitely clever at satisfying our biologically built growth addictions and conquest genetics. It has worked great. “We’re KING of the WORLD”…. until the moment you hit the wall, which is getting closer. No, I don’t think the entrepreneur-class will change their ways. It’s not in their nature, and we are too busy celebrating their Ayn Randian heroism, to actually look at where it’s taking us. Extinction rates continue to accelerate, and we just don’t f’ing care. Money in the pocket is where it’s at, for the Koomey’s of the world.
January 2, 2022 at 3:00 am
Of course, this is about the growth of displacement.
Even without the CO2 greenhouse effects, fossil fuels are nasty, and need to be constantly replenished. The extraction portion is dirty, dangerous, and engenders wars over the resource. The refining process is dirty, dangerous and consumes a lot of energy. The combustion process, both from tailpipes and coal plant stacks, poisons lungs of people and animals.
Batteries, solar and wind are fixtures with long working lives.