Duck sauce all around! China surpasses USA as #1 for installed wind energy capacity

China is doing infrastructure in a big way these days, and they have just passed another milestone in the wind energy sector. The Global Wind Energy Consortium reports that at the end of 2010, China had 42.5 GW of installed wind capacity (equivalent to about 17,000 turbines each rated at 2.5 MW), compared to 40.3 GW for the US. China got to the number one position by posting two banner years in 2009 and 2010, building 13.8 and 16.5 GW in the two years respectively. The combined 30.3 GW over two years is more than the US had installed cumulatively at the end of 2008 (25.2 GW). The US is still well ahead of #3 Germany, which had a total of 27.3 GW installed at the end of 2010.

Decarbonization and recarbonization: world coal is making a comeback

Many of us have heard the buzz about the "decarbonization" strategy, where the world first substitutes gas for coal since gas has less carbon and more hydrogen. Then later we substitute hydrogen or electricity for gas, and voila no more carbon problem. With the discussion of the vast new U.S. shale gas reserves, that may be the talk domestically, but at the world level, a different trend is underway: "recarbonization." Coal, which was 23% of the world's primary energy supply in 2000, has jumped to 28%, while petroleum fell from 37% to 33% over the same period -- gas was unchanged at 23% -- according to the US Energy Information Administration. So, the world as a whole is moving in the opposite direction. The effects are already showing up in CO2 emissions. According to the Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center (CDIAC) at Oak Ridge National Labs, petroleum had been the leading source of CO2 for years, but in 2005 coal surpassed petroleum to become the biggest source among coal, oil, and gas. This trend is unlikely to change any time soon: economic growth in China and India is massive, and coal is the fossil fuel to which these countries have easiest access.