Christmas eve green shine

The last few days have seen hugh numbers of wind turbines ordered all over the world.  In the US Iowa is the leader placing about 300 448 on order a few days ago from Siemens.  The Siemens nacelle (the big box on top holding the turbine) plant near my home will be very busy the next 16 months.  Iowa's energy is 20% renewable, will be 50% by 2020.

This week natural gas prices surged suddenly even though their is a glut on the market.  This bodes well for solar and wind, both sell energy at flat prices for 10 or 20 year periods.  Uncertainty in coal and natural gas costs are exactly what utilities are running from.

2,500 earthquakes in Oklahoma so far this year, almost all epicenters are in fracking areas.  5 years ago Oklahoma had only a few shakers a year.  South central Kansas started fracking 3 years ago, never had the epicenters within that area until the last few months they had several dozen in the 4 to 4.5 severity range, plaster crackers.

Germany yesterday announced 2 more coal plants closing.  Through insulation, conservation and a boom in solar panels on homes and shops energy demand fell 17% in one year.  Their energy prices are actually falling, making them more competitive as a business center.

Jan 1 will be the end of importing 40 and 60 watt old style bulbs.  Manufacturing of them in the US stopped last year.  Warehoused stocks may linger for a year or two in some markets.  Lots of nations have also outlawed these 2 bulbs, world few manufacturers of them remain.  I read a few days ago if every house in the US replaced just one of these with a CFL or LED we could close 2 jumbo coal fired plants immediately.  Now it's inevitable.