By James Osbourne, Houston Chronicle, June 3, 2016

Photo: JERRY LARA, Staff — Sheep graze by solar panels at the Alamo 2 Solar Farm located at 8203 Binz Engleman Road, Monday, July 21, 2014. OCI Solar Power contracted for the nearly 90 Barbados cross sheep in order to maintain the area. The 45-acre farm has 18,000 solar panels that provide 4.4 mega watts of energy at its peak for CPS Energy. It is the first time the company has used sheep in a Texas facility. They have been at the facility since mid April.

WASHINGTON – A federal report predicts the amount of renewable energy on the electricity grid will more than double by 2040 to close to 500 gigawatts of capacity.

That presumes the Obama administration’s clean power plan, which would reduce carbon emissions from the power sector by 30 percent, survives a legal challenge.

But even without the clean power plan, cost reductions in solar and wind energy, along with the extension of a tax credit for renewable energy last year, should still grow to more than 400 gigawatts over the next 24 years.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration is predicting continued growth in wind power until 2022, when the tax credit expires and construction comes to a virtual halt.

“Because the most favorable wind resources are located in a few regions in the country, increased adoption of wind technology in these regions may be limited by the ability of regional grids to handle high levels of intermittent generation,” the report reads.

But the agency also forecasts continued growth in solar farms and rooftop systems through 2040.

Still, 500 gigawatts would be a long way from the carbon-free power sector many environmentalists want to see in the decades ahead.

Right now the U.S. power grid counts a capacity of 1,066 gigawatts, of which 440 gigawatts is natural gas and coal is 280 gigawatts.

Source: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/U-S-renewable-energy-capacity-to-more-than-7963045.php

Global investment in renewable energy reached record levels in 2015, according to a new report from the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

More surprisingly, perhaps, the report shows that the $286bn poured into green energy was more than double the spending on coal– and gas-fired power.

It also shows, for the first time, that more renewable power capacity was added than other sources and that renewable energy investment was mostly in developing countries.

Carbon Brief runs through the key findings in seven charts:

http://ecowatch.com/2016/06/03/renewable-investment-broke-records/