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Fossil Fuels vs. Renewables: A Price on Reliability?

Union of Concerned Scientists

The same scenario has played out with the power plants that use fossil fuels, predominantly methane (“natural”) gas, delivered by pipelines. The electric power system is trapped by gas-dependent power plants that cannot obtain gas when it needs it to keep the lights on.

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Good News—and Bad—about Fossil Fuel Power Plants in 2023 

Union of Concerned Scientists

And fossil fuel power plants may not stick to their retirement schedules for a variety of reasons. More gas plants, uncertain coal retirements As you may have noticed in the first table toward the top of the page, about 7.4 GW of new gas capacity is planned to come online in 2023, outpacing not only the 4.8

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The EIA Just Released a 30 Year Energy Outlook. It’s… Not Great

Union of Concerned Scientists

According to the forecast, while economy-wide CO 2 emissions decrease from 2022 to 2037 due primarily to the growth in renewable energy replacing retiring coal plants, emissions do increase after 2037 from increased usage of natural gas. EIA is projecting that natural gas prices will remain low.

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The European Energy Transition is well underway and accelerating

Edouard Stenger

First off, some facts and figures from Ember, which recently stated that both fossil fuels generation and CO2 emissions from the European electricity sector fell 19 percent last year alone. Renewables now account for 44% of the EU electricity mix and wind power is now producing more electricity than natural gas.

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Unraveling LA’s Hydrogen Combustion Experiment

Legal Planet

Hydrogen’s supply-side has been buttressed by incentives from state and federal governments, refineries and utilities looking to extend the life of fossil fuel infrastructure, and renewable energy companies seeking to take advantage of the huge amounts of clean energy needed to produce green hydrogen.

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Ask a Scientist: Two Dozen States Can Meet 100 Percent of Electricity Demand with Renewables by 2035

Union of Concerned Scientists

From 2020 to 2040, solar generation in these states jumps nearly ninefold and wind generation more than sevenfold. Our analysis also demonstrates renewables’ power. Emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from power plants in alliance states drop 88 percent and 77 percent respectively by 2040.

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Clean Hydrogen: How It’s Produced and What We Can Do with It

Law and Environment

SMR requires steam, heat, and pressure to convert methane (in natural gas) to hydrogen and carbon monoxide. SMR is a high-carbon process that uses fossil fuels for process heat. They typically refer to fossil SMR hydrogen as “ grey ” hydrogen. How is hydrogen produced today?