On 12 July 2018, Ireland became the first country to divest from fossil fuels. Independent TD Donegal Thomas Pringle laid out the details on the decision by the Irish Legislature, Oireachtas Éireann.
Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill 2016: Report and Final Stages

Solar Energy Facts You Should Know

1. "The amount of solar energy that falls on the earth’s surface in 40 minutes equals the total annual energy consumption of all the world’s people. Put differently, 27 years worth of worldwide energy consumption equals only one day’s worth of solar energy hitting the earth." – Loretta Van Coppenolle, The Alamo Group of The Sierra Club

2. Between 2010 & 2020 the price of solar will fall 10-fold according to Autumn 2012 McKinsey & Company report:
Solar power: Darkest before dawn
Kristen Aanesen, Stefan Heck, and Dickon Pinner
McKinsey & Company. Autumn 2012, (17 page pdf)

Excerpt:
Those who believe the potential of the solar industry has dimmed may be surprised. Companies that take the right steps now can position themselves for a bright future in the coming years.
In less than a decade, the solar-photovoltaic (PV) sector has transformed from a cottage industry entered in Germany to a $100 billion business with global reach. >>>more

3. Report from The Royal Society of Chemistry:
Solar Fuels and Artificial Photosynthesis.
Science and innovation to change our future energy options.

Excerpt:
The global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration (pdf) now is almost certainly higher than it has been for one million years. However, the good news is that 2015 was the first year ever recorded where renewable energy sources surpassed coal to become the world's largest source of electricity capacity. >>>more

4. Annual solar module production globally from 2000 to 2021

In 2021 the production of solar modules worldwide reached approximately 241 gigawatts. This was an increase compared to the previous year wherein the production of solar modules was around 178 gigawatts...

Solar Power Pioneers

- Australia

"It’s quite ironic that as debate raged in federal parliament in Canberra about the viability and economics of renewable energy, the Big House itself was powered by the ACT’s own renewable energy."

Aussie women: the solar power pioneers
"Sun Source was Australia’s first solar panel retailer, started by a hippy woman nearly 50 years ago."
by Kassia Klinger, 4 April, 2023
RENEW.org.au - aka Alternative Technology Association

Excerpt:
Women’s contributions are often forgotten, especially when it comes to finance and technology. In 1970s Australia, women played pivotal roles introducing solar power to our home roofs. In the 1980s, they were early adopters of permaculture, ethical investing and even sending emails. Now, at another time of great social, technological, economic, geo-political and environmental change, women are rising, and demanding their voices be heard. ... Long before green energy became a booming industry, hippies living on communities in far-north New South Wales were experimenting with various forms of alternative power. One of those was Caroline Le Couteur: hippy, former economics student, feminist and a woman way ahead of her time. The early 1970s saw Le Couteur, who was a recent university graduate in the Australian Capital Territory, move to dairy-farming land on rich, red volcanic soils near Nimbin, in the lush hinterland of the state’s far north coast. The dairy industry was in free-fall. . . .
. . . Le Couteur went on to serve in the ACT’s Legislative Assembly from 2008 as a state Greens member for two separate terms over eight years. As was her desire, in her second term, she was involved in planning decisions, as well as passage of legislation committing the ACT to zero emissions by 2050.
Le Couteur retired in 2020, the same year that the ACT received 100 % of its electricity from renewable sources, including solar, wind, hydro and methane from waste landfill sites. Gas is still used in homes for heating and businesses, which is of course a potent greenhouse gas. Yet the source of electricity has leapt towards fossil fuel-free status over the last two decades. It’s quite ironic that as debate raged in federal parliament in Canberra about the viability and economics of renewable energy, the Big House itself was powered by the ACT’s own renewable energy. . . >>>more

- Africa
Ener-G-Africa (EGA) - South Africa and Malawi:
Sustainability through Innovation
About: Ener-G-Africa's Founders:
"the first all-female managed solar panel factory in the world, and one of the leading manufacturing energy companies in Sub-Saharan Africa with multi-disciplinary team focused on the development of sustainable energy solutions with distribution throughout the contient."
BIZCommunity Report: Girl power: Solar plant opens with all-female crew "The time is now for renewable manufacturing... There is a growing appetite to invest in renewables amid the energy crunch with multi-year investment opportunities arising..."

- India
Building Solar Canals to Produce Energy While Slowing Water Loss
Indian State Gujarat will use 19,000 km-long network of Narmada canals across the State for setting up solar panels to generate power. The pilot project will generate 16 million units of clean energy per annum and also prevent evaporation of 9 million liters of water annually from the canal, thus providing energy and water security. Five districts where the pilot projects are being planned Pradesh, Jhansi, Ghaziabad, Etawah, Ballia and Lucknow, will replicate Gujarat model of installing canal based solar power.

Solar-Covered Canals Catching On In India

Excerpt:
In India, they’re taking a different approach to canals – covering them with solar panels, on racks that span the width of the canals. In April, the state of Gujarat unveiled a project said to generate up to 1 MW of power. Now there are reports that Uttar Pradesh, in the far north of India, bordering Nepal, could be embarking on an even more extensive solar canal project.
The Times of India said the Uttar Pradesh government wants to do canal-based solar in five different areas of the state, and these would be bigger projects than in Gujarat: Each would provide 10 MW, according to Times report.The paper said a rule of thumb is that it takes 1 to 1.5 kilometers of canal to produce a megawatt of power, so we’re talking anywhere from 10 to 15 kilometers – about 6 to 10 miles – of covered canal in each of the five localities. This in a state that has 74,000 kilometers of canals. >>> more

Climate science: Beyond Party Politics
The Science Show, ABC-RN
8 June, 2013
Full Transcript HERE: The Science Show, ABC-Radio National, Australia

Guests:

- Nick Rowley
Advisor to UK Prime Minister Tony Blair 2004-2006

- Lesley Hughes
Professor of Biology, Macquarie University
Climate Commissioner for the Australian Government

- Herbert Huppert
Professor of Geophysics, Cambridge University
University of New South Wales

- Matthew England
Professor and Laureate Fellow, Centre of Excellence in Climate Science, University of New South Wales

- Don Burke
Author, Former Chair, Australian Environment Foundation

Excerpt: Matthew England

Three things I say:
Establish a hierarchy of scientists worldwide to deal with the science.
The reason you've got so many people challenging climate change is that we botched the communication to the public and we've alienated a lot of people. We've got a lot of ground to make up.

We need to work in far more closely with industry, politicians and the media.
None of these groups are the enemy, they are part of the group that will sort out these problems, and if we don't work with them there is no way we will ever beat it.

And the third one which no one seems to talk about is –
IT ISN'T ALL BAD.
I would like to say could we look at the positive things that will happen while all the dreadful things are happening?

Excerpt: Don Burke

"Could we perhaps make hay while the world burns? ... the science community has tried everything in its arsenal to communicate this message. We write biblical-length IPCC reports, we write summaries for policymakers, we put out documentaries, we put out films, like Al Gore's films, there are even sci-fi films, there are op-ed pieces, there are songs written, there are films made. I could list the number of different media I've engaged with myself, and I'm just one of thousands of scientists worldwide." Don Burke, 2013, The Science Show, ABC-RN  >>> more

CSIRO says Australia can get to 100 per cent renewable energy
By Giles Parkinson
22 February 2017
The Australian government’s chief scientific body says there is no apparent technical impediment to reaching 100 per cent renewables for the national electricity grid, and levels of up to 30 per cent renewable energy should be considered as just “trivial” in current energy systems. The CSIRO estimate was made in the Senate select committee into the “Resilience of electricity infrastructure in a warming world,” >>> more

What is the source of "Biomass"?
U.S. Energy Information Administration: Biomass Explained

How did something that emits so much conventional pollution, and more greenhouse gases than coal, come to be incentivized as "green" energy?

While it takes mere moments to cut and burn a tree, it takes decades to regrow a new one in its place. This fact is widely recognized when we bemoan the role forest loss plays in driving global warming, yet it goes curiously unnoted in the promotion of wood fuels - indeed, the exact opposite is assumed, and burning wood magically becomes carbon neutral.

Renewable Energy defined
See Science Direct listings HERE
Excerpt:

- Examples of direct use are solar ovens, geothermal heating, and water- and windmills.
- Examples of indirect use which require energy harvesting are electricity generation through wind turbines or photovoltaic cells, or production of fuels such as ethanol from biomass. >>>more

A beginner's guide – Renewable energy rundown: Biomass
Written by Erin Gobler
Edited by Caitlin Cosper, July 8, 2020

What is biomass?
Biomass is organic material that comes from plants and animals. These sources contain energy stored from the sun, which they convert into energy for themselves. Think back to middle school science when you learned about photosynthesis – or the process that allows plants to absorb energy from the sun. These plants store that energy for later use. When sources of biomass – such as plants – are burned, they release the chemical energy in biomass as heat. Biomass itself can be burned or it can be converted into liquid biofuel or biogas. A prime example of biomass is wood. Naturally occurring wood can be burned for heat, but it can also generate electricity for homes and businesses. In fact, wood was the main source of energy globally until the mid-1800s. >>>more

The Australian Conservation Foundation:
Ten reasons why burning native forests for electricity should not be included in the Renewable Energy Target (RET)
Here are ten reasons why so-called 'biomass' has no place in Australia's Renewable Energy Target.
[ACF acknowledges the assistance of the Australian Forests Climate Alliance in putting together this brief.]

1. Including native forest burning in the RET will restrict the uptake of real renewables
2. Logging and burning native forests releases a lot of CO2 pollution
3. Native forests are more valuable left intact, sequestering huge stores of carbon
4. Including biomass in the RET would drive deforestation
5. If biomass electricity is allowed in the RET, whole trees will be used to fuel the furnaces
6. Burning forests for energy will mean increased subsidies for an industry that is already heavily subsidised by taxpayers
7. It would be dangerous to human health
8. The conservation values of Australia’s native forests are already under threat
9. It would have poor employment outcomes
10. Australians don’t want it

Dispelling the Myth of Clean, Green Biomass Power
By Gordon Clark & Mary Booth
March 15, 2013
Excerpt:
Promoted as clean and climate friendly, and driven by lucrative renewable energy subsidies and tax credits, biomass energy - burning wood and other biological materials to produce heat and power - is on the rise around the United States, with hundreds of new facilities large and small proposed in the past 10 years. However, recent scientific and policy developments recognizing that biomass energy has significant greenhouse gas emissions have blown a major hole in arguments for treating biomass as a favored renewable energy source and could fundamentally reshape its future in the United States.

Until this past decade, the nation's aging biomass fleet was composed largely of industrial boilers, often located at sawmills and paper mills, which burned manufacturing waste or waste wood to produce industrial heat and power. Some of these facilities also exported electricity to the grid. In recent years, however, there has been a surge of over 200 proposals for new biomass power plants in the United States.

Eligibility for lucrative renewable energy subsidies and tax credits: most of these proposed plants are stand-alone electricity-generating units, uncoupled from a manufacturing facility, that plan to produce "renewable" power for the grid. Critically, most of them plan to burn wood - wood that is directly sourced from logging operations - rather than waste from paper mills and other wood-processing facilities.


A moderate-sized biomass power plant in the 30-40 megawatt (MW) range (they can exceed 100 MW) is a huge installation, with a 200 to 300-foot smokestack, a wood chip pile 60 feet tall that can cover several acres, and an unending stream of tractor-trailers delivering wood fuel. Cooling towers blow off hundreds of thousands of gallons of water a day as waste steam, water that is often taken from nearby rivers.

The good news for the planet is that the renewable energy policies rewarding such polluting, forest-threatening power plants were written a number of years ago, and in the interim, as local activists have fought individual plants, the science of carbon accounting for biomass has taken big leaps forward. The results have not been good for the industry.

Response to the Manomet BioMass Study
Manomet Center was commissioned by the Governor of Massachusetts to study the carbon impacts of biomass energy. The primary finding was that when biomass plants burn a combination of logging residues and whole trees, [pdf], the net emissions of carbon dioxide, the primary global warming gas, exceed emissions from an equivalent-sized coal-fired plant for more than 45 years, and exceed emissions from an equivalent gas-fired plant for more than 90 years - even when taking forest regrowth into account.

The response . . .

This central finding was reinforced by a similar study conducted in the Southeast, which examined biomass fuel sourced from fast-growing pine plantations and concluded, "the expanded biomass scenario creates a carbon debt that takes 35-50 years to recover."

Action by the states could also soon be coupled with federal action. At the Environmental Protection Agency, a panel commissioned by the agency to examine the greenhouse gas impacts of biomass energy has concluded that biomass energy cannot a priori be considered carbon neutral, but depends on a number of factors - including whether forests are used as fuel.

It remains to be seen whether EPA will resist the heavy politicization of this issue... >>> more

"In fact, the reality is a lot more complicated."
According to Columbia University's State of the Planet Earth Institute,
"Biomass is considered a renewable energy source because its inherent energy comes from the sun and because it can regrow in a relatively short time." 
Is Biomass Really Renewable?
by Renee Cho
Aug. 2011, updated Oct. 2016
Excerpt:

Biomass, a renewable energy source derived from organic matter such as wood, crop waste, or garbage, makes up 4.8 percent of total U.S. energy consumption and about 12 percent of all U.S. renewable energy. Wood is the largest biomass energy source. In the U.S., there are currently 227 biomass plants operating. In the U.K., 35 are operating, 15 are under construction and 17 have been proposed. But just how renewable is biomass energy?
. . .
According to the U.S. Forest Service, “Wood is an abundant, sustainable, homegrown cellulosic resource that can significantly contribute to meeting 30 percent of U.S. petroleum consumption from biomass sources by 2030 and help create a more stable energy future, improve environmental quality, and increase economic opportunities.” ...
... In fact, the reality is a lot more complicated.
In 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that “carbon neutrality cannot be assumed for all biomass energy a priori.” Whether or not biomass is truly carbon neutral depends on the time frame being studied, what type of biomass is used, the combustion technology, which fossil fuel is being replaced (since the combustion of both fossil fuels and biomass produces carbon dioxide), and what forest management techniques are employed in the areas where the biomass is harvested. >>>more

Watch this space...

"Direct Air Capture" (DAC) 1. During 2018, veteran energy & climate reporter David Roberts pointed to "ongoing decline in costs of clean energy technologies" and investigated DAC in this July 2018 report for VOX Media: Sucking carbon out of the air won’t solve climate change But it might fill in a few key pieces of the clean energy puzzle. By David Roberts, July 16 2018 - Where direct air capture fits into the carbon picture - We have very few options so far for getting to true negative emissions - There’s no market for negative emissions in which DAC can compete - DAC can produce very low-carbon fuels, for which there is a market Excerpt ... In June, we got the first solid engineering and cost numbers on DAC, courtesy of a company called Carbon Engineering out of Calgary, Canada. In a paper in the new energy journal Joule, the company (led by its founder, Harvard’s David Keith) reports its experience over the past three years running a DAC demonstration plant in Squamish, British Columbia. It’s the clearest look yet at how DAC might actually work, not just as a technology but as a business. >>>more 2. How One Company Pulls Carbon From The Air, Aiming To Avert A Climate Catastrophe By Jeff Brady Dec. 10, 2018 Excerpt: At a major climate meeting in Poland, nearly 200 countries are trying to reach a deal on dramatically reducing carbon emissions. But a recent U.N. report found that may not be enough to avoid dangerous impacts from the warming climate. In fact, the world is falling so far short of what's needed, it said, that it might be necessary to pull massive amounts of carbon dioxide out of the air. The problem is that there's no feasible — let alone economical — way to do that yet. But there are a number of efforts underway to find one, including in the small, picturesque town of Squamish, British Columbia, an hour's drive north of Vancouver. Carbon Engineering has been working for nearly a decade on the technology behind a "direct air capture" pilot plant, which sits just outside its office. The process of capturing CO2 starts with an "air contactor," which looks like an oversized semitrailer with a huge fan on top. In front there's a black grill with a solution containing potassium hydroxide flowing down it, so it sounds like a waterfall. Once the solution meets the air, it captures and retains carbon dioxide. That may sound simple, but it's not. Even though scientists say there's too much CO2 in the atmosphere now, it's at a very small concentration — only about 0.04 percent. >>> more

Sustainable energy and "The Great Coal Hoax"

“...the only reason coal is ‘cheap’ is that the cost of dealing with the carbon dioxide that comes from burning it is not included in the price.” 
– Alan Kohler, The Australian Business Review, January 13, 2017

Australia:
Goldman Sachs Group Partner and former Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull’s controversial plan to provide AUD$1 Billion in public funding for Adani's giant polluting coal mine! 
a. Australian Financial Review: Adani's mega-mine–does it stack up?
b. Michael West 'exposes' "Seven reasons why lavishing a $1 billion subsidy on Adani is a truly inane idea". Michael West | 9 December 2016,

#7. “The project will help the poor of India”: Not at all
It will help poison the poor of India and cement Australia’s reputation alongside Donald Trump’s regime as the bogans, sans pareille, of world climate policy. Carmichael coal is low-energy, high-ash — not efficient, but highly damaging for the environment. Meantime, Indian Energy Minister Piyush Goyal continues to reiterate his nation’s commitment to an aggressive solar roll-out and to cease seaborne thermal coal imports by 2020. He is on track to achieve this. Michael West | 9 December 2016, >>> more

Central Asia's ECO wants energy ties, just not on oil, gas
By Chris Cook, March, 2103 (Former director of the International Petroleum Exchange.)
Under the calm surface of the formal protocols and the stylized prose of the Tehran Declaration which emerged on March 6 at the Third Energy Ministerial Meeting of the 10-member Economic Cooperation Organization of Central Asian states, there were some interesting under-currents. >>> more

NOTE: Economic Cooperation Organization of Central Asian states (ECO) member states are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Wikipedia:
"The Economic Cooperation Organization or ECO is a Eurasian political and economic intergovernmental organization that was founded in 1985 in Tehran by the leaders of Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey. It provides a platform to discuss ways to improve development and promote trade and investment opportunities.... The objective is to establish a single market for goods and services, much like the European Union.[4] After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the ECO expanded to include Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan in 1992. ... The ECO's secretariat and cultural department are in Iran, its economic bureau is in Turkey, and its scientific bureau is in Pakistan."

OPEC production of crude oil is about 34-35 million barrels per day (mmbd), of which Saudi output (pdf) is about 10 mmbd, out of global production of around 100 mmbd.

March 2019

Oil Giants Invest $110 Billion In New Fossil Fuels
After Spending $1 Billion On Green PR

Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Total and BP together have spent more than $1 billion on public relations since the Paris Agreement.
By Alexander C. Kaufman & Chris D'Angelo
Huffington Post, 22/03/2019
The world’s five largest publicly traded oil companies are increasing their investments in oil and gas, putting a combined $110 billion in new fossil-fuel production.

Meanwhile, those firms are projected to spend just $3.6 billion on low-carbon investments, such as biofuels and renewables, according to a new analysis that Influence Map, a British nonprofit that analyzes corporate influence on climate policy, derived from industry data and numbers buried in company disclosures.

The reckless disparity comes just months after the United Nations warned that the world must rapidly phase out fossil fuel use over the next decade or face catastrophic global warming of at least 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit.

Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, BP and Total together have spent more than $1 billion on public relations promoting green energy projects and lobbying on behalf of climate policy in the past three years, after virtually every nation on Earth agreed to cut emissions under the Paris Agreement.
The totals represent “significant efforts to maintain public support on climate while holding back binding policy,” the nonprofit group said in its report, published Thursday evening. >>> more