QUICK NEWS, October 25: Will Voters Back Trump’s Coal Or Clinton’s Climate Action November 8?; Solar Building Corporate Balance Sheets; New Wires For More Wind Means Lower Power Prices

Will Voters Back Trump’s Coal Or Clinton’s Climate Action November 8? The 2016 presidential election will be the biggest referendum on global climate change ever

Valerie Volcovici and Devika Krishna Kumar (with Nichola Groom, Richard Valdmanis, Jessica Resnick-Ault, Ross Colvin), October 25, 2016 (Reuters via Business Insider)

“…If the American voter had to choose between Republican nominee Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton based on their energy policies alone, the presidential election…[would be] the biggest referendum on global climate change since the term was coined…How the country decides on Nov. 8 will have far-reaching implications for the price of electricity and gas at the pump, as well as the future of the U.S. energy industry, which employs about 10 million people...Trump's vision is an America where oil derricks pump furiously again, coal miners get back to work, and the country puts its own economy ahead of foreign nations worried about the effects of fossil fuels on sea levels, droughts, and storms.

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Clinton sees an America where half a billion solar panels power homes, cars run on electricity, oil use is cut by a third, and the clean energy sector provides a deep well of new jobs supported by government mandates and subsidies…Environmental advocates argue that a failure to agree on strong measures like the Paris accord would doom the world to ever-hotter average temperatures, bringing with them deadlier storms, more frequent droughts and rising sea levels as polar ice caps melt…Clinton says she wants to address that by making America a ‘clean energy superpower’…[by] phasing out fossil fuels, embracing clean energy sources like solar and wind, strengthening environmental protections and leading the world in curbing carbon dioxide emissions blamed for climate change…” click here for more

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Solar Building Corporate Balance Sheets Corporate America Loves Solar Energy; Household companies like Target, Apple, and Walmart are some of the biggest solar customers in the U.S. today.

Travis Hoium, October 24, 2016 (Motley Fool)

“…[W]hen large companies choose to go solar, they're doing so based on the dollars and cents of the investment. You may not know if the Target or Walmart store you're shopping at has solar, but if it does, it's saving the company money. And today, U.S. corporations are installing solar energy rapidly as a way to save millions of dollars…[According to Solar Means Business 2016 from the Solar Energy Industries Association, there is] over 1 GW of solar for corporate customers, enough to power 193,000 homes. Target led the way with 147.5 MW, with 70 MW installed so far in 2016, while Walmart is using 145.0 MW. Apple's 93.9 MW and Costco's 50.7 MW means those companies are also among the top five installers…Seven out of ten among the top ten corporate customers have installed SunPower solar panels, reflecting the company's corporate focus. SolarCity, meanwhile, has Walmart as a major customer…One incredible stat from the report is that more than three quarters of the commercial solar installations and half of the capacity are at data centers…” click here for more

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New Wires For More Wind Means Lower Power Prices New Wind Energy Study Aims to Break Transmission Barriers

Tina Casey, October 24, 2016 (Triple Pundit)

“As the cost of wind energy continues to fall, the U.S. wind industry is poised to continue its spectacular growth rate. There is just one problem, and it’s a big one: New wind farms can require new transmission lines, and lately some of those new transmission lines have become bogged down in the approval process…[T] he challenge is to get local property owners, other local stakeholders and the voting public firmly in its corner to approve new transmission routes…The wind industry is taking its case to consumers…[According to The Consumer Benefits of Wind Energy in Iowa, the industry is looking to Iowa as a test case for building public support for new transmission lines nationwide…Iowa already has a thriving wind industry thanks in large measure to the interest of legendary investor Warren Buffett…Adding 10,000 MW of wind beyond the amount that is currently operating and planned would save Iowa consumers about $12.6 billion on net over the next 25 years, with average annual savings in excess of $500 million…The average household would on net save $3,200 on their electric bills, while the average industrial customer would save $825,000…” click here for more

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