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The IPCC Publishes its Sixth Assessment Report on Climate Change
On August 9, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released the first part of its Sixth Assessment Report, summarizing the physical science basis for climate change by pulling together the findings from more than 14,000 peer-reviewed studies. The report denotes it is now “an established fact” that there are links between human-caused warming and increasingly severe extreme weather events – weather events that have led to ever more frequent grid disruptions. Additionally, the new report expands on the previous assessment’s guiding principle that net global carbon emissions need to decrease by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2050, calling for using additional carbon dioxide removal (CDR) techniques—also known as negative emissions—to offset the warming impact. The U.K. became the first major economy to set a legally binding net-zero goal in 2019, and many more countries have set goals or developed policies since, but further action is needed both domestic and abroad to combat climate change.
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American Clean Power Releases Quarterly Report
This month American Clean Power (ACP) released their Clean Power Quarterly Report Q2 2021, offering insight into the latest U.S. utility wind, solar, and battery storage industry activity and trends. The report shows that clean power commissioning reached record levels midway through 2021 with 5,620 MW of new wind, solar, and energy storage capacity brought online across the U.S. The states which added the most clean power capacity were Texas (1489 megawatts) (MW), California (585 MW), Michigan (424 MW), Florida (373 MW), and Kansas (301 MW). In total, the report highlights that there is now over 180,216 MW of operational clean energy capacity across the U.S., enough to power over 50 million homes. These trends give 2021 the highest second quarter on record and mark a 13% increase from 2020's second quarter. Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) continue to being a driving factor of the observed trends in renewable energy development. The report notes that 7,700 MW of new PPAs were signed in the first half of 2021 with 4,218 MW of new agreements in the second quarter alone. This underlines how large commercial and institutional buyers are changing the energy landscape.
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