Have We Already Won the Renewables Revolution?

[kristopher]

42. I'd like to cover one point I neglected to address earlier

Growth rates don't belong to the renewable technologies themselves - a technology is chosen by users who want it, and people still want whatever's cheapest. They don't say "we see there's a growth in solar, therefore we demand more of it", they say "how can I heat my house cheaply?" (and very few are using renewables for that; those are making small inroads into electricity production, but gas, oil and coal still do the vast amount of heating in the world).

I believe you are going to find that the heating and cooling problem actually favors renewable deployment and microgrids since a very good way to address the variable production schedule of wind and solar is to use thermal storage as a buffer. Everyday stone makes an excellent and inexpensive medium for storage and the heat exchange systems are not a tech challenge. This works in residential, commercial and industrial environments.
Additionally, as new buildings gradually replace older ones, there is every expectation that net-zero construction will become the norm. I can't tell you how disappointed I was when the Obama proposal to standardize and rate all buildings by their energy needs in a manner similar to automobile window stickers was shot down. Putting that kind of information in the hands of buyers would be a great incentive for net-zero building.