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There is no greater evil than anarchy.
Sophocles
After several days
of night time rioting, arson and looting, the USA stands at the edge of
anarchy. Either sanity and lawfulness will start to return, or the violence and
lawlessness will escalate, with disastrous results for the fight against
Covid-19, and the US economy.
Hopefully, the
violence and anarchy have become a spent force. Normality will return, and the
USA can get back to easing up the lockdown restrictions and opening up the US
economy again.
The other prospect
of a summer of increasing civil disobedience, or worse, arson and looting,
probably turns a new global deep recession into a new global deep depression.
Thankfully, we
should know which way the USA chooses in the next few days, if not by this time
tomorrow.
Below, was that
it, or just the beginning of something more orchestrated?
Protesters clash with police in New York City in latest demonstrations
June 2, 2020 /
10:30 AM
WASHINGTON/MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Tens of
thousands of people took to the streets of U.S. cities on Tuesday for an eighth
consecutive night of protests over the death of a black man in police custody,
clashing with police and looting stores in New York City.
Large marches and rallies also took place in Los Angeles, Philadelphia,
Atlanta and Seattle. In Washington, D.C., protests were held near the park
where demonstrators were cleared out by police on Monday to make a path for
President Donald Trump so he could walk from the White House to a historic
church for a photo.
Although rallies on behalf of Floyd and other victims of police
brutality have been largely peaceful during the day, after dark each night
crowds have turned to rioting, vandalism, arson and looting. On Monday night,
five police officers were hit by gunfire in two cities.
Outside the U.S. Capitol building on Tuesday afternoon a throng took to one knee, chanting “silence is violence” and “no justice, no peace,” as officers faced them just before the government-imposed curfew.
The crowd remained in Lafayette park and elsewhere in the capitol after dark, despite the curfew and vows by Trump to crack down on what he has called lawlessness by “hoodlums” and “thugs,” using National Guard or even the U.S. military if necessary.
Dozens of National Guard troops lined up on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial behind black crowd-control barriers.
PROTESTS COAST TO COAST
In New York City, thousands of chanting and cheering protesters ignored an 8 p.m. curfew to march from the Barclays Center in Flatbush toward the Brooklyn Bridge as police helicopters whirred overheard.The crowd, halted at an entrance to the Manhattan Bridge roadway, chanted at riot police: “Walk with us! Walk with us.”
More
Pentagon Distances Its Leaders From Trump’s Threat to Use Military
Pentagon officials distanced themselves from President Donald Trump’s warning that he could use active-duty military forces to clamp down on protests around the country, saying that it would be better to rely on National Guard for law enforcement where needed.
That appeared to be a rejoinder to
Trump’s statement in the Rose Garden on Monday that he could deploy the U.S.
military to end “riots and lawlessness” across the country.
A Defense Department official
briefing reporters on Tuesday said the Pentagon would prefer to lean on
National Guard resources, even though some active-duty forces have been put on
heightened alert for potential deployment, most likely in Washington. About
2,800 National Guard members are expected to be on duty in the U.S. capital by
Tuesday evening, the official, who asked not to be identified, said.
The Pentagon also distanced its
leaders from the decision to have law enforcement force back peaceful
protesters outside the White House, which allowed the president to walk across
Lafayette Square to stand outside a damaged church while holding up a Bible for
photographers.
More
Shocking Evidence That Indicates That Somebody Is Trying To Orchestrate An Internal Uprising Inside The United States
June 1, 2020
Violence has erupted in major cities all over America yet
again today, and we are being told to brace ourselves for more rioting, looting
and civil unrest in the days ahead. The death of George Floyd was a great
tragedy, and the vast majority of Americans agree that we do not want to see
that sort of police brutality in our nation, and so this should actually be a
moment that brings our country together. But instead, America is being
torn apart. The protests against police brutality have been hijacked by
sinister forces, and they are attempting to channel the outrage over George
Floyd’s death in a very violent direction. As you will see below, law
enforcement authorities all over the U.S. are telling us that they have
identified a highly organized effort to orchestrate violence, and this appears
to be happening on a nationwide basis.
Let’s start by looking at what is
happening in New York. According to the top terrorism official in the
entire city, “certain anarchist groups” were making preparations for “violent interactions with police” before
protests in the city even began…
On Sunday night, New York’s top
terrorism cop, Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism John
Miller, detailed his office’s analysis and investigation into why the New York
City protests have become so violent and damaging at times.
“No. 1, before the protests
began,” Miller said, “organizers of certain anarchist groups set out to raise
bail money and people who would be responsible to be raising bail money, they
set out to recruit medics and medical teams with gear to deploy in anticipation
of violent interactions with police.”
And once the protests started, these
groups used “a complex network of bicycle scouts” to direct
rioters to locations where police officers would not be present…
“And they developed a complex
network of bicycle scouts to move ahead of demonstrators in different
directions of where police were and where police were not for purposes of being
able to direct groups from the larger group to places where they could commit
acts of vandalism including the torching of police vehicles and Molotov
cocktails where they thought officers would not be.”
These are not just mindless angry
mobs. They are being directed with a purpose, and that is very alarming.
In Chicago, Mayor Lori
Lightfoot has publicly acknowledged that there has been “an organized effort” to turn the protests
over George Floyd’s death “into something violent” in her city…
Speaking at an afternoon news
conference today with other officials, Lightfoot didn’t say whether the groups
are out-of-state left-wing anti-fascist organizations generally known as
Antifa, right-wing agitators, local street gangs or something else. She
said she’s asked three federal agencies—the FBI, the Bureau of
Alcohol Tobacco Firearms & Explosives and the U.S. Attorney’s
office—for help, with a focus on AFT’s bomb and arson unit.
“There is no doubt. This was
an organized effort last night,” she said. “There were clearly efforts to
subvert the peaceful process and make it into something violent.”
More
In other news, is the rest of the world preparing to
evacuate much of Hong Kong? Hong Kong’s loss would be the ROW gain. China
already seems to be dropping US trade deal lite, part one.
Boris Johnson pledges to let Hong Kong citizens into U.K. if needed
Published: June 3, 2020 at 12:07 a.m. ET
HONG KONG — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Wednesday that the
United Kingdom stands ready to open the door to almost 3 million Hong Kong
citizens as the city’s leader arrived in Beijing for meetings on a planned
national security law that has many worried about their futures.
Johnson, in a column published online by a Hong Kong newspaper, said the
security law would curtail freedoms in Hong Kong and conflict with China’s
obligations under its agreement with the United Kingdom to take back the former
British colony in 1997.
“Many people in Hong Kong fear their way of life — which China pledged
to uphold — is under threat,” he wrote in the South China Morning Post. “If
China proceeds to justify their fears, then Britain could not in good
conscience shrug our shoulders and walk away.”
China shocked many of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million people when it announced
earlier this month that it would enact national security laws for the city,
which is guaranteed a high level of autonomy outside of foreign and defense
affairs.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, a supporter of the move, arrived in Beijing
on Wednesday morning for meetings with central government officials on the
planned laws. China could enact the laws later this month or at the end of
August, analysts have said.
About 350,000 Hong Kong citizens hold British National Overseas
passports, a legacy of the colonial era, and 2.5 million others are eligible to
apply for them, Johnson said in his column. Long lines have formed at DHL
courier offices in the city since the announcement as some people rush to apply
for or renew their BNO passports.
Johnson, echoing earlier statements by Cabinet minsters, said that if
China imposes a national security law, Britain would allow holders of these
passports to remain for 12 months on a renewable basis and given the right to
work, placing them on a possible path to UK citizenship.
“This would amount to one of the biggest changes in our visa system in
British history,” he wrote, adding, “I hope it will not come to this.”
More
June
1, 2020 / 7:02 PM
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) - The United States is considering the option of welcoming people
from Hong Kong in response to China’s push to impose national security
legislation in the former British colony, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
said in remarks released on Monday.
Influential Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell also said on Monday
he hoped the Trump administration would soon identify specific ways to “impose
costs on Beijing” for curbing freedoms in Hong Kong. McConnell said the United
States should mirror the response of other democracies and open its doors to
people from the territory.
Addressing the Senate, McConnell said the United States had “a rich
heritage of standing as a beacon of light” to refugees from war and communism.
“We should exercise it again for the people of Hong Kong,” he said.
President Donald Trump on Friday ordered his administration to begin the
process of eliminating special U.S. treatment for Hong Kong to punish China for
curbing freedoms there, but stopped short of immediately ending privileges that
have helped the territory remain a global financial center.
Last week, Britain said it was prepared to offer extended visa rights
and a pathway to citizenship for almost 3 million Hong Kong residents.
While speaking to the American Enterprise Institute on Friday, Pompeo
was asked if Washington was considering welcoming people from Hong Kong “to
come here and bring their entrepreneurial creativity”.
“We are considering it. I don’t know precisely how it will play out,” he
replied in remarks shared by the State Department on Monday.
“The British have, as you know, a different relationship. A lot of
these folks have British national passports. There’s a long history
between Hong Kong and the United Kingdom; it’s very different. But we’re taking
a look at it,” he added.
When asked about Pompeo’s comments, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman
Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday that China would not tolerate any foreign
interference in Hong Kong.
“We wish the U.S. would do more to benefit Hong Kong’s stability and
prosperity and the development of China-U.S. relations,” he said, speaking at a
daily news conference in Beijing.
Last year, Trump approved legislation stating that Hong Kong residents
may not be denied visas because they have been subjected to politically
motivated arrest, detention, or other “adverse” government action.
More
June 2, 2020 /
5:01 AM
HONG KONG
(Reuters) - Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam accused foreign governments of “double
standards” in their reaction to Beijing’s plans to impose national security
laws on the city, pointing to anti-police brutality protests in the United
States.
In her first public appearance after Washington said it will remove Hong
Kong’s preferential treatment in U.S. law in response to Beijing’s proposal,
Lam warned countries threatening actions against the city they may hurt their
own interests.
“They are very concerned about their own national security, but on our
national security...they look through tinted glasses,” Lam told a weekly news
conference.
“In the U.S., we see how the riots were being handled by the local
governments, compared to the stance they adopted when almost the same riots
happened in Hong Kong last year.”
Having lost patience with Hong Kong after large-scale and often-violent
pro-democracy protests last year plunged the Chinese-ruled city into its
biggest crisis in decades, Beijing authorities last month advanced plans to
introduce laws tackling secession, subversion, terrorism and foreign
interference.
The laws could also see Chinese intelligence agencies set up shop in the
global financial hub.
U.S. President Donald Trump, saying Hong Kong was no longer sufficiently
autonomous from Beijing as promised at the time of the 1997 handover of the
territory by Britain, said Hong Kong will no longer be treated differently from
mainland China in U.S. law.
Hong Kong and Beijing authorities have repeatedly insisted rights and
freedoms will be preserved, remarks echoed by Lam on Tuesday. She said “public
concerns” about the legislation were understandable as a draft was yet to be
finalised.
In Washington, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse
peaceful demonstrators near the White House on Monday as Trump vowed a massive
show of force to end violent protests over the death of a black man in police
custody.
More
By Niv Elis - 06/01/20 12:24 PM EDT
China has reportedly told state-owned firms to stop buying
U.S. soybeans and pork, a move that would break a key provision of
the phase one trade deal between the world's two largest economies.Reuters reported on Monday, citing two unnamed sources, that the order from Beijing also applies to corn and cotton.
According to the newswire, China is retaliating against President Trump for announcing he would strip Hong Kong of its special status.
Trump made the announcement last week in response to a proposed Chinese law that would effectively nullify Hong Kong's semi-autonomous status, which has been crucial to the city's economy and position as an international finance hub.
Scaling back U.S. farm purchases could threaten the trade deal signed in mid-January, when Beijing and Washington agreed to dial back steep economic tariffs in exchange for a handful of reforms and a promise by China to buy $32 billion of U.S. agricultural goods.
Trump stopped short of abandoning the agreement when he announced actions against China on Friday, giving shaky markets a boost.
But the president faces tough political choices around China just five months before voters go to the polls to decide whether to give him a second term in office. The increased tensions also come amid an economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cancelling the trade deal and upping tariffs on China would add an additional burden to an already struggling U.S. economy.
More
Finally, yet more
confirmation of the damage occurring in the global economy. The upside, less pollution
in the environment.
June 1, 2020 /
9:21 AM
CHENNAI, June 1 (Reuters) - India’s electricity generation in May fell
at a slower pace than in April, as higher temperatures lead to greater demand
for residential power and the government eased some lockdown restrictions to
control the spread of the coronavirus.
Overall electricity generation fell 14.3% in May, a Reuters analysis of
provisional government data showed, compared with a decline of 24% in April.
Despite higher consumption by residential consumers, power use was lower
as many industries and commercial establishments - which account for over half
of India’s annual consumption - were shut or not operating at full capacity.
Electricity generation from coal - India’s primary source of electricity
- fell 22%, an analysis of daily load despatch data from POSOCO showed. Coal’s
contribution to overall electricity generation in May fell to 64.2%, compared
with an average of over 70.7% last year.
India’s electricity demand is likely to fall for the first time in at
least four decades this fiscal year, analysts say, adding to the woes of
coal-fired utilities, which were already hurting due to a prolonged industrial
slowdown.
Thermal coal imports by India - the second-largest consumer, importer
and producer of coal and third-largest greenhouse gas emitter - could fall as
much as 18% in 2020 due to lower electricity demand, Anurag Sehgal, an analyst
at Noble Resources said, a blow to miners in Indonesia and South Africa.
Meanwhile, India’s solar power supply grew 12.7% and hydro-powered
electricity supply rose 3.6%, while gas-fired power output was 13.8% higher,
the data showed. However, wind-powered electricity supply fell 10.8%.
The share of fossil fuels in overall electricity generation in May was
70.71%, compared with 76% the previous year, an analysis of data from POSOCO
showed.
https://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL4N2DE26L
3 June, 2020
Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If
the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites
every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.
Louis D. Brandeis
Though
hopefully, we are passing/have passed the peak of new cases, at least of the
first SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, this section will continue until it becomes
unneeded.
The team from London's Guy's and St Thomas' hospital and
King's College believe the drug, which is an anti-inflammatory as well as a
painkiller, could treat breathing difficulties.
They hope the low-cost treatment can keep patients off ventilators.
In the trial, called Liberate, half of the patients will receive ibuprofen in addition to usual care.
The trial will use a special formulation of ibuprofen rather than the regular tablets that people might usually buy. Some people already take this lipid capsule form of the drug for conditions like arthritis.
Studies in animals suggest it might treat acute respiratory distress syndrome - one of the complications of severe coronavirus.
Prof Mitul Mehta, one of the team at King's College London, said: "We need to do a trial to show that the evidence actually matches what we expect to happen."
Early in the pandemic there were some concerns that ibuprofen might be bad for people to take, should they have the virus with mild symptoms.
These were heightened when France's health minister Oliver Veran said that taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, could aggravate the infection and advised patients to take paracetamol instead.
A review by the Commission on Human Medicines quickly concluded that, like paracetamol, it was safe to take for coronavirus symptoms. Both can bring a temperature down and help with flu-like symptoms.
For mild coronavirus symptoms, the NHS advises people try paracetamol first, as it has fewer side-effects than ibuprofen and is the safer choice for most people. You should not take ibuprofen if you have a stomach ulcer, for example.
New Update 3 June 2020 9:00 AM.
Coronavirus: Ibuprofen tested as a treatment
They hope the low-cost treatment can keep patients off ventilators.
In the trial, called Liberate, half of the patients will receive ibuprofen in addition to usual care.
The trial will use a special formulation of ibuprofen rather than the regular tablets that people might usually buy. Some people already take this lipid capsule form of the drug for conditions like arthritis.
Studies in animals suggest it might treat acute respiratory distress syndrome - one of the complications of severe coronavirus.
Prof Mitul Mehta, one of the team at King's College London, said: "We need to do a trial to show that the evidence actually matches what we expect to happen."
Early in the pandemic there were some concerns that ibuprofen might be bad for people to take, should they have the virus with mild symptoms.
These were heightened when France's health minister Oliver Veran said that taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, could aggravate the infection and advised patients to take paracetamol instead.
A review by the Commission on Human Medicines quickly concluded that, like paracetamol, it was safe to take for coronavirus symptoms. Both can bring a temperature down and help with flu-like symptoms.
For mild coronavirus symptoms, the NHS advises people try paracetamol first, as it has fewer side-effects than ibuprofen and is the safer choice for most people. You should not take ibuprofen if you have a stomach ulcer, for example.
As doctors go virtual, pandemic turbocharges telemedicine
02 Jun 2020
07:14PM (Updated:
02 Jun 2020 07:20PM)
PARIS: Will visiting the doctor ever be the same again?In a matter of weeks, the coronavirus pandemic sparked a technological revolution in healthcare systems across the world that might otherwise have taken years.
Spurred on by fears of contagion in wards and waiting rooms, many health practitioners are replacing the face-to-face meetings that have always underpinned general practice, with patient consultations by telephone and online video apps.
Some of the most radical changes have been in primary healthcare, where doctors have often faced shortages of protective equipment, but specialists in everything from mental health to eye care have also turned to technology to treat patients at a distance.
"General practice has undergone significant changes in the way GPs and our teams have delivered patient care during the pandemic - and the speed in which these changes were implemented has been remarkable," Professor Martin Marshall, Chair of Britain's Royal College of GPs told AFP.
As the virus spread, health authorities in the UK, Europe and elsewhere
updated guidance on everything from data protection to how to build trust
remotely.
The United States rolled back restrictions on access to telemedicine,
and eased privacy regulations to allow people to use platforms like Skype and
FaceTime.
"People are now seeing this model, which we thought would take
years and years to develop. And it's probably been accelerated by a
decade," Chris Jennings, US policy consultant and former White House
health care adviser told STAT news recently.
Globally, 58 per cent of surveyed countries are now using telemedicine,
the World Health Organization said Monday, adding the figure was 42 per cent
among low income nations.
Layla McCay, a director at the NHS Confederation representing British
healthcare services, told AFP that most of the UK's 1.2 million daily
face-to-face primary care consultations were done remotely "in the space
of weeks".
But there were challenges.
"My first video consultation was a mess. Builders were drilling,
the microphone failed, a colleague walked in, and lockdown was imminent,"
Camille Gajria, a doctor and clinical teaching fellow at Imperial College
London, told the British Medical Journal.
She said teleconsultations can be efficient but warned of
"cognitive bias" - a doctor, for example, might assume that a child
playing in the background is the one being discussed.
There are also concerns that vulnerable patients might find it difficult
to talk about mistreatment at home, while elderly people could struggle to
navigate unfamiliar technology.
Morehttps://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/covid-19-doctors-go-virtual-pandemic-turbocharges-telemedicine-12796910
Schools reopen as Singapore eases lockdown restrictions
June 2, 2020 /
5:46 AM
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - With temperatures checked, masks
fitted, and hand sanitizers at the ready, many Singapore children returned to
school on Tuesday after a novel coronavirus lockdown of nearly two months.
Across the island, the hum of the morning rush hour resumed while staff
at schools urged students to maintain a safe distance as they lined up to
return to class.
With one of the highest coronavirus tallies in Asia, Singapore has said
it will ease restrictions gradually, with the registry of marriages and some
businesses, including pet salons, also reopening on Tuesday.
“You have to restart your normal life at some point,” said Harsha
Yavagal, who was sending his boys aged five and 12 back to school.
“Schools are taking all possible measures to cope with the virus,” he
said.
Studies in some European countries have shown reopening schools has not
led to a rise in coronavirus infections, while other studies have shown fewer
cases of the disease among children compared with adults.
But Singapore is not taking any chances.
At one secondary school, Reuters observed the precision of the “new
normal” morning routine.
After a bell, students sang the national anthem through face masks that
are required by law. The teacher then asked everyone in the class to put
thermometers in their mouths and he went desk-to-desk noting temperatures.
The students then cleaned their thermometers with an alcohol wipe and,
one-by-one, dropped the wipes in a bin.
Morehttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-singapore-reopenin/schools-reopen-as-singapore-eases-lockdown-restrictions-idUSKBN2390G8?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29
China withheld data on coronavirus from WHO, recordings reveal
Complaints by officials at odds with body’s public praise of Beijing’s response to outbreak
Tue 2 Jun 2020 11.58 BST Last modified on Tue 2 Jun 2020
12.44 BST
The World Health Organization struggled to get needed information from China during critical early days of the coronavirus pandemic, according to recordings of internal meetings that contradict the organisation’s public praise of Beijing’s response to the outbreak.
The recordings, obtained by the Associated Press (AP), show officials complaining in meetings during the week of 6 January that Beijing was not sharing data needed to evaluate the risk of the virus to the rest of the world. It was not until 20 January that China confirmed coronavirus was contagious and 30 January that the WHO declared a global emergency.
“We’re going on very minimal information,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist and the WHO technical lead for Covid-19, according to the AP. “It’s clearly not enough for you to do proper planning.”
The WHO’s top official in China, Gauden Galea, said in one of the recordings: “We’re currently at the stage where yes, they’re giving it to us 15 minutes before it appears on CCTV [Chinese state TV].”
The report comes amid growing international scrutiny of China’s handling of the outbreak and moves to establish an independent investigation into the origins of the virus, which has infected more than 6 million and killed more than 375,000 people around the world.
The WHO has been criticised for consistently lauding China, even as questions emerged over the suppression of early warnings and information. The WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has praised China for “setting a new standard for outbreak response” in its swift and aggressive measures.
The WHO’s office in China did not respond to a request for comment on the recordings. It said in a statement, reported by the AP: “Our leadership and staff have worked night and day in compliance with the organisation’s rules and regulations to support and share information with all member states equally, and engage in frank and forthright conversations with governments at all levels.”
In early January, Michael Ryan, the WHO’s chief of emergencies, said he feared a repeat of the Sars epidemic in 2002, which Chinese officials initially covered up.
“This is exactly the same scenario, endlessly trying to get updates from
China about what was going on,” he said, according to the AP report. “The WHO
barely got out of that one with its neck intact given the issues that arose
around transparency in southern China.”
Ryan criticised China for not cooperating and advised for applying more
pressure on Beijing. “This would not happen in Congo and did not happen in
Congo and other places,” he said, apparently referring to the Ebola outbreak.
“We need to see the data. It’s absolutely important at this point.”
Warnings and reports of a mysterious Sars-like virus began to filter out
of Wuhan city in December but were suppressed by authorities.
More
Technology Update.
With events happening
fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this section.
Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable cheap AC or DC
energy mankind’s future from the 21st century onwards.
Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2019
June 2020
Newly installed renewable power capacity increasingly costs
less than the cheapest power generation options based on fossil fuels. The cost
data presented in this comprehensive study from the International Renewable
Energy Agency (IRENA) confirms how decisively the tables have turned.The key findings are available in Chinese (中文), French (français), German (Deutsch), Japanese (日本語), Spanish (español).
More than half of the renewable capacity added in 2019 achieved lower electricity costs than new coal. New solar and wind projects are undercutting the cheapest of existing coal-fired plants, the report finds. Auction results show these favourable cost trends for renewables accelerating.
See the interactive infographic on How Falling Costs Make Renewables a Cost-effective Investment
Solar and wind power costs have continued to fall, complementing the more mature bioenergy, geothermal and hydropower technologies. Solar photovoltaics (PV) shows the sharpest cost decline over 2010-2019 at 82%, followed by concentrating solar power (CSP) at 47%, onshore wind at 40% and offshore wind at 29%.
Electricity costs from utility-scale solar PV fell 13% year-on-year, reaching nearly seven cents (USD 0.068) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in 2019. Onshore and offshore wind both fell about 9% year-on-year, reaching USD 0.053/kWh and USD 0.115/kWh, respectively, for newly commissioned projects. Costs for CSP, still the least-developed among solar and wind technologies, fell 1% to USD 0.182/kWh.
Among other implications:
- Replacing the costliest 500 gigawatts of coal capacity with solar and wind would cut annual system costs by up to USD 23 billion per year and yield a stimulus worth USD 940 billion, or around 1% of global GDP.
- Replacing the costliest coal capacity with renewables would also reduce annual carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by around 1.8 gigatonnes, or 5% of last year’s global total.
- By 2021, up to 1 200 gigawatts of existing coal-fired capacity would cost more to operate than new utility-scale solar PV would cost to install.
- Continuing cost declines confirm the need for renewable power as a low-cost climate and decarbonisation solution, aligning short-term economic needs with medium- and long-term sustainable development goals.
- Renewable power installations could form a key component of economic stimulus packages in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
More
Tyranny and anarchy are never far apart.
Jeremy Bentham
DJIA: 25,383 +12 Down. NASDAQ: 9,490 +178 Up.
SP500: 3,044 +83 Down.
The NASDAQ has remained up.
The S&P and the DJIA still remain down despite the best efforts of the Fed
to get them to higher.
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