The steady march of renewable energy, primarily wind and solar, toward mainstream usage continued apace in 2014.

Here are the top 5 clean energy revolution stories in the U.S. this year:

• Solar And Wind Continued To Surge In The U.S.

In November 2014, nearly three-fourths (71.82%) of the 873 megawatts (MW) of new electricity generation capacity installed in the U.S. was powered by wind and solar, according to data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Clean energy installations kept up at a furious pace this year, with renewable sources providing the majority of newly installed electricity generation capacity in nine of the past 11 months.

The Obama Administration has made renewable energy targets a key aspect of the emissions reductions it hopes to achieve with the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan, but those targets have been criticized as not nearly ambitious enough. Many states like California, Colorado and Hawaii, have already set their own goals that meet or beat those proposed in the EPA's plan. Local governments in cities like Austin, TX and Burlington, VT are committing to strong clean energy policies, as well.

Perhaps they're inspired by the example set by countries like Scotland, which has shown that it is possible to generate more than enough electricity to meet all household needs via renewable sources.

Renewable energy (including water, wind, solar and geothermal sources) now accounts for more than 15% of total installed generating capacity in the U.S.

• California And Texas Set Renewable Energy Records

The fact that California and Texas both set renewable energy records this year points to a clear trend of renewable energy scaling up nationwide in blue and red states alike. Solar had a huge year in 2013, as well, with California, Arizona and North Carolina taking the top three spots in terms of new solar capacity installed. As divided as the U.S. is along partisan lines these days, one thing we can all agree on is that the time has come for clean energy to supplant antiquated fossil fuel technologies.

• Federal Renewable Energy Loan Program Is Paying Off

Opponents of clean energy tried to use the failure of solar panel maker Solyndra in 2011 as a political cudgel to bash all government support of the renewables sector, specifically targeting the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Program Office, which has made some $21.71 billion in loans to help spur the growth of technologies like utility-scale solar energy and electric vehicles.

So it was kind of a big deal when the Energy Department reported that the loan program has reached solvency just two years later. The program’s $780 million in losses has been more than made up for by the $810 million in interest already collected. Though this doesn't mean the program itself will generate any monetary profits, the fact that electric car manufacturer Tesla was able to repay its $465 million loan nine years early shows that the program is having the intended effect of helping to build a robust clean energy economy.

• Utilities Are Trying To Steal The Rooftop Solar Business Model, And The Walton Family Is Trying To Kill It

On the face of it, the news that utility companies are now trying to steal the rooftop solar business model might sound like bad news—and the same could probably be said of the fact that the Walton family, owners of Walmart, are using their family foundation to try and destroy the rooftop solar business model altogether.

But the fact that both the utility industry and the billionaire Waltons now see distributed rooftop solar as such a threat that they are either trying to co-opt the business model or defeat it altogether shows that they see it as a viable alternative to dirty energy. And well they should.

Solar, for instance, accounted for 36% of all new electricity generation capacity installed in the U.S. through the first three quarters of 2014, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. The average price of a solar PV panel has dropped by 63% over the past three years, so it's no wonder that some 600,000 households and businesses have gone solar. Residential solar led industry growth through Q3 2014, with installations up 58% over last year.

If this kind of growth can be sustained, it represents a huge threat to the business models the utility companies and the Walton family have used to build their highly profitable empires. Renewable energy will revolutionize the way we power our society, which is what utilities are finally, begrudgingly, coming to accept, even if it isn't anything more than a belated attempt to cash-in.

Meanwhile, distributed energy systems will democratize who profits from energy generation, which is what the corporatist Walton family is hoping to stop.

In other words, 2014 presented plenty of evidence that the clean energy revolution is at hand.

• Solar Could Be The World’s Biggest Source Of Energy By 2050

The International Energy Agency released two “Technology Roadmap” reports this year showing that solar photovoltaic (PV) systems could supply 16% of the world's electricity needs by 2050, while concentrated solar power (CSP) plants could provide another 11%. In other words, solar could be the world’s single largest source of energy within the next few decades—but only if politicians and other policymakers provide “clear, credible and consistent signals” of support for renewables, according to the IEA.

But the future is not only bright for solar. Another report, by the Global Wind Energy Council and Greenpeace International, showed that wind power could provide 25-30% of global energy needs by 2050 if fossil fuel companies and other vested interests don’t get in the way.

China’s commitment to produce 20% of its energy from zero-emission sources by 2030 as part of the historic climate deal it struck with the U.S. could have a big impact on the global market for renewable technologies.

A worldwide shift to renewables would not only make sense as a means of lowering emissions and combating climate change, but, according to two reports published by the Climate Policy Initiative, it would also make economic sense, saving the global economy as much as $1.8 trillion compared to sticking with fossil fuels.

As the inventor Thomas Edison said in a 1931 conversation with his friends Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone: “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

Here's to hoping 2015 moves us closer, rather than farther, from Edison's dream.

Image Credit: wang song / Shutterstock.com

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This is a guest post by Caroline Selle

Much of the debate around the Keystone XL pipeline has focused on the dangers of extracting and transporting the tar sands. Left out, however, are those in the United States who are guaranteed to feel the impacts of increased tar sands usage. Spill or no spill, anyone living near a tar sands refinery will bear the burden of the refining process.

Tar sands oil is produced from a mixture of sand, clay, water, and the sticky, peanut-butter like form of petroleum known as bitumen. Unlike conventional crude, it’s essentially solid at room temperature, has a higher heavy metal content, and has to be diluted for transport. The diluents are trade secrets, and the content mixture – which often contains benzene, a human carcinogen – isn’t something companies are required to report.

DeSmogBlog has covered the impacts of tar sands extraction on indigenous communities, and the dangers of moving tar sands through a network of pipelines is aptly covered here. And while major nonprofits have completed studies on the dangers of transporting tar sands, there is significantly less information available on how refining tar sands differs from processing conventional crude.

Additional heavy metals and benzene might sound like a recipe for disaster anywhere, but the location of several major tar sands refineries is already overburdened with pollutants. In Harris County, Texas – home to the city of Houston – people are already surrounded by refineries and factories spewing toxic pollution into the air. And as the southern leg of the Keystone XL project slowly fills in its missing pieces, the spectre of toxic bitumen looms.

Harris County, Texas, is home to the Lyondell Houston Refinery. The Lyondell facility is expanding its ability to refine tar sands bitumen, attempting to more than double its capacity to process Canadian crude. Never mind that the refinery already has numerous Clean Air and Clean Water Act violations. If the facility expands as planned, its capacity will increase from 60,000 to 175,000 barrels a day.

The air quality in Harris County is already dangerous without the added burden of tar sands pollution. Although levels of many chemicals have decreased in recent years, residents are reaping the rewards of living so close to massive amounts of cancer-causing pollution. A 2006 study by the Texas government found increased rates of certain cancers in the Harris County population.

Children living in the areas with the highest level of 1,3 butadiene had a 153% higher chance of developing acute myeloid leukemia than those living in areas with the lowest concentrations of the same chemical. A 2003 study found a positive correlation between ozone density and asthma in Harris County residents, and the cancer risk of Houston residents living in the most contaminated areas is increased by a factor of 1000.

Though the Lyondell website advertises winning “13 national safety awards in the past five years,” the Lyondell Chemical Co. has the second highest rate of disposing of toxics of any industrial facility in Harris County. The more you learn, the worse it gets. In 2011, Harris County accounts for 14.74 percent of total Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) measured chemical releases and transfers in Texas. Texas already ranks 3rd highest (worst) in terms of pounds of toxics released and or transferred  – out of 56 states and territories.

Lyondell Chemical Co. owns Houston Refining, a facility in Manchester, Texas which has been the subject of four formal EPA enforcement acts in the last five years. The company was fined $549,055 for violating the Clean Air Act, and yet, as of April, 2013, the facility has had 12 consecutive quarters of non-compliance. The area around Houston refining is 80% minority, with about one out of every four people below the federal poverty line.

Despite these grim statistics, the refinery was granted a pollution permit from the Texas Council on Environmental Quality without the requested public hearing in 2010. Residents were concerned about benzene exposure, which is likely to increase with greater refining of the tar sands. Already, the neighborhood has seen struggles over controlling the amount of benzene in the air.

A 2011 report by the Texas Center for Environmental Quality revealed decreasing levels of toxics in the air, but some residents claim that the data is based off of faulty and broken air quality monitors. Still, the decreasing levels are likely unsafe: Texas has some of the highest ‘safe’ benchmarks for carcinogens in the country. Additionally, the cumulative effect of lifetime exposure to a “toxic soup” of “safe” levels of chemicals is unknown.

With toxic chemical exposure nearly certain, it is unclear what the next step will be for residents of Harris County. It’s clear the area isn’t facing the impacts of the Keystone XL on the same timeline as the rest of the nation. President Obama already approved the lower leg of the pipeline, and the connection from Cushing, OK to Port Arthur, TX is almost complete.

Once built, the Cushing hub will connect to other pipelines and transportation systems moving tar sands from Alberta. For many residents of Harris County, this is a life or death struggle more immediate than the “what-if” of a pipeline spill. And it’s not a “what-if.” For Harris County, the fight is “right now.”

Image credit: Oil Refinery on Shutterstock

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