It has been a big week for renewable energy.
First came a series of headlines in major media pointing to the growing divide between the US and most of the rest of the world — the UK included — over the growth and ultimate lower cost of renewable energy sources, versus President Trump’s insistence that they were, in the case of wind turbines at least, “pathetic”.
Then came landmark news that renewables have overtaken coal as the biggest single source of electricity worldwide — important not just because most of us rely on it every day but because it will be crucial to the transition to a sustainable economy.
The surge in renewable output even caused a small dip in coal and gas demand for electricity generation, and came despite the growth in power-hungry data centres.
As the BBC pointed out, solar is the primary winner in all of this, with energy prices having fallen by 99.9 per cent since 1975.
That article also outlined why solar has had the edge over wind power, which has not seen infrastructure costs fall as drastically as for solar, with rising interest rates also increasing the cost of installation of large wind farms recently.
Nevertheless, despite the short-term market flux the longer-term outlook for wind remains breezy.
The contrast between the global growth in renewables, China’s emergence as the dominant world player in it and the continued US climb-down on renewable investment was seized upon by media.
The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration's crusade against solar energy had entered a new phase, with trade measures being lined up to undercut it on pricing.
USA Today went to town in contrasting the US approach with that of China, rehashing Trump’s statements that renewables were “a joke” and wind turbines “pathetic” in assessing why some US states that have gone big on renewables production have seen dramatic drops in household energy bills.
“These aren't failed experiments. They're American innovation at work,” it noted.
A major piece in Politico called to expose deep flaws in the arguments made by the US President about the case against renewables.
“Politicos analysis of U.S. Energy Information Administration power price data contradicts arguments by President Donald Trump and his appointees that a heavy dependence on wind and solar power drives up electricity prices,” it said, ripping apart claims he made at last month’s United Nations meeting that wind was the “most expensive energy ever conceived” and that “all green is all bankrupt.”
It acknowledged that US subsidies and policies around decommissioning older power stations and encouraging price competitiveness had clouded some of the cost factors.
And while The Guardian’s editorial may have followed a fairly predictable course and tone, neither did it hold back. “At home, Trump may order mentions of the climate crisis and its impact to be scrubbed from the internet, and mock those who worry about such things as “lunatics”, but the effects of an overheated planet will continue to mount, regardless.”
Policy and regulation will continue to be a factor in how certain renewable sources develop and the production costs that result. Geopolitics will also loom large, as the US exerts influence in other ways to pursue its current agenda. But the direction of travel is now pretty clearly set, particularly given the way that China has seized the moment.
Expect even more references to winds of change and rays of light in global electricity production stories in future.