Europe’s Power Utilities — Investing in Renewable Energy

According to this fabulous report on renewable energy trends in Europe, there are several reasons that the Continent’s power utilities are investing heavily in this arena.  The author writes:

The appetite of Europe’s major utilities to invest in renewable energy cannot be fully understood without an appreciation of the many long term challenges to their business models.

With their large fleets of fossil-fueled generation capacity, many are grappling with the issues of the finiteness of natural resources and CO2 emissions penalties. The significant influx of renewable energy on the grid, and, more specifically, the privileges renewables enjoy in terms of priority grid access, is also decreasing the competitiveness of traditional fossil-fueled generation by exerting downwards pressure on wholesale power prices. These challenges are compounded by growing competition from new market entrants in the form of municipal utilities, IPPs and financial investors.

Eventually, I believe the U.S. will adopt a similar approach.  This will require, however, that the common American adopt the prevailing European attitude towards environmentalism.  Like the Europeans, we need to embrace a progressive approach towards putting an end to the damage we’re doing to our land, seas, and skies.  Let’s all do our best to try to make that happen.