Wiggs on renewable energy

Last week the government released the latest edition [PDF] of the New Zealand Energy Quarterly, its regular compilation of energy statistics. The headline result is that the weather has been good - meaning that renewable energy generation has increased to 79% of the total - but that's not the only good news. Over on his blog, Lance Wiggs analyses the data, and concludes that coal use is dying out, causing a significant decline in electricity sector emissions. The cause? The ETS, which has made it more economic to run Huntly on gas than dirty coal. Meanwhile, both wind and geothermal are increasing, and wind is now producing more electricity than coal. And hopefully these trends will continue.