2014 Was Officially the Hottest Year on Record/Denmark Sets New World Record for Renewable Energy in 2014, Powering 39 Percent of Country With Wind

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/27918-2014-was-officially-the-hottest-year-on-record


The Enterprise Bridge passes over a section of Lake Oroville that is nearly dry on August 19, 2014, in Oroville, California. (photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

2014 Was Officially the Hottest Year on Record

By Jack Linshi, TIME Magazine
07 January 15

And all 10 of the hottest years on record have come after 1998
Scientists have declared 2014 officially the hottest year on record.

The temperature data was released Monday by the Japan Meteorological Association (JMA), one of the four major global temperature record-keepers to do so. The other three are NASA and the NOAA in the U.S., and the Hadley Center in the U.K.

JMA’s preliminary data indicate that 2014’s global average surface temperature was the warmest since 1891, the start of the data. Specifically, it was 0.27°C (0.5°F) greater than that of the period from 1981 to 2010. With 2014 in the lead, the second hottest year on record is now 1998. Both 2013 and 2010 are tied for third, while 2005 is tied for fifth.

All 10 of the hottest years on record have come after 1998, which many scientists attribute to global warming, according to Scientific American.

In 2014, several regions in the world smashed their heat records. California hit record-high temperatures, inducing one of the worst drought’s in history. Australia also hit unprecedented high temperatures in January — and the continent’s so hot this year, too, that people are already frying eggs on sidewalks.

© 2015 Reader Supported News

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/312-16/27927-denmark-sets-new-world-record-for-renewable


Wind farm. (photo: Getty)

Denmark Sets New World Record for Renewable Energy in 2014, Powering 39 Percent of Country With Wind

By The Local
07 January 15

With 39 percent of Denmark's electricity use covered by wind power in 2014, the climate minister says the nation is well on its way to hits its 2020 goals.

According to year-end numbers from Energinet.dk, 39 percent of all electricity used in Denmark last year was produced by wind power. The 2014 totals dipped slightly from the 41.2 percent of electricity generated by wind through the year’s first six months, but the climate minister said Denmark is still well on its way to achieving its energy goals.

“We will definitely hit our 2020 goals. We have set a one-of-a-kind world record. And it shows that we can reach our ultimate goal, namely to stop global warming,” Climate Minister Rasmus Helveg Petersen told broadcaster DR.

The Danish government has set the goal of having half of all electricity produced by wind power by 2020.
According to Energinet.dk, there was nothing extraordinary about the amount of wind in 2014 and the increase in electricity production can be attributed in part to the more than 100 new offshore windmills that were installed in 2014.

The amount of electricity produced by wind varied throughout the year, from a high of 61.7 percent in January to a low of 23 percent in June.

Petersen said the wind record puts Denmark well on its way to phasing out coal, a process that he said in October he would like to see happen in just ten years.

“I think this gives us some opportunities to get rid of coal sooner and get going with the green conversion,” he told DR.

But while wind power accounted for nearly 40 percent of Denmark’s electricity in 2014, wind only covers about five percent of the nation’s total energy use. According to the Danish Energy Association, electricity only makes up one tenth of Denmark’s total energy usage and the use of fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas still accounts for about three fourths of Denmark’s total energy use.

In order to truly reach the next level of sustainable energy, Aalborg University professor of energy planning Brian Vad Mathiesen said that Denmark’s combined heating and power plants need to invest in heat pump systems that run on wind-generated electricity rather than fossil fuels.

“It is moving too slowly with getting the heat pumps into our heating systems and thus integrated into the energy and heat sector. That becomes more and more pressing as the amount of wind energy increases,” he told DR.

Petersen responded by saying that the government has set aside 60 million kroner toward a heat pump trial programme meant to encourage Danish power plants to embrace the more climate-friendly, but currently more costly, solution.

© 2015 Reader Supported News

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