– Maybe she just had a few babies to deliver A Boston-area zoo is looking for a female stork that flew away last week and has evaded experts since The Stone Zoo in Stoneham posted on Facebook that the 3-foot-tall white-bellied stork took off Friday during training for the “Masters of Flight: Birds of Prey” show was last seen Saturday at nearby Spot Pond a featherless face and a wingspan of about 3 feet The zoo says anyone who sees the stork should contact the zoo and not approach Give directly to The Spokesman-Review's Northwest Passages community forums series -- which helps to offset the costs of several reporter and editor positions at the newspaper -- by using the easy options below Gifts processed in this system are tax deductible Get breaking news delivered to your inbox as it happens © Copyright 2025, The Spokesman-Review | Community Guidelines | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy ShareSaveBusinessEnergyRenewables Catching Nuclear Power In Global Energy RaceByRobert Rapier Wind turbines turn in front of the setting sun in Biebesheim Previous articles in this series covered carbon dioxide emissions I want to cover global trends in renewable energy The Review separates renewables into two categories called Hydroelectric and Renewables Hydropower still produces more electricity globally than the Renewables category which consists primarily of rapidly-growing wind and solar power as well as more mature renewable technologies like geothermal power and power produced from biomass the following graphic shows the global percentage each of the major power sources contributed to electricity generation in 2018: Coal is still the dominant source of electricity around the world although natural gas has taken over the top spot in the U.S renewables have grown rapidly over the past decade and are on the cusp of overtaking nuclear globally nuclear power was responsible for 2,701 Terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity generation compared to 4,193 TWh for hydropower and 2,480 for renewables coal produced more power than all three categories combined the growth rates of the different categories of electricity generation tell a different story global electricity generated by coal grew at an annual average of 1.7% Nuclear generation over that time actually declined annually by 0.4% a consequence of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 Hydropower generation grew at an average annual rate of 2.8% These growth rates are indicative of mature power sources But contrast those growth rates with those of modern renewables the Renewables category grew at an average annual rate of 16.4% power from geothermal and biomass grew at an annual average of 7.1% grew at an annual average of 20.8% and 50.2% What does a 50% average annual growth rate over the past decade look like Here are the global trends in solar power since 2000: (I will note that in 2007 I wrote an article called The Future is Solar The world's leading producer of solar power in 2018 was once again China China maintained a blistering growth rate in 2018 with solar generation increasing by 50.7% over 2017 China increased solar generation at an average annual rate of just over 100% remains in second place globally with a 16.6% share solar power generation increased by 24.4% over 2017 has increased solar power at an average annual rate of 53.2% Rounding out the Top 5 countries in solar power generation are Japan (12.3% share) Wind power is still ahead of solar in global electricity generation wind power was used to generate 1,270 TWh of power But solar power is on a trajectory to surpass wind power during the next decade China was also the top producer of wind power with a 28.8% global share the world produced 22% more power from nuclear than it did from modern renewables modern renewables will surpass nuclear power production either this year or next year The rapid growth rate for renewables is a positive development in a world trying to rein in carbon dioxide emissions renewables have not yet reached a level at which they are actually causing fossil fuel demand to contract Modern renewable energy consumption (mainly wind and solar power) grew by 71 million metric tons of oil equivalent in 2018 But global energy consumption grew much faster than that with fossil fuels carrying most of the load and natural gas grew by 276 million metric tons in 2018 nearly four times the growth in renewables global carbon dioxide emissions set a new all-time high in 2018 This highlights the need to continue developing low-carbon sources of firm power that can be operated at large scale The most obvious candidate is nuclear power “This paper is really addressing the challenges of the power market structure and correspondingly the revenue sufficiency for the renewables at their penetrations,” Chen said in an interview “This market works well for the traditional fossil fuel dominant structure and then things start to change when the penetrations of renewables start to increase.” the more we invest in wind and solar energy the less payback we will get from the wholesale market He believes that this is alarming for energy policymakers renewable energy investors and system operators alike While environmentalists and climate skeptics are still debating the reality of climate change Because the burning of “dirty” energy — fossil fuels — is the primary cause of anthropogenic climate change the transition to a clean energy system is now more necessary than ever Chen’s paper is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of this energy transition is the most profitable industry in the history of mankind,” said Alex Lawton When it comes to the transition to a clean energy system he concluded that “it’s going to be the most disruptive and kind of largest transition I think that the economy will ever experience.” is one of the many renewable energy corporations in the United States and it — along with the solar and wind power industries in general — has an important issue to solve: climate variability These limited weather conditions mean that wind and solar can only be reliable if we can harness the power to generate a stable output of electricity is one of the key solutions for the misalignment between the supply and demand curves for solar energy “Lithium-ion batteries are perhaps going to be the most important when it comes to transportation and electric vehicles,” Lawton said “But in terms of larger utility-scale storage I don’t think there is a really effective solution to that at this moment in time.” Lawton also suggested that having a diverse portfolio of renewable technology powering the electricity grid would be a more balanced approach to match the demand curve a resident scholar from the American Enterprise Institute said in a phone interview that because solar power can’t be scheduled it has to be “backed up with conventional power plants in order to avoid blackouts.” He said that the backup plants aren’t run efficiently because they have to cycle up and down He concluded that the belief that renewable energy is “clean” is just simply wrong A dramatic shift in the energy system would face enormous challenges coming from all sides — economic Huge amounts of resources such as materials So why are people still trying to make the transition happen there is more than enough merit to transition toward a renewable energy system “We have two storms this year that made sea level rise here … the basement of this building was flooded,” recalled Alistair Pim vice president of the Northeast Clean Energy Council He believes that having energy resources that are more sustainable and emit fewer greenhouse gases is critical our current energy system is simply unsustainable long-term When asked about the long-term benefits of a clean energy economy saying that “renewables have less externalities associated with them meaning the price of fossil fuels are artificially low because they displace costs associated their production and consumption on to society.” He also figured such an economy would allow us for stable but we should be optimistic about our prospects Pim noted during his interview that “technology has a habit of going up these S curves,” referring to the rapid growth that clean technology is expected to undergo after a slow initial period Renewable energy certainly has its limitations are the long-term benefits that will hopefully be realized when it takes over fossil fuels prioritizes short-term economic revenues over all else It really is time to realize that the path forward from both an economic and environmental perspective is through green technology Si Wu is a graduate student in POV: The Art and Craft of Opinion Journalism a class taught by WGBH News contributor Dan Kennedy an associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University.