I asked first. Make with the cheap remediation tech.
Solar installations are increasing at an exponential rate around the world, even as prices continue to fall.
Wind power installations are also increasing at an exponential rate, again as prices per megawatt generated continue to fall.
Utility scale battery storage is nearer the beginning of the same trends as above, but prices per installed megawatt are falling and installations are indeed following an exponential growth curve.
There's a strong movement to require car makers and battery charging companies to build cars and charging points that accommodate some form of smart vehicle to grid connectivity, which would substantially increase the total amount of energy storage available. This change would cost very little to implement going forward and even retrofits amount to software updates in many cases. That means every electric car of an exponentially growing fleet (there's that word again) contributes to climate change mitigation whether it's being driven or not.
California is again leading the nation by requiring that all new home construction have solar panels installed.
These trends taken together point to their ability to address climate change issues on a massive scale by attacking two of the three legs of the problem; transportation fuels and electrical generation. Are they there yet? Of course not but today's fleet of coal, oil and gas power plants and vehicles weren't all built in a day, either.
Pumped hydro and geothermal energy production have some growth potential but I agree with those who say it's limited.
Energy efficiency is always worthwhile in terms of getting more use out of every megawatt generated by whatever means.
I think this constitutes the best chance humanity has of retaining the advantages brought by modern technology and addressing climate change.
A note on exponential growth; like Moore's Law for microprocessor capacity, the effects of such growth can be hard to imagine more than a few years ahead of time. Humanity got into this fix via exponential growth of forum fuels use and it's going to take the same to get us out.
Even if we went all in on nuclear tomorrow, I just don't see it making much of a dent; it's too expensive and takes too long to build. Modular units might help but costs of development, security, storage, waste disposal and decommissioning need to be accounted for, whether industry foots the bill or not. And how to even account for the inevitable proliferation of fissile materials and Fukushima style accidents? It's easy to write off those costs from half a planet away but the former residents will never, ever be able to move back. Nor will their grandchildren. That would seem to defeat the purpose of saving the planet.
Your turn.