[MCN] Celebrate Sun Day!

[Jeffrey J. Smith]

Join Climate Smart and 350 Montana this *Sun**day, September 21, at 9 a.m.
on Missoula's Beartracks Bridge on Higgins Avenue*, to demonstrate support
for solar energy.  This is part of a national awareness campaign, with more
than 440 events in 47 states! The idea is to build visibility and momentum,
showing politicians and media that Americans want clean, less expensive
energy.

It might seem a strange time to celebrate, given the dearth of leadership
in Montana and nationally. But just take one second to look at the numbers
the writer Bill McKibben has compiled to prove that green energy is
cheaper, more reliable, and . . . inevitable:

   - It took from the invention of the photovoltaic solar cell, in 1954,
   until 2022 for the world to install a terawatt of solar power. The second
   terawatt came just two years later, and the third will arrive either later
   this year or early next.
   - Worldwide, people are now putting up a gigawatt’s worth of solar
   panels, the rough equivalent of the power generated by one coal-fired
   plant, every fifteen hours.
   - Last year, 96 percent of the global demand for new electricity was met
   by renewables, and in the United States 93 percent of new generating
   capacity came from solar, wind, and batteries.
   - In March, for the first time, fossil fuels generated less than half
   the electricity in the U.S. Meanwhile, in California, on May 25 this year,
   renewables were producing a record 158 percent of the state’s power demand.
   California is the world’s fourth-largest economy.
   - At night, batteries are often the main supplier of California’s
   electricity. As a result, California is so far using 40 percent less
   natural gas to generate electricity than it did in 2023. (This is why the
   oil-a-garchs are so frightened.)
   - Texas is now installing renewable energy and batteries faster than
   California. The chances of emergency outages have dropped to less than one
   percent, mostly because the state had added ten thousand megawatts of solar
   power and battery storage.
   - China currently installs more than half the world’s renewable energy
   and storage. In May, China had installed a record 93 gigawatts of solar
   power—amounting to a gigawatt every eight hours. Carbon emissions in China
   linked to producing electricity fell nearly 6 percent, as solar and wind
   have replaced coal. In 2024, almost half the automobiles sold in China,
   which is the world’s largest car market, were full or hybrid electric
   vehicles.
   - In South America, a decade ago there were plans to build fifteen new
   coal-fired power plants. Now, none are on the drawing board. In India, the
   world’s fastest-growing major economy, a surge in solar production has kept
   coal use flat and cut the amount of natural gas used by a quarter. In 2021,
   Poland set a goal for photovoltaic power usage by 2030. It has already
   tripled that goal.
   - Over the past 15 years, the Chinese have cut the cost of energy
   storage by 95 percent. The world will add eighty gigawatts of grid-scale
   storage, an eight-fold increase from 2021. The U.S. alone put up four
   gigawatts of storage in the first half of 2024.
   - In 2026, solar will generate more electricity than all the world’s
   nuclear plants combined. By 2029, it will generate more than all the hydro
   dams. By 2031, it will have outstripped gas and, by 2032, coal. Solar will
   become the world’s primary source of all energy, not just electricity, by
   2035. So says the International Energy Agency (IEA).

So ... grab a travel mug of coffee and make your way by 9 a.m. to
Beartracks Bridge.

Jeff Smith, co-chair, 350 Montana
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