The IEA’s annual World Energy Outlook (WEO) is seen as the most authoritative set of energy scenarios in the world. Yet when we test the forecasts for the growth of renewable energies in the WEO’s main scenario against reality, we find that the WEO consistently comes out too low. Each year from 2006 on the WEO has had to increase its forecast for wind and solar power. Yet each year the WEO predicts the growth of renewables to level off by 2020, … [Read more...]
Can Germany survive the Energiewende?
The German Energiewende is a heroic but – as it’s conceived now – increasingly disordered effort for unshackling industrial society from the chains of fossil fuels. Due to mistaken assumptions and unrealistic scheduling, it is now confronted with persistent obstacles. The new Merkel government has introduced some changes, but they won’t be enough to sustain the Energiewende, argues independent energy consultant (and renewable energy sympathizer) … [Read more...]
Ukraine fallout: how to deal with South Stream and Nord Stream
A new report from the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES) contends that, in light of the Ukraine crisis, the EU should allow Gazprom to use its great new pipelines South Stream and Nord Stream for itself and not be required to grant access to third parties. But the Center for Security Studies (CSS) ETH ZĂĽrch, argues the opposite in a new report of its own. It says the EU should adopt a strict regulatory policy towards South Stream and … [Read more...]
Tomatoes watered by the sea: sprouting a new way of farming
In Australia a former investment banker is growing vegetables in hothouses that use electricity and desalinated seawater all derived from concentrated solar power. According to John Matthews, it's a model that could work well in many areas of the world. … [Read more...]
Aligning interests in Ukraine is key to both EU and Russian energy security
All parties in the Ukrainian crisis should do their utmost to avoid any further escalation, writes Friedbert PflĂĽger, Director of the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS) at King’s College, London, and Deputy Minister in the first Merkel government. According to PflĂĽger, Europe must recognize that Russia has legitimate interests in Ukraine, while the Russians have to recognize Ukraine’s right to self-determination. If Ukraine … [Read more...]
EU deeply divided over 2030 climate and energy policy
Thirteen member states want the EU to agree on the broad outlines of a 2030 climate and energy policy as soon as possible. But at least four call for the EU not to “rush” into anything – they argue all decisions should be put on hold until UN climate talks in Paris in 2015. That was the main outcome of the EU environment and energy ministers meeting this week. European Heads of State and government will meet in Brussels on 20-21st March to talk … [Read more...]
How the IEA exaggerates the costs and underestimates the growth of solar power
The International Energy Agency (IEA) consistently entertains much too pessimistic assumptions about the growth potential and cost development of solar power,  writes Terje Osmundsen, Senior Vice President of the Norwegian-based international solar power company Scatec Solar. According to Osmundsen, the cost assumptions used by the IEA are 100% higher than even current market prices. He notes that as a result of the IEA’s misleading information, … [Read more...]
It’s Scotland’s oil – and it will need a lot of investment
With the Scottish referendum campaign about independence from the rest of the UK in full swing, UK Prime Minister David Cameron has been foolish to try to make North Sea oil a reason for the Scots to stay. There are plenty of good reasons to keep the UK united, but oil is not one of them, except perhaps that Scotland is going to be far too dependent on it, if it leaves. Energy journalist Chris Cragg explains the real issues the UK oil and gas … [Read more...]
Interview Adam Sieminksi, Chief EIA: “Gas production in the US will keep growing”
The Energy Information Administration (EIA), part of the US Department of Energy, predicts that natural gas production in the US will continue to grow at an impressive pace – regardless of what shale gas and environmental critics believe. Right now output is close to 70 billion cubic feet a day and it is expected to reach over 100 billion cubic feet per day by 2040. “In our view, those production trends are going to continue without the … [Read more...]
Exclusive: The end is near – for national renewable energy subsidy schemes in the EU
The national renewable support schemes in the EU are on the verge of a major overhaul. National governments will soon not be allowed anymore to limit renewables subsidies to domestic producers: they will have to treat all EU-based producers alike. This at any rate is the very likely outcome of a court case now before the EU Court of Justice, says Peter Niermeijer, Secretary-General of RECS International, an organisation that promotes pan-European … [Read more...]
Is the door to CCS closing in the UK?
Slow progress threatens the future of CCS in the UK, write Sam Gomersall and Alan James, Directors of Pale Blue Dot Energy, a management consultancy focused on the low carbon transition based in Aberdeen. According to the authors, the earliest CCS projects are unlikely to come onstream before the early 2020s – if they get off the ground at all. “The future of CCS in the UK hangs in the balance.” … [Read more...]
An investor speaks: the oil party is almost over
The fact that environmental activist Bill McKibben is waging a relentless “fossil fuel divestment campaign” may not worry established oil and coal companies too much. But he is joined by an increasing number of mainstream investors and analysts. The latest investor to warn that fossil fuel assets may be overvalued is the famous hedge fund manager Jeremy Grantham, owner of the major US asset-management firm GMO. In a thoughtful piece for the GMO … [Read more...]
Three signs of retreat in the global war on climate change
A series of recent developments "highlight the way the world is losing ground in the epic struggle to slow global warming", writes Michael Klare. One of them is what he calls the "evident slackening in Europe’s climate commitment". According to Klare, "the pressures to keep burning fossil fuels are too great to be overcome in piecemeal fashion.  Rather, these forces must be met head-on, with the institutionalization of equally powerful … [Read more...]
US Shale Gas (II): Get ready for the Great Natural Gas Switch
Cheap natural gas means Americans can buy the equivalent of a barrel of crude for $35. That's the exciting reality that has Ron Muhlenkamp, founder and portfolio manager of Muhlenkamp & Co. Inc., putting his investment dollars behind the next great fuel switch, this time in the transportation sector. As Muhlenkamp tells Tom Armistead of The Energy Report, the Great Natural Gas Switch in the US has only just begun. This is part Two of a … [Read more...]
US Shale Gas (I): It’s not what it’s cracked up to be
Shale gas is not the foundation of U.S. energy security that conventional wisdom claims it is, says Bill Powers in this interview with Tom Amistead of The Energy Report. As shale gas peters out, the law of supply and demand will drive gas prices up, says Powers,an independent analyst and author of "Cold, Hungry and in the Dark: Exploding the Natural Gas Supply Myth." This interview is part One of a two-part series. In part Two investment analyst … [Read more...]
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