The huge divergence of electricity prices between nations after the energy crises of 2021 and 2022 exposed Europe’s pressing need to increase cross-border transmission capacity, explain George Dimopoulos, Conall Heussaff and Georg Zachmann at Bruegel. Without it, generation costs will be higher, emissions too, and new generation will continue to be badly congested. The author’s calculations reveal that one additional MW of cross-border capacity … [Read more...]
Clean energy is driving job growth, but skills shortages are a major barrier
The second edition of the IEA’s annual World Energy Employment report measures energy sector employment by region, fuel, technology, and value chain. Globally, energy employment rose to 67m people in 2022. Over half of employment growth since before the pandemic was in just five sectors: solar, wind, EVs, batteries, heat pumps, and critical minerals mining. In fact, clean energy jobs overtook fossil fuels in 2021. But skilled labour shortages are … [Read more...]
What does cutting-edge Smart Metering look like as Grids become increasingly complex?
The global growth in electrification means grids everywhere are facing new opportunities as well as big challenges. Intermittent renewables, distributed energy generation, and the need to use every kWh as efficiently as possible means Distribution System Operators (DSO), in particular, must deploy optimisation solutions, and fast. Gridspertise provides state-of-the-art solutions for the digital transformation of electricity distribution networks. … [Read more...]
Middle East & Africa to export Hydrogen to Europe? Better to make green Iron & Steel and export that
The MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) is well suited to making green hydrogen. There’s huge potential for powering green hydrogen production with cheap solar. And Europe wants to import it. But Soroush Basirat and Simon Nicholas at IEEFA argue that MENA should use the green hydrogen to make green iron and steel and export that. It already has an established direct reduced iron (DRI) sector: now powered by gas which can be swapped out for … [Read more...]
Making Fuel Cells cheap enough for mainstream use: can Cobalt nanoparticles replace Platinum as catalysts?
Fuel cells could be a game-changer in decarbonisation. They efficiently convert chemical energy into electricity with only water and heat as byproducts. One of the most promising types is the PEMFC (polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell) because of its applications in transportation, as well as stationary power sources. But it can’t go mainstream until the costs come down, specifically the platinum catalysts. Platinum is scarce and expensive. … [Read more...]
Europe is updating its price cap sanctions on Russian oil. How to make them work?
The EC has put forward proposals for tightening the implementation of a price cap on Russian oil exports. Brian O’Toole, Olga Khakova and Charles Lichfield at the Atlantic Council and Tomasz Wlostowski at EU Strategies review the performance of the price cap sanctions one year on from their implementation, and give recommendations for how to make them work better. Though most observers agree that the cap has limited export income for Russia this … [Read more...]
Why we need a European Central Carbon Bank within the EU ETS framework
The EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is at a critical juncture as it navigates a path towards achieving a net-zero Europe by 2050. Amidst this transformation, the proposal to create the European Central Carbon Bank (ECCB) has sparked a range of criticisms. Some critics have raised valid concerns about the feasibility, necessity, governance, and potential drawbacks of such an institution. Robert Jeszke and Sebastian Lizak at the Centre for … [Read more...]
New Solar study: 50% of global power by 2050, even without more ambitious climate policies
Nadia Ameli at UCL and Femke Nijsse and Jean-Francois Mercure at the University of Exeter present their study that shows solar is on track to make up more than half of global electricity generation by 2050, even without more ambitious climate policies. This far exceeds any previous estimates: last year’s IEA World Energy Outlook predicted that solar would account for only 25% by 2050. The authors’ macroeconomic model takes the latest … [Read more...]
Thermal Energy Storage for heating and cooling Buildings: finding materials that melt at room temperature
Thermal Energy Storage (TES) in individual buildings can cut heating and cooling costs while delivering grid stability, explains Ryan Horns writing for NREL. Back in the 1800s blocks of ice were shipped to cities to cool buildings down. Today, research is underway to identify materials that can be heated or cooled by excess grid power and release or absorb heat when needed. Similarly, materials are being researched and developed that “phase … [Read more...]
Cost vs Resilience: Europe’s sourcing strategy will shape the regional Hydrogen economy
The upcoming EU Hydrogen Bank pilot auction and trilogue discussions are focussing minds on the future of hydrogen. Jonas Lotze and Massimo Moser at TransnetBW and Janina Erb, Roman Flatau, Felix Greven and Max Labmayr at d-fine present the results of their modelling of two hydrogen sourcing scenarios: "Global Market" (GM) where the import of hydrogen into Europe is unrestricted, and "Energy Resilient Europe" (ERE) where almost all hydrogen is … [Read more...]
IMF adds climate change to its economic risk assessments, pilots new lending tools
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says its primary role is to help countries tackle balance of payments problems, stabilise their economies, and restore sustainable economic growth. Dileimy Orozco and Njavwa Sanga at E3G and Alexia Meynier at ENGIE Impact explain that the IMF has now elevated climate change to one of its top priorities, considering it a systemic risk for the stability of the global economy and financial system. Until now, the … [Read more...]
EU now has 9,000+ “energy communities”: smart, decentralised, flexible generation and consumption
The goal of the EU’s “Clean Energy for all Europeans package” (CEP), adopted in 2019, is to improve the functioning and design of Europe’s energy markets and systems. Luca Arfini, writing for ESCI, explains how, as part of the CEP, new market actors called “active customers/consumers and citizens” and “energy communities” are being established. As variable renewable generation grows, the whole system needs to be more decentralised, smarter and … [Read more...]
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is now building more Renewables, less Coal
Energy has always made up the majority of investments and construction deals signed through China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Until very recently these investments were dominated by fossil fuel projects. But in the first half of this year, over 40% of BRI energy projects announced were wind and solar, with 22% each for gas and oil, and zero for coal projects. The reasons include China’s stated commitment to clean energy, avoiding the risk … [Read more...]
Will AI queries increase Data Centre energy use by an order of magnitude?
Data centres globally consumed 220-330 TWh in 2021 (California uses around 278 TWh/year). How much more will they consume if AI takes off, given AI queries consume an order of magnitude more energy, and there are over 5bn internet users worldwide? The first step is to make a decent evidence-based prediction, but the U.S. and the EU are only expected to enforce reporting requirements next year, explains Meredith Fowlie at UC Berkeley’s Energy … [Read more...]
Using Generative AI to speed up and improve the Wind Turbine blade design process
Justin Daugherty at NREL describes research there on using generative AI to accelerate and improve the wind turbine blade design process. To keep up with the pace of change in the market (not just customer demands, but policy regulations and technological innovations), the current method uses simplified low-fidelity modelling because it’s quicker to turn around. But it is also less accurate. Researchers are exploring deep-learning models using … [Read more...]
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