The 2017 growth in U.S. oil and gas industry is tied to market forces and already existing liberal trade policies; energy-specific policies introduced by the current administration were not a significant driver, write Anna Mikulska and Michael Maher of the Baker Instituteâs Center for Energy Studies. The authors expect that federal energy policies will continue to play a supporting but subordinate role to markets and state-level policies, and see … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2018
Industry 2030: how the EU plans to industrialise clean tech [Energy Post Weekly]
New and old industries in Europe are fighting for political - and financial - favour as Brussels sits down to work out a new industrial policy strategy for 2030. At the EUâs annual âIndustry Daysâ last week, three CEOs from the world of clean tech set out their ambitious plans for battery âgigafactoriesâ, renewables representatives called for an EU industrial policy for their sector, and Brussels hinted at trade measures to protect Europeâs … [Read more...]
UKâs capacity market: billions of pounds wasted
Britain has chosen to secure electricity supplies through a scheme which pays power plants to be available several years in advance, but falling prices suggest this capacity market is overkill and poor value for money, with ample alternative approaches, writes energy finance consultant Gerard Wynn. Courtesy Energy and Carbon blog. … [Read more...]
Meet the new ârenewable superpowersâ: nations that boss the materials used for wind and solar
Countries that create green energy infrastructure now, before political and economic control shifts to a new group of ârenewable superpowersâ, will be less susceptible to outside influence in the future, writes Andrew Barron, a professor of Swansea University. Article courtesy The Conversation. … [Read more...]
Is Indiaâs coal power sector set to crash?
King Coalâs reign in India is about to come crashing down, writes Silvio Marcacci, Communications Director at think tank Energy Innovation. Coal supplied 80% of Indiaâs total power mix in 2016-2017, but economics have flipped the countryâs energy equation â new renewable energy is now cheaper to build than running most existing coal-fired power plants. … [Read more...]
BP: oil and gas resilient to âfaster transitionâ â until 2040
Whatever happens â oil and gas will be needed in 2040 in at least the same quantities as today. That was a key message conveyed by BPâs Chief Economist Spencer Dale on Tuesday when he presented the 2018 edition of the BP Energy Outlook in London. Energy Post editor-in-chief Karel Beckman discusses Daleâs findings and wonders: what about Beyond 2040? … [Read more...]
Small modular reactors for nuclear power: hope or mirage?
Supporters of nuclear power hope that small nuclear reactors, unlike large plants, will be able to compete economically with other sources of electricity. But according to M.V. Ramana, a Professor at the University of British Columbia, this is likely to be a vain hope. In fact, according to Ramana, in the absence of a mass market, they may be even more expensive than large plants. … [Read more...]
Paris Agreement: itâs all in the numbers
The Paris Climate Agreement is based on voluntary pledges (Nationally Determined Contribution, NDC), which will have to be translated into verifiable emission reduction efforts. Countries aim to agree the details of such a âRulebookâ at the upcoming climate change conference, COP24, in Poland at the end of the year. David Hone, Chief Climate Change Advisor, discusses what kind of quantifications we may demand from countries. He argues that unless … [Read more...]
The militarization of U.S. energy policy: Donald Trump enlists fossil fuels in the struggle for global dominance
As the recently published National Security Strategy shows, Donald Trump has turned the expansion of the U.S. fossil fuel industry and its exports into a major component of American foreign and security policy, writes energy expert and author Michael T. Klare. In the view of the Trump administration, anyone that stands in the way of American exploitation of oil, gas and coal resources is viewed as an obstructer of the national interest, notes … [Read more...]
Corbyn avoids real choices with call for nationalisation of energy
Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has called for the nationalisation of the UK energy industry in order to deliver the transition to a low-carbon economy. That may sound radical and ambitious, writes Karel Beckman, editor-in-chief of Energy Post, but it is not a solution at all. According to Beckman, the Labour Leader is shirking the responsibility to come up with realistic and effective climate change policies. … [Read more...]
The EU wants to fight climate change â so why is it spending billions on a gas pipeline?
By funding the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the European Investment Bank (EIB) is hardly signalling to the private sector that governments are committed to a green energy transition, writes Aled Jones, Professor and Director at the Global Sustainability Institute of  Anglia Ruskin University. Article courtesy The Conversation. … [Read more...]
Study: solar and wind wonât break the grid
A new report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) shows that major power systems are able to cope quite well with increasing shares of intermittent renewables, if the right measures are taken. The study says that increased generation of these renewables does not make the grid less reliable or compromise security of supply. … [Read more...]
Cheap renewables are transforming the global electricity business
Renewables are not yet the least costly option in every market, writes Tim Buckley, Director of Energy Finance Studies Australasia at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), but the pace of change demonstrates that a tipping point toward a new energy economy is coming, and fast. Article courtesy IEEFA. … [Read more...]
EU ties itself into knots with capacity market decisions [Energy Post Weekly]
On 7 February the European Commission approved six new capacity mechanisms in the name of security of supply, insisting that they will not distort the Single Market. Two problems: one, the national decisons come as the EU tries to negotiate Europe-wide power market rules for the next decade. Two, the Commission wants those market rules to exclude coal plants from public support - when it has just authorised Poland to give state aid in the form of … [Read more...]
Energy storage does not always make the electric grid cleaner
Energy storage can help grids use more wind and solar power, but it does not always reduce carbon emissions, write Naga Srujana Goteti, Eric Hittinger and Eric Williams of the University of Rochester. In some cases, adding storage actually even increases carbon emissions. This happens when consumption is shifted to periods when coal power is used more. Article courtesy The Conversation. … [Read more...]