Kamil Sobczak at the Russian Gas Society has co-authored a report, “Opportunities and prospects for the development of gas hubs in Russia”, which he summarises here. It scopes out what is needed to create four major gas hubs in the Far East, North West, Central and Southern Russia. The plan will help develop and modernise Russia’s gas sector as well as increase exports. Transparency in prices and transaction volumes will be essential to create … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2021
Policy-makers still undervalue Energy Efficiency as a grid resource
Supply-side solutions to grid stability are few in number, and expensive. More baseload generation, electricity networks, capacity markets that pay power plants all year round to be available for dispatch during a few peak hours. Demand-side solutions are usually smaller, and multitudinous: building fabric improvements, equipment upgrades, customer behaviour interventions, and more. So, for grid stability, the principle of “Efficiency First” - … [Read more...]
Five countries to become the field of behavioural experiments to encourage energy efficiency habits
The EU has ambitious targets for increasing energy efficiency and mitigating climate change, aiming that there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050. To achieve this and other targets, much effort and investment are focused on digital infrastructure (e.g., smart meters) that enables energy consumers to monitor and manage their energy usage more actively and efficiently. … [Read more...]
Guiding SMEs and national authorities through the energy transition by taking profit of multiple benefits and energy management approaches
Improving energy efficiency is the most cost-effective way to reduce energy-related emissions, improve economic competitiveness and increase energy security. In the European Union, several pieces of legislation aimed at guiding states and companies, regardless of their size, on ways to improve their energy efficiency: one of them is the Energy Efficiency Directive, establishing a common framework of measures and requirements with the goal to … [Read more...]
China’s 14th Five-Year Plan will reshape its growing Gas sector
Demand for natural gas in China is set to continue its rise, increasing by 7% to 9% annually to reach up to 500 bcm by 2025, explains Sylvie Cornot-Gandolphe at the IFRI Centre for Energy & Climate. Domestic gas production has continued its significant growth too, driven by a surge in shale gas. Even then, gas imports – both pipeline and LNG - should increase to fulfil the rising supply/demand gap. This growing importance of gas in the energy … [Read more...]
Optimising Wind and Solar needs new ways of weather forecasting
Weather forecasters are used to – and very good at – predicting large-scale weather patterns and then inferring what the actual surface weather conditions will be, based on a database of past events. Hannah Bloomfield at the University of Reading explains how the creation of a database of site-specific wind and solar generation, as well as grid demand, can be used in the same way to more accurately predict the impact of the weather on these … [Read more...]
Sustainability after COVID-19: Four scenarios of the world after the crisis
Foreword:Â The COVID-19 virus which began in China and spread around the world has wreaked havoc on economies and caused the life of millions of people to come to a standstill. With health and GDP dominating the world agenda, entrepreneurs wishing to navigate the turbulent waters of opening a new enterprise focused on sustainability will need to keep an eye on where the world is heading to. This analysis is an attempt to speculate which directions … [Read more...]
Buildings Renovation in Germany: success story or potential failure?
The German Federal Association of Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW) has claimed that money and effort spent on the nation’s buildings renovations have not worked. But Andreas RĂĽdinger at IDDRI has looked into the evidence and concluded that the opposite is the case. CO2 emissions from the residential sector in 2018 were 37% lower than in 1990. Though final energy consumption was broadly stable, that’s because efficiency gains were offset by … [Read more...]
E-mobility in Germany: a record year but still way off target
In the past few months Germany has seen record levels for electric car registrations. But will this rising trend be enough to meet the government’s target of 10 million electric cars by 2030? To answer the question Naemi Schink and Simon Göss at Energy Brainpool look at the data, proposed new regulations, and funding. Though the number of electric cars has grown by over 360% in the last year there are currently only 240,000 EVs and 200,000 … [Read more...]
Carbon Offsetting via old wind and solar farms is no way to reduce emissions
Companies can offset their emissions by buying carbon credits, where the money goes to fund clean energy projects. But the carbon credit market includes credits for very old projects. This is a foolish waste, explain Mark Maslin and Simon Lewis at UCL (UK). The market must be based on the principle of additionality: the money should be aimed at projects that would not have happened otherwise, thereby causing emissions reductions that would not … [Read more...]
Decarbonising Industry is key to China’s net-zero strategy
China has committed to a CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060. It’s 14th 5-year plan will be released in March, followed by sector-oriented plans. For the first time it will include a dedicated plan addressing climate change. Dolf Gielen, Yong Chen and Paul Durrant at IRENA start by laying out China’s energy mix for scrutiny, then dive into its industrial sector which accounts for 60% of gross final energy use. Success … [Read more...]
New research into Catalysts can boost Hydrogen manufacture
Catalysts are materials used to enable and accelerate a chemical reaction. There is a long history of using them in industry to manufacture different hydrocarbons, ammonia, sulfuric acid, and the list goes on. By choosing your materials well and tinkering with the structure at the molecular level, the catalyst can greatly improve the efficiency of the conversion process. Glennda Chui at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory describes how their … [Read more...]
Clean Trucks are coming: a review of battery, hydrogen, synthetic fuels and more
New EU fuel efficiency rules are forcing truck makers into a race to get their low emission vehicles onto the roads. From 2025, newly registered trucks must have 15% lower emissions, and from 2030 it’s 30%. Battery-electric drivetrains are most likely to dominate, assisted in their evolution by the assured progress and charging infrastructure of EVs. Hydrogen fuel cells and synthetic fuels are also in the game, though hindered by the inevitable … [Read more...]
A new EU Gas Market must expose it to all clean energy solutions, not just gas-on-gas
Towards the end of this year the EC is expected to issue new proposals for gas legislation, a once in a decade market reform. Simon Skillings and Lisa Fischer at E3G highlight the big difference between the design of gas and electricity markets for Europe. The electricity market is growing, the gas market needs to shrink. The authors quote figures showing that the EU's 55% emissions reduction target for 2030 means natural gas use will reduce by … [Read more...]
We’re making much more progress decarbonising Electricity than Transport. Why?
In the OECD, since 2000, electricity sector emissions have fallen by 8% while transport emissions have actually increased by 5%. The best performers like the UK recorded drops in both: 40% and 6% respectively. In the U.S. it’s 25% and 0%. Catherine Wolfram at the Haas School of Business asks why transport is still going in the wrong direction, given the power sector’s progress. She posits three theories. Rich nations are outsourcing … [Read more...]