In late summer 2015 at a research university in Belgium, an Italian graduate student new to campus attended a welcome event hosted by engineering department faculty. Sampling beer brewed by an electrical engineering student association, Simone Accornero mingled with a dozen other new classmates in his program at KU Leuven. Accornero began chatting with an engineering master’s student who had just arrived from Poland. “We hit it off,” Accornero … [Read more...]
EU Recovery Package should earmark €90 billion public funding annually towards building renovation for EU-27, new analysis shows
BRUSSELS, Belgium, 20 May 2020 | BPIE – The Buildings Performance Institute Europe has published an analysis of the economic opportunity for Europe’s building sector, which could help mitigate economic damage of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show that the total amount of public funding required to trigger a significant scaling up of the renovation rate and depth would add up to €90 billion annually until 2050, with €76 billion annually … [Read more...]
Enefirst – Making Efficiency First operational: New project aims to support policy makers put the European guideline into practice in view of the EU Green Deal
The Enefirst consortium released its first publication, which defines the principle of Efficiency First (E1st) in a way to make it operational. The 2.5-year project, funded under the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme for Research and Innovation, seeks to provide decision makers in Europe with concrete policy recommendations based on quantitative analysis and best practice mapping. The publication represents the consortium’s first step towards meeting … [Read more...]
Europe’s Unprecedented Opportunity to usher in a Green Economy
While the COVID-19 pandemic is singular in its rapid development and global implications, many have drawn parallels with another, equally significant, global issue: the ongoing climate crisis. In Europe, in particular, the parallels have led to the realization that the European Union’s COVID-19 response may also hold the key to addressing and accelerating longer-term decarbonization goals. Unlike COVID-19, the climate crisis is slow-burning, … [Read more...]
Four reasons to reconcile EU economic recovery and the climate agenda
Politicians and interest groups are polarising the debate between post COVID-19 economic recovery and decarbonisation. By doing so, they jeopardise Europe’s future. It has to stop. While Pascal Canfin, prominent Member of the European Parliament, launched a vast call to restore Europe’s economy in line with the EU Green Deal, others are calling to delay or freeze climate ambitions. European and national leaders have to understand that they … [Read more...]
Beyond pilots: scaling up energy innovation in cities
Our current electricity grid was built hundreds of years ago, when power generation was centralised and our energy needs were far simpler. Electricity was distributed from large stable power plants to the consumers through a unidirectional flow that was easily predictable and did not require complex control. But over the last decades, cities have been going through a substantial change, seeing an exponential increase of their energy needs which … [Read more...]
First Impact Report out now – Concerted Action Energy Efficiency Directive
The report can be downloaded from this URL: https://www.ca-eed.eu/Outcomes/Impact-report What is CA EED? The Concerted Action (CA) was initially launched in spring of 2008 in support the implementation of the Energy Services Directive (ESD), which later became the Directive on Energy Efficiency (EED). The work carried out within the CA revealed the wide difference in the energy efficiency measures across Europe and a clear need … [Read more...]
Ten highlights of floating solar PV power station on water
The photovoltaic power stations we are familiar with are centralized, distributed, tower type, rooftop, agricultural greenhouse and so on, but these are some ground photovoltaic power stations. After all, the land resources on the earth are limited and the degree of land availability is limited. Next, let's learn something about the situation of the new type PV power station, that isfloating solar PV power station on water and its ten … [Read more...]
How will Russia respond to Europe’s climate action
In March 2014 Russian president Vladimir Putin gave a speech at the Kremlin following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. He said: “If you compress the spring all the way to its limit, it will snap back hard. You must always remember this”. The compressing of the spring, in this case, was the perceived threat of an increasingly Western-leaning Ukraine and former Soviet states joining NATO. The snap back saw Russia take Crimea, starting a military … [Read more...]
The Balkans’ biggest power station – why thinking beyond Maritsa East 2 matters
By energy lawyers Dominique Doyle (ClientEarth) and Regina Stoilova (Za Zemiata Access to Justice) In Bulgaria’s Stara Zagora region, the Balkans’ biggest coal plant chugs steadily away, part of a giant industrial complex. Maritsa East 2’s reputation is as a provider of jobs and stability. The cloud of pollution that hangs over the region – and the cloud of uncertainty that hangs over its future – go largely undiscussed. The plant’s … [Read more...]
The Knowns and Unknowns of Global Energy
Since energy demand can be affected by developments outside the energy sector – over which the industry has no control – managements need an active and adaptive review process. There is no room for delusion. The slogan "we will need all the energy we can get" is misguided. The future changes. Economics counts – and social climate objectives matter. Sorting the "known unknowns" It helps to sort the unknowns into boxes for different time … [Read more...]
The Benefits of Passive House Buildings
Everyone has their own version of a dream home, but despite the differences, there are a few characteristics that all dream homes share. These characteristics would be the following: comfortable, modern house with no cold drafts, no temperature variations from room to room, and — most important of all — no heating or cooling bills. In other words, everyone just wants a house that is both comfortable and ecological — studies have shown … [Read more...]
Member States must decide: cash for climate or cash for carbon?
Over 3 billion euros of EU money meant for Europe’s poorer regions could be up for grabs by the fossil fuel industry if EU Member States do not change their current position on 25 June. The funding, which is part of the 374 billion Euro ‘Cohesion Policy’ pot, was - in the European Commission’s proposal - meant to go to sustainable economic activities. Yet if EU Member States get their way, a significant portion of the funding would be made … [Read more...]
Pioneering cold-fusion: the elusive answer to global energy poverty and an end to nuclear waste
Inventor Suneel N Parekh is an energy pioneer. What keeps him going is a mixture of conviction and optimism. But even he knows he won’t get his project over the line without help. After decades he is finally bringing the proof of his methods to the attention of investors who can make or break his life’s work. Pioneers need backers. Just as The Beatles needed a deal before we could enjoy Sgt. Peppers, our energy pioneers need their break too - the … [Read more...]
Climate Change and the Third Energy Revolution
The anxiety expressed by young people today about Climate Change is reasonable, but they offer no thought-out solution. We should examine the available scientific options in a form accessible to those without specialised knowledge and starting from what natural science has to say about energy and where to find it. (In this article precision is set aside to allow the science underlying the orders of magnitude to be clear and simple.) … [Read more...]
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