On Wednesday (June 16, 2021), Energy Post is hosting a panel with representatives from ELIA, SNAM and BASF to discuss the best approach to market and system design for Hydrogen. It's free and you can register here. In this article, Walter Boltz, Senior European Energy Advisor, makes the case for a regulatory framework 'mostly identical' to the one so painstakingly developed for natural gas with a few practical differences - but this won't suit … [Read more...]
Where to build new Wind Turbines in Germany? Lowest cost vs residents and nature
Germany was a wind energy leader. But by 2019 it was only ranked sixth globally for newly installed capacity per year. Antje Nieber and Paul Lehmann at the University of Leipzig explain why. At its heart is a conflict of priorities: lowest cost versus the interests of residents and nature, being played out at the national and federal levels. The switch from feed-in tariff support to lowest-cost tenders stalled a lot of wind projects. Lawsuits and … [Read more...]
NW Europeâs Hydrogen targets: ambition must match reality
The IEAâs report released earlier this year, âHydrogen in North-Western Europe: A vision towards 2030â, welcomes the fact that the six countries analysed - Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK â have the ambition to build a hydrogen economy. They are Europeâs major hydrogen producers and consumers, have major ports that already service this sector, have natural gas infrastructure that can be repurposed, and access … [Read more...]
U.S. DoE: National Roadmap for Grid-Interactive Energy-Efficient Buildings
Buildings account for more than 70% of U.S. electricity use and one-third of economy-wide CO2 emissions. Andrew Satchwell at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory presents the U.S. Department of Energyâs comprehensive plan, âA National Roadmap for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildingsâ, that could deliver up to $200bn in savings to the U.S. power system and cut CO2 emissions by 80m tons per year by 2030 (6% of total power sector emissions). … [Read more...]
The EUâs âFit for 55â package: a primer on the EU ETS and other main policy levers
On July 14 the European Commission will present the much awaited âFit for 55â legislative package. Lara Dombrowski and Simon Göss at Energy Brainpool have written a very useful primer on whatâs at stake for the EU ETS, along with a summary of the other main policy levers that will be decided upon. The authors describe the EU ETS as the central instrument for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It caps emissions for 10,000 power sector, industrial … [Read more...]
Finland starts excavation of worldâs first Deep Geologic Nuclear Waste Repository
Finlandâs policy is to dispose of, within its borders, spent nuclear fuel rather than reprocess it. Excavation of a deep geological repository - for final disposal - at Olkiluoto began in May and is a world first. Not even the U.S., with its waste from over 130 nuclear reactors built since the 1950s, has committed to one. James Conca looks at Finlandâs history of nuclear waste disposal, how it got to this decision, and the disposal method. The … [Read more...]
Norway an EV role model? Their pathway is expensive and paid for with oil & gas exports
Norway is an EV leader thanks to a generous pot of tax incentives. Today, battery-electric cars make up more than half of all new car sales in Norway. Schalk Cloete takes a detailed look at what those incentives cost, and how many tonnes of CO2 they avoid. In short, Norway â a major oil and gas exporter - needs to sell over 100 barrels of oil (which emits 40 tonnes of CO2) to pay for the tax breaks it gives EVs to avoid one tonne of CO2. And … [Read more...]
Germany: will the end of feed-in tariffs mean the end of citizens-as-energy-producers
Germanyâs feed-in tariffs ran for 20 years. The guaranteed electricity price and connection to the grid incentivised ordinary citizens and communities to invest in smaller scale solar, biomass and wind generation for their homes and local areas. But that guaranteed price is now too expensive, and so the tariffs are ending and lowest-bid auctions are taking over. Itâs the bigger players who are winning those auctions, and some of the existing … [Read more...]
Robots can make Offshore Windfarm maintenance better, safer, cheaper
Maintaining offshore windfarms is expensive, and around 80% of the cost is spent on the support vehicles and the technicians working in often dangerous conditions. Itâs not just the turbines. By 2030 theyâll need an extra 2.5m kilometres of new submarine cables globally to get the power on to shore. David Flynn at Heriot-Watt University explains how a combination of robots, AI and humans could do a much better, safer job and cut costs. Drones â … [Read more...]
Case study Italy: Optimising emissions cuts means weâll need âgreyâ and âblueâ Hydrogen too
Europe is committing to hydrogen. The ideal is âgreenâ hydrogen, produced from renewable energy alone. Carlo Stagnaro at Istituto Bruno Leoni analyses emissions and costs in Italy to make the case for policy-makers to consider including âgreyâ and âblueâ hydrogen in their strategies too. Because grids are far from green today, a new wind and solar plant will reduce more emissions by feeding the grid than by making hydrogen. âGreyâ hydrogen, … [Read more...]
What patents tell us: which countries, what sectors, are the clean energy innovators?
Todayâs solutions cannot give us a successful transition on their own. Thatâs why the innovations coming down the pipeline are so important. One way to measure what, and who, is innovating is to look at the number of patents being filed for low carbon energy (LCE), explains Sean Fleming writing for the World Economic Forum. He summarises the latest report from the European Patent Office and the IEA, âPatents and the energy transition: Global … [Read more...]
How Clean Energy Standards have driven clean electrification in the U.S.
John Rogers at the Union of Concerned Scientists presents evidence from the U.S. of the effectiveness of using standards to drive clean electrification. In principle itâs simple: set a legal requirement for the percentage of clean electricity. How itâs done depends on the efforts of all the actors affected. 30 states are using different versions of Clean Energy Standards (CES) â the first began in 1983 and more than half of them began before 2004 … [Read more...]
Clean Hydrogen from water electrolysis: research into catalysts to meet global targets
The full potential of the new hydrogen economy will depend on producing enough clean hydrogen from water electrolysis which uses precious metals. But, as Glennda Chui at SLAC (Stanford University & DoE) explains, there arenât enough precious metals in the world to get to the scale we need. And their cost is so high the clean hydrogen they generate could never compete with hydrogen derived from fossil fuels. Over 95% of hydrogen produced today … [Read more...]
Fit for 55: Does squeeze on gas make coal exit harder? Event summary + video
On May 18, 2021, Energy Post hosted an expert panel with the European Commission, E3G, CERRE and PKEE (the Polish Electricity Association, who also sponsored the discussion). It looked at some of the key EU support mechanisms offered to countries/companies transitioning away from coal, including the EU ETS' Modernisation Fund, the Just Transition Fund  and also how State Aid Guidelines (EEAG) contribute. We asked Stefaan Vergote (Senior Advisor … [Read more...]
Does new German target mean Coal gone by 2029, Renewables 65% by 2030?
The stiffer emissions targets introduced this month to Germanyâs Climate Protection Law - CO2 emissions from the energy industry must fall to 108 Mt by 2030 instead of 175 â point to an even earlier coal phase-out date of 2029, with renewables generating 65% of electricity by 2030. The existing plan had meant coal must be gone by 2038. Michael ClauĂner, Carlos Perez-Linkenheil and Simon Göss at Energy Brainpool explain why, using their modelling … [Read more...]
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