Stanford University energy expert Tony Seba predicts that by 2030, solar power will make the fossil fuel-based utilities redundant while electric vehicles will put the oil companies out of business. âUtilities as we know them are over. They are the land line telephone companies of 20, 30 years agoâ, he says in an interview with Giles Parkinson, founder and editor of the path-breaking Australian website RenewEconomy. Photo: dinosaur footprints by … [Read more...]
Natural gas as “coal killer”
Natural gas is a coal killer and renewable energy booster. That at any rate is the major conclusion of the Breakthrough Institute, an influential, independent US think tank, in a recent report. We have provided a short summary for you. Photo: Greenpeace Italy … [Read more...]
Ukraine: the energy to change course
Twenty-two years after breaking free from the USSR, Ukraine is now attempting to do the unthinkable and permanently shake Russiaâs hold on the country. The plan? Looking westward to the European Union and building an energy hub that might just revolutionize the regionâs geopolitical status quo. Photo: Dobrych … [Read more...]
Interview geologist David Hughes: shale oil just a brief reprieve
Europe is looking with envy at the US shale revolution. UK Prime Minister David Cameron recently even said he was "pretty jealous" of the US, saying that the âhuge benefitsâ of shale gas outweigh any âvery minor changeâ to the landscape. In the US, however, the debate has moved ahead: although the economic benefits of the shale revolution are undeniable, the question is how long the shale oil and gas boom can last. Critical observers expect peak … [Read more...]
Germanyâs âEnergiewendeâ Shows Why We Need Nuclear
Germanyâs energy transition has been used by activists and governments as evidence that we can solve climate change with wind and solar, and that we donât need nuclear power. But according to Max Luke and Jessica Lovering of the Breakthrough Institute, if we take the fight against CO2 emissions seriously, it would be foolish â and very expensive â to limit the options to renewables alone and not to include nuclear power. Nuclear power plant … [Read more...]
Five lessons from Germany’s Energiewende
The German renewable energy transition is moving ahead at an impressive pace. What can other countries learn from what has been achieved so far? And what are the main challenges ahead? Sam Friggens of Abundance Generation, a UK crowdfunding initiative for renewable energy projects, sums up five lessons that can be drawn from the German experience. It can be done elsewehere, he says, but you need a new kind of energy market. Photo: WWF … [Read more...]
The Third Carbon Age
Most of us believe (or want to believe) that the second carbon era, the Age of Oil, will soon be superseded by the Age of Renewables, just as oil had long since superseded the Age of Coal.  But according to Michael Klare, professor of peace and world security studies at Hampshire College, and the author, most recently, of The Race for Whatâs Left, this is an illusion. In reality, the energy industry is pouring its historic profits into new … [Read more...]
The new Dutch disease (and a cure)
The Dutch government has presented a National Energy Accord for Sustainable Growth that seemingly represents a new national consensus on energy and climate policy. However, the Accord, which was negotiated by a wide range of civil society groups, environmental organisations, business lobbies and trade unions, has not been signed yet, and is still quite vague. Perhaps more important for âsustainable growthâ prospects in the Netherlands is the news … [Read more...]
Europe’s malfunctioning energy market is stifling economic growth
Todayâs European energy market is still poorly interconnected and neither open nor competitive, writes former European Parliament President and former Prime Minister of Poland Jerzy Buzek, currently a Member of the European Parliament. Moreover, energy prices in the EU are much higher than in China and the US and are increasing. According to Burzek, a truly harmonised common energy market and coordinated investment in infrastructure are vital if … [Read more...]
Virunga: The real price of energy
In 2010, the Congolese Government of Kinshasa granted concessions to European companies to exploit oil near the border with Uganda. Exploration is only starting now in a context of civil war. But the area includes one of the worldâs most exceptional nature reserves: Virunga National Park. Energy versus wildlife: the same story once again. The EU is financing a cost-benefit analysis to decide on a way ahead, but one conclusion is already clear: … [Read more...]
Is the EU done picking clean energy winners?
How far is the EU preparing to move away from its current energy R&D strategy of picking technological winners? In a new policy paper earlier this year, the European Commission outlined its vision for a fresh approach to innovation that takes the energy system as its starting point and focuses on system outcomes, not individual technologies. This is the R&D dimension of the EUâs current battle for a 2030 climate and energy policy. Sonja … [Read more...]
State aid for nuclear? Are you kidding?
EU Competition Commissioner JoaquĂn Almunia has provoked a hot debate in Brussels this summer, by proposing to authorise state aid for nuclear power. This comes at the same time that the European Commission is reflecting on how to reduce subsidies for renewables, in line with their increasing maturity. Hughes Belin reports from Brussels. … [Read more...]
The three ages of Europe’s single electricity market
It is still far from perfect and has been painfully slow in taking shape, but an EU-wide power market has now emerged. Jean-Michel Glachant, Director of the European University Institute's Florence School of Regulation where he holds the Loyola de Palacio Chair, nevertheless warns that renewable energy and a âsmarterâ grid remain challenges to its further development. Photo by Filter Forge via Flickr … [Read more...]
EU internal energy market top priority for Lithuania
By Sonja van Renssen and Hughes Belin Expectations hang heavy over the EUâs autumn agenda for energy and climate policy. The internal energy market, grid investments, the broken EU Emission Trading Scheme, the future of nuclear, a dogged debate over indirect land-use change (ILUC), and a new climate and energy policy for 2030 are only just held at bay by Julyâs unusually balmy weather here in Brussels. Sonja van Renssen and Hughes Belin look … [Read more...]
Integrating energy and climate policy for low-carbon growth in Europe
Europeâs efforts to control emissions are failing, yet the necessary technologies are already here â decarbonising the power system and then using it to run more of our economy is the key, say Johannes Meier, CEO of the European Climate Foundation, and Arne Mogren, Director of the European Climate Foundationâs Power Programme and Member of the Energy Roadmap 2050 ad hoc Advisory Group. Photo: Avedøre power plant, Denmark (by Martin Nicolaj … [Read more...]