To scale âgreenâ hydrogen to make its contribution to limiting warming to 1.5C, electrolyser capacity needs to grow 6,000-fold by 2050 from todayâs levels of 600MW, according to the IEAâs Net-Zero emissions by 2050 scenario. Adrian Odenweller and Falko Ueckerdt at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, writing for Carbon Brief, summarise their study that concludes even if electrolyser capacity grows as quickly as wind and solar, it is … [Read more...]
Europe vs U.S: incentivising battery manufacture to take the global lead from China
Europe is already well placed to end its reliance on Chinese Li-ion battery cells by 2027, according to a study by Transport & Environment (T&E). The new analysis of battery-makersâ announcements points at Europe producing enough Li-ion cells to fully meet domestic demand for EVs and energy storage in four yearsâ time. T&E also forecasts that essential elements of the supply chain can substantially shift from China into Europe, like … [Read more...]
Virtual Power Plants: efficiently networked households wonât need new expensive generation
Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are the next new innovation that can change the landscape of the global energy transition in our favour, cheaply and fast, explain Liza Martin and Kevin Brehm at RMI. Essentially, they link and aggregate hundreds of thousands of households and businesses to manage their electrical devices. Their thermostats, EVs, appliances, batteries, and rooftop solar arrays are coordinated to ensure loads, charging and discharging … [Read more...]
Gas: a history of Energy Security in the EU. And whatâs next post-Russia?
The security of supply of gas has been the hottest topic of the last 12 months since Russia invaded Ukraine. James Kneebone at the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) has written an explainer that lays out the EUâs history of dealing with energy security, going back to the 1990s. Because the EU has a single market for natural gas and widely shared value chains (pipelines, LNG terminals, storage, etc.), impacts are felt across the bloc. But that … [Read more...]
Electricity Market Design: how can reforms accelerate the transition and help cut energy prices?
*** REGISTER NOW *** for our online panel discussion on Friday 24th March 09:30-10:45 CET, âElectricity Market Design: how can reforms accelerate the transition and help cut energy prices?â Our panellists are Catharina Sikow-Magny, Director, DG ENER; Wanda Buk, Vice-President for Regulatory Affairs, PGE; Leonardo Meeus, Director of the Florence School of Regulation; JĂ©rĂŽme Le Page, Director for European Electricity Markets, EFET; Michaela … [Read more...]
How new and better science is driving climate litigation
Delta Merner at the Union of Concerned Scientists makes her predictions for climate litigation in 2023. There will be much more, globally. The stand out observation is that new and better science is driving the evidence, impacting the litigants and the courts. That points at major changes to the litigation landscape. More granular geographical evidence allows local litigants to more accurately make a case for connecting emissions and pollutants … [Read more...]
The U.S. needs a plan to transfer electricity long distance between regions, like Europe and China
In the U.S. several hundred thousand miles of power lines connect thousands of electric generators. But whereas Europe and China, at a similar scale, have continental-scale grid development plans, the U.S. does not. Its grid is highly fragmented and consists of not one, but three separate power grids that are almost completely isolated from one another. It has twelve different transmission planning regions that must coordinate much better to cope … [Read more...]
How to protect marine mammals from the coming roll-out of Offshore Wind
The EUâs target for offshore wind is an installed capacity of at least 60 GW by 2030, and 300 GW by 2050. It will use the vast potential of the five EU sea basins, in particular the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. But growing awareness and concern over their impact on the marine ecosystem will require new methods of protecting sea life from the consequences. Isla Graham at the University of Aberdeen describes the work of her team on measuring … [Read more...]
What if Exxon had acted on its 1970s climate forecast? No climate crisis, cheap energy, Exxon the unrivalled top global energy firm
In January the world media widely covered a paper published in Science that looked at the internal Exxon report that predicted the climate change crisis we now all know we are facing. The paper concludes that the Exxon forecasts were very accurate. John Grant at Sheffield Hallam University composes a counterfactual history of what would have happened in Exxon and the world had taken the report seriously and acted immediately. Yes, weâd have … [Read more...]
Understanding the new EU ETS (Part 2): Buildings, Road Transport, Fuels. And how the revenues will be spent
A fortnight ago we published Simon Gössâs explainer of the big changes happening to the EUâs Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). That article covered the new rules coming in for the existing EU ETS, and the implementation of the new carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM). This article explains the introduction of an EU ETS II that extends emissions trading to the buildings sector, road transport and the usage of fuels in other, as of now not … [Read more...]
Wind and Solar generated record 20% of EU electricity in 2022. More than gas, nuclear, hydro, coal
Now 2022 is over, the figures are in for all the main electricity generation types. For the first time ever, wind and solar delivered more electricity in 2022 than gas, nuclear, hydro or coal. In total, thatâs a record one-fifth of the EUâs electricity last year. We can thank the âtriple crisisâ of Russian gas cuts, the 500-year record droughtâs effect on hydro, and the unexpected French nuclear shutdowns for the renewed drive for wind and solar. … [Read more...]
Steel decarbonisation: Australia must stop making excuses and follow Europeâs lead
Australian steel makers, major global exporters, must stop making excuses about decarbonisation and look to Europe for a role model, argues Simon Nicholas at IEEFA. A pattern of behaviour by Australiaâs steel makers reveals that their excuse is that low-carbon solutions are not yet ready, leaving only promises of carbon capture (as yet unproven at scale) some time in the future. Nicholas notes that these promises will never have to be kept by the … [Read more...]
Can new cheap, frequent âlaserâ monitoring of critical components extend Nuclear plant lifetimes by decades?
For nuclear to thrive, rather than retreat and be displaced by alternatives, plants reaching the end of their lifetimes need to be replaced with new ones. Or, perhaps more interestingly, can the existing plants have their lifetimes greatly extended, safely and cheaply? David Chandler at MIT describes new research led by MIT to detect and measure defects in critical components to ensure that damage from heat and radiation has not led, and will not … [Read more...]
Wind (and Solar) need their own Financial Transmission Rights to hedge their unique congestion risks
Financial Transmission Rights (FTRs) help generators and load-serving entities hedge congestion-related risk. Transmission congestion causes a divergence between wholesale power prices where it is generated and the trading hubs where it is delivered and sold. Because the congestion, and therefore the risk, varies over time it is particularly important to variable renewables. That uncertainty increases investor risk which potentially slows … [Read more...]
The U.S. should support the EUâs Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
The U.S. should get behind Europeâs Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), says Joseph Majkut at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Under the EUâs newest agreement, anyone importing CBAM-listed goods into Europe will have to report the emissions associated with their products starting in October, and ultimately face tariffs if those emissions exceed those of the equivalent products made in the EU. The current list is iron and … [Read more...]
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