The UK has just completed another auction for a large amount of backup power capacity. The countryâs capacity market scheme will cost ratepayers many billions of pounds. Independent consultant Gerard Wynn wonders if they are really necessary. … [Read more...]
Lumenaza creates regional electricity markets: âWe want to connect up all 1.4 million solar PV producers in Germany with consumers locallyâ
A new software platform in Germany lets utilities buy and sell âregional electricityâ by connecting up small producers with consumers. Start-up Lumenaza, founded three years ago, meets a growing demand for transparency, explains CEO and founder Christian Chudoba in an exclusive interview with Energy Post. Unlike a typical virtual power plant, Lumenaza targets tiny producers such as owners of rooftop solar. Its goal is to connect up all of … [Read more...]
Interview Francesco Starace, CEO Enel:Â âWe have stopped investing in projects that take more than 2 or 3 years”
âOur aim is to grow the use of electricity as energy vectorâ. This is how Francesco Starace, CEO of Enel, one of the worldâs largest utilities and perhaps the biggest producer of renewable energy in the world, describes the strategic goal of his company. According to Starace, the utility of the future owns and manages a digitised grid that connects up decentralised green energy sources and is at the centre of a whole new system of energy products … [Read more...]
Corporate Americaâs huge appetite for clean energy
An increasing number of corporations are directly buying or building their own clean electricity, writes Elias Hinckley, a US-based strategic energy advisor. Companies across the business spectrum, ranging from Apple to Dow, General Motors and Bank of America, have set goals for 100% renewable power. Hinckley explains the reasons for this trend and notes that energy suppliers and investors cannot afford to ignore this huge new market. … [Read more...]
Energy prices, not capacity mechanisms, are key to ensuring reliability at the lowest cost
Electricity generators often claim that prices cannot fully reflect the value of the reliability they offer the market. Hence they insist they need separate capacity payments to justify investments. But according to Mike Hogan of the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), the current energy market design is fully able to reflect the value of reliability, even if it doesnât always do so in practice. In a new report, he describes a smarter approach, … [Read more...]
Ukrainian crisis can be solved – with an Energiewende
A Ukrainian Energiewende could go a long way to resolving the current geopolitical crisis around the country, writes Oleg Savitsky of the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine in a new report for the Succow Stiftung. According to Savitsky, it would reduce Ukraineâs dependence on Russian gas and uranium as well as on coal from the breakaway regions, while at the same time reducing pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and the risk of a nuclear … [Read more...]
Interview Professor Han Wenke: âChinaâs energy sector is opening upâ
Less coal. Less bureaucracy. More renewables. More market. Those are four key elements in the ânew balanceâ China is seeking in its energy sector, after years of huge growth in fossil fuel consumption. Professor Han Wenke, Director-General of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), Chinaâs largest ministry, explains the ramifications of the new Five-Year Plan for the energy sector in an interview … [Read more...]
Hinkley Point C delay: how to exploit this attack of common sense in energy policy
Without Hinkley Point C, the potential to have a real and considered debate about the future shape of the electricity system has loomed into view, writes Bridget Woodman, Course Director, MSc Energy Policy, at the University of Exeter. According to Woodman, the UK governmentâs decision to delay a final go-ahead on the project makes it possible to start debating the sorts of options being considered widely around the world, with measures to … [Read more...]
As Hinkley Point C put on ice: the UK needs to get over energy megaprojects
The UK needs to get over the idea that megaprojects are the solution to everything, writes David Elmes, Head of Warwick Business School Global Energy Research Network. As the traditional investors in British oil, gas and electricity look smaller and less able to take on large projects, the UK needs an industrial energy strategy centred on a mix of smaller and larger projects. Courtesy of The Conversation. … [Read more...]
How solar growth will wreck the economics of existing power markets
Continued solar growth could lead to significant decreases in wholesale electricity prices during most peak hours, writes Alex Gilbert, cofounder of US-based energy research platform Spark Library, in an article analysing the effects of solar power on electricity markets. While lower wholesale prices can impact solarâs growth they will also hurt other energy sources, particularly coal and nuclear but also natural gas and energy efficiency. … [Read more...]
EPHâs takeover of Vattenfallâs lignite assets should ring alarm bells in Berlin and Stockholm
By taking over the German lignite assets of Vattenfall, Czech utility EPH shows it believes in the future of lignite in Germany. This raises questions for the German government about its climate policies - and for the Swedish government which has to decide on the deal, writes Julian Schwartzkopff, researcher at energy and climate think tank E3G. … [Read more...]
Injecting energy into the agenda of trade negotiators
Barriers to trade and investment in energy goods and services, long neglected, are starting to  be addressed by trade negotiators in the World Trade Organisation and outside of it. The process of integrating the energy dimension to trade policy is however still in its infancy. An upcoming report from the World Energy Council aims to offer trade officials a policy agenda. Iana Dreyer, editor of Borderlex.eu, a newsletter specialised in EU trade … [Read more...]
Dispelling the nuclear baseload myth: nothing renewables can’t do better
The main claim used to justify nuclear is that itâs the only low carbon power source that can supply âreliable, base load electricity. But not only can renewables supply baseload power, they can do something far more valuable: supply power flexibly according to demand, writes Mark Diesendorf, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at UNSW Australia. That, says Diesendorf, makes nuclear power really redundant. (This article … [Read more...]
The inexorable shift of the US power sector
The growth of renewable energy in the US is based on fundamental economic, environmental and security benefits that it provides, writes David Littell of the Regulatory Assistance Project. This is why the renewables train canât be stopped anymore. … [Read more...]
How much can the next president influence the US energy system?
There have been dramatic changes in the U.S. energy system under our current president â a big drop in the use of coal, a boom in domestic oil and gas development from fracking, and the rapid spread of renewable energy. But in terms of influencing energy technology deployment, the next president will have a lot less influence than you might expect, writes Carey King, Research Scientist at the University of Texas. … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- …
- 16
- Next Page »