Germany’s  coalition partners have concluded a treaty that may set a final deadline for coal-fired power production in Germany, Clean Energy Wire reports. A commission will decide the timeline for phasing out coal, under a coalition deal agreed between the social democrats and Angela Merkel’s conservatives. … [Read more...]
New German government adopts coal phase-out in all but name
The coalition accord between Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz includes an increase in the renewables target in the electricity mix from 50% to 65% by 2030. Jon Berntsen and Anders Nordeng of Thomson Reuters Point Carbon have analysed how this will impact the German energy sector and conclude that it is a coal phaseout policy in all but name. … [Read more...]
Microgrids: from niche to $100 billion market
Energy experts at Navigant Research are convinced that micro-grids are moving from a niche novelty to mainstream, writes Fereidoon Sioshansi, publisher of newsletter EEnergy Informer. They forecast cumulative micro-grid investments of over $100 billion over the next decade, much of it in North America and Asia. Europe is lagging behind, but Finland may represent a growth market. Sioshansi takes a closer look at what microgrids are and how they … [Read more...]
Empowering the powerless: here is how we can end energy poverty
Millions of people die prematurely of indoor pollution and other consequences of energy poverty. Centralized power systems have failed them, writes Jatin Nathwani of the University of Waterloo. But there is a way to empower the powerless: with microgrids and decentralized technologies. Courtesy The Conversation. … [Read more...]
Rapid wind and solar cost declines keep pushing fossil fuels out. How far can they go?
Rapid cost declines made renewable energy the United States’ cheapest available source of new electricity, without subsidies, in 2017, writes Silvio Marcacci of think tank Energy Innovation. In many parts of the U.S., building new wind is cheaper than running existing coal, while nuclear and natural gas aren’t far behind, notes Marcacci. As renewable energy costs continue their relentless decline, they keep pushing fossil fuels further from … [Read more...]
French people support energy transition (more than nuclear power)
France is at a crossroads, writes Jules Hebert, program coordinator at the Heinrich Böll Foundation office in Paris. It can pursue a renewed nuclear model – or follow the German example and invest massively in renewable energy. It is often said that the French people support the nuclear path, notes Hebert – but a recent survey comes to a different conclusion. Article courtesy Energy Transition/Global Energiewende. … [Read more...]
Should the energy future of the U.S. depend on cheap solar imports?
The decision by the Trump administration to impose tariffs on the imports of solar panels has been widely criticized, as it is seen to undermine the growth of the solar energy sector in the U.S. However, independent energy analyst Geoffrey Styles believes there are some good reasons to support the measure. The Chinese government after all heavily supports its own industry. What is more, if solar power is as important to future U.S. energy supply … [Read more...]
The sorry state of demand response in the U.S.
While peak demand grew, the use of demand response declined by 10% last year in the U.S., writes Fereidoon Sioshansi, publisher of newsletter EEnergy Informer and editor of Innovation & Disruption at the Grid’s Edge. The decline is no incident, notes Sioshansi: regulators are failing to take an active role. Millions of advanced meters are performing dumb tasks. … [Read more...]
Are renewable energy cost reductions coming to an end? What next?
Renewable energy’s steep cost reductions may be tapering off, as investments levels are flat and system costs are becoming more important than component costs, writes independent energy expert Roger Arnold. According to Arnold,this implies that policy support should shift to storage and infrastructural approaches. … [Read more...]
China takes steps to stimulate distributed renewable energy generation
China’s spectacular expansion of its solar power capacity is mostly based on utility-scale solar, but distributed solar is also taking off, write Max Dupuy and Wang Xuan, two China experts from the globally operating Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP). According to Dupuy and Xuan, this trend may be expected to continue, as the Chinese government is creating new business and regulatory models to stimulate distributed solar PV and other … [Read more...]
Will China’s Belt and Road Initiative help or hinder clean energy?
China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the broad infrastructure and market-building initiative of the world’s second-largest economy, has a different feel than trade agreements initiated in the West – and it could have major implications for the future of energy across many parts of the world, writes Sonia Aggarwal, Vice President of think tank Energy Innovation, and Director of America’s Power Plan. … [Read more...]
Winds of change: Britain now generates twice as much electricity from wind as coal
Just six years ago, more than 40% of Britain’s electricity was generated by burning coal. Today, that figure is just 7%. Yet if the story of 2016 was the dramatic demise of coal and its replacement by natural gas, then 2017 was most definitely about the growth of wind power, write Grant Wilson and Iain Staffell. Courtesy The Conversation. … [Read more...]
Roadmap to nowhere: the myth of powering the nation 100% with renewable energy
Renewables have captured the public’s imagination,but can they actually be scaled up to power the entire nation, ask Mike Conley and Tim Maloney? In their new ebook, available at RoadmapToNowhere.com, they present their reasons why they are convinced 100% renewables is a myth - and why we should rely primarily on nuclear power. … [Read more...]
Trump’s “America First” energy policy puts China ahead in energy
China has indicated it is set to launch a crude oil futures contract in yuan, which could be a significant step towards the de-dollarization of the global economy. It is a sign of China’s growing confidence – and the U.S.’s declining influence, writes Friedbert PflĂĽger, Director of the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS). According to PflĂĽger, President Trump’s “America First” policy is having the opposite effect: it is … [Read more...]
Why we shouldn’t be so quick to trust energy modelling
In Australia a fierce debate is raging over the future of the national electricity market. The arguments from the government and its critics are all based on energy models, but the outcome of models strongly depends on their underlying assumptions, writes Hugh Saddler of Australian National University. These are difficult to verify, since all models that are used are proprietary and cannot be independently evaluated. One way to move past the … [Read more...]
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