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Energy Post

The best thinkers on energy

VW joins Tesla and BMW – EV and energy company all-in-one pays for business and consumers

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Last week’s announcement by VW that it is setting up a company called “Elli” (short for Electric Life) offering energy services shows VW’s vision of what lies ahead for the automotive industry. It brings them head to head with Tesla and BMW who are already playing a role outside the traditional bounds of the car business. They are the new breed, ready to profit from customers who want to go electric as long as it makes financial as well as … [Read more...]

The Saudi Dilemma: To Cut Or Not To Cut 

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Following November's G20 meeting in Buenos Aires and the ensuing OPEC meeting earlier this month, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is still left scratching its head. 90% of the Kingdom's income comes from Oil. As US shale keeps piling on the pressure, some argue they have enough in the bank to fund higher production levels and even lower prices for another 10-years. But their Vision 2030 initiative, to radically diversify their economy, also requires … [Read more...]

IEA: Future is electric and increasingly renewable

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"The IEA is no longer the conservative bastion of oil it once was" writes Fereidoon Sioshansi. Distilling all 650 pages of their latest Outlook, he summarises how the pressing need to address climate change means the dwindling supremacy of oil is giving way to a growing role for electricity that will, amongst other things, cater for 1 billion EVs by 2040. Courtesy EEnergy Informer … [Read more...]

The impact of electric vehicles on electricity demand

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Many in the industry are relying on electric vehicles (EVs) to reverse the downward trend in global electricity consumption. But a new report from Redburn, a UK research and investment company, suggests the growing energy efficiency of EVs means that the industry and investors may have to look elsewhere for significant boosts in demand for electrical power, says energy expert Fereidoon Sioshansi of EEinformer. … [Read more...]

How do ambitious climate pledges impact economic growth?

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At the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, delegates from all over the world made ambitious commitments to tackle climate change. But how will their actions impact economic growth? Chris Busch of think-tank Energy Innovation compares manufacturing and employment data from climate leader California to laggard Texas and the US as a whole. His findings suggest that climate actions are affordable and even provide a boost to economies. … [Read more...]

Hydrogen is heading up the European policy agenda

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Hydrogen’s momentum is building, as European ministers consider approving a new ‘Hydrogen Initiative’ this week that aims to “maximise the great potential of sustainable hydrogen technology.” With funding from the EU’s Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, a consortium of industrial heavyweights in the H2FUTURE project is already ramping up production of hydrogen from renewable sources. But, as the International Renewable Energy Agency notes … [Read more...]

The celebrity couple: intermittent renewables and electric cars

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Even though storing intermittent wind and solar power in electric car batteries sounds attractive, this will be impractical and expensive in practice, writes Schalk Cloete. Electric cars have much clearer synergies with baseload power plants, while excess wind and solar power is better suited to H2/synfuel production.  … [Read more...]

Un-SAFE: Trump clean cars rollback could cost $450 billion, increase emissions 11%

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Trump’s fuel economy standard rollback will be a disaster for the United States, write Jeffrey Rissman and Robbie Orvis of California-based think tank Energy Innovation. It will harm American consumers and the transport sector and sharply drive up emissions. The only winners will be oil companies. … [Read more...]

Interview Sytse Zuidema, CEO EV charging leader NewMotion: “Charging at home and office will become the norm”

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Over the next five years the European mobility market – as well as the electricity market – will undergo a transformation, says Sytse Zuidema, CEO of NewMotion, Europe’s largest EV charging company, acquired last year by Shell. The Amsterdam-based company is already developing products that anticipate on the coming digitalization of the energy value chain, such as a highly advanced vehicle-to-grid (V2G) charger and apps that tell people at the … [Read more...]

How rapidly can we transition to 100% renewable electricity?

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Science tells us that, to avoid devastating climate change, we must rapidly cut greenhouse gas emissions to zero. How fast is possible, asks Mark Diesendorf  of the Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia. He believes the sceptics may be wrong. … [Read more...]

Electric buses can save local governments billions – China’s showing how it’s done

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New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco - America's largest cities are switching their entire bus fleets from diesel to electric. They will save money in the long run, but how to overcome upfront financing hurdles? According to Silvio Marcacci of think tank Energy Innovation, Shenzhen in China, which has the world's first 100% all-electric bus fleet, provides useful lessons.   … [Read more...]

Why we will electrify trucking faster than you think (and it has nothing to do with Tesla)

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Many people still doubt that trucks will become electrified. But according to financial energy specialist Gerard Reid, the adoption of electric vehicle technology in the freight sector will take place faster than expected. He gives four reasons why he is positive about electric trucks. Courtesy Carbon and Energy blog. … [Read more...]

A common goal for all sustainability advocates

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Nothing is better for fossil fuel interests than current government policies supporting wind, solar and electric cars, writes independent researcher Schalk Cloete. These green technologies won't reduce fossil fuel consumption sufficiently for a long time to come, so the fossil fuel sector will be able to survive that much longer. In the third and last part of  a series on green technology-forcing, Cloete calls on all sustainability advocates to … [Read more...]

Three new energy companies finding value in three new business models

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Not a day goes by without news of a new start-up or one that has been flying under the radar, writes energy expert and author Fereidoon Sioshansi. In this article, he takes a closer look at three of them, which seem to have promising business models: Open Utility, OhmConnect and Off Grid Electric. Courtesy EEnergy Informer.  … [Read more...]