Don’t believe the spurious claims of nuclear shills constantly putting down renewables, writes Mark Diesendorf, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at UNSW Australia. Clean, safe renewable energy technologies have the potential to supply 100% of the world’s electricity demand – but the first hurdle is to refute the deliberately misleading myths designed to promote the politically powerful but ultimately doomed nuclear … [Read more...]
Renewables in China and India: two Asian giants struggling with inflexible power system operations
China and India are building huge amounts of solar and wind power, but a lot of this capacity is wasted as it cannot be integrated into the grid. In China the problems stem mostly from rigid planning processes and compensation systems. In India, the stumbling block is state-owned distribution operators that have an incentive not to increase access to electricity. In both countries, reforms are contemplated but will be difficult to achieve. This … [Read more...]
Can we save the algae biofuel industry?
Over the last decade or so, energy companies, including the likes of Shell and ExxonMobil, have invested large amounts of money in algal biofuels, only to find that the economics didn’t make sense, writes Christian Ridley, Research Associate in Plant Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge. However, according to Ridley, there still is a way forward for the industry, if the production of biodiesel from algae can be combined with production of … [Read more...]
European researchers: include consumers in the EU Emission Trading Scheme
The EU Emission Trading Scheme should not only be applied to industrial producers of CO2, but also to their consumers, proposes Karsten Neuhoff, Head of the Climate Policy Department at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). This would provide sufficient incentives to all market players to reduce their emissions and would do a lot to clarify the structure of free allowance allocation, providing long-term certainty for … [Read more...]
OPEC has turned into battleground between Saudi Arabia and Iran
The next OPEC meeting on the 2nd of June will act as little more than a forum for continued altercations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, writes Rakesh Upadhyay of Oilprice.com. Relations between the two countries have reached a new low. The smaller OPEC nations have little choice but to remain spectators. … [Read more...]
Oil: not yesterday’s fuel – just yet
The new hype is to say that the end of the oil age is near. In the long run, the importance of oil will diminish, write Peter Simon Vargha, Chief Economist at  Hungarian oil and gas company MOL and his colleague Csaba Pogonyi, but before that some good years for oil are likely. Just as high prices reduced the likely future demand for oil, low prices will probably prolong its use. … [Read more...]
Why both incumbents and disruptors are struggling in the new energy market
The energy world is changing fast. Investments into renewable energy are outpacing investments into conventional energy. The incumbents, unused to this pace of change and tied down by large asset bases and long-term investment strategies, are struggling. But they are not the only ones. The disruptors are also finding it difficult to build new energy businesses. In fact, many of the companies that will in the end be able to benefit from the energy … [Read more...]
What happens when demand for oil peaks?
A gradual move away from oil, will have many benefits for the global economy, write Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of energy and sustainability at the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, and Jeroen van der Veer, former CEO of Royal Dutch Shell. According to Myers Jaffe and Van der Veer, a diminished role for oil means markets will become more stable and costly price subsidies can be reduced. The authors, both members of the new … [Read more...]
A bipartisan US climate policy – crazy? Here is what it could look like
In the middle of one of the United States’ most contentious elections seasons in living memory, talk of a bipartisan climate policy may seem like an esoteric idea. Climate action appears to cause particularly deep divisions between the Republican and Democratic parties. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, refuses to even acknowledge the problem of anthropogenic climate change, while Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton … [Read more...]
Saudi Arabia needs realism – not a 2030 vision
The recently published economic reform plan for Saudi Arabia, Vision 2030, is completely unrealistic, writes ex-Shell geoscientist Jilles van den Beukel.  He argues that it should be seen in the light of Mohammed bin Salman’s grab for power. The deputy crown prince, the King's favourite and de facto ruler of the country, has a limited time span to solidify his power base, given the frail health of his father. Van den Beukel argues that only … [Read more...]
Time for Europe to stop supporting Ukraine’s risky nuclear power sector
Three decades after Chernobyl, nuclear power remains a mainstay of Ukrainian energy supply, writes Iryna Holovko, campaigner of NGO CEE Bankwatch Network in Ukraine. Despite persistent safety problems, the Ukrainian government has approved lifetime extensions for four of its 15 nuclear units since 2010, and two more could be greenlighted later this year. What is more, Holovko adds, Ukraine’s nuclear sector survives in part thanks to European … [Read more...]
Oil giants pile into “new energies”
Major oil companies like Total, ExxonMobil, Statoil and Shell have announced moves into “new energies”, writes Jason Deign, editor and publisher of Energy Storage Report. But according to Deign, it is hard to see how they can fight their way back into a renewable industry already sewn up by large players. The one remaining niche may be energy storage, which is still dominated by cash-hungry startups. … [Read more...]
Bakken shows: US tight oil production is up against its limits
Geology, drilling efficiency and increased focus on the best producing areas have all contributed to the dramatic increase in drilling productivity over the last 10 years in the Bakken, argue Jilles van den Beukel (ex-Principal Geoscientist with Shell) and Enno Peters. The contribution from technology is much smaller; for a given well location the well productivity has hardly improved. This has important implications: Van den Beukel and Peters … [Read more...]
Out of reach without nuclear and shale
Contrary to what some politicians are arguing, US emission reduction goals for 2025 cannot be achieved without nuclear power and shale gas, argues Geoffrey Styles, Managing Director of independent US-based consultancy GSW Strategy Group. Recent official revisions from the Environmental Protection Agency  (EPA) on estimated methane leaks from gas production and use do not negate the benefits of gas in recducing  emssions, he adds.  … [Read more...]
Has China’s coal use peaked? Here’s how to read the tea leaves
As the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, how much coal China is burning is of global interest, writes Valerie J. Karplus of the MIT Sloan School of Management. According to Karplus, an expert on Chinese energy, China's reported leveling off of coal use may be both real and sustainable. Nevertheless, there is one scenario in which coal use could easily go back up again: high oil and natural gas prices. In addition, it is likely that … [Read more...]
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