Various policy driven scenarios show electric vehicles (EVs) gaining market share over the next few decades but the question is by how much. According to Adam Whitmore, independent energy advisor, there are reasons to assume that annual sales of EVs will account for 7-22% of the vehicle stock by 2030. By 2050 they will account for a majority of light vehicles on the road. … [Read more...]
Is the EPR nuclear reactor fit for the current market?
Areva’s third-generation EPR nuclear reactor has had a troublesome start, with heavy delays and cost overruns in the two units under construction in Finland and France. Two other units that are being built in China are doing better. But is it a wise decision for the UK to let EDF build an EPR at Hinkley Point C? Quentin Philippe, investor at London-based private equity fund Actis, takes a critical look at the EPR. He concludes that not all its … [Read more...]
Why hydrogen fuel cell cars are not competitive — from a hydrogen fuel cell expert
The widespread introduction of hydrogen fuel cell cars is a bad idea, writes Zachary Shahan, editor of Cleantechnica.com. According to Shahan, hydrogen fuel cell cars will never be able to compete with battery-electric cars. Policymakers should focus on stimulating electric transportation. Courtesy Cleantechnica.com. … [Read more...]
How to build a wind turbine
In case you thought that building a wind turbine is a fairly simple matter, this video from Siemens USA gives you an idea of what is involved. A lot of concrete, for one thing. We wanted to share this with our readers. We hope you like it. … [Read more...]
Dutch research project shows costs offshore wind can be reduced 40% in ten years
The Dutch research programme FLOW (Far and Large Offshore Wind energy) shows that a well-coordinated approach between industry, knowledge institutes and government can achieve 40% cost reduction in ten years in the offshore wind sector. In about ten to fifteen years, offshore wind should be able to manage without subsidies. … [Read more...]
A fundamental transformation: “renewables win race on costs”
The cost of wind and solar power will continue to fall massively over the next 25 years, bringing about a fundamental transformation of the global electricity sector, according to new reports from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Electric cars will boom, cheap batteries will be everywhere and there will no Golden Age of Gas, despite continued low gas prices, BNEF predicts. … [Read more...]
Energy crops have been a major flop with farmers – here’s why
In only a few years, biomass has become a major UK power source, supplying 3% of the total electricity supply. However, despite government incentives, UK farmers are largely unwilling to grow the feedstock for the biomass plants. Most of it has to be imported. Charles Warren, Senior Lecturer Geography and Sustainable Development at the University of St. Andrews, tried to find out why – and came to some very instructive conclusions. Courtesy The … [Read more...]
Europe can retrieve its lost clean energy leadership by moving away from subsidizing renewables
Europe can win back its lost clean energy leadership by moving away from subsidy-powered renewables, writes Christopher Burghardt, Vice-President Business Development Europe at First Solar and a member of the Board of Directors of Solar Power Europe. Rather than subsidizing renewables, Burghardt argues, Europe should stimulate utility-scale energy production by independent power producers, just as other markets around the world are … [Read more...]
TTIP and energy security: do Europeans still want US LNG?
When TTIP talks were launched in 2013, Europeans were keen to tap into the United States oil and gas bonanza resulting from the country’s shale revolution to help reduce prices and shake off the continent’s too-heavy reliance on Russian hydrocarbons. But now US shale gas is arrriving in Europe, regardless of TTIP, writes Iana Dreyer, editor of Borderlex, an independent newsletter on EU trade policy. According to Dreyer, national politics in … [Read more...]
The Big Chill: why the Energy Union is on hold [premium content]
Terrorist attacks and  the spectre of Brexit have cast a shadow over Brussels, including the great Energy Union project. But there are deeper reasons why the Energy Union, one of the top priorities of the European Commission, is running into serious difficulties. Power markets are still overwhelmingly determined by national policies and member states resist EU-wide initiatives in many crucial energy policy areas, writes Sonja van Renssen. … [Read more...]
On track for a Golden Age of Gas?
The global energy industry must overcome significant new challenges if natural gas development is to achieve the vision of a Golden Age of Gas, writes Geoffrey Styles, Managing Director of independent US-based consultancy GSW Strategy Group. Low energy prices and reduced investment are only half the battle as regulations complexify and organized opposition grows. … [Read more...]
The ill-fated gas strategy of the oil majors
The recent focus of major oil companies on gas (and LNG in particular) may be ill-fated, writes geophysicist Jilles van den Beukel. Gas is systematically less profitable than oil. And the oversupply of LNG (and resulting low prices) is likely to last much longer than the oversupply of oil. … [Read more...]
Torpedoing the 2030 energy efficiency target
The European Commission, in preparing a new proposal on an EU energy efficiency target, has adopted somewhat more realistic assumptions than it did last time around, writes Brook Riley of Friends of the Earth Europe. But according to Riley, voices inside the Commission still seem to want to torpedo more ambitious efforts: they are aiming for a simple least-cost scenario, without regard for the many benefits of energy efficiency. “That’s daft!” … [Read more...]
Leading by example? Impacts of a domestic French carbon price floor
If enacted, France’s plan for a domestic carbon price floor will lower CO2 emissions and increase power prices in France, but it will only have a marginal impact on total EU CO2 emissions and European carbon prices, write Hæge Fjellheim, Yan Qin and Emil Dimantchev, senior analysts at Thomson Reuters. They surmise that for the French government the plan is a way to lead by example. It will also bring in extra government revenues and improve the … [Read more...]
Greener in Europe? Four reasons the EU can’t be trusted on the environment
Those in favour of Britain’s continued membership of the European Union – although strangely not the UK government’s official campaign to remain in – are increasingly highlighting the contribution Brussels has made to protecting the natural environment. There is some justification for this, writes Professor Steffen Böhm of the University of Exeter, but in several key areas the influence of the EU on UK's environmental policy has been negative … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 129
- 130
- 131
- 132
- 133
- …
- 196
- Next Page »