Which car firm will dominate the future? Tesla and its BEVs or Toyota with its hybrids? Schalk Cloete looks at the cost reductions coming down the line. He says that the hybrids have many more improvements on the way, whereas in terms of performance and efficiency the BEVs are already reaching their peak. Though further and considerable progress in battery technology is coming, it will benefit both. For city driving both will rely on battery … [Read more...]
Net Zero by 2050 technically and economically achievable, says Energy Transitions Commission report
Making Mission Possible, the latest report by the Energy Transitions Commission, describes a net-zero world by mid-century as technically and economically possible. The solutions are already available or close to being brought to market. What is still missing is the will to embrace, rapidly and at scale, the inevitable disruption that will ultimately deliver net-zero emissions, lower air pollution, cheaper energy bills, create new jobs and raise … [Read more...]
MGA blocks can substitute for coal, preserving plants, grid connectivity and jobs
Rather than dismantle coal plants, why not create a clean fuel that can be used in the same plants, utilising the steam turbines, existing connections to the grid, and preserve jobs at the plant. MGA (miscibility gap alloy) is that fuel, say Erich Kisi and Alexander Post at the University of Newcastle, Australia who are behind the development of these blocks of material, 20cm x 20cm x 16cm, made of blended metals. They are heated up – using … [Read more...]
Gas oversupply and clean energy’s rise: now is the time to fast-track gas market reforms
Traditional monopolistic and oligopolistic gas markets artificially keep gas prices high, work against competition and efficiency, and have no place in the modern world, say Jean-Baptiste Dubreuil, Gergely Molnar and Songho Jeon at the IEA. They calculate that gas market reforms in the EU, begun in the mid 1990s, saved the bloc $15bn in 2019. But it typically takes 20 years for such a market to be properly established. The authors explain that … [Read more...]
ANEEL: Thorium-based reactor fuel could revive Nuclear’s fortunes
A public-private consortium backed by the U.S. DoE is developing a new nuclear fuel – a mix of thorium and uranium – that looks like a major advance on the fuels currently in use, says Jim Conca. Called “Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life” (ANEEL), it has a very high fuel burn-up rate (55,000 MWd/T) compared to the usual uranium (7,000 MWd/T). That high burn-up reduces the waste by over 80%. Less spent fuel means less refuelling, less … [Read more...]
Sweden’s new “prosumers”: electricity generation at the city, village and residential level
54% of Sweden’s power already comes from renewables – the target is 100% by 2040 - and more and more is being generated locally on a small distributed scale, says Harry Kretchmer writing for the World Economic Forum. ‘District Heating’ plants are today using excess heat to warm over 75% of Swedish homes. Residential generation is happening too, creating “prosumers” who both produce and consume. In Ludivika, 1970s flats have been retrofitted with … [Read more...]
The Energy Charter Treaty needs updating, but remains a valuable tool for the transition
Last Thursday we published this critique of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). Created in the 1990s, the ECT was designed to protect cross-border energy investments from political risk. Critics now say it is being used to protect fossil fuel investments in a world committed to phasing them out. Today, Andrei Belyi of energy consulting firm Balesene OU and Adjunct Professor in Energy Law and Policy at the University of Eastern Finland, who was named … [Read more...]
Perovskites: the next generation of solar cells and lighting?
Enthusiasm about the discoveries being made about perovskite materials is spreading, explains Sam Stranks at the University of Cambridge. Perovskite solar cells hit 25.2% efficiency in 2019, not far off crystalline silicon cells at 26.7%. Research is suggesting that figure could rise higher still. Perovskite can be “tuned” to absorb particular frequencies of light, allowing different layers of perovskites to absorb different and therefore more … [Read more...]
No more “offsetting”: Google commits to 24/7 locally sourced carbon-free electricity by 2030
By “offsetting” fossil electricity consumed at one data centre through buying green power from somewhere else, Google has been 100% renewable since 2017. But offsetting always has its flaws. In this case, 40% of Google’s actual power still comes from fossil fuels. Google’s new plan, to be 100% green 24/7 straight off the local grid, is designed to solve that. It will also send market signals to increase clean capacity locally, not just where you … [Read more...]
BP Outlook 2020: “peak oil” has already happened
BP’s latest Outlook predicts – for the first time - that oil saw its peak in 2019. In each of BP’s Outlooks, published annually since 2011, they have revised their predictions for the global energy landscape to 2050 as new data comes in. The growth of clean energy and the changing shape of climate policies have seen each successive forecast increase the share of renewables at the expense of fossil fuels. This year even gas has seen its prospects … [Read more...]
Norway’s power markets, storage and CCS plans can make it a decarbonisation hub for Europe
Though still heavily reliant on oil and gas, Norway can claim to be a central piece in Europe’s decarbonisation puzzle, explains Tshin Ilya Chardayre writing for the IFRI Centre for Energy & Climate. Norway’s substantial hydropower infrastructure gives it a reservoir storage capacity that could account for 10% of EU-wide energy storage needs by 2050. That would require international transmission cables and power markets, the development of … [Read more...]
Energy Charter Treaty: reform will only happen when energy ministers get involved
Negotiations are underway for the reform of the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), an international trade agreement under fire from former Energy Charter executives, members of the European Parliament, and NGOs. Created at the end of the cold war, it was designed to protect cross-border energy investments – in a fossil fuel world – from political risk. Clare Taylor quotes the critics who say it no longer makes sense for the treaty to protect oil and … [Read more...]
Grid scale Battery costs are declining faster than Wind and Solar
Gas as a transition fuel for grids may be around for a lot less time than we thought. We already know that large batteries, if they are cheap enough, can replace gas plants to provide peaking power to grids reliant on intermittent wind and solar. Bruce Robertson at IEEFA says the numbers are showing battery costs declining even more rapidly than wind and solar. Precisely because of that increased competitiveness Australia’s AGL Energy is starting … [Read more...]
Hydrogen, CCS, and more: without new clean energy technologies we cannot hit our 2050 emissions targets
The flagship 400-page report, Energy Technology Perspectives 2020, is another salvo from the IEA to concentrate the minds of the world on new technologies and their roll out. That’s because transforming electrification and the power sector alone, where most of the progress is happening, will only get us one-third of the way to net-zero emissions by 2050. The IEA has analysed over 800 new technology options. The most important categories – … [Read more...]
The expansion of Europe’s EV charging infrastructure: new rules and incentives needed
In 2021 the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive, which regulates public charging infrastructure, will be revised and updated by the European Commission. Referencing her study, Julia Hildermeier at RAP identifies some of the rules and incentives that will be needed to optimise the expansion of EV charging infrastructure. To start with, she says that EU countries need to define the baseline essential charging network. Such a promise would … [Read more...]
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