Taking your own government to court is an indispensable tool for sticking to our climate goals, says Lucien Chabason at the IDDRI. In November, the French State Council (Conseil d'État) gave an interim judgment largely favourable to the municipality/commune of Grande-Synthe following the government's implicit refusal to take additional measures to comply with the Paris Climate Agreement. Grande-Synthe sits on the coast by Dunkirk and is at … [Read more...]
Nuclear-Wind hybrid plants for grid stability, Power-to-X and more
How would you use a nuclear-wind hybrid plant and maximise its potential? When intermittent wind’s output falls, nuclear can step in to feed the grid. When it’s not doing that it can use its power to run the production of a wide range of commodities: from biofuels, hydrogen, pumped hydro to wastewater purification, desalination, chemical manufacturing and more – including straightforward thermal power for industry. In collaboration with NREL, the … [Read more...]
Nine advantages small-scale solutions have for reducing global emissions
Which is best? Spending your budget on a million 1 KW solar panels or a single 1 GW nuclear/hydro/gas plant? Lots of electric bikes or a single tram system? Lots of smart thermostats or whole-building retrofits? Charlie Wilson (University of East Anglia), Caroline Zimm (IIASA) and Simon De Stercke (Imperial College London) summarise their study that lists the advantages of small-scale “granular” solutions over large-scale “lumpy” ones. Granular … [Read more...]
The top Clean Energy developments of 2020
The world is still a long way off the pathway to meeting our emissions goals. But 2020 saw a number of major steps in the right direction. Laurie Stone at RMI presents a list of what has been achieved and which trends and new policy commitments are pointing us towards a much needed faster transition. They include coal’s decline, wind and solar’s growing competitiveness (even compared to gas), the promise of green hydrogen, bans on gas/petrol … [Read more...]
Bioenergy is the undervalued pillar of the clean energy transition
Bioenergy is already the world’s largest source of renewable energy, responsible for 70% of the supply (and around 10% of total primary energy). Burning organic matter goes back to the invention of fire and is still commonplace around the globe. Yet it gets hardly any of the attention and policy support that’s given to other clean energy technologies like solar, wind and now hydrogen. Bioenergy can and should play an even greater role, explain … [Read more...]
Re-designing the EU ETS to ensure a Just Transition [VIDEO]
On November 30th, 2020, we ran a live online panel discussion concerning the re-design of the EU ETS in the wake of new, higher CO2 reduction targets being agreed by the EU. The target now stands at a 55% reduction c/w 1990 levels by 2030, up from 40%. A huge jump in order to keep in line with Paris commitments. The session was moderated by Matthew James, Managing Director at Energy Post and featured interventions from Andrei Marcu (Chairman at … [Read more...]
HYBRIT project: Sweden goes for zero-carbon steel
Europe’s largest iron ore producer, LKAB of Sweden, plans to invest almost €40bn over the next two decades in emissions-free steel production. LKAB, along with Vattenfall and SSAB, are behind the HYBRIT project which intends to grow, fossil-free, Sweden’s steel industry. They will use hydrogen instead of coal as the “reducing agent” to remove the oxygen from the iron ore. Thomas Koch Blank at RMI runs through their strategy and the implications … [Read more...]
A beginner’s guide to European climate laws
Confused by the range of EU and national climate laws? The EU-ETS, the Effort-Sharing Regulation, the Renewable Energy Directive, the Energy Efficiency Directive, the Clean Energy for all Europeans Package, LULUCF, and more? Which are the important ones? Who exactly is making policy, and how? What are the real world effects? Julian Wettengel at Clean Energy Wire has asked experts to improve our understanding by answering a list of questions on … [Read more...]
Coal regions are ideally suited for utility-scale Wind, Solar and jobs
Over 15% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU come from coal-fired energy generation. 18 EU countries still use coal for electricity production. The argument goes that the phasing out of coal threatens the livelihoods of coal workers and their regional economy. But it should be the opposite, argue Elif GĂĽndĂĽzyeli and Jörg MĂĽhlenhoff at CAN Europe. Coal regions are ideally suited for new gigawatt-scale wind and solar. They already have the … [Read more...]
Satellite monitoring of Methane leaks makes policing them more effective
Satellites, drones, and airplanes should be used to detect methane leaks across the million active wells and hundreds of thousands of miles of pipelines across the U.S. That’s because without proper monitoring it’s extremely hard to find leaks, let alone regulate them. Meredith Fowlie at UC Berkeley’s Energy Institute at Haas describes their paper that uses such data to, first, show that 2.3% of upstream natural gas production is leaking. That’s … [Read more...]
How do we get EV payback periods down to 4 years?
The take-off of EVs will happen when the lifetime cost of ownership falls below that for a conventional car. But let’s remember that “lifetime” for a Brit means 4 years as that’s the average period of ownership. Gerard Wynn and Arjun Flora at IEEFA show how the payback period on Gerard’s Renault Zoe ZE50 has been cut by over a fifth simply by signing up to a smart meter tariff. It’s dropped from 10 to 8 years. The UK is nearing the universal roll … [Read more...]
What effect will blending Hydrogen into the Natural Gas network have?
What are the technical barriers to blending hydrogen into the natural gas network? How well will the pipelines cope? How will the blend affect equipment and appliances? What are the costs and environmental impacts? The answers to these key questions are being sought by a collaboration of laboratories, industry and academia led by NREL, called HyBlend. The long-term impact of hydrogen on materials and equipment is still not understood. The effect … [Read more...]
How can Europe help build China’s Hydrogen economy?
On 18th November Energy Post, in partnership with the EU-China Energy Cooperation Platform, hosted a series of online workshops under the theme “China: Carbon Neutral by 2060”. The purpose was to understand the Chinese landscape and uncover opportunities for Europe. Here, the moderator for our “Hydrogen” panel, Gökçe Mete, summarises the workshop which included an expert panel discussion and questions from the audience. Taking part were Tudor … [Read more...]
Nuclear: Does the West’s military need Small Modular Reactors?
The development of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs), generating up to 300MW, are already getting support for civilian purposes. The military in Russia, China and the U.S. are also interested. It should reduce the reliance on long fuel supply lines, the defence of which costs lives. SMRs would be factory made and delivered on site. But Lukas TrakimaviÄŤius says many difficult questions must be answered before the West commits to this solution. … [Read more...]
Five key metrics investors need to steer Oil and Gas firms into decarbonisation
If the oil and gas industry won’t commit to meaningful strategies and milestones to decarbonise, investors must make them, say Ben Ratner at the Environmental Defense Fund and Erin Blanton at Columbia University. Already, Covid has shown how vulnerable the sector is to unexpected change. If the sector refuses to factor in rising decarbonisation ambitions and policies across the globe that vulnerability will continue for decades. At the same time, … [Read more...]
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