What many regarded as unthinkable just a few years ago, is happening today: U.S. utilities are almost effortlessly handling ever increasing levels of intermittent wind power, writes Washington DC-based energy author Dennis Wamsted. What is more, Democratic and Republican politicians are lauding the unprecedented way in which wind and solar resources are transforming low-income rural areas. Wind power is here to stay, regardless of who sits in the … [Read more...]
Saudi Arabia “leaves oil behind” (says ex-oil minister Al-Naimi)
Is Saudi Arabia serious about making the change from the world’s biggest oil exporter to a significant producer – and exporter – of renewable energy? Time will tell, but the country is certainly taking serious first steps, writes Nehad Ismail. … [Read more...]
Carbon capture and use – how climate friendly is it?
The energy industry is increasingly interested in carbon capture and use (CCU) as an alternative to carbon capture and storage (CCS), writes David Hone, Chief Climate Change Advisor at Royal Dutch Shell. But according to Hone, these are two quite different processes, and work still needs to be done to establish the climate credentials of CCU. … [Read more...]
How not to squander $130 trillion – a proposal to put carbon money in wealth funds
The proceeds from carbon pricing should be used to establish wealth funds from which current and future citizens can benefit, proposes energy and climate change economist Adam Whitmore. As all people have equal rights to the atmosphere, all should benefit from the use of this unique resource. … [Read more...]
Exclusive – Klaus Shäfer, CEO Uniper: “Security of supply is too important to leave to the market”
The market on its own cannot be relied upon to deliver secure electricity and gas supplies, says Klaus Schäfer, CEO of Eon-spin-off Uniper, in an exclusive interview with Energy Post. According to Schäfer, it will become “dramatically more difficult” to balance the power market as the share of renewables increases. He also sees the gas market becoming “more and more complex” and argues policymakers should establish minimum requirements for gas … [Read more...]
The $200 billion fossil fuel subsidy you’ve never heard of
In the United States, the official “social cost of carbon” (SCC) enters into many rules and regulations, such as fuel economy standards. According to Amir Jina, the SCC, which currently is calculated to be $36 per ton, shows that the U.S. fossil fuel sector gets $200 billion a year in hidden subsidies. The government should use the SCC to increase the carbon price, argues Jina, but the Trump administration is hardly inclined to do so. First … [Read more...]
China’s renewable energy revolution continues on its long march
In one year China added almost as much generation from renewable power as Germany’s total renewable energy generation, according to the end of January statistics for 2016 by the National Energy Administration of China and the China Electricity Council. Yet the country’s electricity supply still relies strongly on coal, notes Simon Göß of Berlin-based consultancy Energy Brainpool. … [Read more...]
Carbon Tracker: no growth for oil and coal from 2020, gas can flip-flop
Falling costs of electric vehicle and solar technology could halt growth in global demand for oil and coal from 2020, finds a new report co-authored by the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London and the Carbon Tracker Initiative launched on Thursday. The future of natural gas is highly uncertain in this new scenario analysis. … [Read more...]
BP’s Energy Outlook: between forecasting and advocacy
BP’s new Energy Outlook predicts ever-growing demand for oil and gas, and rising emissions that would take the world well beyond 2°C of warming. According to Greg Muttitt, Senior Advisor at NGO Oil Change International, previous Outlooks do not provide much confidence in BP’s projections, but it clearly helps BP if decision-makers believe that’s what the future holds. It looks like the forecasting value of BP’s Outlook is undermined by its use as … [Read more...]
U.S. energy under Trump
Today’s presidential inauguration will trigger the biggest policy and regulatory shift for the US energy industry in at least ten years, writes Geoffrey Styles, Managing Director of independent US-based consultancy GSW Strategy Group. That’s how long it has been since energy policy was set by a Republican president and Congress. Donald Trump is a different kind of Republican, though, and his goal does not seem to be a return to scarcity and high … [Read more...]
What is holding renewable energy back?
For all the enthusiasm about renewables, there are glaring weaknesses being overlooked, writes Todd Royal, an independent strategic consultant, researcher and author based in southern California. According to Royal, for renewable energy to truly break through numerous obstacles such as costs, back-up generation power, storage, and – above all – grid modernization will need to be solved. Article courtesy of OilPrice.com. … [Read more...]
The geopolitics of energy: renewables are not in the race yet
At the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi on 12-13 January, oil executives, Middle Eastern energy ministers and experts in the geopolitics of energy came together to discuss the geopolitical implications of “the energy transformation”. Yet no one presented a vision of what a new global order, based on renewable energy, would look like, writes Karel Beckman, Energy Post’s editor-in-chief. The oil players all embrace renewable … [Read more...]
The year coal collapsed: 2016 was a turning point for Britain’s electricity
Socially and politically, 2016 was a momentous year for Britain. It was also a record breaking year for energy and the environment, but thankfully for all the right reasons, write Grant Wilson of the University of Sheffield and Iain Staffell of Imperial College London. Britain’s electricity was the cleanest it had been in 60 years, as coal collapsed and renewables rose to record levels. Courtesy of the Conversation. … [Read more...]
The burning issue
Fire is at the root of our climate problems and it is time we put it out, writes Walt Patterson, Associate Fellow at Chatham House. “We need to switch from using fire to using electricity.” … [Read more...]
“Negative emissions”: the next challenge for climate policy
If the Paris climate objectives are upheld, policymakers will soon be facing calls to set emission-reduction targets of much more than 100 percent, write Oliver Geden of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin and Stefan Schäfer of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam. But the debate about how to achieve “negative emissions” – and who will have to achieve them – has not even … [Read more...]
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