China is also suffering from an energy crisis. Major industries have had to restrict production, and reports abound of candle-lit dinners, traffic lights failing and people getting trapped in elevators. Its effect has also been global, with Apple, Tesla, Microsoft and Dell saying it’s hitting their supply chains. As Jun Du at Aston University explains, China’s drive to cut coal has collided with post-Covid resurgent demand and an unusually hot … [Read more...]
Appliances and Equipment Efficiency Standards: energy savings rival total Wind & Solar generation
Don’t underestimate the effect of Energy Efficiency Standards and Labelling (EES&L) programmes for appliances and equipment, says the IEA. In other words, the gradual tightening of efficiency rules for things like refrigerators, ACs, TVs, washing machines, cookers, vending machines and other electronics. In the nine countries and regions measured (including the U.S., the EU and China), EES&L programmes reduced electricity consumption by … [Read more...]
Green Finance standards: the EU Taxonomy and China’s “Catalogue”
The EU Taxonomy was published in June 2020. It is the first official document to define and classify what is a truly sustainable economic activity in Europe. Six months later China’s regulators published their own version, a new edition of the China Green Bond Endorsed Project Catalogue (the Catalogue). Both documents will act as important standards for green finance institutions and investors in Europe and China. They are intended to improve … [Read more...]
Nuclear Fusion: U.S. and China race to build world’s first commercial plant
Both the U.S. and China are investing in nuclear fusion, and expecting results. Fusion’s unresolved engineering challenges (getting more power out than you have to put in) must be overcome first. If achieved, it offers the prospect of an almost inexhaustible source of energy. As Dan Yurman explains, this month the U.S. passed a bill that includes $2.8bn for fusion energy-related projects and research. The U.S. Fusion Industry Association said … [Read more...]
Is China really eyeing Afghanistan’s mineral resources?
Press reports of China hoping to strike deals with the Taliban to secure mineral rights in Afghanistan are very likely to be an exaggeration, explains Lukas TrakimaviÄŤius. It’s true that China wants minerals essential to the clean energy transition and other technologies. It’s also true that Afghanistan has an abundance (copper, cobalt, lithium, rare earths, etc.), and they’re worth something of the order of $1tn. But it can take a decade to get … [Read more...]
Record global power sector emissions by 2022, because Renewables aren’t growing fast enough
The IEA is forecasting that renewables will cover only half the projected increase in global electricity demand in 2021 and 2022. Despite renewables’ impressive growth, coal and gas will be needed to cover the rest. That means emissions will rise to record levels. That will be the reverse of the IEA’s (and many others’) “Roadmap to Net Zero by 2050” pathway, where three-quarters of global emissions reductions between 2020 and 2025 come from the … [Read more...]
Super-efficient space cooling can mitigate 0.5°C of warming by 2100
Space cooling eats up 10% of global electricity use, and by 2050 total energy consumed could triple as ownership takes off in developing countries. It’s why the Global Cooling Prize was launched to find AC designs that will have an 80% lower climate impact, explains John Matson at RMI. The two main design goals were to reduce electricity demand, and use refrigerants with lower global warming potential (GWP) than traditional refrigerant gases. The … [Read more...]
Biden’s major report on critical minerals supply: domestic mining + processing, innovation, EVs, global allies + more
In June, The White House issued its 250-page report on the global critical minerals supply chain, and how the U.S. can ensure continued supply as well as build up its own mining and manufacturing base. It is the fullest picture so far of how the U.S. is evaluating mineral access and supply chain resilience, says Reed Blakemore at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center. Here he reviews the report, in particular the section on energy which … [Read more...]
China’s energy system: record renewables expansion, but coal still dominates
Lara Dombrowski and Simon Göss at Energy Brainpool give the latest headline figures for China’s energy system. In 2020 electricity generation in China went up by 298 TWh – an increase equal to 60% of Germany’s total. That year, renewables capacity increased more than ever before. That made China responsible for nearly 50% of global renewable capacity additions. But China has higher CO2 emissions than all the OECD countries combined. And continued … [Read more...]
What patents tell us: which countries, what sectors, are the clean energy innovators?
Today’s solutions cannot give us a successful transition on their own. That’s why the innovations coming down the pipeline are so important. One way to measure what, and who, is innovating is to look at the number of patents being filed for low carbon energy (LCE), explains Sean Fleming writing for the World Economic Forum. He summarises the latest report from the European Patent Office and the IEA, “Patents and the energy transition: Global … [Read more...]
18 energy transition scenarios to watch: where they agree and disagree
A wide range of regions, nations and respected organisations have created net-zero strategies and pathways, but on what do they agree and disagree? Dolf Gielen, Asami Miketa, Ricardo Gorini and Pablo Carvajal at IRENA have done a meta-analysis of 18 recent energy transition scenarios to find out. There is consensus over the main strategies: renewable power generation, and the direct and indirect electrification of end-use sectors – these account … [Read more...]
Where to start building Hydrogen pipelines? Near industrial hubs for steel, ammonia, and plastics
Converting gas pipelines to carry hydrogen is going to be expensive. We don’t even know how much hydrogen we’ll really need in 2050, given electrification – the cheaper and preferred option to replace fossil fuels – will always be the first option. But we do know that certain industries like steel, ammonia, and plastics will always need hydrogen as a feedstock. Writing for WEF, Kevin Tu, Matthias Deutsch and Gniewomir Flis at Agora Energiewende … [Read more...]
China’s car sales target: 40% EVs by 2030 will cost CNY 100bn/year (€13bn, $15bn)
By the end of 2020 China will phase out EV subsidies and instead rely on a mandate imposed on manufacturers to target 40% of car sales being electric by 2030. Nancy Stauffer at MIT reviews a study that estimates the new rules will result in 66m EVs sold in China in the next 10 years. That will move EVs well into the mainstream and have global consequences. According to the study, the total cost of that transition will be 100bn yuan/year (€13bn, … [Read more...]
What is your nation’s “deforestation footprint”? When imports cut down trees somewhere else
Behaviour change is now inextricably linked to the transition and must be part of the world’s emissions reduction strategy, and there are many different types of relevant behaviour and ways to measure the impacts. One is to look at deforestation, caused by chopping down trees to meet our consumer needs. To grasp whose behaviour has to change we need to appreciate to what extent deforestation in places like Brazil, Canada, Liberia, Vietnam etc., … [Read more...]
CCS: Identifying the best underground locations for storing CO2 can take 10 years, so let’s start now
Underground geological formations have more space to store CO2 than we’ll ever need, by orders of magnitude. But the process of assessing the best locations can take up to ten years, so that work needs to start now, say Raimund Malischek and Samantha McCulloch at the IEA. The main constraints are technical (which porous rock formations absorb CO2 most easily, etc.), while the displacement of land use and public acceptance must also be considered. … [Read more...]
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