For a long time global energy markets were relatively stable, dominated by long-term investment in asset-intensive fuel businesses that rarely competed with one another. Now, rapid change is sweeping across the energy world: fuels are increasingly encroaching on each other’s territory and the silos of regional markets are breaking down, write Christophe Brognaux and Nicholas Ward of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). As a result, fundamentally … [Read more...]
Standardising energy efficiency: US initiative aims to transform European market
Energy efficiency remains one of the most intractable transition challenges. There are now finally plenty of funds available, yet progress remains slow. To overcome the last hurdles, major new initiatves have started up aiming to standardise energy efficiency processes to make it easier to invest in them. One of these is the Investor Confidence Project (ECP), originated by the Environmental Defense Fund. Goal: to turn energy efficiency projects … [Read more...]
A young professional at RWE/Essent tells her story
The energy sector is in turmoil. Energy companies are in a painful process of restructuring their companies. This week a young professional at RWE/Essent shares her experiences. She sees a company that is shedding its old state-owned utility feathers. She also sees a company that tries to get on top of the game again by implementing new innovation strategies. Whether it will succeed is another matter. “This is still a conservative sector of old … [Read more...]
Four reasons Jeremy Corbyn’s innovative energy policy is no 80s throwback
What would be the energy policy of a UK Labour government under Jeremy Corbyn, its newly elected leader? Citing Corbyn’s recently published manifesto, Protecting Our Planet, Stephen Hall, Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, argues that it would be anything but a throwback to the past. On the contrary, it meets the issues of today in innovative and practical ways. … [Read more...]
Steve Holliday, CEO National Grid: “The idea of large power stations for baseload is outdated”
Steve Holliday, CEO of National Grid, the company that operates the gas and power transmission networks in the UK and in the northeastern US, believes the idea of large coal-fired or nuclear power stations to be used for baseload power is “outdated”. "From a consumer’s point of view, the solar on the rooftop is going to be the baseload. Centralised power stations will be increasingly used to provide peak demand", he says, in an exclusive … [Read more...]
Broken public utilities: how to fix them
The recent newspaper reports of financial and operating problems at the Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority (PREPA) and South Africa’s ESKOM show that these state-owned systems suffer from similar governance and regulatory deficiencies, writes Branko Terzic, Managing Director of Berkeley Research Group and Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. According to Terzic, a former Commissioner on the U.S. FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory … [Read more...]
Buying energy in the land of the free
European energy users often look with envy at the US, where energy is abundant and cheap. However, writes Benedict De Meulemeester, such simplistic comparisons ignore the many structural differences that exist between the two markets: “In the land of the free, energy markets are in many ways less free – and certainly less transparent – than in Europe.” According to De Meulemeester, Managing Director of E&C Consultants, “a US energy buyer has … [Read more...]
How are YOU dealing with the energy transition?
In a new blog hosted by Energy Post, POWER TALK, Ph.D-researcher Hendrik Steringa reports on his quest to find out how energy companies are dealing with the energy transition. He conducts in-depth interviews with company professionals as well as with the people they have to deal with: policymakers, NGO's, academics, lobbyists. What do they really think? What are their real strategies? You can participate in this project too! … [Read more...]
Big energy companies take control of Dutch wind energy association NWEA
In January this year the Guardian reported that big European energy companies like Total, Iberdrola, EON and Enel, are increasingly taking control of renewable energy lobby groups like the European wind energy association EWEA. In the Netherlands a similar process is taking place in Dutch wind energy association NWEA. Hendrik Steringa spoke with a senior professional in the Dutch wind energy sector who explains what is going on – and what the … [Read more...]
Ad van Wijk: “The energy sector has nothing to do with energy companies anymore”
There are many developments in the world today that have far more influence on the energy sector than the energy sector itself, says technology visionary Ad van Wijk in this exclusive interview with Energy Post. The Professor in “Future Energy Systems” at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands explains how LED lighting, a DC grid, fuel cell cars, the Internet of Things and 3D printing are upending our energy system as we know it. “The … [Read more...]
Energy storage megashift ahead, battery costs set to fall 60% by 2020
The key role energy storage will play in the electricity grids of the future – and the vital importance of investing in and testing the various emerging battery storage technologies – has been highlighted in a major report published by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). The report predicts a 40-60 per cent price plunge for certain battery technologies by 2020. Sophie Vorrath of Reneweconomy has the story. … [Read more...]
Global coal boom? It ends as China and world wake up to reality of carbon pollution
The idea that the world is experiencing a coal renaissance, as is sometimes assumed or proclaimed by observers, is mistaken, writes Joseph Romm, editor of the weblog Climate Progress. According to Romm, the coal boom of the first decade of the 21st Century has stalled. And there is every reason to expect that it is over for good. … [Read more...]
How cheap can solar get? Very cheap indeed
If current rates of improvement hold, solar power will be incredibly cheap by the time it’s a substantial fraction of the world’s electricity supply, writes famous author and thinker Ramez Naam. According to Naam, electricity cost is from now on coupled to the ever-decreasing price of technology. That is profoundly deflationary and disruptive. … [Read more...]
$1 trillion solar, wind finance vehicle to outstrip oil and gas investment
A new report from Deutsche Bank predicts that the Yieldco, a finance vehicle for renewable energy, will attract more money than similar instruments that exist for oil and gas investments. Giles Parkinson of the Australian website Reneweconomy has the story. Energy Post highlighted recently why the YieldCo is likely to become a gamechanger in the energy sector. … [Read more...]
Obama’s Clean Power Plan: a modest proposal with revolutionary implications
President Obama’s Clean Power Plan, designed to cut carbon emissions from power plants, seems pragmatic and moderate, certainly by European standards. Yet for US observers it “makes history”, because it is the first time the federal government puts limits on “carbon pollution”. … [Read more...]
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