The Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine Eduard Stavytskyi and Director of the Energy Community Secretariat Janez KopaÄŤ have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on “Establishing an Implementation Partnership between the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine and the Secretariat of the Energy Community”. By signing the Memorandum, “Ukraine confirms its commitment to transpose into its national legal framework and fully … [Read more...]
European Parliament votes for three targets, calls Commission short-sighted
MEPs called on Wednesday for a 40% cut in CO2 emissions, a 30% target for renewable energy and a 40% target for energy efficiency by 2030, under the EU's new long-term climate-change policy. These targets should be binding, they say. MEPs also criticised the European Commission's recent proposals as short-sighted and unambitious. Parliament calls on the Commission and EU countries, in its resolution adopted on Wednesday by 341 votes to 263, … [Read more...]
European power markets coupled from Finland to France
In a "landmark move for the future of Europe’s power markets", the four Power Exchanges and 13 Transmission System Operators (TSOs) in the North-Western Europe (NWE) day-ahead price coupling project have today successfully launched NWE Price Coupling. For the first time, the NWE region, stretching from France to Finland, operates under a common day-ahead power price calculation using the Price Coupling of Regions (PCR) solution. The same solution … [Read more...]
How to integrate PV into the grid
The Europe-wide PV GRID consortium has released a consultation document containing key recommendations for the adoption of technical solutions to ease the integration of photovoltaics (PV) into the distribution grid. Over the next three months, fifteen national workshops will take place throughout Europe presenting and discussing the project's findings. Since May 2012, the PV GRID project consortium has been working on identifying and … [Read more...]
The energy efficiency credibility gap: does EU funding really pay off?
Powerful lobbying has ensured that energy efficiency is high on the political agenda. With up to €23 billion available in a new round of EU funding, there is ample capital at the disposal of Member States to undertake energy efficiency retrofit programs. The question is: will countries be able to spend this money wisely? In a previous round of funding, energy efficiency programs were deemed ineffective. This time Brussels has imposed new … [Read more...]
M&A activity in renewables keeps growing
M&A activity in the global power and renewables sectors is expected to pick up this year, after the value of deals fell by 10 percent in 2013, according to a new research report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Total worldwide power and renewables 2013 deal value was down 10% year on year, reported PWC. But the Asia Pacific region and the renewables sector bucked the trend. Renewables deal value rose 25% the value of Asia Pacific deals was up … [Read more...]
Water shortages slow energy production worldwide
The World Bank has launched a new initiative that will help developing countries better plan and manage scaling-up energy capacity to meet rising demand, in tandem with water resource management. Producing energy requires a lot of water. Yet, the availability of and access to water is negatively impacting energy production around the world. Last year alone, water shortages shut down thermal power plants in India, decreased energy production … [Read more...]
How IT startups can improve energy efficiency
The latest progress in big data analysis has enabled the remarkable development of a group of internet startups which can dramatically change the energy efficiency sector. This group mainly consists of web-based platforms that can track and analyse energy consumption data in real-time. These platforms give the possibility to quantify the results of the implementation of energy efficient technologies. The ability to model and evaluate various … [Read more...]
European Commission reveals: EU governments push up energy prices dramatically
Retail energy prices are rising dramatically across Europe even as wholesale prices and consumption are coming down. Taxes and levies – set by national governments – are the main culprit, says the European Commission. Energy Post offers a sneak preview of an analysis of energy prices and costs expected from the European Commission on 22nd January. … [Read more...]
BP: “Optimistic for the world’s energy future”
The good news from the BP Energy Outlook 2035, presented on 15 January, is that there will be no problem meeting the world’s energy demand over the next two decades. When it comes to availability of energy, “there is no problem”, said BP’s Group Chief Economist Christof RĂĽhl at the presentation of the report in London. BP’s CEO Bob Dudley said BP is “optimistic for the world’s energy future”. The fourth edition of BP’s annual  Energy Outlook … [Read more...]
Smart grid and smart city predictions for 2020 (part 2)
Last week, Silicon Valley-based boardroom consultant and smart grid expert Christine Hertzog made five predictions for trends likely to occur in the smart energy sector, including the prediction that “Consumer intermediation threats would abound for utilities”. And wouldn’t you know it, on Tuesday Google announced it is expanding into “smart homes” with the acquisition of Nest Labs for $3.2 billion. One down for Christine! This week she follows … [Read more...]
European venture capital firms support KIC InnoEnergy’s cleanteach startups
A number of top European venture capital companies have signed a collaboration agreement to support the most innovative clean tech start-ups in the EU. In a first-of-its-kind move for the industry, the community will provide KIC InnoEnergy’s 37 European startups with access to €3 billion in the next two years. “This agreement has exceeded our initial expectations. The idea of a VC [venture capital] community was new in this sector, and we did … [Read more...]
Climate policy bumps into competitiveness in Europe
Behind the heated debate in Brussels about climate and renewable energy targets, what is really happening is that concern over high energy prices has taken precedence over climate concerns in Europe. Competitiveness has caught up with climate policy. Indeed, the two issues have become so intertwined that when the European Commission will present its new climate and energy policy on 22 January, it will at the same time launch a new industrial … [Read more...]
Smart grid and smart city predictions for 2020
“The smart grid” is a notoriously complex subject that is still quite abstract to many in the energy industry. Few know more about it than Silicon Valley-based boardroom consultant, author (of the bilingual English-Chinese “Smart Grid Dictionary”), and professional explainer Christine Hertzog. In this article she offers her insights on the major smart grids trends to be expected in the coming years. Her focus is on the U.S., but for European … [Read more...]
Report cards on renewable energy progress in South East Europe
Seechangenet, a network organisation of NGO’s in South Eastern Europe which is dedicated to promoting renewable energy in that region, has recently published “report cards” on the “energy paths” that are being taken by their governments. The cards are freely downloadable, rather simple infographics for Croatia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo and Montenegro. There is also a fact sheet available, which is probably … [Read more...]
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