Experts from around the world summarise their reaction to the outcomes of this yearâs UN climate summit, COP26, including the Glasgow Climate Pact agreed by all 197 countries attending the talks. Each expert covers their area of interest: overall targets, greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel finance, nature conservation, transportation, cities and buildings, energy sector transitions, science and innovation, and gender equality. The overall … [Read more...]
Distributed Energy Resources and Smart Grids: an opportunity or a distraction?
Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) are poorly understood by the utilities, explain Doyob Kim and Alyssa Fischer at the IEA. Part of the problem is that new innovations and solutions are coming fast, and policy-makers arenât creating the incentives and frameworks to make them an imperative. But, done right, the successful integration of DERs into the grid will accelerate electrification, address grid stability, and reduce spending on expensive … [Read more...]
Electricity Market Reform: ACER must empower consumers, not just network operators
ACER, the EU Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, has delivered to the EC its preliminary assessment of Europe's high energy prices and the current wholesale electricity market design. Simon Skillings and Lisa Fischer at E3G interpret ACERâs assessment as showing it wants to maintain the status quo. However, long-term changes in market design are inevitable. The authors want ACER to accept this reality and ensure the changes are … [Read more...]
Fulfilling the Global Methane Pledge: âpolluter paysâ, more electrification, less gas
At COP26 the U.S. and the EU led a global pledge to slash methane emission by 30% by 2030. Methane makes up at least one-quarter of all greenhouse gases, and is more than 80 times more damaging than CO2 over a 20-year period. Success in cutting these emissions would be a major step towards meeting our 1.5°C goals. But far from declining, 2020 saw methane emissions grow at the fastest rate in 40 years. The increased use of natural gas (mostly made … [Read more...]
When Electrification is cheaper than maintaining Gas infrastructure
The gas sector continuously faces major expenses to maintain and replace aging distribution systems. Non-Pipeline Alternatives (NPAs) are solutions that avoid the scale of these infrastructure costs by judiciously spending money on cutting future gas use instead. Given gasâs limited long-term future in a net-zero world, this makes sense. Itâs not just about efficiency wins, explains Max Dupuy at RAP who summarises their research. Gas utilities … [Read more...]
Aviation, Steel, Shipping CEOs ask COP26 to back their decarbonisation pathways
The seven âhardest to abateâ industries together account for 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. They are aviation, steel, shipping, cement, aluminium, trucking and chemicals. John Matson at RMI explains how a growing number of sector-leading corporates in aviation, steel and shipping are now openly backing net-zero pathways. He quotes CEOs and top executives (ArcelorMittal, United Airlines, Trafigura) on what they say they are determined to … [Read more...]
IEA WEO 2021 message to COP26: 40% of clean energy goals will cut costs
The IEAâs latest World Energy Outlook was published on Wednesday. This yearâs WEO-2021 is released earlier than usual to inform COP26 and, for the first time, is available for free to ensure the widest possible audience. Simon Evans at Carbon Brief offers his summary of the 386-page report, quoting relevant numbers and charts. He first points to the new scenario, Net-Zero Emissions by 2050 (NZE), as the IEAâs recognition that this is what … [Read more...]
Energy professionals: do you understand how the media works?
We energy professionals spend most of our time talking to each other. But, more than ever, climate change and the energy transition are headline news. Thatâs not just in the mainstream media but also within our industry journals and the policy-maker press. So, we need to understand how the media works. More specifically for many, we need to know how to handle our PR providers. Sean Crowley says itâs up to us to work more effectively with the … [Read more...]
Redesigning UK electricity taxes to boost Heat Pump sales
In the UK, consumer prices for electricity are five times more expensive than for gas. It is a disincentive to adopt electric heat pumps. To make things harder, 23% of the electricity price comes from climate and social levies. Itâs just 2% for gas. No wonder the UK continues to install about 1.7 million gas boilers a year. Jan Rosenow and Richard Lowes at RAP call for changes that will incentivise customers to buy heat pumps while having a … [Read more...]
CEPP incentives and penalties: current design could undermine U.S. clean energy growth
The Clean Electricity Performance Program (CEPP) is a key part of President Bidenâs energy and climate plans. It will steer utilities towards clean energy with incentives and penalties, and is still being designed. Severin Borenstein and James Bushnell at the Energy Institute at Haas, Steve Cicala at Tufts University and Ryan Kellogg at the University of Chicago warn that current proposals will allow utilities to game the system, resulting in … [Read more...]
New cooling system for inverters brings electric Heavy-Duty Trucks closer
39% of greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector comes from heavy-duty trucks. Commercial batteries struggle to deliver enough power to make electrification feasible for heavy-duty applications. Rebecca Martineau at NREL explains how a working prototype, developed with the heavy machinery manufacturer John Deere, is now getting a 378% increase in power density. The key to the innovations rests on a state-of-the-art thermal management … [Read more...]
Energy Efficiency solutions for electrification can help deliver the Transition – with the right policies
The latest climate assessment from the IPCC has underlined the urgency for the energy sector to make the transition quickly and effectively to net zero. The general drive towards mass electrification is a vast and complex undertaking but one that is made more manageable by the innovative development of energy efficient solutions for the built environment. Vesa Laisi, President at Danfoss Drives, outlines how cutting edge technologies are ready to … [Read more...]
How much Hydrogen will the German Gas Network have?
What will be the scale and design of Germanyâs hydrogen roll-out? Different scenarios are coming to wildly different conclusions. Simon Göss at cr.hub, writing for Energy Brainpool, looks at several, including the dena-TM95 scenario of the German transmission system operators for gas (FNB Gas) where gas consumption rises, and the NECP-KSP 87.5 scenario of the German Ministry for Economic Affairs where gas consumption falls. The possible hydrogen … [Read more...]
UK: exposing the gap between ambitious climate laws and actual policies
Like many nations, the UK has big gaps between what is actually needed to reach net zero by 2050, what targets and ambitions have actually passed into law, and what policies are actually in place to comply with those laws. The UKâs climate watchdog, the Climate Change Committee (CCC), has issued two reports that measure the UKâs performance and makes recommendations, summarised here by Josh Gabbatiss at Carbon Brief. The first report focuses on … [Read more...]
EU-India cooperation: how to tap the large potential for climate action
India is the worldâs fifth largest economy, the second most populous, and over the next few decades is expected to see energy demand grow more than any other country. Ritu Ahuja and Mekhala Sastry at TERI, Abhishek Kaushik at the Centre for Global Environment Research, and Alexandra Deprez and Lola Vallejo at IDDRI look at Indiaâs challenges and which areas show the most potential for partnership with the EU. They focus on five themes: energy, … [Read more...]
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