Existing, latest technology could be delivering the world’s current air conditioning needs with just a third of the energy use, say Sneha Sachar at the AEEE (India) and Iain Campbell at RMI. The main barrier is the up-front costs. And that’s for everything from improving the thermal efficiency of buildings to accelerating the deployment of the most efficient cutting edge ACs (at present, legal minimums lag behind the best ACs, and the best ACs … [Read more...]
Zero U.S. power sector emissions by 2035, says Biden. How?
Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential hopeful, wants to reduce U.S. power sector emissions to zero by 2035. That’s more ambitious than Obama, and more than what Biden promised when campaigning to be the Democrat’s candidate. His emphasis has been on the jobs and investment a green economy will create – language that has more voter appeal than reversing emissions. Meredith Fowlie at UC Berkeley’s Energy Institute at Haas reviews the promises … [Read more...]
“Electro-swing cell” captures CO2 direct from the air
The problem with capturing carbon from a power plant is that the CCS system is itself huge, expensive, consumes a lot of energy, and only works on exhaust streams with high concentrations of CO2. What’s more, to meet global CO2 targets, total atmospheric CO2 has to be reduced, not just held at today’s concentrations by capturing new emissions alone. Writing for MIT, Nancy Stauffer explains how researchers there are piloting an “electro-swing … [Read more...]
Who will be the Hydrogen superpower? The EU or China
Implicit in the EU’s plans, announced in July, to be the world’s Hydrogen leader is that this technology will have others competing for the top spot too. When EU nations ramped up their solar PV sector in the 2000s they couldn’t survive the arrival and rapid expansion of Chinese production. Will EU Hydrogen meet the same fate? Sören Amelang at CLEW speaks to a wide range of experts to try to answer this vital question from all the relevant … [Read more...]
We need Behaviour Change and “Life Efficiency”, because efficiency gains and clean energy will never be enough
Behaviour change – reducing emissions by changing how we live our lives - should be part of every government and think tank’s sustainable scenario, explains Schalk Cloete. That’s because impressive advances in energy efficiency and clean energy won’t be enough to contain the emissions of a world continuing with the essential task of lifting billions of people out of poverty. But this should not be seen as a problem, says Cloete, because behaviour … [Read more...]
Global Coal Database: Covid lockdown may accelerate phase-out
E3G has created a database to track coal’s phase-out across the globe. Though much has been achieved, dating back to 2010, it’s still not on target. Chris Littlecott and Leo Roberts at E3G look at the data from different territories. The OECD and EU28 have made very good progress: 71% of these countries are pursuing coal phase-out, with 58% on track to be coal free by 2030. The article points at successes in the US, the UK, Spain and Germany … [Read more...]
Enhanced Weathering: crushed rocks spread on farmland can capture billions of tons of CO2/year
Enhanced Weathering is a carbon capture process that could remove over 2bn tons of CO2 each year (for comparison, the U.S. emitted 5.3bn in 2018), explains Benjamin Houlton at the University of California. Silicate minerals exposed to the weather have been sequestering atmospheric carbon and turning it into rock since the dawn of time, but it’s a process that normally takes thousands of years. This period can be cut to two years by grinding … [Read more...]
California learns even flexible Emissions Markets won’t guarantee price stability
In May, emissions allowance prices hit rock bottom in California. How can cap-and-trade work properly when prices are so volatile and difficult to predict? It makes life very difficult for businesses and investors, not to mention the state. Changes to the rules are being proposed to introduce more flexibility into the effective price floors, ceilings and the availability of allowances. But Severin Borenstein at the Energy Institute at Haas … [Read more...]
Little progress decarbonising Industry. Renewables can be the answer
The decarbonisation of heavy industry is making little progress. There are two main reasons. Firstly, there are no easy technology wins. Efficiency and carbon capture have been the favoured options. But efficiency gains have their limits, and carbon capture is still proving very expensive. Secondly, governments don’t want their home industries to lose competitiveness incurring costs reducing emissions. Dolf Gielen and Paul Durrant at IRENA say a … [Read more...]
New U.S. climate bill is unprecedented in “ambition, concrete details, and urgency”
Mark Silberg, Alisa Petersen and Ben Holland at RMI pick out six highlights from a new U.S. climate bill and accompanying report that they describe as unprecedented in “ambition, concrete details, and urgency”. The Democrat-sponsored “Moving Forward Act” passed the House at the start of July and now goes to the Senate. Though regional commitments already get the U.S. halfway to meeting the 1.5°C goal, federal action is needed for the rest. … [Read more...]
IEA: Without accelerating clean energy innovations we cannot hit net zero by 2050
The impressive rise of renewables and energy efficiency, alone, will not be sufficient to meet the world’s 2050 emissions goal, says the IEA in its flagship Clean Energy Innovation report. New technologies, taken all the way through to widespread adoption by the market, must become an essential part of the net zero pathway. The stark warning is that existing policies to decarbonise shipping, trucks, aviation and heavy industry are not nearly … [Read more...]
BP’s world energy review: 2019 saw clean electricity match coal
Simon Evans at Carbon Brief summarises BP’s 69th edition of its influential annual statistical review of world energy, looking at 2019. Overall, total energy demand rose, though slower than usual. Renewables were the largest source of new energy, but were closely followed by oil and gas. Coal use dropped again, the fourth drop in six years, thanks to historic declines in the EU and the US. But continued growth in SE Asia, China and India leaves … [Read more...]
The PAC Scenario: net-zero by 2040 to meet Europe’s Paris goals
The EU is not on track to meet its Paris Agreement obligations on emissions and limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C. CAN Europe and the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) present their Paris Agreement Compatible (PAC) scenario, designed to do just that. It’s been created through the careful analysis of contributions from more than 150 stakeholders including NGOs, scientists, industry and grid operators. Jörg MĂĽhlenhoff at CAN Europe … [Read more...]
The nexus between data centres, efficiency and renewables: a role model for the energy transition
How much will electricity consumption from data centres grow from today’s 1% of the global total? 40-fold by 2030? Or a more manageable 5-fold? Or less? Sean Ratka and Francisco Boshell at IRENA try to answer this question by looking at the innovations being made by the tech industry to drive down power costs and emissions. The evidence is promising. Though data centre computing output jumped 6- fold between 2010 and 2018, their energy … [Read more...]
Calculating the energy saved if home working becomes the norm, globally
The global lockdown has resulted in a jump in home working and a collapse in commuting. If, post-lockdown, this new lifestyle is widely embraced, will it mean a reduction in total energy consumption and, if so, by how much? Daniel Crow and Ariane Millot at the IEA have crunched the numbers to attempt to answer this question. The first observation is that although car use will drop, residential energy consumption will rise. This is what makes the … [Read more...]
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