Vattenfall is currently looking for a buyer for its German lignite assets. However, any potential investor faces a high risk that they will find themselves forced to wind down the business before earning back their investment, write Julian Schwartzkopff and Sabrina Schulz of international environmental organisation E3G. In this article, a shortened version of their new report Vattenfallâs Lignite Business â a Risky Bet for Investors, they explain … [Read more...]
German grid operator can handle 70% wind, solar before storage needed
Reneweconomy.com The company responsible for more than one-third of Germanyâs electricity grid says there is no issue absorbing high levels of variable renewable energy such as wind and solar, and grids could absorb up to 70 per cent penetration without the need for storage, writes Giles Parkinson of Reneweconomy.com. … [Read more...]
Energiewende is easily affordable – if we don’t go 100% renewable
Researchers from Fraunhofer ISE have published a new report investigating the net cost of Germanyâs energy transition. The good news is that the German governmentâs current goals are likely to be affordable. The bad news is that 100 percent renewable energy is less so, writes Craig Morris of the website German Energy Transition. … [Read more...]
Klaus SchĂ€fer, future CEO of E.ON spin-off Uniper: “EU should set a target for gas”
The EU should define how much gas it wants by when, and recognise that Nord Stream 2 can provide additional security of supply, argues Klaus SchĂ€fer, the incoming CEO of E.ON spin-off Uniper in this exclusive interview with Energy Post. SchĂ€fer, who is currently Board member of the E.ON Group, says Europe is further away than ever from a single market for electricity and calls on policymakers to recognise that security of supply has a cost. He … [Read more...]
German accord: it will take a lot more to beat lignite
The accord between the German government and energy companies RWE, Vattenfall and Mibrag to put 2.7 GW of lignite-fired power capacity into reserve, will not be enough to wean Germany off lignite, writes Hamburg-based US energy expert Jeffrey Michel. The lignite sector is too well entrenched and lignite mining profitable enough to subsidize the loss-making power production. Only when renewables and gas-fired power generation have fully superseded … [Read more...]
RWE sets up its lignite plants for a taxpayer bail-out
German utility RWE has kept uneconomic lignite plants open with the explicit intention of securing a public bail-out, argue Julian Schwartzkopff, Chris Littlecott and Sabrina Schulz at E3G. It would apear the energy giant has taken a bet on being âtoo big to failâ that might just pay off: RWE is set to be the biggest beneficiary of a new 2.7GW capacity reserve in Germany which will pay lignite plants for going on standby. The alternative, a … [Read more...]
Lignite in Europe: fighting back renewables
With an output of 350 million tonnes, four EU countries â Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Greece â account for over a third of the worldâs lignite production. Renewable energies have cut into their profitability, but lignite producers are fighting back with increased deliveries and exports to third-party customers. In addition, they avoid CO2 penalties under the EU Emission Trading Scheme by  building plants below the 20 MW threshold. … [Read more...]
The grid will not be disrupted: why Teslaâs Powerwall wonât catalyze a solar revolution
When Tesla Motors debuted the Powerwall home storage battery at a glitzy launch at the end of April, the press and blogosphere hailed CEO Elon Musk as the inventor of the Holy Grail of renewable energy storage â and the nail in the coffin for the centralized grid. But does all the messianic talk of battery-powered âdisruptionâ and solar triumphalism stack up? Hardly. For all their ballyhooed price reductions, Tesla batteries are still too … [Read more...]
Dimitri Pescia, Agora Energiewende: “No more baseload in 2030, no case for new nuclear in Europe”
There will be no more baseload power in Germany in 2030 and possibly not anywhere in Europe. There is no business case for new nuclear power in Europe. Renewables, not thermal power, should get capacity payments - and be responsible for balancing. These are some of the explosive messages from a new report from the influential German think tank Agora Energiewende, which represents government, industry and NGO's. In an exclusive interview with … [Read more...]
UBS: closures coal and gas fired power plants in Europe accelerating
The influx of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar into energy markets is forcing coal and gas fired generation out of the market even quicker than most analysts expected, according to a new market report from investment bank UBS. According to UBS, policymakers may have to take measures to prevent widespread bankruptcies in the European electricity market, writes Giles Parkinson of Reneweconomy.com.au. … [Read more...]
Quo Vadis RWE? A power giantâs struggle with the Energiewende
The German government has proposed new regulations for penalising the countryâs most inefficient coal and lignite power plants. This would particularly hit the troubled power giant RWE. What future is there for RWE in a low-carbon economy? Can it engineer its own energy transition? A lot will depend on whether the German government is willing â and even more so: able â to push through its climate legislation at the expense of the existing power … [Read more...]
Fraunhofer: Solar power will cost 2 cts/kWh in 2050
âIn a few years, solar energy plants will deliver the most inexpensive power available in many parts of the world. By 2025, the cost of producing power in central and southern Europe will have declined to between 4 and 6 cents per kilowatt hour, and by 2050 to as low as 2 to 4 cents.â These are the main conclusions of a study by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems commissioned by the German think tank Agora Energiewende. In view of … [Read more...]
Interview Johannes Teyssen, CEO Eon: âFuture energy world has drifted far apart from the classical oneâ
In the first in-depth interview given by Johannes Teyssen, CEO of Eon, after the company announced its radical new strategy in December last year, Teyssen says that âthe energy world of the futureâ and âthe classical energy worldâ have âdrifted so far apart that they require different entrepreneurial approachesâ. He notes that the companyâs new strategy is not based on German or even European politics, but âon more fundamental, global trendsâ. … [Read more...]
Experts from World Energy Council highly critical of Energiewende
The German Energiewende cannot serve as a model for other countries. It is a threat to European security of supply, will have a negative impact on German growth prospects in the short term and is too costly. Thatâs the opinion of a majority of experts from 35 member organisations of the World Energy Council from across the world. … [Read more...]
The myth of the dark side of the Energiewende
Critics of renewable energy have mocked the Energiewende, claiming that it has led to an increase in coal power and related CO2 emissions in Germany. But Conrad Kunze and Paul Lehmann of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research â UFZ show that this is a myth. German coal generation and CO2 emissions rose not because of but in spite of the Energiewende. They would have been even higher if Germany had not phased out its nuclear power and … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- …
- 7
- Next Page »