Journalist Hughes Belin investigates the prospects of the Energy Union strategy and its governance structure, for viEUws.eu, ahead of the European Commission’s official presentation on 25 February. … [Read more...]
Georg Zachmann, Bruegel Institute: “The EU must go for an Energy Union – or renationalise energy markets”
“We can either go for a European market or a renationalisation of energy policy. Trying to incentivise investment with volatile national schemes and have a European market at the same time is the worst option.” That’s the opinion of influential German energy expert Georg Zachmann, Research Fellow at the Brussels-based think tank the Bruegel Institute. In an interview with Energy Post, Zachmann, who has published widely about EU energy policy, … [Read more...]
The significance of the UK party leaders’ joint climate pledge
The UK's three main political leaders have pledged to tackle climate change after the next election, whatever the outcome. Simon Evans of the Carbon Brief assesses the significance of the unusual joint pre-election pledge. He concludes that the substance of the agreement is not new, but it will “prevent backsliding on climate policy by future governments”. It will also serve as an example to countries across the world.  … [Read more...]
The Energy Union: it’s now or never for a European energy policy
Rarely has an idea conquered the policymaking conversation in the EU as rapidly as that of the Energy Union. In less than a year it has become the big package in which all EU climate and energy policies are to be wrapped up. Where did the idea come from? How will it change EU energy policy? Editor Karel Beckman spoke to experts from Poland, Luxembourg, France, Italy and the UK to find out. They agree it's now or never for a true European energy … [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 – 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...]
The battle for biofuels flares up again – the stakes: survival of the European biodiesel industry
If the European Parliament get its way, higher sustainability standards will be applied to biofuels, which, industry representatives say, will spell the end of the European biodiesel industry. Several EU Member States are preparing to defend their biodiesel sectors. Meanwhile, biofuels are threatening to lose out against electro-mobility in the EU’s post-2020 plans to decarbonise the transport sector, reports Sonja van Renssen from Brussels. … [Read more...]
UK Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats pledge to cooperate on climate change
In a highly unusual move, the three leaders of the main UK political parties – Prime Minister David Cameron of the Conservatives, Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats and Ed Miliband of the opposition Labour party – have signed a joint pledge that they will work together across party lines to tackle climate change. Among other things, they have pledged to end the use of "unabated coal" for power generation. … [Read more...]
European demand for renewable energy surges in 2014
The European market for renewable energy, documented with Guarantees of Origin, increased by 26.5 % in 2014 compared to 2013. For the first time, the demand surpassed 300 TWh, according to statistics from the Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB). This is nearly one tenth of all electricity demand in Europe (ca. 3,300 TWh) and one third of all electricity from renewable sources in Europe (ca. 900 TWh). … [Read more...]
Vindication for Allan Hoffman: the US has turned the corner on renewables
It has been 37 years since Dr Allan Hoffman gave President Jimmy Carter the plan that could have started America’s renewable revolution. The idea was shelved after Reagan was elected. Hoffman waited, as administration after administration ignored the potential, until Barack Obama was elected. The retired senior Department of Energy executive views the growth of US renewables during 2014 as a vindication of what he and his colleagues saw decades … [Read more...]
viEUws VIDEO: “We need ILUC factors for biofuels”, says rapporteur Nils Torvalds
Nils Torvalds MEP (ALDE) - the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Indirect Land-Use Change (ILUC) – joins journalist Sonja van Renssen on viEUws.eu to discuss the future of biofuels. … [Read more...]
Global Calculator shows how the world can ‘prosper’ while tackling climate change
The world's population could live a prosperous, European-style lifestyle by 2050 at the same time as avoiding dangerous climate change, according to a new Global Calculator developed by the UK's Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Â Simon Evans tests the Calculator against scenarios of Shell and Friends of the Earth and comes to some surprising (or, perhaps not so surprising) conclusions. … [Read more...]
FutureGen’s demise: another blow to CCS
The demise of the much-touted FutureGen 2.0 carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Illinois is another blow to CCS. Bob Burton, editor of CoalSwarm and Director of the Sunrise Project in Australia, argues that the fate of FutureGen symptomizes the intractable problems faced by CCS everywhere. In Europe, four large utilities - Vattenfall, RWE, EDF and Gas Natural Fenosa, dropped out of the CCS-organisation Zero Emission Platform (ZEP). … [Read more...]
The Energy Union: “a holistic approach to the energy transition”
The EU’s great new project of an “Energy Union” will represent “for the first time a holistic approach to how we need to achieve the energy transition,” said the man in charge, Commissioner Maroš Ĺ efÄŤoviÄŤ, at a press conference in Brussels last week. His colleague, Climate and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete, at a grand Energy Union in Riga on Friday, revealed a long list of actions to be subsumed under the Energy Union concept, but with … [Read more...]
Wood MacKenzie wonder: is solar the next shale?
“Just as shale extraction reconfigured oil and gas, no other technology is closer to transforming power markets than distributed and utility scale solar.” That is the main conclusion of a new report from energy consultants Wood MacKenzie. The report is significant as Wood MacKenzie has a solid reputation in the oil and gas sector. … [Read more...]
Six steps to prepare the European energy system for the future
The European energy system is feeling increasing strain from the effects of the energy transition. New regulatory and business models are urgently needed, in particular to cope with the increasing share of variable energy sources. Pieter Boot of the Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency (PBL) and Jacques de Jong of the Clingendael International Energy Programme (CIEP) offer six practical suggestions to prepare our energy system for a … [Read more...]
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