![“China and Europe – Energy Efficiency, the foundation of our net-zero future” [EVENT highlights and VIDEO]](https://energypost.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/BANNER-THUMB-China-Efficiency-150x99.jpg)
We present the videos of the third of our three, 4-session workshops on the opportunities for European energy solutions providers to take part in China’s energy transition, held on April 13th and 14th 2021. In this workshop the theme was efficiency, with special reference to finance, buildings, heating and cooling, and smart solutions. Both regions need to go beyond the efficiency "easy wins" so we take a close look at what Europe can offer as … [Read more...]
Energy efficiency is the “first fuel”, making decarbonisation easier for all other sectors
To set up our upcoming online event “China: Carbon Neutral by 2060 -EFFICIENCY FIRST” we look at the profound importance of efficiency to the global energy transition. Energy efficiency is the “first fuel”, meaning success here will make the decarbonisation of all the other sectors and technologies easier, faster and cheaper. Basically, use and waste less energy. Alyssa Fischer at the IEA starts by noting that their Sustainable Development … [Read more...]
Netherlands: gas phase-out transition must tackle the geopolitical implications of importing from Russia
Until recently, the Netherlands has had no major concerns regarding natural gas security of supply. That’s just as well, given gas plays a big role primarily in the generation of heat: 90% of buildings and 40-50% of industrial heat are based on gas. Now, decarbonisation plans to cut its own gas production as well as consumption brings with it major dilemmas. Irina Patrahau and Lucia van Geuns at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies present a … [Read more...]
EU Recovery funds: where is the support for District Heating?
District Heating is an efficient way to heat homes, particularly in a country like Latvia where 58% of its primary energy consumption is used for heating. But Selīna Vancāne at Riga City Council is very concerned that the draft EU Recovery plans do not include any support under the climate goals for district heating projects. Perhaps it’s because of a blind spot: most of Europe is prioritising individual heating units powered by electricity. … [Read more...]
A marketplace for energy data will enable Europe’s grid expansion
The growth of the decentralisation of energy generation and storage combined with the digitalisation of the metrics of supply and demand is pointing towards a marketplace for energy data, explain Veronika Spurná and Helena Uhde at the EU-China Energy Cooperation Platform. Such a marketplace will monetise the data itself, in recognition of its vital role in enabling the intelligent distribution of energy and investment. There will also be a place … [Read more...]
Buildings Renovation in Germany: success story or potential failure?
The German Federal Association of Housing and Real Estate Companies (GdW) has claimed that money and effort spent on the nation’s buildings renovations have not worked. But Andreas Rüdinger at IDDRI has looked into the evidence and concluded that the opposite is the case. CO2 emissions from the residential sector in 2018 were 37% lower than in 1990. Though final energy consumption was broadly stable, that’s because efficiency gains were offset by … [Read more...]
Which sectors need Hydrogen, which don’t: Transport, Heating, Electricity, Storage, Industry?
Which sectors are most suited to hydrogen, and which are not? For the answer, six academics from the UK and the Netherlands - Tom Baxter, Ernst Worrell, Hu Li, Petra de Jongh, Stephen Carr, and Valeska Ting – use their areas of expertise to neatly summarise hydrogen’s pros and cons in Road and Rail, Aviation, Heating, Electricity and Energy Storage, and Heavy Industry. Their general message seems clear: hydrogen is still very expensive, so it can … [Read more...]
City-level emissions reductions: what can successful cities teach us
The EU Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (EUCoM) requires their member cities to commit to exceeding their national goals. EUCoM is one of the world’s largest subnational climate action networks, with over 1,000 cities and home to 50m people. Writing for Carbon Brief, Angel Hsu, Nihit Goyal and Amy Weinfurter at Yale-NUS College review the data to see how successful they have been. About 40% of the cities show emission reductions that are … [Read more...]
UK heating plan still means 120 gas boilers installed for every low-carbon system
Though the UK is a leader in grid electrification it is a poor performer when it comes to the electrification of heating. In May the UK government proposed a clean heat policy to support the switch away from gas heating for 12,500 homes a year for two years. Jan Rosenow and Samuel Thomas at RAP say that looks like business as usual: for every one new low-carbon heating system, more than 120 gas boilers will be installed as normal. In 2019, 1.7m … [Read more...]
Accelerate EV infra, buildings refits to use electricity’s looming spare capacity
How do we turn the pandemic downturn into an executable opportunity, above and beyond targets and promises? Chris Nelder at RMI presents data on how electricity load has dropped during the lockdown in the U.S. That load will return when the economy recovers. In the interim capacity will go unused. New capacity in the pipeline could be delayed. Nelder suggests policy makers grasp the opportunity to fill that gap and use that capacity by directing … [Read more...]
100% renewables by 2050: a technology, market, system, business model toolset for your nation
A growing number of countries are announcing increasingly ambitious renewable energy targets. But how do you deliver the results? IRENA’s Elena Ocenic explains that they have developed a toolset for countries to plot their unique pathway to success. Those tools range widely across technology, market design and regulation, system operation practices, and business models. The article lists the tools, and runs through some notable successes. Ocenic … [Read more...]
No Energiewende without Wärmewende: making Germany’s Heating emissions climate neutral (…nearly)
In Germany, space and water heating in buildings accounts for almost a third of total final energy consumption. Because over 90% of its 22m buildings are fuelled by oil and gas, that makes the sector emissions very intensive. The government’s ambition is to have a "nearly climate neutral building stock" by 2050. But although those emissions have fallen by 44% since 1990, progress has largely stagnated since 2011. Freja Eriksen at Clean Energy … [Read more...]
“Climate leader” UK: why did low-carbon electricity generation stall in 2019?
In 2019, just 1TWh of low-carbon electricity (wind, solar, nuclear, hydro, biomass) was added in the UK. That’s after a decade of adding an average of 9TWh/year. Why? The UK needs to know, given an extra 15TWh/year is required until 2030 to meet emissions goals on top of the planned electrification of transport and heating. Carbon Brief’s Simon Evans runs through their thorough analysis. Wind power alone rose by 8TWh in 2019, but was offset by … [Read more...]
Is Germany’s emissions drop thanks to the EU ETS, not Berlin?
The good news is that 2019 saw a big decrease in Germany’s emissions, meaning a 35% reduction since 1990. It was only 30.8% by 2018, so the acceleration was thanks to a sharp drop in coal use. But emissions rose in transport and buildings, making the 2020 target of 40% more daunting. Add to that the slump in wind installations (permit problems) and the planned nuclear exit by 2022 (will more fossil fuels be needed to fill that big gap?), … [Read more...]
An independent Global Energy Forecast to 2050 (part 3 of 5): fossil fuels
Schalk Cloete is creating his own 5-part independent Global Energy Forecast to 2050, to compare with the next IEA World Energy Outlook, due in November. To make his predictions he has created simulations of cost-optimal technology mixes and made his own assumptions over the drivers that will affect them: policy, technology, demand growth and behavioural change are all included. Cloete reminds us that fossil fuels did not reach their dominant … [Read more...]
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