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Energy Post

The best thinkers on energy

Biden’s Leaders Summit: turning climate commitments into solutions

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President Biden's Leaders Summit on Climate last month helped focus minds on making firm commitments to reducing global emissions. As we all know, targets are one thing, credible and realistic solutions are another. To understand the challenge better, Dolf Gielen, Ricardo Gorini and Gayathri Prakash at IRENA break down into themes those areas that need much more effort and, if dealt with successfully, can get us to net zero by 2050: structural … [Read more...]

The Netherlands: a Blue Hydrogen economy now will ease a transition to Green

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Barthold Schroot at EBN makes the case for blue hydrogen for the Netherlands now, to minimise emissions and make life easier for green hydrogen later. The country is a big consumer of natural gas that, realistically, cannot be quickly replaced with renewables. So what’s the best alternative to burning that gas and can be introduced the soonest? Green hydrogen production (emissions-free) will take time to reach scale as it needs to piggy-back off … [Read more...]

German Hydrogen scenarios: 271 TWh of Green Hydrogen by 2040?

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Germany is putting in place plans and legislation to launch its green hydrogen economy. Sila Akat and Simon Göss at Energy Brainpool look at the laws and regulations, existing and expected soon, that are driving this game-changing ambition. They have also created five scenarios (two are explained in detail here) for production, based on those plans. The reference “Stated Policies” scenario predicts an increase of electrolyser capacity to 5 GW by … [Read more...]

China: decoupling GDP growth from rising emissions

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To set up this week’s important online event (Tuesday 13th & Wednesday 14th April) “China: Carbon Neutral by 2060 -EFFICIENCY FIRST” we have an overview of China’s energy transition. Everyone agrees its performance is critical for the world to achieve the global goal of limiting warming to 1.5C by 2050. China made significant progress in 2020 with policy frameworks, renewable capacity additions and EVs, but it also added 38 GW of new … [Read more...]

Public opposition and grid integration costs: the two limiting factors for Wind?

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Are we heading for an over-reliance on wind? With wind generation costs continuing to drop dramatically, Schalk Cloete takes a data-driven look at the obstacles wind will face as its contribution to the global energy mix (a little over 2% today) keeps rising. In the main, it is grid integration and public opposition to very visible turbines – and they are related. Putting turbines out of sight and offshore will increase transmission costs. And … [Read more...]

Germany’s plans to be a Hydrogen leader: producer, consumer, solutions provider

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Germany is getting in early on the proposed hydrogen economy as a producer, consumer and with intentions to be the leading international supplier of hydrogen technologies. Simon Göss at Energy Brainpool runs through the main drivers for hydrogen before summarising the German strategy. The German 2030 target is to have electrolyser capacity of 5GW installed to produce 14TWh of green hydrogen, providing 15% of the hydrogen consumed in Germany by … [Read more...]

Saudi Arabia’s clean hydrogen plans for converting ambitions into action

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The recent Memorandum of Understanding with Germany on clean hydrogen cooperation underlines Saudi Arabia’s ambition in becoming a global powerhouse producer in this field. Governments and industry players are currently considering clean hydrogen as an energy vector with key energy transition roles in an increasingly carbon-constrained world. Hydrogen has the potential to grow into a trillion-dollar commodity market, with enormous opportunities … [Read more...]

Green Hydrogen: reducing the cost needs scaling up of electrolyser plants

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More and more nations are committing to the promise of hydrogen. That promise cannot be kept unless costs come down. A report from IRENA, ”Green Hydrogen Cost Reduction: Scaling up Electrolysers to Meet the 1.5⁰C Climate Goal“, breaks down what needs to be done. Two of its authors, Herib Blanco and Emanuele Taibi, summarise the study and point at the more than 20 countries (and companies like Thyssenkrupp, NEL and ITM) committing to doing it. The … [Read more...]

Denmark approves artificial island to site 10GW Offshore Wind hub

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Denmark has approved a plan to build an artificial island in the North Sea that will be a hub to hundreds of offshore wind turbines, 260m tall, that will generate 10GW, enough energy for 10 million households. The first stage will be the size of 18 soccer pitches, for 3GW, costing €29bn ($34bn), and should be operational by around 2033. Writing for the World Economic Forum, Douglas Broom says that the ultimate goal of 10GW should be more than … [Read more...]

“The Role of Gas” in Europe and China: EVENT VIDEO on security of supply, gas to power, competitive markets & renewable gases

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We present the videos of the second of our three, 4-session workshops on the opportunities for European energy solutions providers to take part in China's energy transition. In this workshop, held in February, we looked at gas. Demand in China is expected to keep growing. That’s because China doesn’t just need to replace coal, it simply needs more energy. Europe’s gas sector has decades of relevant experience, technology, policy, planning and … [Read more...]

EU Taxonomy: Gas as a transition fuel needs Green Deal support too

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PGE Group is Poland's largest energy company. Its transformation plan targets a 50% share from renewable generation and an 85% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030. By 2050 it intends to have net zero CO2 emissions and provide 100% green energy to its customers. As with all nations around the world, and certainly in the EU, successful transitions depend on capital flows to the right sectors, signposted by policies and support. What does and does … [Read more...]

Aviation and Shipping emissions: will Biden take on the challenge?

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William Todts at Transport & Environment is very worried about the Biden administration’s approach to aviation and shipping emissions. The signals are that the U.S. wants to work through the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO). But they have neither the ability nor the means to spur technological breakthroughs. That matters, because it’s only the use of alternative fuels that can … [Read more...]

CCUS “gasphilic” process could double the conversion rate of CO2 into useful fuels

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Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is proving very expensive. So rather than simply store the CO2 underground it’s better to turn it into something that you can sell. Hence, much work is being directed at turning CO2 into transportation fuels or chemical feedstocks by focussing on the science of reactive materials: the other chemicals in the soup, using different catalysts, and even designing the right nanostructures to maximise the results. MIT’s … [Read more...]

Decarbonising Industry is key to China’s net-zero strategy

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China has committed to a CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060. It’s 14th 5-year plan will be released in March, followed by sector-oriented plans. For the first time it will include a dedicated plan addressing climate change. Dolf Gielen, Yong Chen and Paul Durrant at IRENA start by laying out China’s energy mix for scrutiny, then dive into its industrial sector which accounts for 60% of gross final energy use. Success … [Read more...]

New research into Catalysts can boost Hydrogen manufacture

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Catalysts are materials used to enable and accelerate a chemical reaction. There is a long history of using them in industry to manufacture different hydrocarbons, ammonia, sulfuric acid, and the list goes on. By choosing your materials well and tinkering with the structure at the molecular level, the catalyst can greatly improve the efficiency of the conversion process. Glennda Chui at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory describes how their … [Read more...]