In early November a first vote is expected in the European Parliament on the Recovery & Resilience Facilityâs âŹ672.5bn budget. Esther Bollendorff at CAN Europe runs through the arguments against providing any funding for new gas infrastructure. She presents evidence to show that the EU is already oversupplied with gas import capacity, and all new fossil gas transmission projects have been rejected by the market since 2017. Solar and wind … [Read more...]
The expansion of Europeâs EV charging infrastructure: new rules and incentives needed
In 2021 the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive, which regulates public charging infrastructure, will be revised and updated by the European Commission. Referencing her study, Julia Hildermeier at RAP identifies some of the rules and incentives that will be needed to optimise the expansion of EV charging infrastructure. To start with, she says that EU countries need to define the baseline essential charging network. Such a promise would … [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. Thatâs more ambitious than Obama, and more than what Biden promised when campaigning to be the Democratâs candidate. His emphasis has been on the jobs and investment a green economy will create â language that has more voter appeal than reversing emissions. Meredith Fowlie at UC Berkeleyâs Energy Institute at Haas reviews the promises … [Read more...]
We need Behaviour Change and âLife Efficiencyâ, because efficiency gains and clean energy will never be enough
Behaviour change â reducing emissions by changing how we live our lives - should be part of every government and think tankâs sustainable scenario, explains Schalk Cloete. Thatâs because impressive advances in energy efficiency and clean energy wonât 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...]
Floating Solar: can it help ASEAN reverse coalâs continued rise?
Floating solar farms may be gaining traction in Asia. Capacity is still small: by 2019 the big players Japan and China had a combined floating photovoltaic (FPV) installed capacity of 1.3GW. But the ASEAN countries that had virtually nothing before 2019 now have over 51MW and have planned in another 858MW. A report by Sara Jane Ahmed and Elrika Hamdi at IEEFA explains why FPV is looking better and cheaper at balancing out peaks and troughs than … [Read more...]
Europeâs new Hydrogen Strategy: the questions that still need answering
Yesterday saw the launch of the ECâs new Hydrogen Strategy, the focus of our next live online discussion and Q&A. Register now to join us at the event next Wednesday at 12.45 CEST on Zoom to hear direct from the European Commission's Dr. Florian Ermacora, Future Energy System expert Prof. dr. Ad van Wijk, Giulia Branzi - Head of Regulation at event partner SNAM and trading specialist Marcel Steinbach of BDEW. Here, to set the scene, Gökçe … [Read more...]
Sales down, but cash preserved too: Regulators take note when setting new Utility rates
Utilities are suffering financial impacts because of the current pandemic, and regulators will be asked to address them when they set new electricity rates. The intention will be to help the utilities recover while keeping bills affordable for their customers. But not all the impacts on the utilities are bad news, explains Jim Lazar at RAP looking at the U.S. Though revenues have dropped and some labour costs risen, there is a list of things that … [Read more...]
Wireless recharging of EVs as they drive?
Engineers have demonstrated a practical way to use magnetism to transmit electricity wirelessly to recharge electric cars. Stationary wireless EV charging has already been piloted and promoted by companies like Connected Kerb in the UK and car manufacturers. Experiments with the mobile version have also been conducted. Clearly, the less often an EV has to stop to recharge the better. But this has run into the problems of energy conversion … [Read more...]
An EU Hydrogen strategy: from industry feedstock to energy vector
The bravest recovery strategies will invest robustly in new yet-to-take-off clean energy technologies. If you are going to have to spend hundreds of billions to revive your economy isnât it better to replace the old with the new rather than prop up what youâll have to abandon soon anyway? In anticipation of that happening, new technologies are lining up. Here, CĂ©dric Philibert at the IFRI Centre for Energy & Climate summarises their detailed … [Read more...]
UK to phase out petrol, diesel, hybrid car sales by 2035. Hereâs how
This month the UK government promised to accelerate the phase-out of fossil-fuelled cars. From 2035 all new diesel and petrol car sales (including hybrids) are banned. Promises are one thing, realistic policies, plans and investment is another. Last year only 1.6% of new passenger vehicles sold were EVs and that has to rise to 100% in 15 years. Ashley Fly at Loughborough University sets out what needs to be done. First, skills and training; much … [Read more...]
The cost of climate inaction: putting a $ price on 4.5°C warming
Oriana Tannenbaum and Rushad Nanavatty at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) have gathered data that puts a price on not making the necessary investments in tackling climate change. For the U.S., a 4.5°C warming scenario (by 2050) will cost $5.2tn. At a more drastic 6°C the cost is $17tn. These projections are hard to do when treating the climate as an âinfrastructure assetâ, though proven methodologies do exist for tradition assets, and the authors … [Read more...]
EV Charging Infrastructure: âhiddenâ soft costs are slowing take up
You donât buy an EV if youâve nowhere to charge it. So the take up of EVs depends on the availability â and therefore the costs - of charging infrastructure. Rocky Mountain Instituteâs Chris Nelder describes the surprising conclusion of their recent report âReducing EV Charging Infrastructure Costsâ, that itâs the soft costs that are stubbornly refusing to go down in the U.S. That means things like permitting delays, complex utility … [Read more...]
EU pathway to 3m EV charge points by 2030
Right now the EU has around 185,000 public charge points, which is enough for todayâs market (seven cars for each point). The current policy scenario targets 33m electric cars by 2030 (44m for climate neutrality). Transport & Environmentâs Nico Muzi summarises their latest report that plots their ambitious pathway. Itâs driven by the forceful idea of a European âright to plugâ, and enabled by their new Public Charging Supply metric, using a … [Read more...]
Gas infrastructure leaks methane: fix it, or accelerate to clean energy
Natural gas, because itâs low-carbon, is being used as a bridge fuel away from the old fossil fuel world. But there are two main problems. The infrastructure leaks methane (the main component of the gas) which is 25 times more potent than CO2 over a 100-year period (and 86 times over a 20-year period!). And, crucially, nobody is properly measuring those leaks. That means policy makers are growing the gas mix without knowing by how much itâs … [Read more...]
Behaviour Change: measuring complex mobility options to make cities smarter
How do you factor future behaviour change into transport, housing, workplace and energy infrastructure planning? Clearly, future plans based on past behaviour will end up being wrong. And metrics that tell us which behaviour is most efficient can point us in better directions. We wonât find the answer until we start measuring it. Thatâs why the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is leading a collaboration of U.S. government and academia … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- …
- 18
- Next Page »