Energy Post

Daily reports on the European and Global energy transition

  • Newsletter
  • Search Categories
    • Renewables
    • Policy
    • Oil, Gas & Coal
    • Hydrogen
    • Outlooks
    • Grids
    • Nuclear
    • Markets
    • Transport
    • Videos
  • 24-linkedin 24-twitterfacebook Follow-Us

Solar PV windows on highly glazed skyscrapers can cut energy by 40%+

November 30, 2022 by Wayne Hicks

Around a third of the world’s energy consumption and CO2 emissions come from buildings. Highly glazed skyscrapers and buildings may look beautiful and let in plenty of light, but waste a lot of energy due to the extra cooling needed in summer and heating in winter. Modern skyscrapers can have window-to-wall ratios of 70%+. But modern thermally efficient photovoltaic windows not only provide insulation but turn the absorbed light into power. Wayne … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: buildings, efficiency, emissions, generation, innovation, insulation, PV, rooftop, skyscrapers, windows

Measuring the effect of radical protests on the public and the national agenda

November 11, 2022 by Colin Davis

Climate protest happen all over the world now. In some places they hit the news headlines hard because roads are blocked and cultural artefacts are vandalised by small numbers of protestors. These radical protestors are facing the “activist’s dilemma”: even though many of the public object to their methods, will the publicity help their cause? Colin Davis at the University of Bristol offers research that tries to measure the phenomenon. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Policies Tagged With: activists, buildings, Climate, ExtinctionRebellion, InsulateBritain, insulation, JustStopOil, media, oil, protests, publicity, radical

Energy Security: what if the UK government had not “cut the green crap” from 2013

October 24, 2022 by Simon Evans

The UK provides an example of a government that cut back its green ambitions only to see its energy security suffer. In 2013, then-prime minister David Cameron told his ministers to “cut the green crap”. That led successive governments to downgrade home energy efficiency, requirements for new homes to be “zero carbon”, end subsidies for onshore wind and solar, and effectively ban onshore wind in England. What if the UK had stayed on its … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Policies Tagged With: buildings, Cameron, Conservatives, efficiency, electricity, gas, imports, insulation, onshore, Russia, solar, subsidies, UK, wind

Evaporation and Radiation cooling: no power required (but the aerogel must get cheaper)

September 28, 2022 by David Chandler

It is well known that evaporation and radiation are two ways of keeping something cool. David Chandler at MIT explains how researchers there have created an experimental 3-layered cell that combines evaporation and radiation with an insulator to deliver cooling that needs no power. It can provide around 9°C of cooling from the ambient temperature, enough to permit safe food storage for about 40% longer under very humid conditions, and could … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, HVAC Tagged With: aerogel, cooling, evaporation, grids, HVAC, hydrogel, insulation, radiation

Buildings Renovation: if Europe had started a decade ago it wouldn’t have a Russian oil & gas problem

April 8, 2022 by Andreas RĂźdinger

It’s a message we are starting to see a lot. If ambitious climate policies struggling to be implemented today had been launched a decade ago, Europe wouldn’t have a Russian oil and gas problem. Andreas RĂźdinger at IDDRI looks at buildings renovations in France. Two missed targets, proposed in 2008, are a 38% reduction in energy consumption in existing buildings by 2020, and 400,000 “major” renovations annually. If they had been met, natural gas … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: boilers, buildings, efficiency, electricity, EU, Europe, France, gas, insulation, oil, renovation, Russia, Ukraine

Buildings Retrofits: inaccurate efficiency ratings are going to waste budget

July 6, 2021 by Freya Wise

Buildings renovations are going to be expensive, and complicated to roll out. Accurately predicting how much energy a building actually wastes will make that process easier and cheaper. EPC ratings are used to categorise the energy efficiency of homes. But Freya Wise at The Open University quotes research in Europe, along with her own investigations in the UK, to show that a lot of older buildings waste less energy than the standard estimates are … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: buildings, efficiency, EPC, EU, insulation, renovation, retrofits, UK

How to ramp up Green Mortgages for climate-friendly house improvements

April 29, 2021 by Greg Hopkins

Green mortgages are used to finance climate-friendly house improvements. In the U.S. they already exist, but need to be made far more accessible and marketed widely. Greg Hopkins at RMI cites their report “Build Back Better Homes: How to Unlock America’s Single-Family Green Mortgage Market” to explain that the financial markets are looking increasingly favourably at lending that is certified as ESG (environmental, social, and governance). … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: Biden, buildings, ESG, HVAC, insulation, investment, lending, mortgages, renovation, US

Buildings Renovation in Germany: success story or potential failure?

January 25, 2021 by Andreas RĂźdinger

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 RĂźdinger 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...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy Tagged With: buildings, efficiency, emissions, France, Germany, heating, insulation, renovation, residential, tenants

From Buildings to Solar Thermal: using electric charge to vary insulating properties tenfold

March 4, 2020 by David Chandler

The insulating properties of a material don’t normally vary. Applying an electric charge to a material can vary its electronic and magnetic qualities, but not its thermal conductivity, normally. David Chandler at MIT says now a team of researchers there have found a way to do it. Their “electrical heat valve” can increase the thermal conductivity of thin-film strontium cobalt oxide (SCO) on demand by running a charge through it after adding … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Buildings, Energy, Energy efficiency, Innovations Tagged With: buildings, efficiency, HVAC, innovation, insulation, SolarThermal

Most read this week

  • Make Hydrogen in developing nations: share prosperity while meeting our climate goals by Dolf Gielen | posted on January 26, 2023
  • Utah: 140MW Geothermal bid can beat the cost and performance of the proposed Nuclear SMR by Dennis Wamsted | posted on January 27, 2023
  • Biofuel is approaching a feedstock crunch. How bad? And what must be done? by IEA | posted on January 23, 2023
  • 10 Carbon Capture methods compared: costs, scalability, permanence, cleanness by Ella Adlen | posted on November 11, 2019
  • Concrete: 8% of global emissions and rising. Which innovations can achieve net zero by 2050? by Ben Skinner | posted on January 24, 2023
  • Can Aluminium-air batteries outperform Li-ion for EVs? by Helena Uhde | posted on September 8, 2021
  • EU ETS and CBAM: what the big update to emissions trading rules means for Europe’s key sectors by Simon GĂśss | posted on January 16, 2023
  • Micro-nuclear reactors: up to 20MW, portable, safer by Christina Nunez | posted on April 22, 2021
  • EU Energy Outlook to 2060: how will power prices and revenues develop for wind, solar, gas, hydrogen + more by Alex Schmitt | posted on December 6, 2022
  • Smart Glasses: experts can monitor and advise on power plant inspections anywhere in the world by Christoph Gatzen | posted on January 25, 2023
  • Gravity Batteries: any nation can do it at scale using rocks by Simon Read | posted on July 27, 2022
  • What’s best for Hydrogen transport: ammonia, liquid hydrogen, LOHC or pipelines? by Herib Blanco | posted on May 5, 2022
  • Hydrogen production in 2050: how much water will 74EJ need? by Herib Blanco | posted on July 22, 2021
  • Why hydrogen fuel cell cars are not competitive — from a hydrogen fuel cell expert by Zachary Shahan | posted on June 17, 2016
  • The 10 big problems with simply replacing fossil cars with electric by Schalk Cloete | posted on December 6, 2021
  • Europe needs a Regional Green Bank to fulfil its Green Deal and match the U.S. by Esmeralda Colombo | posted on January 20, 2023
  • How to sell Heat Pumps to the public in Europe by Helena Uhde | posted on January 19, 2023
  • The U.S. should support the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) by Joseph Majkut | posted on January 30, 2023
  • Critical Raw Materials for the energy transition: Europe must start mining again by Frank Umbach | posted on January 10, 2022
  • 2023 lookahead for Sustainable Finance: EU Taxonomy, ESG ratings, corporate disclosure laws, Europe’s “IRA” by Luca Bonaccorsi | posted on January 12, 2023

Information

  • Advertise
  • Privacy Policy including Cookies
  • Terms and conditions for posting content
  • Comment Policy

More Information

  • About us
  • Authors
  • Contact Us

Most read in last 24 hours

  • Recent Posts
  • Recent Comments
  • Most Commented
  • Most Viewed
  • Tags
  • Wind (and Solar) need their own Financial Transmission Rights to hedge their unique congestion risks
  • The U.S. should support the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
  • Utah: 140MW Geothermal bid can beat the cost and performance of the proposed Nuclear SMR
  • Make Hydrogen in developing nations: share prosperity while meeting our climate goals
  • Smart Glasses: experts can monitor and advise on power plant inspections anywhere in the world
      • Wind (and Solar) need their own Financial Transmission Rights to hedge their unique congestion risks
      • carbon bubble
      • CCS
      • China
      • climate change
      • coal
      • coal power
      • diversification
      • electric cars
      • electricity
      • electricity market
      • emissions
      • energy2030
      • energy efficiency
      • energy security
      • energy storage
      • energy trade
      • energy transition
      • EU
      • EU energy policy
      • EU ETS
      • European gas market
      • financing
      • gas
      • geopolitics
      • grid
      • grids
      • hydrogen
      • infrastructure
      • investment
      • natural gas
      • nuclear energy
      • oil
      • renewables
      • Russia
      • shale gas
      • smart grids
      • solar
      • solar power
      • sustainable mobility
      • transport
      • unconventionals
      • US
      • US energy policy
      • wind
      • wind power

      Recent Posts

      Wind (and Solar) need their own Financial Transmission Rights to hedge their unique congestion risks

      The U.S. should support the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)

      Utah: 140MW Geothermal bid can beat the cost and performance of the proposed Nuclear SMR

      Make Hydrogen in developing nations: share prosperity while meeting our climate goals

      Smart Glasses: experts can monitor and advise on power plant inspections anywhere in the world

      Copyright © 2023 Energy Post. All Rights Reserved