Like many other sectors, the energy sector needs employees with digital skills. They need to create the new tools that can match power supply with demand, predict and detect faults in networks, and give greater control to consumers. It’s an essential part of the new world of decarbonisation, with digitalisation enabling the faster integration of renewables, improving grid stability and unlocking greater energy savings. Aloys Nghiem, Marc … [Read more...]
June deadline for EU nations’ NECPs: will this year’s plans show they’re taking the climate seriously?
On June 30th, EU Member States have to submit the final revision of their updated National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) to the European Commission. NECPs specify their climate and energy targets and trajectories up to 2030, with an outlook to 2040 and the longer term. NECPs must also feature the policies and measures planned to achieve these targets, as well as their funding needs and sources. But, as Federico Mascolo at CAN Europe explains, … [Read more...]
Tariffs on China’s carmakers? Chinese joint ventures and on-shoring would be better
Both the U.S. and the EU are targeting China’s carmakers with tariffs. China is accused of providing state support that allows exported vehicles to be sold at cheaper prices than those of global rivals. The tariffs will allow U.S. and EU carmakers to build up their own domestic supply chains and catch up in competitiveness. But cheap EVs help accelerate the clean transition, so tariffs will only slow it down, certainly in the short term. And … [Read more...]
Analysis of Clean Technology Manufacturing around the world: solar PV, wind, batteries, electrolysers, heat pumps
For every nation, clean technology manufacturing can bring economic security, employment, and resilience to clean energy transitions, says the IEA. The sector is now so significant that it’s also impacting overall GDP performance: in 2023, clean technology manufacturing alone accounted for around 4% of global GDP growth and nearly 10% of global investment growth. Here, the IEA summarises its first-of-its-kind “Energy Technology Perspectives … [Read more...]
EU Elections 2024: the Green Deal is being sidelined. What can be done?
In the run-up to the EU elections this June, Andrea Renda at CEPS, writing for IDDRI, says the Green Deal is being ousted from the public debate. Protests against important elements of the Green Deal – including environmental regulations, wind and solar farm installations, a ban on combustion engines – are being used by populists to scare mainstream politicians away from openly championing Europe’s green and clean energy ambitions. Proponents of … [Read more...]
10% of global GDP growth came from the new Clean Energy economy in 2023
The clean energy economy is making its mark on global GDP, explain Laura Cozzi, Timur GĂĽl, Thomas Spencer and Peter Levi at the IEA. It accounted for 10% of global GDP growth in 2023, primarily through three activities: manufacturing of clean energy technologies, deployment of clean power capacity, and clean equipment sales. Here, the authors present the in-depth results for four of the largest economies: the U.S, the EU, China and India, which … [Read more...]
Study: universities worldwide are still producing far more graduates for fossil fuels than for clean energy
Universities worldwide still produce more workers for fossil fuels than for renewable energy industries. Roman Vakulchuk and Indra Overland at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs summarise their new study on the energy transition in global higher education, published by the Energy Research & Social Science journal. The study is based on a review of 18,400 universities in 196 countries. 68% of the world’s energy educational … [Read more...]
Hydrogen: most nations’ plans to export to Europe don’t match reality. The EU should make it itself
The EU’s RePowerEU plan, quickly made in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, aims to produce 20m tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030, with half coming from imports. Here, T&E summarise their report that concludes this is unrealistic. The report looks at six key countries with plans to export hydrogen to the EU: Norway, Chile, Egypt, Morocco, Namibia and Oman. T&E says these countries combined would only be able to deliver a quarter … [Read more...]
Geothermal Heat Pumps at scale avoid the cost of expensive long-distance transmission lines
A new analysis reveals that installing geothermal heat pumps in 70% of U.S. buildings can reduce the need for new long-distance transmission lines by 33%, explains Kelly MacGregor at NREL. The main message is that, though geothermal deployment is seen as expensive, the avoided costs are significant. Those transmission lines won’t be needed because geothermal is always local and can be deployed in both urban and rural places. Though the widespread … [Read more...]
Just Transition: UK’s Port Talbot steelworks are closing. What can be learnt from the Netherlands and Sweden?
A classic “just transition” story is being played out in the UK, a high income nation and Europe’s second biggest economy. Tata Steel plans to cut almost 3,000 jobs at the UK’s largest steelworks. The location, Port Talbot, is one of the most deprived places in the UK and the steelworks there are its largest private sector employer. Tata is under pressure to decarbonise its steel production, so will switch to an electric arc furnace that recycles … [Read more...]
Clean energy is driving job growth, but skills shortages are a major barrier
The second edition of the IEA’s annual World Energy Employment report measures energy sector employment by region, fuel, technology, and value chain. Globally, energy employment rose to 67m people in 2022. Over half of employment growth since before the pandemic was in just five sectors: solar, wind, EVs, batteries, heat pumps, and critical minerals mining. In fact, clean energy jobs overtook fossil fuels in 2021. But skilled labour shortages are … [Read more...]
Jobs in the new clean energy economy: where are they, what are they, and how to find one
According to IEA figures, in 2019 the energy sector employed over 65m people, 2% of the global workforce. Half of that workforce is already in the clean energy sector, and demand for skilled employees is soaring. Whereas fossil jobs are heavily weighted to low skilled and very high skilled, most clean energy jobs are at the high end. Helena Uhde at Ea Energy Analyses looks at this new world, explains the differences, and notes that although … [Read more...]
U.S. Inflation Reduction Act: one year on, a summary of impressive progress in the energy transition
The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act has been described as unprecedented in its ambition for the nation’s energy transition. One year on from the passing of the bill in August 2022, Hannah Perkins and Adam Aston at RMI describe the progress on implementation as unprecedented too. The authors break their review down into categories: clean tech manufacturing, electrifying transport, greening buildings, decarbonising electricity, transforming industry, … [Read more...]
Russia’s war has exposed France and Germany’s energy policy differences. Can it also bring them together?
France and Germany combined account for 45% of EU GDP and 40% of energy consumption. No wonder they are the most influential EU members. But the Russia-induced energy crisis has forced both Paris and Berlin to expose and admit the differences in their national energy strategies, and that has made a search for a unified voice for Europe’s ambitious climate targets much harder to achieve, explain Camille Lafrance and Benjamin Wehrmann at CLEW. … [Read more...]
Poorly defined “efficiency” incentives birthed the SUV. Beware the same mistake with “clean energy” jobs, “domestic” batteries + more
Financial support for the transition needs clear and carefully chosen definitions of what qualifies for that support. Getting it wrong leads to unintended consequences, some which may not reduce emissions, explains James Sallee at the Energy Institute at Haas. Ever wondered why SUVs and big cars proliferated after the 1970s in the U.S. (and are on roads all over the world now)? The 1970s oil crisis triggered new rules that penalised fuel … [Read more...]
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