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...]
New U.S. Offshore Wind target: from standing start to 30GW by 2030
In March, the Biden administration announced a bold target to deploy 30GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030. Until now, offshore wind’s rise has been driven almost exclusively by Europe and China. The U.S. accounts for just 0.1% of the world’s installed capacity (versus 17% for onshore wind). Why the hold up, given the U.S. could require up to 400GW of offshore wind by 2050? As Stephen Naimoli and Nikos Tsafos at CSIS explain, offshore costs … [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...]
Five practical steps Oil & Gas can take to accelerate their energy transition
The Oil & Gas sector has a role to play in the energy transition, and not just by winding down operations. That’s because they will, by most projections, continue to be a major part of the energy mix through to 2050. But their activities must transition too, explain Bart Valkhof, Pedro Gabriel Gomez Pensado and Wan Sayuti at the World Economic Forum. The sector must therefore work out which strategies and investments can produce the lowest … [Read more...]
Coal Phase-Out in Central Europe: cooperation is better than law suits
On Monday (February 22nd 2021) the Czech government announced their intention to file a lawsuit in the EU Court of Justice against Poland’s plan to “expand the mining” at Turow, saying it can endanger the drinking water for up to 30,000 people living in the Liberec Region. Frank Umbach at EUCERS argues such a lawsuit sets a dangerous precedent that could stand in the way of regional cooperation and achieving the EU’s climate goals. Instead, the … [Read more...]
Industrial Clusters: the logic of co-location now has a new driver, net-zero emissions
Industrial clusters locate plants and factories in one area to share resources, problems and solutions. They already have a long history of collaboration. But the logic of co-location now has a new driver: net-zero emissions. The sectors can range from heavy industry (e.g. steel and cement) to light (food, paper, etc.) The challenge is to make the most of new clean technologies and processes, and at the same time maintain or increase … [Read more...]
Washington State (U.S.) bill could make it the home for next generation Nuclear
Nuclear may soon be getting a boost from Washington State in the north-west of the U.S. There, a bill is being presented to promote the manufacture and deployment of new nuclear reactors. It will provide generous tax incentives to nuclear investments in the state. It’s the sort of support that renewable energy technology is used to, yet nuclear struggles to get because of critics of nuclear energy. That opposition is very frustrating, explains … [Read more...]
Nine advantages small-scale solutions have for reducing global emissions
Which is best? Spending your budget on a million 1 KW solar panels or a single 1 GW nuclear/hydro/gas plant? Lots of electric bikes or a single tram system? Lots of smart thermostats or whole-building retrofits? Charlie Wilson (University of East Anglia), Caroline Zimm (IIASA) and Simon De Stercke (Imperial College London) summarise their study that lists the advantages of small-scale “granular” solutions over large-scale “lumpy” ones. Granular … [Read more...]
Coal regions are ideally suited for utility-scale Wind, Solar and jobs
Over 15% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU come from coal-fired energy generation. 18 EU countries still use coal for electricity production. The argument goes that the phasing out of coal threatens the livelihoods of coal workers and their regional economy. But it should be the opposite, argue Elif Gündüzyeli and Jörg Mühlenhoff at CAN Europe. Coal regions are ideally suited for new gigawatt-scale wind and solar. They already have the … [Read more...]
The Road Transport Transition: a policy toolkit for electrification
For the electrification of road transport, planning, incentives, the removal of barriers, and the right regulatory framework are all needed. But different regions with different rural and urban lifestyles will each need their own solution. Camille Kadoch at RAP summarises their RAP EV Roadmap for the U.S. which provides a toolkit for assembling your unique solution. It includes targets, funding sources, policy coordination, incentives (including … [Read more...]
A pathway for profitable CCS in California
A study from the energy departments of Stanford University, from where Kara Glenwright writes, lays out a pathway for California to capture and store up to 60 Mt (million tonnes) of CO2 a year. 76 site locations have been identified where work could start immediately to store 20 Mt/yr profitably under the existing low carbon rules. But first a raft of clarifications on the laws is needed, showing that the success of CCS doesn’t just depend on the … [Read more...]
Rural America needs investment, jobs. $82bn/yr of Wind and Solar can deliver it
The build out of wind and solar in the U.S. – to rise from 165GW today to over 500GW in 2035 – will overwhelmingly happen in the open spaces of rural America, explains Kevin Brehm at RMI. It should result in a major boost to stagnating communities. The $82bn/year of clean energy investment will take second spot to the current three big rural spends: highways ($90bn), water utilities ($57bn) and mass transit ($45bn). By 2030 rural clean energy … [Read more...]
Chinese energy institutes present new net-zero scenarios for 2050
It was just one sentence, in September, from China’s President Xi Jinping: “We aim to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.” Already, leading Chinese energy institutes have presented two scenarios that lay out what needs to be done to meet that goal. Writing for Carbon Brief, Lauri Myllyvirta reviews the plans. Both target over 85% of all energy and more than 90% of electricity coming from non-fossil … [Read more...]
Europe has enough Gas infrastructure. Why build more?
In early November a first vote is expected in the European Parliament on the Recovery & Resilience Facility’s €672.5bn 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...]
Europe’s Deep Buildings Renovations need to quadruple
The European Green Deal must grasp the opportunity to kick-start buildings renovations, says Thibaud Voïta at the IFRI Center for Energy & Climate, summarising his report “The Renovation Wave: A Make or Break for the European Green Deal”. A lot of European buildings are old, and progress is slow. Stiffer regulations have helped, and household energy efficiency has risen by 30% since 2000. But the number of deep building renovations completed … [Read more...]
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