EU Member States have inadvertently supported with their own subsidies the renewable energy targets of other Member States, a practice that violates EU internal market rules, explains Kim Talus at UEF Law School. He looks at how Denmark subsidised Danish biomethane producers who exported to Sweden, where Swedish consumers were benefitting from subsidies already. This promoted Danish biomethane producers at the expense of rivals. In December 2022 … [Read more...]
Big Dataâs huge power demand can migrate globally, instantaneously: implications for planning regional capacity and markets
Something is going to make the planning of regional power generation and associated markets even harder: the ability of big data users to shift their demand across the globe quickly, based on price. Ira Joseph at CGEP peers into the near future to ask some difficult questions. When such power demand can âat the push of a buttonâ migrate long distances, how do you make predictions for local capacity needs? And today, market design in most … [Read more...]
After the EU elections: what should be Europeâs energy and climate priorities for 2024-29?
After Juneâs European Parliament elections the new Commission will be tasked with setting the agenda for EU energy and climate policy. What should its priorities be? Maciej Jakubik at Forum Energii summarises their paper that sets out six. Energy security, improving access to data and therefore planning, energy market reforms and grid development, protecting and supporting vulnerable citizens, establishing an Energy Transformation Fund, global … [Read more...]
Low Emission Hydrogen: creating markets to get buyers to make firm commitments
Low emission hydrogen is expected to play an important role in global decarbonisation, though costs today are very high and must come down. Economies of scale will help, but production is yet to pick up pace as there are inadequate âdemand signalsâ which result in financial risks for project developers. Kapil Narula and Luciano Caratori of Climate Champions Team, Laurent Antoni at IPHE, and Nigel Topping (former UN Climate Change High-Level … [Read more...]
Europeâs cross-border Interconnectors: how JAO auctions optimise energy flows, prices
Interconnectors allow for cross-border flows of energy between two markets that would otherwise not be connected. Through an economic convergence between supply and demand, the cheapest marginal producer located anywhere in these two markets should be able to set market prices. As Jean-Baptiste Vaujour at the Emlyon Business School explains, the central question is to find an optimal allocation of the scarce interconnection capacity between the … [Read more...]
Financing Europeâs cross-border Interconnectors to deliver energy security, lower prices: a look at incentives and policies
The EU and its Member States are building out interconnectors to improve security of supply and affordability of electricity through the physical and economic linking of national energy markets into a single, synchronised European market. But each interconnector is expensive, complex and therefore risky. They can span long distances or natural obstacles such as mountains or seas. Significant network planning and adaptation is needed to account … [Read more...]
Whatâs Plaguing Voluntary Carbon Markets?
In voluntary carbon markets, buyers (like big companies with emissions) voluntarily purchase and trade in offsets generated from emissions reduction or removal projects elsewhere. And in early 2023 momentum was building for them, but that soon collapsed as evidence of greenwashing grew: forestry programs were significantly overestimating their value. Allegra Dawes at CSIS lays out the background before explaining that systems must be put in place … [Read more...]
Most investors still arenât factoring in climate risks. Oil and Gas firms face virtually no additional borrowing costs
Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent due to climate change. At the same time, global decarbonisation is changing the economics of the energy sector. Yet credit ratings agencies arenât consistently factoring in the risk of climate-related change into borrowing costs, explains Matt Burke at the University of Oxford. For example, oil and gas firms are facing virtually no additional borrowing costs. Itâs a similar story for governments … [Read more...]
Modelling revenue potential for Germanyâs Battery Storage future
In the last ten years Germany has installed battery storage systems totalling 6.5 GW of power and 10.1 GWh of energy. Storage is an essential part of every nationâs electrification plans: for peak shaving, uninterruptible power for industrial customers, use as a buffer, and self-supply in households. Elena Dahlem and Alex Schmitt at Energy Brainpool start with a summary of storageâs use in the household, industrial and large-scale sectors. They … [Read more...]
EU now has 9,000+ âenergy communitiesâ: smart, decentralised, flexible generation and consumption
The goal of the EUâs âClean Energy for all Europeans packageâ (CEP), adopted in 2019, is to improve the functioning and design of Europeâs energy markets and systems. Luca Arfini, writing for ESCI, explains how, as part of the CEP, new market actors called âactive customers/consumers and citizensâ and âenergy communitiesâ are being established. As variable renewable generation grows, the whole system needs to be more decentralised, smarter and … [Read more...]
EU states agree deal on electricity market to protect consumers from price volatility, boost cheap renewable power
On Tuesday EU member states finally agreed on how to reform the bloc's electricity market after long months of difficult negotiations. The introduction of long-term contracts, particularly contracts for difference (CfDs), should stabilise prices for consumers and give certainty to investors in new generation. But the big concern had been how the state support implicit in CfDs might be used to bias the playing field in favour of nuclear and coal, … [Read more...]
What can todayâs Energy Revolution learn from the previous Industrial and Information Revolutions?
What can the Industrial Revolution and the more recent Information Revolution teach us about the Energy Revolution we are going through now, ask Yuki Numata, Laurens Speelman and Marissa Gantman at RMI. Importantly, the same questions that were ignored or dismissed in those past transitions will help us shape our energy transition to make it better, faster, less wasteful and polluting, as well as more equitable. The authors reveal a 4-part … [Read more...]
Voluntary Carbon Markets in turmoil: what must be done to make carbon offsetting work?
Headlines like âRevealed: more than 90% of rainforest carbon offsets by biggest certifier are worthless, analysis showsâ tell of the big problems faced by Voluntary Carbon Markets (VCM). VCMs are markets for buying, selling, and investing in carbon credits tied to avoided, reduced, or removed greenhouse gas emissions. But they are struggling to define, measure, verify, and value carbon credits in an efficient, transparent, and standardised … [Read more...]
Electricity Market Design – creating the stimulus for competitive Offshore Wind within the internal energy market
Ahead of the upcoming discussion in Brussels (September 18, 15:00, Polish Embassy REGISTER HERE) on how to stimulate renewable investment, see below for a reminder of what was discussed at our conference before the summer. This time around, following an open address by Wanda Buk, VP Regulatory Affairs at PGE, PGE Baltica's CEO, Arkadiusz SeksciĹski will be joined by Thor-Sten Vertmann, Electricity Market Design (EMD) expert within Ms Kadri … [Read more...]
Does Nuclear slow down the scale-up of Wind and Solar? France and Germany canât agree
France and Germany lead the camps in disagreeing on the future of nuclear in Europe. Camille Lafrance and Benjamin Wehrmann at CLEW take a deep dive into the reasons why, quoting experts and politicians. Germanyâs vision of a fully renewables-based EU is at odds with Franceâs unwavering support for low-carbon nuclear energy. European-wide agreement on targets matter because they drive future investment in the targeted technologies and the design … [Read more...]
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