As other countries including the US, China, UK, Germany and Mexico lead on climate action, the lack of effort from the world’s third largest economy and fifth largest emitter has left Japan isolated in a debate that is increasingly central to trade, investment, security and foreign policy, write Taylor Dimsale, Liz Gallagher and Camilla Born in a new report from the London-based consultancy E3G. The authors explain the reasons behind Japan's … [Read more...]
What the new Conservative government means for UK energy policy
The new Conservative government is unlikely to change UK climate and energy policy radically, writes Stephen Tindale, the new CEO of the pro-nuclear Alvin Weinberg Foundation and a former Executive Director of Greenpeace UK. According to Tindale, David Cameron will build on the considerable achievements of the previous coalition government with the Liberal-Democrats, although there will be some changes, such as less support for onshore wind and a … [Read more...]
IEA: Clean energy progress falls well short of what is needed
It is “realistic and economically sensible to pursue a clean energy agenda”, states the International Energy Agency (IEA) in a new edition of its annual Energy Technology Perspectives. But, it adds”: “clean energy progress is failling well short of the levels needed to limit the global increase to no more than 2 degrees Celsius”. Governments must do much more to stimulate the uptake of clean energy and energy efficiency technologies. … [Read more...]
The exciting changes taking place in Scotland’s energy system
Scotland, despite having some of the EU’s largest fossil fuel reserves, is moving rapidly to an energy system based predominantly on renewable energy, notes energy expert Allan Hoffman, a former senior official at the U.S. Department of Energy, who lives in Scotland part of the time. Renewables are already the biggest single source of electricity – and “there is no reason requiring conventional fossil and nuclear generation in Scotland” in the … [Read more...]
Clean Disruption: how Silicon Valley will make oil, nuclear, gas, coal obsolete (book review)
In his new book “Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation”, famous author, lecturer and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Tony Seba predicts that by 2030 all power generation will be solar and wind and all cars will be self-driving electric vehicles. The existing energy industry will be “obliterated”. In a review of the book, JosĂ© Cordeiro, founding energy advisor at Singularity University and Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of … [Read more...]
Spain’s generation mix: almost 70% carbon-free
Spain gets 69% of its electricity generation from zero-carbon sources, reported the country’s grid operator, Red Electrica de Espana (REE), on the 31st of March. The largest source of carbon-free electricity is nuclear power (23.8%), followed by wind (22.5%). The figures apply only to March 2015. … [Read more...]
The myth of expensive offshore wind: it’s already cheaper than gas-fired and nuclear
Analysing public data on offshore wind in Denmark, energy consultant Mike Parr concludes that existing offshore wind is already cheaper than gas-fired power plants. Future offshore wind farms will be cheaper still – and up to 60% less expensive than the proposed nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point C in the UK. This means, writes Parr, that government support for offshore wind can be quickly and substantially reduced. … [Read more...]
Offshore wind in the Kattegat: a unique opportunity for Europe
New figures show that the Anholt offshore wind farm in the Kattegat between Denmark and Sweden had an impressively high capacity factor of 50% last year. This is all the more impressive since, as Mike Parr, Director of energy consultancy PWR points out, 2014 was a year with unusually low wind speeds. In an average year the capacity factor would have been more like 75%. This means, writes Parr, that if just 10% of the Kattegat region were … [Read more...]
Experts from World Energy Council highly critical of Energiewende
The German Energiewende cannot serve as a model for other countries. It is a threat to European security of supply, will have a negative impact on German growth prospects in the short term and is too costly. That’s the opinion of a majority of experts from 35 member organisations of the World Energy Council from across the world. … [Read more...]
Back to a nuclear future: the Abe government restarts Japan’s energy policy Â
The renewed mandate Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received from voters in the snap election in December will have big implications for the Japanese energy industry. Abe is set on re-starting closed nuclear reactors - and scaling back renewables subsidies. A recent report from the Institute of Energy Economics in Tokyo backs him up, saying that “renewable power generation capacity has increased too rapidly”. But a majority of Japanese are … [Read more...]
The significance of the UK party leaders’ joint climate pledge
The UK's three main political leaders have pledged to tackle climate change after the next election, whatever the outcome. Simon Evans of the Carbon Brief assesses the significance of the unusual joint pre-election pledge. He concludes that the substance of the agreement is not new, but it will “prevent backsliding on climate policy by future governments”. It will also serve as an example to countries across the world.  … [Read more...]
The Energy Union: it’s now or never for a European energy policy
Rarely has an idea conquered the policymaking conversation in the EU as rapidly as that of the Energy Union. In less than a year it has become the big package in which all EU climate and energy policies are to be wrapped up. Where did the idea come from? How will it change EU energy policy? Editor Karel Beckman spoke to experts from Poland, Luxembourg, France, Italy and the UK to find out. They agree it's now or never for a true European energy … [Read more...]
The myth of the dark side of the Energiewende
Critics of renewable energy have mocked the Energiewende, claiming that it has led to an increase in coal power and related CO2 emissions in Germany. But Conrad Kunze and Paul Lehmann of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ show that this is a myth. German coal generation and CO2 emissions rose not because of but in spite of the Energiewende. They would have been even higher if Germany had not phased out its nuclear power and … [Read more...]
Vindication for Allan Hoffman: the US has turned the corner on renewables
It has been 37 years since Dr Allan Hoffman gave President Jimmy Carter the plan that could have started America’s renewable revolution. The idea was shelved after Reagan was elected. Hoffman waited, as administration after administration ignored the potential, until Barack Obama was elected. The retired senior Department of Energy executive views the growth of US renewables during 2014 as a vindication of what he and his colleagues saw decades … [Read more...]
Global Calculator shows how the world can ‘prosper’ while tackling climate change
The world's population could live a prosperous, European-style lifestyle by 2050 at the same time as avoiding dangerous climate change, according to a new Global Calculator developed by the UK's Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC). Â Simon Evans tests the Calculator against scenarios of Shell and Friends of the Earth and comes to some surprising (or, perhaps not so surprising) conclusions. … [Read more...]
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