Another climate action âfirstâ this year will be the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. Never before has climate change featured as a top priority for American politicians and voters, says Arnault Barichella writing for the IFRI Centre for Energy & Climate. Itâs thanks to the growing evidence of human-caused global warming in collision with a current President who calls it all a hoax and has been rolling back the regulations of his predecessor. … [Read more...]
EU pathway to 3m EV charge points by 2030
Right now the EU has around 185,000 public charge points, which is enough for todayâs market (seven cars for each point). The current policy scenario targets 33m electric cars by 2030 (44m for climate neutrality). Transport & Environmentâs Nico Muzi summarises their latest report that plots their ambitious pathway. Itâs driven by the forceful idea of a European âright to plugâ, and enabled by their new Public Charging Supply metric, using a … [Read more...]
Can emissions trading work without Article 6 of the Paris Agreement?
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement creates the framework for mechanisms that will allow nations and sub-national actors to trade emissions. Executed correctly, it must raise ambitions and reduce total emissions. It must also ensure there is transparent and accurate accounting for emissions, with no double-counting. It made little progress at Decemberâs COP25. This was partly due to some countries âinsisting on accounting loopholesâ, writes Isabella … [Read more...]
Peak Energy by 2030: Efficiency gains will make the Transition affordable
We canât afford the energy transition? Next time you hear that from someone, perhaps you can show them this. Sverre Alvik at DNV GL explains that, according to their latest Energy Transition Outlook, although annual global energy expenditure will have to increase from $4.6tn in 2017 to $5.5tn in 2050, its share of growing world GDP will almost halve from 3.6% to 1.9%. Thatâs because continuing energy efficiency gains are making sure that total … [Read more...]
Decarbonising light duty vehicles globally: consumer choice, technology, policy pathways
The MIT Energy Initiative (MITIE) has completed a 3-year study of âMobility of the Futureâ to plot a decarbonised pathway for light duty vehicles (i.e. cars) globally. Wide in scope and detail, it covers government policies, consumer choices and technologies, combining their multiple and complex impacts to make their assessments. Kathryn Luu at MITIE reviews the final 220-page report. For consumers, cost, convenience, and â increasingly â carbon … [Read more...]
Biofuels: slump in investment and innovations must be reversed
IRENA is predicting the future of liquid biofuels by monitoring the number and technology-type of patents. Itâs not looking good. The first thing to note is that, after a promising rise, the total number of patents has slid from over 6,000 in 2011 to around 2,500 in 2017. Thatâs reflected in the dramatic fall in global biofuel investments, from $27bn in 2007 to $2bn in 2017. The likely main cause is a lack of stable regulation, say Alessandra … [Read more...]
Grid switchgear uses SF6, the worldâs most potent greenhouse gas. How do we regulate it?
Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) is described as the worldâs worst greenhouse gas. Itâs 23,500 times more potent than CO2. Global annual emissions are 8,100 tonnes, equivalent to the CO2 emissions of 100m cars. It has an atmospheric lifetime of over 1,000 years and its installed base is expected to grow by 75% by 2030. 80% of all SF6 is used in gas insulated switchgear, a vital component of the grid (isolating and protecting different sections), so … [Read more...]
Decarbonising industry: how much policy-driven adoption is needed to let the market take over
Decarbonising industry is one of the worldâs greatest challenges. The costs, today, are huge and therefore the technology adoption required has hardly started. But several technologies already exist. Gbemi Oluleye at Imperial College (UK) explains the first step is to measure the market size for each sub-sector, then estimate how much policy-driven adoption is required to achieve the cost reductions that make the change viable. After that, no … [Read more...]
California fires and blackouts: would non-profit utilities be more reliable, safer, cheaper?
The wildfires in California ignited by poorly maintained transmission lines have themselves ignited a debate about whether the guilty - and now bankrupt - energy utility PG&E (the largest in the state) should now become publicly owned. That in turn has led Severin Borenstein at the Energy Institute at Haas to consider the pros and cons of public v private in this vital activity. The first thing to note is that electricity transmission and … [Read more...]
Behaviour Change: measuring complex mobility options to make cities smarter
How do you factor future behaviour change into transport, housing, workplace and energy infrastructure planning? Clearly, future plans based on past behaviour will end up being wrong. And metrics that tell us which behaviour is most efficient can point us in better directions. We wonât find the answer until we start measuring it. Thatâs why the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is leading a collaboration of U.S. government and academia … [Read more...]
EVs should be getting cheaper. Instead theyâre getting bigger
Manufacturing an EV is getting cheaper, but affluent consumers are buying bigger cars for the same money. If manufacturers are left to serve them first, theyâll leave until last the development of cheaper EVs, penetrating new markets, that would more rapidly accelerate the replacement of fossil fuel cars and therefore the transition. That leaves policy makers with a big problem with the âsuccessâ of EVs, explain Leonardo Paoli and Simon Bennett … [Read more...]
Electro-mobility planning, pricing, smart-charging: âPentalateral Regionâ can lead Europe
At the end of October, Ministers and Director-Generals of Energy and Mobility from the Pentalateral Region (Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and Germany), CEOs and experts came together to understand how electro-mobility can accelerate the energy transition. Reducing vehicle emissions is one thing, but a vast number of âbatteries on wheelsâ can also enable rapid grid expansion. IRENA were one of the experts, and their analysis says … [Read more...]
DNV-GL: energyâs shrinking share of growing global GDP shows how we can afford Transition
At the current rate of progress higher energy efficiency, more renewables, and carbon capture will not be enough to keep the global temperature rise to well below 2°C. So to point the way, DNV-GL has condensed its Energy Transition Outlook 2019 into 10 ways technology can meet the COP21 targets. This article gives figures on how much solar and wind we really need, battery production, annual investment in grids, and energy efficiency. It further … [Read more...]
Germany 2021: when fixed feed-in tariffs end, how will renewables fare?
Starting in 2021 many of Germanyâs existing âpioneerâ wind turbines, solar PV installations and biogas plants â launched with generous price guarantees - will stop receiving fixed feed-in tariffs. That means renewable capacity may be shut down if they canât find a new business model to run on. The new rules comes at a decisive time for Germanyâs energy transition as it tries to increase renewables to meet emissions targets and gradually increase … [Read more...]
India: coal plummets, renewables stepping in
In 2018, 80% of Indiaâs total energy lending went to renewables. Coal got the rest, a major fall compared to 2017. No wonder, given coal plants have been running at below 60% utilisation for two years with the operators suffering huge losses. Renewables are now undercutting coal and getting cheaper. And shortages in water â needed for plant cooling â just add to their woes. Vibhuti Garg at IEEFA catalogues the problems, then describes the … [Read more...]
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