Energy Post

Daily reports on the European and Global energy transition

Electric Utilities: ESG investors should invest in, not avoid, the high-carbon emitters

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Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings point climate-conscious investors away from companies that are not decarbonising fast enough (or at all!). But surely they should be doing the exact opposite when it comes to climate-critical sectors like electric utilities, explain Tricia Holland, Ryan Foelske, Ella Warshauer, Jon Rea, Sarah LaMonaca and Uday Varadarajan at RMI. Of course, that presents a new challenge. The investor first needs … [Read more...]

Germany closes its last 3 nuclear reactors. Understanding the reasons why

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Germany has a long history of being resistant to all things nuclear. No new commercial reactors have been built since 1989. By 2023, nuclear made up only 6% of its power mix. To meet its decarbonisation goals, the government is confident of its target to reach an 80% renewables share in electricity demand by 2030 without nuclear. Hence the shut-down of its last three reactors over the weekend. Yet nuclear supporters say that leaving the last six … [Read more...]

Renewables “cost of capital” in Europe lower than oil, gas, coal. What the U.S. and China can learn

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The ultimate price of anything is highly dependent on the cost of capital needed to put it in place. That cost reflects the risks financial markets perceive. And policy certainty reduces risk. Gireesh Shrimali, Christian Wilson and Xiaoyan Zhou at Oxford University, writing for WEF, summarise their global study which shows the cost of capital for different energy technologies, and therefore which ones will trend upwards and dominate. They cover … [Read more...]

Event summary: Electricity Market Design – how can reforms accelerate the Transition and help cut energy prices?

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Here is our written summary of our online panel discussion held last week on the EC’s Electricity Market Design reform proposal. Catharina Sikow-Magny, Director, DG ENER presented the main elements of the proposal, and answered questions from the panellists: Wanda Buk, VP for Regulatory Affairs, PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna; Leonardo Meeus, Director, Florence School of Regulation; JĂ©rĂŽme Le Page, Chair of Electricity Committee, Federation of … [Read more...]

ReDREAM: Horizon-backed project gives consumers control of local renewables, prices and demand

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The ReDREAM project, funded by EU Horizon 2020, wants to put consumers at the centre of the energy market. As Steve Gillman explains, people and businesses can shape their supply and demand by owning local renewable generation and combining that with smart systems that give visibility of prices and generation to enable control of demand, right down to the level of heat pumps, washing machines, hot water systems and EVs. A 30-household pilot is … [Read more...]

Electricity Market Design: how can reforms accelerate the transition and help cut energy prices?

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*** REGISTER NOW *** for our online panel discussion on Friday 24th March 09:30-10:45 CET, “Electricity Market Design: how can reforms accelerate the transition and help cut energy prices?” Our panellists are Catharina Sikow-Magny, Director, DG ENER; Wanda Buk, Vice-President for Regulatory Affairs, PGE; Leonardo Meeus, Director of the Florence School of Regulation; JĂ©rĂŽme Le Page, Director for European Electricity Markets, EFET; Michaela … [Read more...]

Wind (and Solar) need their own Financial Transmission Rights to hedge their unique congestion risks

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Financial Transmission Rights (FTRs) help generators and load-serving entities hedge congestion-related risk. Transmission congestion causes a divergence between wholesale power prices where it is generated and the trading hubs where it is delivered and sold. Because the congestion, and therefore the risk, varies over time it is particularly important to variable renewables. That uncertainty increases investor risk which potentially slows … [Read more...]

Utah: 140MW Geothermal bid can beat the cost and performance of the proposed Nuclear SMR

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The U.S. state of Utah is processing an agreement for a new Small Modular Reactor (SMR) to provide baseline and dispatchable power. The SMR bid quotes a price of $89/MWh. But cost overruns will tie the state’s consumers to whatever high prices entail, says Dennis Wamsted at IEEFA. Now a geothermal bid from NV Energy has been presented that offers the same capacity at around $70/MWh. Wamsted explains why the 140MW geothermal project would meet … [Read more...]

What’s stopping even bigger Wind Turbines? Blade speed and flexing? More likely manufacturing and installation capacity

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Bigger wind turbines make cheaper energy. The sector’s unexpectedly rapid successes in designing and building bigger and bigger turbines has been one of the major success stories of the clean energy sector. In 2023, the biggest turbines in the world will start generating electricity off the coast of the UK. Each of General Electric’s Haliade X turbines stands 260m high from sea level and can generate 13MW at under ÂŁ50/MWh (€56/$61). But how big … [Read more...]

Making Hydrogen will consume 2% of total global renewable capacity growth by 2027

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25 countries plus the EU have announced big ambitions for renewable hydrogen production. But how much renewable energy will be needed to make the H2 over the next five years? Nations are not keen to expend new clean energy generation on (expensive today) hydrogen production when their grids are still not emissions-free. According to the IEA, for 2022-2027, their main case forecasts around 50GW of renewable capacity will be dedicated to hydrogen … [Read more...]

How to tax renewable energy firms for windfall profits from high wholesale electricity prices

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Should windfall taxes be imposed on renewable energy firms that have benefitted from the current high electricity prices caused by the increases in oil, gas and coal prices triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? If so, how, and how much? The IEA has conducted a study of the EU to try to uncover who has (and hasn’t) made extraordinary profits, and how much. Up front they say this is difficult to do as the majority of installed renewable … [Read more...]

Corporate targets are forcing suppliers to cut emissions or relocate to clean energy nations

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Emissions targets being imposed by corporates in the U.S. and Europe are forcing manufacturers in other parts of the world to decarbonise, writes Kwangyin Liu at Clean Energy Wire. Here, she looks at how Taiwan’s TSMC – the world’s third largest chip manufacturer – is having to set up factories in Arizona (U.S.) and Kumamoto (Japan) where emissions are lower and thus to comply with requirements set by customers like Apple, Google and Microsoft. … [Read more...]

Doubling clean energy investments from “natural” redirection of existing spend on infrastructure, buildings, fossils +more

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Annual investments in clean energy stand at $1.4tn, now greater than investments in fossil fuels ($1tn). But that needs to double by 2030. This steep climb will be made easier by the natural cycle of global investment, as well as the cost-benefits of abandoning fossil fuels for renewables and greater efficiencies, says Stephen Peake at The Open University. Each year, around a quarter of our GDP is anyway spent on new machinery, buildings and … [Read more...]

Russia, fossil prices, energy security will boost Renewables to 38% of global power mix by 2027, says IEA

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The IEA has raised its 2027 forecasts for total renewables additions in its main scenario to 2,383GW – around the total power capacity of China. That’s a 28% increase on the previous estimate and up 76% from two years ago, explains Josh Gabbatiss at Carbon Brief who summarises the IEA’s latest forecasts. Globally, solar power will overtake gas by installed capacity in 2026 and coal in 2027. There are two main drivers for this acceleration. High … [Read more...]

How Europe is countering Russia’s weaponisation of energy – CEDE 2022 event summary

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Simon Göss provides a written summary of our two panel discussions held in Brussels on Thursday December 8th 2022. Panel 1 was titled “The Availability and Affordability of Gas and Energy in CEE and EU”, Panel 2 “The War in Ukraine: Security of Critical Energy Infrastructure”. The issues covered include EU policy interventions for countering the Russian weaponisation of energy, cooperation with Ukraine, how far is Europe prepared, spill-over … [Read more...]