The clean energy economy is making its mark on global GDP, explain Laura Cozzi, Timur GĂĽl, Thomas Spencer and Peter Levi at the IEA. It accounted for 10% of global GDP growth in 2023, primarily through three activities: manufacturing of clean energy technologies, deployment of clean power capacity, and clean equipment sales. Here, the authors present the in-depth results for four of the largest economies: the U.S, the EU, China and India, which … [Read more...]
Strict rules stop Green Hydrogen production diverting clean power from the grid. What are they?
Green hydrogen must be made from green electricity. But the electricity used for making it must fulfil stricter requirements than conventional green electricity. Matthis Brinkhaus at Energy Brainpool describes the criteria by which hydrogen can be designated as 100% renewable: Additionality; Additionality Plus; Temporal correlation, simultaneity; Geographical correlation, regionality. Brinkhaus points at where exceptions can be made, and where … [Read more...]
Can the six Gulf nations meet their ambitious Renewables deployment plans by 2030?
The six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabi, UAE) have all set themselves ambitious renewable energy targets to meet in the next ten years. They are some of the sunniest countries in the world, and existing projects have set records for low solar power costs. But they have a long way to go. In 2022, GCC renewable capacity was 5.7GW, primarily solar PV, out of 165GW of total generating capacity, … [Read more...]
Europe’s 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...]
New Offshore Wind projects: is permitting being slowed by evidence from “grey literature”?
Offshore wind is the new frontier of clean energy generation. The permitting process depends on policymakers’ evaluation of the impact assessment evidence. As Claire Szostek at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory explains, that evidence has two sources: primary and “grey” literature. “Primary literature” comes from structured peer-reviewed scientific journals. “Grey literature” includes all other types of reports and evidence published freely. The … [Read more...]
Euro 2024: what’s being done to make it “the most sustainable football championship of all time”?
UEFA and the German Football Federation (DFB) have promised that EURO 24 will be “the most sustainable European championship of all time.” As Ruby Russell writing for CLEW explains, plans extend across 10 energy-hungry stadiums, travel to and between 51 games (80% of emissions!), merchandise and catering. To tempt people off budget airlines, train fares are being subsidised and extra trains scheduled in. There are plans to use renewable power in … [Read more...]
Financing Europe’s 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...]
Study: universities worldwide are still producing far more graduates for fossil fuels than for clean energy
Universities worldwide still produce more workers for fossil fuels than for renewable energy industries. Roman Vakulchuk and Indra Overland at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs summarise their new study on the energy transition in global higher education, published by the Energy Research & Social Science journal. The study is based on a review of 18,400 universities in 196 countries. 68% of the world’s energy educational … [Read more...]
Hydrogen: most nations’ plans to export to Europe don’t match reality. The EU should make it itself
The EU’s RePowerEU plan, quickly made in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, aims to produce 20m tonnes of renewable hydrogen by 2030, with half coming from imports. Here, T&E summarise their report that concludes this is unrealistic. The report looks at six key countries with plans to export hydrogen to the EU: Norway, Chile, Egypt, Morocco, Namibia and Oman. T&E says these countries combined would only be able to deliver a quarter … [Read more...]
The link between global GDP growth and CO2 emissions is weakening rapidly. Will emissions peak well before 2030?
Economic growth has been closely tied to rising greenhouse gas emissions since the industrial age. But data now clearly shows that that GDP growth and CO2 emissions are diverging. Siddharth Singh at the IEA presents the numbers. In advanced economies that divergence now seems locked in, with 2007 marking the moment of peak emissions (and not simply because of offshoring manufacturing). Even in developing economies GDP growth is far outpacing … [Read more...]
Italy: Capacity Auctions for 71 GWh of additional Grid Storage
Italy needs 71 GWh of new utility-scale electricity storage capacity by 2030 to meet EU targets to cut emissions by at least 55% by 2030, according to Terna which manages Italy’s transmission grid. ***STOP PRESS*** This Tuesday at 11:00 CET, Energy Post is exclusive media partner to a dedicated webinar (organised by ATA Insights/RENMAD) on Capacity Market Auctions REGISTER FREE HERE. In this article, Sara Stefanini summarises the Terna study, … [Read more...]
Germany: Carbon Prices could phase-out Coal by 2030 without a new law
The upward trend in the carbon price since 2015 has already seen coal generation decline significantly. Last year, total generation was a little over 100 TWh; it was 263 TWh in 2003. Sebastian Ligewie at Energy Brainpool looks at the prices of hard coal, lignite and the EUAs (EU emission allowances). It’s around €37 per MWh for hard coal and €8 for lignite. But emissions costs of around €63 per MWh for hard coal and €84 for lignite are added to … [Read more...]
Massive global expansion of Renewables coming. But we’re still short 20% of our 2030 target
The IEA has released the 143-page “Renewables 2023”, the latest edition of its annual report on the sector. The world added 50% more renewable capacity in 2023 than in 2022 and the next 5 years will see fastest growth yet. Under current policies and market conditions, global renewable capacity is already on course to increase by two-and-a-half times by 2030: great news but still short of the tripling we need. A key reason for the gap is the lack … [Read more...]
Clean energy forecast map tells firms where to build their facilities to minimise emissions
For companies that are serious about their net-zero targets, where you run a facility affects your results. Building a new facility in a region where renewables are ramping up will keep your emissions low. Connor O'Neil at NREL explains how analysts there, in partnership with Amazon, are building out datasets that take a forward look at where clean energy is growing. The “Cambium” data sets contain modelled hourly emission, cost, and operational … [Read more...]
China didn’t sign the global pledge to triple Renewables and double Efficiency. Why?
Announced at COP28, a total of 123 countries committed to tripling renewable power capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030. China didn’t. Why? Quoting experts, Lin Zi at China Dialogue explains that the bundling together of the two targets is the problem. Tripling renewables is very achievable; in fact China may well exceed that target. But reducing energy intensity is not easy, even though China has a good record: among the G20 members, … [Read more...]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 72
- Next Page »