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Energy Post

The best thinkers on energy

Solar power stations in space that beam uninterruptible power back to Earth

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It’s still on the drawing board, but putting solar farms into orbit has obvious advantages. The power is 24/7, and no sunlight is lost through the atmosphere. But there are two big challenges. Amanda Jane Hughes and Stefania Soldini at the University of Liverpool explain how the European Space Agency, the California Institute of Technology, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Xidian University in China, among others, are attempting to … [Read more...]

Accelerating renewables in Central and South East Europe

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What is the potential for renewables in Central and South East Europe? Luis Janeiro, SeĂĄn Collins and Ricardo Gorini at IRENA summarise their clean energy pathway for CESEC (the Central and South Eastern Europe energy connectivity initiative). The region has very good resource conditions to scale up renewables. Spectacular cost reductions in wind and solar over the last few years can provide a cheaper source of new electricity than the least-cost … [Read more...]

Solar is displacing Coal in India’s electricity market

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India is the world’s third largest electricity market and as a fast-growing economy can, according to the IEA, lead the recovery of global energy demand out of the pandemic for the coming decade. Kashish Shah at IEEFA runs through solar’s prospects in India, which hopes to build 450GW of renewable energy by 2030. Solar is getting cheaper. A 2GW auction in June delivered India’s lowest-yet renewable energy tariff at US$31/MWh. That figure could … [Read more...]

The benefits of Peer-To-Peer Electricity Trading for communities and grid expansion

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The adoption of peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity trading will turn individual consumers from passive to active managers of their networks. Such a marketplace can relieve constraints on the growing system and offer an alternative to costly grid reinforcements. Arina Anisie and Francisco Boshell at IRENA run through the benefits, including investment costs, bills, resilience, congestion, mini-grids, energy access, and more. They note that very few … [Read more...]

WEO 2020 means updated price predictions to 2040: Oil, Gas, Coal, Renewables, Power

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The combined effect of the global lockdown, more ambitious climate policies and the rise of renewables will have a significant effect on European power prices up to 2040, as well as the sales revenues of renewable energies. Carlos Perez-Linkenheil at Energy Brainpool uses their Power2Sim model to look at the data in the IEA’s latest World Energy Outlook 2020 and make quantitative forecasts. The pandemic has caused structural distortions to the … [Read more...]

Europe has enough Gas infrastructure. Why build more?

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In early November a first vote is expected in the European Parliament on the Recovery & Resilience Facility’s €672.5bn budget. Esther Bollendorff at CAN Europe runs through the arguments against providing any funding for new gas infrastructure. She presents evidence to show that the EU is already oversupplied with gas import capacity, and all new fossil gas transmission projects have been rejected by the market since 2017. Solar and wind … [Read more...]

ELCC: how to measure grid stability as renewables are added

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We cannot just swap 24/7 fossil fuel power plants for intermittent renewables. To prevent electricity shortfalls the capacity of a solar or wind plant must exceed that of the fossil fuel plant it replaces. But by how much? That’s the question that the Effective Load Carrying Capability (ELCC) metric is designed to answer. It’s not a new concept, but is now becoming very important. Mark Specht at the Union of Concerned Scientists explains the … [Read more...]

Are 1.5°C scenarios supplanting “Business As Usual” as the new benchmark?

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The world energy outlooks published annually by the IEA, BP and DNV GL look very different this year. 1.5°C scenarios are being taken much more seriously. Could it be because of the trauma of Covid-19, or the extraordinary – though still insufficient – success of renewables coupled with the rising ambition of climate-aware governments and their policies? Either way, they are helping to shift the debate away from the mainstream “business as usual” … [Read more...]

Decarbonising end-use sectors: buildings, transport, industry. Which strategies are best?

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The rapid pace of change in the energy sector is a positive sign for the transition. But the disruption it causes creates another big problem. It makes it harder to predict what will happen next. That makes strategies and pathways harder to design, and increases the risk of stranded assets. To try to come to grips with that future, Sean Ratka, Paul Durrant and Francisco Boshell summarise the findings of IRENA's 4-day “Innovation Week” held last … [Read more...]

Renewables shares outperformed fossil fuels over 10 years. Have investors noticed?

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Shares in listed renewables firms are outperforming their fossil fuel equivalents, both in terms of returns and volatility. But although investment is rising, they’re still not getting enough to meet our 2050 targets, says the IEA. Why? In this article summarising the first of a series of reports they look at the 5 and 10 year record of the two verticals. In all the three territories analysed – the U.S., the U.K., and Germany/France - renewables … [Read more...]

Europe’s 55% emissions cut by 2030: proposed target means even faster coal exit

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The EC is proposing a target emissions reduction of 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, instead of the previously agreed 40% (which the EU is on course to surpass). The main tool for achieving it will be the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). Prices for allowances will rise, making coal increasingly uncompetitive. Sören Amelang, Kerstine Appunn and Julian Wettengel at CLEW talked to a number of experts who say the new target implies a near total … [Read more...]

Sweden’s new “prosumers”: electricity generation at the city, village and residential level

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54% of Sweden’s power already comes from renewables – the target is 100% by 2040 - and more and more is being generated locally on a small distributed scale, says Harry Kretchmer writing for the World Economic Forum. ‘District Heating’ plants are today using excess heat to warm over 75% of Swedish homes. Residential generation is happening too, creating “prosumers” who both produce and consume. In Ludivika, 1970s flats have been retrofitted with … [Read more...]

No more “offsetting”: Google commits to 24/7 locally sourced carbon-free electricity by 2030

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By “offsetting” fossil electricity consumed at one data centre through buying green power from somewhere else, Google has been 100% renewable since 2017. But offsetting always has its flaws. In this case, 40% of Google’s actual power still comes from fossil fuels. Google’s new plan, to be 100% green 24/7 straight off the local grid, is designed to solve that. It will also send market signals to increase clean capacity locally, not just where you … [Read more...]

BP Outlook 2020: “peak oil” has already happened

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BP’s latest Outlook predicts – for the first time - that oil saw its peak in 2019. In each of BP’s Outlooks, published annually since 2011, they have revised their predictions for the global energy landscape to 2050 as new data comes in. The growth of clean energy and the changing shape of climate policies have seen each successive forecast increase the share of renewables at the expense of fossil fuels. This year even gas has seen its prospects … [Read more...]

We need Behaviour Change and “Life Efficiency”, because efficiency gains and clean energy will never be enough

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Behaviour change – reducing emissions by changing how we live our lives - should be part of every government and think tank’s sustainable scenario, explains Schalk Cloete. That’s because impressive advances in energy efficiency and clean energy won’t be enough to contain the emissions of a world continuing with the essential task of lifting billions of people out of poverty. But this should not be seen as a problem, says Cloete, because behaviour … [Read more...]