The historic agreement on climate change reached in Paris a week ago is not a simple death knell for fossil fuels. Rather, it puts renewed focus on carbon capture and storage, throws a gauntlet down to the transport sector, and raises formidable governance as well as cost challenges for developing and developed countries alike. This is in addition to necessitating changes to electricity market design and grid infrastructure to accommodate more … [Read more...]
Twilight of the Gods of Oil
For most of the past 40 years OPEC, the association of Big Oil exporters, and the Big International Oil Companies  controlled our lives, but they have started on an inevitable decline, writes solar pioneer Peter F. Varadi. Competition from renewables and smaller players as well as tighter climate polices will make their business model obsolete. According to Varadi, their corporate culture makes it unlikely they will be able to adapt. … [Read more...]
Why the Paris climate deal is a win for energy companies
The historic climate deal signed in Paris on 12 December 2015 has been embraced by many campaigners as a turning point in the fight against climate change. But energy companies should also be rejoicing. The unanimously adopted agreement provides the certainty of a long-term goal with the flexibility of carbon markets, takes a significant step towards creating a global level playing field, and promises billions in new subsidies to drive business … [Read more...]
What Paris means for the energy sector: start of a whole new clean economy
As the UN climate talks in Paris are nearing completion, the implications for the energy sector are becoming clear. The 186 national action plans that will form the basis of an agreement really amount to clean energy investment plans, observers say. “A whole new economy will be created.” What this means for fossil fuels is uncertain. Although the term decarbonisation has been replaced by a much vaguer “emissions neutrality”,  few believe that a 2 … [Read more...]
The electricity network is changing fast – here is where Australia is heading
The Australian electricity sector is changing extremely fast, writes Paul Graham, Chief Economist CSIRO Energy at CSIRO (the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) in Australia. CSIRO Energy sees solar and storage costs still dropping rapidly. According to Graham, scenarios under which a third of people may be leaving the grid and 25-45% of electricity will be generated on-site are “plausible”. … [Read more...]
German grid operator can handle 70% wind, solar before storage needed
Reneweconomy.com The company responsible for more than one-third of Germany’s electricity grid says there is no issue absorbing high levels of variable renewable energy such as wind and solar, and grids could absorb up to 70 per cent penetration without the need for storage, writes Giles Parkinson of Reneweconomy.com. … [Read more...]
New: renewables can now play important role in industrial development
Thanks to massive cost reduction, renewable energy can now be used by developing countries in their industrial growth strategies, which was unthinkable until recently, writes John Mathews of Macquarie University in Australia in a new publication from UNIDO, "Promoting Climate Resilient Industry". Mathews notes that renewables can help countries expand manufacturing and create jobs, reduce local pollution, increase energy security and reduce … [Read more...]
The Autowende has begun
In the next 60 months the automotive industry will see more change than in the last 60 years, writes entrepreneur Michiel Langezaal. He notes that Asian and US manufacturers are putting massive resources into developing batteries, electric drive trains and solar cells. Nothing like this is happening on a similar scale in Europe. European car and energy companies need to go all-out for the Autowende or Europe will miss out on the next trillion … [Read more...]
Apocalypse when?
Global warming is a slow-motion apocalypse that might end civilization as we know it, writes author Tom Engelhardt of Tomdispatch.com. According to Engelhardt, to prevent such an outcome, “successful negotiations in Paris can only be the start of something far more sweeping when it comes to the forms of energy we use and how we live on this planet” . … [Read more...]
Energiewende is easily affordable – if we don’t go 100% renewable
Researchers from Fraunhofer ISE have published a new report investigating the net cost of Germany’s energy transition. The good news is that the German government’s current goals are likely to be affordable. The bad news is that 100 percent renewable energy is less so, writes Craig Morris of the website German Energy Transition. … [Read more...]
State of the Energy Union: the political work has yet to be done
The European Commission appears to be making a valiant effort at getting the Energy Union’s goals internalised into an institutional process that does not scare off Member States wary of “more Europe”. However, writes Oliver Sartor of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), the key test for the Energy Union will be how well it can succeed at getting Member States to buy into its objectives. The Energy Union … [Read more...]
Stanford: world can go 100% wind, water, sun by 2050 – and save money
Reneweconomy.com A new analysis from Stanford University has laid out a roadmap for 139 countries to power their economies with solar, wind, and hydro energy by 2050. It says the world can reach 80 per cent WWS (wind, water and sunlight) by 2030 and 100 per cent by 2050 with no impact on economic growth. … [Read more...]
Does the IEA’s new World Energy Outlook miss the global transition?
The energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables will likely be faster than the International Energy Agency predicts in its recent World Energy Outlook, writes Peter Simon Vargha, Chief Economist at Hungarian oil and gas company MOL. According to Vargha, we are at a point when renewables are getting cheaper than fossil fuels in many areas, and that means a whole different game. … [Read more...]
Carbon Tracker: fossil fuel companies risk wasting up to $2.2 trillion in the next decade
Carbon Tracker Initiative (CTI), the NGO that invented the concept of “stranded assets” (or “the carbon bubble”) has today published a new report warning that, as a result of climate policies, “no new coal will be needed, oil demand will peak around 2020 and growth in gas will disappoint industry expectations”. According to CTI, over $2 trillion of new and existing investment is in danger of being wasted over the coming decade if governments and … [Read more...]
Kirill Komarov, First Deputy Chief Rosatom: “The future belongs to fast-neutron reactors with closed fuel-cycle”
"Globally there are no alternatives that can replace nuclear power", but with the growth of renewables, "the demand for very large nuclear reactors will drop". That is the view of Kirill Komarov, First Deputy CEO of the Russian nuclear giant Rosatom. "Fast-neutron reactors with a closed fuel cycle will secure baseload and low and medium capacity reactors will serve balancing needs", says Rosatom's "number two" man in an exclusive wide-ranging … [Read more...]
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