Accelerating the clean energy transition can tackle the inflation crisis, not just save the climate, explain Russell Mendell, Mathias Einberger and Katie Siegner at Rocky Mountain Institute. Rising energy costs are driving current global inflation. So now is the perfect time to drive through low-hanging-fruit ways to increase wind and solar generation and storage. In the U.S. interconnection queues – the pipeline of clean generation projects … [Read more...]
Can China’s 14th 5-year-plan for Renewable Energy deliver an early emissions peak before 2030?
At the beginning of June China released its 14th five-year plan (FYP) for renewable energy for the five years 2021-2025. Hu Min at Innovative Green Development Program, writing for Carbon Brief, reviews the plan’s targets and actions, and its implications. Unchanged from the 13th FYP, 25% of China’s energy will come from non-fossil sources by 2030. But the 14th FYP says at least half of the increase in electricity demand will be covered by … [Read more...]
Grid Distribution Systems: access to usage data is uncovering the optimal design for future electrification
The more efficient a distribution grid is, the less likely other potential supply bottlenecks (from lithium for batteries to trained electricians) will slow the transition to greater and greater electrification. State-of-the-art modelling of future grids is already happening, but the robust modelling of the distribution system is conspicuously missing because good data are notoriously hard to find, says Meredith Fowlie at UC Berkeley’s Energy … [Read more...]
Record global clean energy spending, but it’s still not enough and costs are rising
Since 2020, clean energy investment has grown by 12% per year – it was only 2%/year during the five years after the 2015 Paris Agreement. That boost is the main reason why total global energy investment is set to reach $2.4tn in 2022, according to the latest “World Energy Investment” report from the IEA. It’s very good news that spending on solar PV, batteries and EVs is now growing at rates consistent with reaching global net zero emissions by … [Read more...]
Event summary: “45% RES by 2030: EU’s latest investment challenge to DSOs”
Sara Stefanini provides a written summary of our panel discussion held on Thursday June 30th 2022. It’s a full summary of the 90 minute discussion (including audience questions), but it begins conveniently with a summary of the highlights. Investment in and the modernisation of the electricity distribution grid is one the biggest challenges the EU has to overcome in the next decade. It’s a €400bn investment challenge by 2050 says Eurelectric, an … [Read more...]
Implementing Poland’s national Recovery and Resilience Plan
How should Poland implement its national Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP)? Sonia Buchholtz at Forum Energii outlines some important answers. First, a deep analysis of the challenges and assessment of the solutions and reforms must start now. Buchholtz says though the directions set out in the RRP are correct, the details are out-of-date. Policy reforms and more ambitious targets are needed in all the main areas: energy efficiency and heating; … [Read more...]
Global map of the future cost of clean Hydrogen production in 2030 and 2050
The world’s commitment to hydrogen needs an assessment of which regions can make it the cheapest. Herib Blanco at IRENA and Jacopo de Maigret at Fondazione Bruno Kessler describe their study of the range of factors that affect the future cost and therefore the potential for clean renewable hydrogen, estimated for 2030 and 2050. The main drivers are the capital cost of the renewable generation and the electrolyser, the cost of capital, and the … [Read more...]
New thermophotovoltaic cells turn heat into electricity more efficiently than a steam turbine
Over 90% of the world’s electricity comes from heat-generating power plants using coal, natural gas, nuclear energy, and concentrated solar energy. Steam turbines have always been the standard for converting that heat into electricity. On average they are only 35% efficient, with moving parts that cannot cope with temperatures above 2,000 degrees Celsius. Jennifer Chu at MIT describes new research, in collaboration with NREL, that has led to a … [Read more...]
Russia-Ukraine: modelling the consequences for the European electricity market to 2050
Alex Schmitt, Christoph Kellermann, Calvin Triems and Huangluolun Zhou at Energy Brainpool have used their modelling tools to update their predictions of how the European electricity market will develop over the next 30 years, given a target of 99% emission-free generation in 2050. Projections are made on generation (mix and volumes) and price. The big change from their last predictions is the Russia-Ukraine war and Europe’s determination to ramp … [Read more...]
China tariffs: Biden’s plan to unblock domestic Solar manufacturing
The U.S. solar industry has been caught up in the wider tariff disputes with China, a key exporter of solar panels and components. The Solar Energy Industries Association estimates hundreds of projects have been cancelled or delayed, totalling more than 50GW (that’s over twice the total US solar installations of 2021), putting 100,000 jobs at risk (almost half the solar workforce). John Rogers at UCS explains what the Biden administration is … [Read more...]
Next-gen Solar farms that work at night, in the rain, and self-clean
With the worldwide roll-out of solar, raising the efficiency of energy conversion isn’t just about the materials science of PV cells. Douglas Broom, writing for the World Economic Forum, runs through three “add-on” innovations. Researchers have found a way to generate electricity in the dark as panels cool during the night. A low-cost thermoelectric generator works using the temperature difference between the cooling solar panels and the … [Read more...]
Manifesto: fit-for-purpose flexible grids for the clean electrification of Europe
The integration of new clean generation sources on top of the increase in electrification of industry, e-mobility, and heating and cooling means grid investment must be made a priority. Anything else will leave deployment-ready solutions waiting, slowing down the transition. The backdrop is that over one third of the EU’s grids are already more than 40 years old. Eurelectric has produced a manifesto, “Connecting The Dots”, that estimates … [Read more...]
Critical minerals: price spikes are affecting Wind, Solar, Batteries, EVs
A wide range of critical minerals are needed for the energy transition. Tae-Yoon Kim at the IEA summarises the reasons why we should expect this to be a year of price spikes due in the main to the Russia-Ukraine war and post-lockdown supply chain bottlenecks. So severe is the problem that the long record of declining costs in clean energy technologies like solar, wind, batteries and electric vehicles is being reversed. Although these crises will … [Read more...]
Event Summary: “CHINA: Carbon Neutral by 2060 – Innovation”
Here are the highlights of our 2-day 4-session workshop “CHINA: Carbon Neutral by 2060 - Innovation”, compiled by Sara Stefanini. It’s a quick and efficient way for readers to see the main points made by our expert panellists. Held at the end of May, it was the fourth of our EU-China workshops since the first was held in November 2020, produced for the EU China Energy Cooperation Platform (ECECP). As always, leading speakers from the EU, major … [Read more...]
How the U.S. can meet its target of halving emissions by 2030
Writing for Carbon Brief, John Bistline at the Electric Power Research Institute summarises his co-authored paper “Actions for reducing US emissions at least 50% by 2030”, the target set by the Biden administration. The paper provides detailed projections and actionable insights about the policies and technology deployment needed to achieve this near-term climate goal. Roughly 70-90% of emissions reductions by 2030 must come from the power and … [Read more...]
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