Most calculations of the costs of stranded assets abandoned and replaced by the net-zero economy have been missing the biggest element: human capital. It’s not sufficient just to total up the assets and supporting infrastructure for coal, gas, old-style buildings, machines, vehicles, etc., says Dan Chester at Lancaster University and co-author of the paper “Stranded Human and Produced Capital in a Net-Zero Transition”. Worker output is not only … [Read more...]
Energy professionals: do you understand how the media works?
We energy professionals spend most of our time talking to each other. But, more than ever, climate change and the energy transition are headline news. That’s not just in the mainstream media but also within our industry journals and the policy-maker press. So, we need to understand how the media works. More specifically for many, we need to know how to handle our PR providers. Sean Crowley says it’s up to us to work more effectively with the … [Read more...]
U.S. DoE: National Roadmap for Grid-Interactive Energy-Efficient Buildings
Buildings account for more than 70% of U.S. electricity use and one-third of economy-wide CO2 emissions. Andrew Satchwell at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory presents the U.S. Department of Energy’s comprehensive plan, “A National Roadmap for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings”, that could deliver up to $200bn in savings to the U.S. power system and cut CO2 emissions by 80m tons per year by 2030 (6% of total power sector emissions). … [Read more...]
Why savings from the 2009 Buildings Refits stimuli were poor. Let’s do better this time
“Shovel ready” buildings renovations and refits can play an important part in a nation’s economic recovery programme. It gets money straight into the pockets of manual workers doing the refits, across the whole country, cuts the energy bills of all (both low and high income households), and accelerates efficiency gains for meeting climate targets. But first we need to learn lessons from the U.S. renovation stimuli of 2009, says Meredith Fowlie at … [Read more...]
Free online Buildings Electrification training for workers on lockdown
More than 26 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits during the lockdown. Among their number will be workers who, while sitting at home, could be trained up with useful skills they can use when the lockdowns end. You just need to identify where the big skills gaps in the economy are. Stephen Mushegan and Claire McKenna at RMI look at buildings refits and electrification, where like in most countries huge emissions reduction targets … [Read more...]
South Korea’s nuclear ambitions face safety, quality issues
Dan Yurman summarises the regulatory, academic and press coverage of serious delays to South Korean nuclear reactors being built for the UAE. According to reports, these were caused by having to replace substandard components in reactors located in both South Korea and those planned for the UAE. There are problems with staff training too. South Korea recently completed the US NRC safety review process for its 1400 MW design. But the author asks … [Read more...]
Transforming Heating and Cooling creates jobs, new businesses
The UK has had great success in reducing emissions: down 43% overall since 1990. But, like most places, Heating and Cooling is struggling. Mark Woodward, of The Smart City Alliance and Nordic Heat, sets out a plan for progress, and includes lessons from Europe. The focus is on four core energy efficiency activities: reduce, recover, store and distribute. He explains how this also opens up new business models: in one town in Sweden chemicals firm … [Read more...]
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