At the end of June, utilities in three U.S. states declared they are closing down coal plants and moving straight to renewables, without building new gas plants as a “bridge” fuel. For example, to replace lost coal capacity, Tucson Electric Power in Arizona will add 2,457MW of new wind and solar generation, backed up with 1,400MW of battery storage. Similar commitments are being made by other utilities in Colorado and Florida. New Mexico is … [Read more...]
BP’s world energy review: 2019 saw clean electricity match coal
Simon Evans at Carbon Brief summarises BP’s 69th edition of its influential annual statistical review of world energy, looking at 2019. Overall, total energy demand rose, though slower than usual. Renewables were the largest source of new energy, but were closely followed by oil and gas. Coal use dropped again, the fourth drop in six years, thanks to historic declines in the EU and the US. But continued growth in SE Asia, China and India leaves … [Read more...]
Russia and U.S. are backing next generation Nuclear
Russia’s Rosatom is positioning itself to lead research and testing for Generation IV fast neutron reactors, including high temperature gas-cooled, molten salt, and lead-bismuth designs. Following an update of plans released by Rosatom in June, Dan Yurman fills in the details. It is creating an International Research Centre and has signed up four partnering nations so far – the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The R&D facility … [Read more...]
German Geothermal: from 1.2TWh to 100TWh by 2050?
The IEA’s Sustainable Development Scenario sees the world's geothermal power generation tripling to almost 300 TWh by 2030. That’s because there’s an almost unlimited supply that can provide power, heating and cooling. It’s also a continuous supply uninterrupted by the weather, unlike solar and wind. The plants are small and quiet. For heating, ground-source heat pumps use significantly less electricity than other technologies. Writing for CLEW, … [Read more...]
Do black households in the U.S. pay more for their energy?
The “Black Lives Matter” movement, sparked by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police at the end of May, has reverberated around the world. Particularly in North America and Europe it has gone well beyond the behaviour of the police and prompted calls to identify and root out structural racism wherever it is found. Maximilian Auffhammer at the Energy Institute at Haas looks at U.S. research that asks: “Do black households spend more on … [Read more...]
Calculating the energy saved if home working becomes the norm, globally
The global lockdown has resulted in a jump in home working and a collapse in commuting. If, post-lockdown, this new lifestyle is widely embraced, will it mean a reduction in total energy consumption and, if so, by how much? Daniel Crow and Ariane Millot at the IEA have crunched the numbers to attempt to answer this question. The first observation is that although car use will drop, residential energy consumption will rise. This is what makes the … [Read more...]
How to cut Full Life-cycle Buildings Emissions
Most efforts to decarbonise buildings are focused on “operational” emissions. That’s because, once constructed, buildings are responsible for a massive 30% of global final energy use and 28% of carbon emissions. But that focus has meant the “embodied” carbon – from the materials, construction, demolition, and recycling of buildings – has received little attention, explain Meng Wang and Yihan Hao at RMI. That’s despite the numbers still being … [Read more...]
Imported U.S. LNG: what’s its true climate footprint?
Importing LNG from the U.S., to replace coal, makes sense for Europe only if the total emissions including those throughout the chain of production are lower than the alternatives. Julian Wettengel at CLEW looks at reports that say the total methane emissions from the world’s largest oil and gas field – the Permian Basin in West Texas – are particularly high and may push it over that threshold. Flaring, venting and leakage are the main cause. … [Read more...]
2019’s grid storage additions fell for the first time since 2013. Why?
Globally, new installations of grid storage fell year-on-year in 2019 for the first time since 2013. This IEA summary of the landscape is taken from its latest series of Tracking Clean Energy Progress reports. The IEA’s recommendations reflect the fact that grid storage is new and complex, needing changes to existing regulations and market rules that are unviable in the age of transition. The policy goal is to monetise the value of storage in … [Read more...]
Allam Cycle carbon capture gas plants: 11% more efficient, all CO2 captured
Globally, carbon capture is making precious little progress. Is the Allam Cycle natural gas power plant an important step forward? David Yellen at the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center explains that, according to its designers, its energy conversion efficiency is 59%, 11% more than a standard combined-cycle gas turbine plant that’s carbon capture-equipped. It also captures 100% of the CO2, 10% more than the standard. NET Power plans to bring … [Read more...]
Recyclable Wind Turbine Blades: thermoplastic, next-generation
When wind turbine blades are decommissioned they are usually scrapped and thrown into landfill because they cannot be recycled. In the U.S. over the next four years alone that will be the fate of more than 8,000 blades. As wind installations increase so will that number. It's because most blades are constructed from epoxy or other thermoset resins. So National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers are using a thermoplastic resin, … [Read more...]
Why a Carbon Border Tax? Because existing tariffs favour dirty over clean imports
Carbon border adjustments are carbon taxes imposed on carbon intensive imports that have not been carbon-taxed at source. It’s a good way to penalise “dirty” goods and remove any competitive advantage the exporter gains from not paying for its pollution. Regions across the world are trying to figure out the best way – how, when, if at all - to roll them out. But Joseph Shapiro, writing for the Energy Institute at Haas, points out that the … [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...]
Designing the Covid-19 stimulus: what the 2008 crisis can teach us
Policy makers around the world are hearing a lot of advice on how to design their stimulus packages. This comes from the IEA where Fatih Birol lays out five fundamental lessons we can learn from the stimulus packages that came out of the 2008 global financial crisis. His main headings are: Build on what you already have – and think big (e.g. feed-in tariffs, production tax credits); Choose technologies that are ready for the big time (e.g. wind, … [Read more...]
Nuclear fusion: public-private pitch for pilot power plant in U.S.
A working nuclear fusion plant has long been a dream of scientists. The “Sun in a box” would generate abundant low carbon energy with little waste and more safely than traditional existing nuclear (fission) plants. But the scientific, engineering and materials challenges are admittedly enormous. Meanwhile, other electricity generating technologies are getting cheaper, so will we ever need it? Nevertheless, a public-private collaboration in the … [Read more...]
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