It looks brilliantly simple. Why are onshore wind turbines smaller than offshore ones? Because you have to move them to their location by road, over bridges, through tunnels and around curves. That limits their size. As Michael Purton, writing for WEF, explains it’s why the company Radia is building the world’s biggest aeroplane called WindRunner (12 times the volume of a Boeing 747), big enough to carry turbine blades over 100m long. And the … [Read more...]
A global breakdown of how the energy sector is paid for: by governments, private firms, households
What are the sources of investment and sources of finance in the energy sector? Cecilia Tam, Paul Grimal, Jeanne-Marie Hays and Haneul Kim at the IEA summarise insights extracted from the IEA’s latest flagship World Energy Investment report which this year has dug much deeper into the subject. They look at the capital structure (debt versus equity) of energy investments in assets and companies. They look at the entities making the investments, … [Read more...]
At $2tn, investment in Clean Energy in 2024 is set to be double that for Fossil Fuels
A new report by the IEA reveals that global spending on clean energy technologies and infrastructure is on track to hit $2tn in 2024, driven largely by attractive cost reductions, improving supply chains, energy security, and government policies. This is despite higher financing costs for new projects. The combined investment in renewable power and grids only recently overtook the amount spent on fossil fuels, in 2023. 2024 will see it at double … [Read more...]
A global review of Battery Storage: the fastest growing clean energy technology today
The IEA report “Batteries and Secure Energy Transitions” looks at the impressive global progress, future projections, and risks for batteries across all applications. 2023 saw deployment in the power sector more than double. Strong growth occurred for utility-scale batteries, behind-the-meter, mini-grids, solar home systems, and EVs. Lithium-ion batteries dominate overwhelmingly due to continued cost reductions and performance improvements. And … [Read more...]
Analysis of Clean Technology Manufacturing around the world: solar PV, wind, batteries, electrolysers, heat pumps
For every nation, clean technology manufacturing can bring economic security, employment, and resilience to clean energy transitions, says the IEA. The sector is now so significant that it’s also impacting overall GDP performance: in 2023, clean technology manufacturing alone accounted for around 4% of global GDP growth and nearly 10% of global investment growth. Here, the IEA summarises its first-of-its-kind “Energy Technology Perspectives … [Read more...]
The benefits of Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines: omnidirectional, close-packed, easier to maintain + more
Most wind turbines are “horizontal axis,” pointing into the direction of the wind. “Vertical axis” turbines can capture wind energy from any direction, but current designs are less efficient and so get little attention and investment. Andrea Montanari at ECECP looks at innovative companies around the world that are trying to leverage the other advantages they have over the dominant horizontal versions. They are more stable (lower centre of … [Read more...]
What China, Germany, and Texas tell us about Capacity Adequacy
As intermittent renewables penetrate further into the grid mix, reliable firm power generation is needed for whenever there is a shortfall. But back-up power, by its nature, has unreliable utilisation rates. And up-front costs for new plants are high, be they gas-fired plants, coal, nuclear, or large-scale storage. That makes future profitability uncertain, and private investors nervous. Hence the need for “capacity mechanisms” that guarantee … [Read more...]
Iron-air batteries: long-duration grid storage targets 1/10th the cost of lithium-ion
Wind and solar need cheap, long-duration storage to even out its inherent weather-determined intermittency. Deborah Halber, writing for MIT News, describes the development of iron-air batteries. Iron is cheap and available worldwide. Storage duration is multi-day. They are much heavier and take up more space than lithium-ion batteries, but that doesn’t matter for immobile grid storage. The target price tag of $20/kWh (one-tenth the cost of … [Read more...]
Explainer: The EU’s Green Deal Industrial Plan
Here, the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) provides a summary of the Green Deal Industrial Plan. It’s broken up into: What is the Green Deal Industrial Plan? What are critical raw materials and why do they matter? Where is the EU currently standing on critical raw materials? What is the EU doing about critical raw materials? Where is the EU currently standing on clean tech? How is the EU attempting to boost its domestic clean tech sector? Can … [Read more...]
Study: will sight of a Wind Turbine reduce your property prices?
Onshore wind turbines have a permitting problem in the U.S. and Europe. One main complaint from homeowners is that they believe the sight of a turbine will reduce their property value. Maximilian Auffhammer at the Energy Institute at Haas describes his co-authored published study that tests this assumption. The study looks at sale prices of over 300m homes in the U.S. within 10km of a turbine, sold between 1990 and before COVID hit. The clever … [Read more...]
Who is winning the Clean Energy race between China, Europe, and the US?
“X-Change: The Race to the Top” is the fourth report of an RMI series that reviews the cleantech competition between China, Europe, and the US. Kingsmill Bond, Sam Butler-Sloss and Daan Walter at RMI summarise the findings of the latest report, along with six charts, which focuses on four areas: clean technology supply chains, solar and wind deployment, EV sales, and electrification. Solar and wind deployment is still a close contest. But China … [Read more...]
Europe’s cross-border Interconnectors: how JAO auctions optimise energy flows, prices
Interconnectors allow for cross-border flows of energy between two markets that would otherwise not be connected. Through an economic convergence between supply and demand, the cheapest marginal producer located anywhere in these two markets should be able to set market prices. As Jean-Baptiste Vaujour at the Emlyon Business School explains, the central question is to find an optimal allocation of the scarce interconnection capacity between the … [Read more...]
New Offshore Wind projects: is permitting being slowed by evidence from “grey literature”?
Offshore wind is the new frontier of clean energy generation. The permitting process depends on policymakers’ evaluation of the impact assessment evidence. As Claire Szostek at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory explains, that evidence has two sources: primary and “grey” literature. “Primary literature” comes from structured peer-reviewed scientific journals. “Grey literature” includes all other types of reports and evidence published freely. The … [Read more...]
Tomorrow’s deep water Floating Wind Turbines: the six main design categories explained
The new frontier of offshore wind power is floating wind turbines. That’s because they can be installed in deep water where wind speeds are consistently higher. The new designs have the floating turbines, that bob and sway with the waves and wind, stabilised with ballast or anchored with chains to the seafloor. Emma Edwards at Oxford University looks at the six major categories of design: Spar, Barge, Tension-leg platform, Semi-submersible, … [Read more...]
Financing Europe’s cross-border Interconnectors to deliver energy security, lower prices: a look at incentives and policies
The EU and its Member States are building out interconnectors to improve security of supply and affordability of electricity through the physical and economic linking of national energy markets into a single, synchronised European market. But each interconnector is expensive, complex and therefore risky. They can span long distances or natural obstacles such as mountains or seas. Significant network planning and adaptation is needed to account … [Read more...]
- 1
- 2
- 3
- …
- 18
- Next Page »
![](https://energypost.eu/wp-content/themes/dynamik-gen/images/content-filler.png)