My specialty is wind energy, but I work with all forms of renewable energy. Over the years I've written about a number of renewable technologies, including solar and geothermal energy. In recent years I've focused on comprehensive renewable energy policies that develop a mix of renewable resources.
The links below lead to articles on renewable energy policy. The links to the left lead to more specific topics.
If we are to meet the Paris climate targets, feed-in tariffs for renewable energy are needed now more than ever says a report by Toby Couture and colleagues at Proseu, Prosumers for the Energy Union....[more]
This result implies that renewable-battery power plants will play an increasing role in electricity systems if they can be built for $2–$13/MWh less than independent projects of comparable size.
So-called “solar geoengineering” doesn’t actually modify the sun itself. Instead, it reduces incoming sunlight by other means, such as putting chemicals in the atmosphere that reflect sunlight to...
Business-as-usual projections saw annual carbon dioxide emissions rising from 2,400 to 3,000 million metric tons (MMT) from 2005 to 2020,” said Berkeley Lab scientist Ryan Wiser, lead author of the...
Renewables currently provide about half of Germany’s electricity. Two decades ago, the energy industry wouldn’t have considered that possible. The technology revolution unleashed by the EEG has...
Renewable electricity production needs to grow eight times faster than the current rate to help limit global heating, according to a report.
Renewable energy organisations representing different spheres of the renewable energy community have gathered today on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and...
Lawmakers and the Murdoch media target wind and solar but grid operator says fossil fuel generators suffered biggest problems
It was quite an honor to be asked to join a distinguished group boldly stating that “A World Based on 100% Renewables is Possible” now.[more]
Citing a market participant, Jenkins noted on Twitter that roughly 26 gigawatts of thermal energy is offline because natural gas is being diverted to provide heat instead of power. Only about 4...
An energy company that pulled a plan to build a battery storage plant in Morro Bay is back with a new proposal — and it’s far more ambitious than the first go-round.
Vietnam has just witnessed a veritable solar tsunami, with installations jumping from about 400MW in 2019 to 9.500MW by the end of 2020. This is unprecedented for the rooftop solar PV market in any...[more]
In a sign that Feed-in Tariffs as a policy mechanism for the rapid—and equitable—development of renewable energy are not dead and that their proponents have not given up the hope of a brighter post...[more]
A "subsidy" is a straightforward allocation of taxpayer money by a public authority to prop up the production of a good or service by the private sector, used to offset market failures and...
The campaign for President of the United States is in full swing. We've endured two--mostly virtual--national party conventions. (Full disclosure: I didn't watch either.) And the parties have issued...[more]
Paper by energy economist Steve Smiley for the American Solar Energy Society's “Solar 2020” virtual conference on how to move Traverse City, Michigan to 100% renewable energy. The proposes a mix of...[more]
What’s most important is a medium/long-term policy that clearly steers phasing out of fossil fuels (particularly coal) and nuclear power. What is needed is a Japanese ‘Green New Deal’ that would grow...
Japan is seeking to bolster global momentum for climate action by hosting an online platform and high-level political event on greening the post-coronavirus economic recovery.
One fully expects a Moore movie to be in-your-face contentious, provocative, and highly controversial. That it certainly is, but not in an accurate way, riddled as it is with out-of-date information,...
Neal Livingston called and asked me to watch the film Planet of the Humans and provide some context on the environmental benefits of renewable energy. Neal's an award-winning documentary film maker...[more]
On Earth Day, a documentary entitled “Planet of the Humans” appeared on Michael Moore’s YouTube channel. You might expect a film from the acclaimed rabble-rousing film director, who served as...
Anyone interested in saving the planet who watched this poor excuse of a film, would come away thinking solar and wind energy were bad, and electric cars were horrible. I’m not kidding.
Gibbs’ and Moore’s truthiness and falsehood-filled product isn’t helpful because they created something that is being leveraged by climate deniers/delayers to attack (not complete, need to improve,...
Shame on these filmmakers for making a film like this, full of misinformation and disinformation, to intentionally depress audiences, and make them think there are no alternatives.[more]
In its first report, titled Green Hydrogen Production: Landscape, Projects and Costs, Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables counted 3.2 gigawatts of planned electrolyzer capacity, a twelvefold increase...
European tidal power capacity continued rising throughout 2019. This brought it to a cumulative 27.7 MW. That figure represents nearly four times as much as the total figure from the rest of the...
A decade ago Bernie Sanders was the only US Senator who understood what the Germans were doing and how we could do it here. He was the only one who would listen. I know, because I am the one who told...[more]
A decade ago Bernie Sanders was the only senator who understood what the Germans were doing and how we could do it here. He was the only one who would listen. I know, because I am the one who told...
Research by the consulting firm Wood McKenzie confirms the approximate opportunity cost of converting the US to 100% renewable energy in electricity lost to wars in the Middle East that I and Robert...[more]
We Could Have 100% Renewable Electricity If We Had Invested in Wind and Solar Instead of War in the Middle East. Yes, the United States could be generating 100% of its electricity from renewable...[more]
Yes, the United States could be generating 100% of its electricity from renewable energy if we had used the money spent on our ill-advised wars in the Middle East to build wind and solar systems, as...
A plan is under way to develop 11 solar power plants and 10 wind power plants in the prefecture, on farmlands that cannot be cultivated anymore and mountainous areas from where population outflows...
People have long criticized PG&E’s uncomfortably close ties with former Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration and the revolving door between the California Public Utilities Commission and the utilities...
Frustrated with wildfires and intentional blackouts caused by Pacific Gas & Electric, more than two dozen California mayors and county leaders are calling for a customer-owned power company to...
Based on a foundation currently in the Public Utilities Code, we will propose transforming PG&E into a mutual benefit corporation –in essence, a cooperative owned by its customers.
The head of NextEra Energy, the biggest and most successful utility in the United States says the energy industry is in the grip of massive change, with the cost of renewables and battery storage –...
“The German Government has missed all three goals, which it has linked with the introduction of auctions: Neither has it reached its installation targets nor have the auctions achieved...[more]
But the interesting thing here is that the KfW bonds would offer better conditions for investors than the state issued bonds. All things equal that should lead to more demand for these compared to...
China has come to dominate worldwide solar and wind energy generation, in terms of both its own capacity and its companies' share of global markets, leaving previous powerhouses -- particularly the...
Critically, the clean energy boom here in Europe was not ignited foremost by government spending, which the Green New Deal implies is critical for the United States to do the same. Rather,...
Amid a flurry of ambitious state action on climate change policy, the Republican-controlled Ohio legislature has just passed an energy bill that represents an enormous step backward. It is the most...
Shifting to 100 percent renewables in the U.S. is an attainable goal, Wood Mackenzie analysts say. Three major hurdles must be overcome.
Higher prices, as we know from behavioural psychology and from real life, do not automatically lead to behavioural changes. Rather, habituation effects often occur at a higher price level. Smoking is...
Awash in sunshine and gentle breezes, over the spring Easter holiday, renewable energy production throughout Germany began to climb, hitting a record on Easter Monday as roughly 77% of electricity...
We must draw on our history to find a way through the environmental crisis that faces us
Labour will this week force a vote in parliament to declare a national environmental and climate change emergency as confidential documents show the government has spent only a fraction of a £100m...
The proposed moratorium was widely seen as an effort to delay the plans of several large utilities to retire aging, coal-fired generating units and replace them with renewable energy and natural gas.
The new amendment, which was added to Senate Bill 472 on Wednesday without testimony, would prohibit the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission from approving plans written by electric utilities to...
World-renowned wind energy expert Paul Gipe of Bakersfield joined The Californian's Robert Price for his weekly "One on One" webcast to talk about California's energy future. Gipe said PG&E's...
Berlin lacks the political will to bring the energy transition forward, said Hans Josef Fell, the initiator of Germany’s world-renowned 2000 renewable energy feed-in tariff legislation, in an...
Although Germany has been a global leader in moving to decarbonize its massive economy, the country’s ambitious clean-energy transformation is faltering. Now, a broad spectrum of energy experts are...
In Europe, a full transition to 100% renewable energy across all sectors--power, heat, transport and desalination is feasible. Existing renewable energy potential and ...
Germany is often praised as being the frontrunner in the transition to renewable energy. It is shutting down its nuclear power plants by 2022, and their capacity will be replaced by renewables....
Natural Resources Canada, a federal agency, recently announced C$29.8 million of funding for Halagonia Tidal Energy, a subsidiary of DP Energy, to develop a 9-megawatt tidal array demonstration...
The Nova Scotia government is moving ahead with a project that aims to harness the immense power of the Bay of Fundy’s tides, despite the uncertain future of the Cape Sharp Tidal venture.
"Transiting to 100 percent renewable is not a far away target. It is the main strategy in many nations," Hans-Josef Fell, founder and president of the Berlin-based Energy Watch Group, said in a...
The bill to set California on a path to 100% renewables and “zero-carbon” sources in electricity by 2045 has passed out of an Assembly committee, following a groundswell of support.
A month ago, I wrote about the ruling party Venstre launching its energy initiative called “Energy — for a green Denmark,” to which the opposition party Socialdemokratiet replied one week later with...
Carnegie has stated that grant support and the feed-in tariff support for wave energy had been removed over the last two years "and that has led to the situation we have today where we have a...
Researchers at Germany’s Öko-Institut have published a review of nearly a dozen previous studies on the need for new power lines in a future renewable electricity supply. The main finding is that the...
According to data from REN (the Portuguese TSO), the renewable electricity produced in March (4,812 GWh) exceeded the consumption of Mainland Portugal (4,647 GWh). The renewable electricity...
Congressman Salud Carbajal announced a new bill Monday to encourage investment in renewable energy businesses in San Luis Obispo County. The bill, called the Energy Opportunity Zone Act, is targeted...
The study thus basically further documents the real reason for the shift from feed-in tariffs to auctions: it wasn’t about price, as lots of people assume; the goal was to give policymakers a way to...
Inadequate levels of investment in renewable energy are a major obstacle standing in the way of the transition to a new, renewables-based energy system.
According to the most recent data, German retail power rates are the highest in the EU along with Denmark’s. The monthly power bill is, however, exaggerated in reports.
It mentions a “special auction” (Sonderausschreibung) of 4 GW onshore wind and 4 GW solar distributed over 2019 and 2020, in addition to offshore wind projects. I think that the transition to an...
Based on preliminary figures for 2017, electricity from renewables grew by a record amount. Coal power production also fell noticeably even as nuclear power fell – despite record exports. But one big...
He’s spent a quarter century advocating for making power a local matter. Now communities that want more renewable energy can buy their own.
"Grind up the SUVs and build wind turbines with them," says David Blittersdorf, founder of AllEarth Renewables. Podcast with more provocative thoughts on renewables, transit, and energy policy in...
Oy Vey! It appears I've been following scientific estimates of the environmental costs from conventional electric power generation for at least 30 years. It's probably been longer, but I found...[more]
The results of the most comprehensive survey of what the Germans think of their energy transition were published in November.
A more thorough review reveals that all of the issues have already been addressed in the engineering and modelling literature. Nuclear power, as advocated by some of the authors, faces other, genuine...
Neuerkirch and Külz are two small villages in Western Germany – of 300 and 500 souls respectively. And yet, they feel a part of something bigger that goes even beyond the country’s energy transition,...
Fernando de Noronha would be the first region in Brazil, and among the first in Latin America, to change its energy supply from being almost entirely dependent on imported fossil fuels to one...
California electricity suppliers have met the state’s 25% renewable generation requirement, in many cases exceeding it substantially, state regulators said.
New targets to defer or cancel 106GW of coal-fired capacity, substantial improvement in wind curtailment rates, and a potential ban on internal combustion engine sales, make China the most...
Germany has now conducted auctions for wind, solar, and biomass. But if the headlines are optimistic, the outcome is massively oversold.
The title, Störfall mit Charme, is a playful thumbing of the nose in German at the critics of a movement by citizens in a small village in the deepest reaches of Germany’s Schwarzwald or Black Forest...[more]
Even countries with long-standing nuclear aims are adding wind power much faster, as Brazil, China, and India show. Those interested in the fastest way to mitigate climate change can forget nuclear.
A northern Japanese city’s efforts to rebuild its electric power system after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami mark a quiet shift away from the country’s old utility model toward self-reliant, local...
In response to my review of Energy Democracy, a new book on Germany’s energy revolution by Craig Morris and Arne Jungjohann, long-time colleague Bernard Saulnier contacted me with his thoughts.[more]
Once a world leader in renewables, the nation will miss all of its environmental goals unless the next government realigns its energy policies.
The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), which dates to 1978, requires all utilities to buy power from qualifying small-scale clean energy producers when the price roughly matches what a...
Is one of the most powerful books on the renewable energy revolution in decades. It’s a chronicle of the remarkable transformation underway in the world’s fourth-largest industrial economy.[more]
This article is focused on just a few externalities and subsidies related to the production of electricity — including the economic costs of premature death from pollution.
Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced the total capacity of power plants certified under the feed-in tariff (FIT) policy (as of the end of fiscal 2016 ending on March 31,...
If you work to secure Americans’ rights to solar energy or to accelerate the deployment of inexpensive renewable energy, you understand that not everyone is in favor. In particular, incumbent...
Proponents of 100% renewable energy face harsh criticism, even well-respected scientists like Mark Jacobson. He has been arguing for countries to switch to an all-renewables grid for years, both...
The key, he says, is not in any single renewable energy source — which alone would be insufficient — but in the way multiple renewable sources can be effectively combined and integrated through a...
Tamil Nadu is going green in power generation as nearly 30 to 35 per cent of power supplied to the State is generated from renewable energy sources like wind and sun, according to Tamil Nadu energy...
The Germans know the Energiewende’s weak spot, and they have modeled it, modeled it, modeled it.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida pledged Thursday that Japan will aggressively pursue the export of renewable energy technologies to tap into growth spurred via the worldwide transition to clean...
These images, from a series of flights over the Tokyo and Kobe/Osaka regions of Japan, show a range of photovoltaic projects on former golf courses, quarries, dams, man-made islands and floating...
The much maligned Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, PURPA for short, is back in the news. Not that it ever went away. PURPA has been the foundation stone upon which renewable electricity...[more]
Craig Morris reviews a few papers by Americans and advises them to tackle the best European studies for 100% renewables head-on, not ignore them.
All the stats you ever wanted to know about Germany's energiewende (auf Deutsch)
So, are wind and solar killing coal and nuclear? Yes, but not by themselves and not for the reasons most people think. Are wind and solar killing grid reliability? No, not where the grid’s technology...
While Americans chose to curtail wind and solar rather than conventional energy, the Germans say baseload plants (coal and nuclear) are the problem. That’s because the matter isn’t simply technical,...
The auction model is supposed to be more market-oriented. It is not. In an auction model, the amount of new installations is decided by the government, not the market. If you have 300 MW of solar...
Another interesting concept being considered is to locate one or both reservoirs below ground (sub-surface).
A proposal by Northland Power for a project in Ontario, Canada.
Gemany is turning one of its old coal mines into a giant 'battery station' that will store hydroelectric power and provide energy to around 400,000 homes, with hopes of launching similar facilities...
Sweden is planning to run entirely on renewable energy by 2040. 57% of the country’s power came from renewable sources in 2015.
The Canadian province of Ontario generated a higher percentage of its electricity with wind energy than California in 2015. [more]
German renewables association BEE has therefore proposed a carbon tax, but critics of the plan say it would only weaken the ETS further.
Last year, the Navy broke ground on a 4 megawatt (MW) solar array at the Naval Construction Battalion Center in Mississippi and the Army completed a large 30 MW solar array at Fort Benning, Georgia.
The pitfall of Lakoff’s suggestions, which his colleague Elisabeth Wehling fell into, is that everyone might drop to the Republican level by playing their framing game. If we are not careful,...
There is one more aspect about Lakoff’s focus on framing: it is a response to a uniquely American school of conservatism, making it of limited applicability in Germany and possibly elsewhere.
The main effect of auctions is to prevent growth from surpassing the volume on offer.
Last week, we got a peek at Trump’s infrastructure plan, which included infrastructure projects that he considers a priority. Three of those are wind-related projects.
So 12 years ago, Lakoff himself would have told his younger colleague Wehling that trading in “renewables” for “clean energy” is Orwellian.
Yet again, an expert – this time, a German – says Germany’s energy transition cannot succeed. He has a surprising insight for Energiewende proponents: the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind...
Japan’s Renewable Energy Institute has published data on renewable energy’s contribution to the nation’s energy mix, using data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). The METI data...
As Hans-Josef Fell points out in this comment, renewable sources provided 186 TWh in 2016. That’s not bad, but only 3 TWh over the result of 2015. That’s stagnation. And it shows that the move to an...
This book analyzes Germany's path-breaking Energiewende, the country's transition from an energy system based on fossil and nuclear fuels to a sustainable energy system based on renewables. The...
The bottom line: There is plenty of renewable-energy potential near current roads, power lines and population centres. Most of it is wind power, with plenty of hydro and solar as well.
So even if you think global warming was a hoax the Chinese invented for April fool’s day in 2016, you should still support a fast transition to renewable. This transition makes sense as a nationalist...
28 youtube.com videos on the Energiewende with an emphasis on the Electricity Rebels who sparked a renewable energy revolution in Germany.
I also note that the proposal still includes “feed-in tariffs” in the definition of “support schemes”, which remains completely unchanged.
Paul Gipe has been named to the Energy Watch Group, one of only two North Americans on the prestigious panel. He joins Stanford academic Mark Jacobson, internationally known for his work on moving to...[more]
Craig Morris and Arne Jungjohann, authors of of the new book Energy Democracy are touring the upper Midwest and the East Coast, discussing Germany's energy revolution and how it was powered by the...[more]
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said the milestone was evidence of a rapid transformation in energy taking place, and predicted capacity from renewable sources will grow faster than oil, gas,...
Democratic control of both the White House and Congress clears a path for a federal carbon tax without having to somehow vault over GOP denialists. Which could make next month’s ballot referendum in...
We have a surplus because Ontario operates three gigantic nuclear plants (including the world’s biggest – the Bruce Nuclear Station). Demand for electricity has fallen over the past decade in...
The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission has launched a formal probe into the California Democratic Party, sparked by allegations of corruption and a tangle of close ties involving the party,...
Britain's Labour Party manifesto calls for 1,000 community energy cooperatives in this powerful video by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. He also says Labour will reform the grid so that it acts as a...[more]
No issue better connects the environment to people’s lives than energy. In order to deliver clean, affordable electricity we need to change our undemocratic system of supply
Labour leader will vow to create 300,000 jobs in renewables sector, ban fracking and reinstate climate change department
“This country can achieve total self-sufficiency in power at viable cost from our own sun, wind, and waters within a generation. Once we shift to electric vehicles as well, we will no longer need to...
A new poll finds that Germans remain committed to climate protection and see their government as an obstacle.
Using “clean energy” instead of “low-carbon energy” might seem harmless, but when it refers to nuclear or natural gas power, the term-change intentionally hides the environmental costs of nuclear...
There is a long-standing debate over price vs. quantity approaches to supporting the deployment of renewable electricity technologies. In the context of a recent shift from quantity to price-based...
Technological advances mean the cost of renewables is coming down, representing far better value for taxpayers’ money
We’re under attack from climate change—and our only hope is to mobilize like we did in WWII.
Name of China General Nuclear Power, which holds stake in the planned new reactors, has appeared in US legal papers
UK government’s own projections expect onshore wind power and large-scale solar to cost less per megawatt hour than new nuclear by 2025
When clean energy doesn’t mean what you think it does.[more]
The Democratic Party Platform calls for a global summit to solve the climate crisis within the first 100 days of the new administration and a WWII-level mobilization to combat climate change. If...[more]
Critics of renewable energy have a full quiver of objections of why we shouldn’t bother developing wind and solar energy. One of my favorites is when they say, “Well renewables are nice, but they...[more]
These days, more and more people, especially market analysts, are talking about the success of renewables without “subsidies.” But wind and solar, at least, will always require policy support.
One major concern in renewable energy auctions is that big players might bid low today to scare away competition tomorrow. Once a small number of companies has scared away the competition, they can...
n the first half of 2016, 36.4 percent of the electricity produced in Germany was renewable according to preliminary data. The target for 2020 is only 35 percent – and that figure does not include...
On July 10, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), under PM Abe Shinzo, won a massive majority in the Upper House elections. A couple of years ago, that result would have been read as...[more]
A lot of business elites have clearly thrown in the towel on nuclear and are instead openly lobbying to have Japan vault to global leadership in renewables, efficiency and smart infrastructure.[more]
The nation's investor-owned electric utilities have settled on a new customer-friendly vocabulary that they hope will influence how their rapidly changing business is perceived.
But to keep a steady hand on the rise in renewable power, a “deployment corridor” will set limits on how much renewables capacity may be added per year.
This tells us two things. First, that California has been resting on its laurels since the early 1980s, regarding geothermal. Not much has been done since. Second, it tells us because of California’s...[more]
Australia is in the midst of an extended discussion about the country’s energy future. The timing is bad for critics of renewables, who increasingly have to pick their stats carefully. But not every...
The following is post-nuclear vision for Diablo Canyon.[more]
For decades, the Danes have been an inspiration to and role model for German and independent proponents. But the story of what they specifically get right is not well understood in the...
In fact, the EEG 2016 hampers any further renewable energy development in the country. It is the paradigm of slowing down installations; handing back the energy system to the corporate utilities and...
Germany's climate policy goals - targets for rapid reductions in carbon dioxide emissions - will be put into serious jeopardy as a result of the government's proposed reforms, according to Claudia...
The Greek renewable energy transition has its origin in the 1990s when the country first introduced a feed-in tariff. The road since then has been a bumpy one, yet Greece’s government issued a draft...
In 2016, Portugal’s electricity came almost entirely from renewable energies. A transition to 100% renewable energies is thus closer than ever in the country.
“The idea that the integration of renewable energy immediately calls for more system flexibility [is] a myth. We have much more flexibility in the system than we need. […] it will last until 2030 or...
It’s terrific that so many utility customers are willing to pay more for 100% renewable electricity, but it’s also clear that supporting clean energy doesn’t necessarily require paying more,...
The Danes announced plans in May to cut back on the cost and speed of their energy transition. The debate sounds practically identical to the one in Germany, where the government also aims to slow...
Berlin wants to dramatically slow down the energy transition, and some states will have none of it.
As we reported in an earlier blog post, the government introduced the Climate Change Mitigation and Low Carbon Economy Act (the Act) on February 29, 2016. The Ontario Government has now passed this...
In light of the recent Guardian story that Portugal generated all its electricity with renewables for four days, I thought I’d re-examine how well Portugal is doing overall.[more]
Portugal kept its lights on with renewable energy alone for four consecutive days last week in a clean energy milestone revealed by data analysis of national energy network figures.
Just a week after reporting a peak of more than 90 percent renewable power, Agora now shows for the first time that green electricity may have briefly touched and slightly surpassed 100% yesterday.
The source of the current catastrophe is that the boreal forest which surrounds the tar sands has been turned into a tinderbox because of increasingly warm, dry weather that used to be...
The Government's much vaunted 'contracts for difference' (CfD) auction system for funding renewable energy has been thrown into disrepute after a key project awarded a contract has had its contract...
Sunday's milestone was made possible because of a people-powered "energy revolution."
This chapter in The Triple Challenge for Europe focuses on the German Energiewende which was designed as a long-term strategy in support of a transition to sustainability in energy supply. It was...
So let's get this right, the Torygraph is saying that nuclear power plant can't or won't turn down their power stations, so it's windfarms and solar farms that are the problem?
In 2015, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein generated more renewable power than households and businesses in each state consumed.
Overall, some things in the Energiewende are going well; others, less so. But we have only just begun: the Energiewende is a generational project, with 35 years left until 2050.
The good thing about this development is that it clearly shows what happens when you phase out feed-in tariffs and use an auction model instead. A massive breakdown of the market, making the climate...
Undersecretary Rainer Baake praised the German government’s implementation of auctions, in which markets set prices but the government sets the volume – and the German government is using the policy...
For the past four years, the average retail power rate in Germany has been stable, even though the share of renewable electricity rose from nearly 25 percent to 32.5 percent.
Wherein we reconnect with a Dutch miller and learn of his campaign to preserve his adopted country’s watermills.[more]
I've finally taken the time to post some pictures from my career in renewable energy and energy policy. Some date from 1976, possibly earlier. My memory of those days is fuzzy as they say.[more]
As the network operator builds out its clean power sources, they noted, coal-fired generators could only serve as “reserve power” to supplement renewables. “The only hurdle to overcome is ‘mindset’,”...
So it is time to raise not very pleasant, though serious questions. If one accepts that in the context of the French energy transition, the Wattway solution has absolutely no economic relevance...
Utilities are building giant wind and solar projects everywhere, but largely in competitor territory, not their own. And they see community projects built by citizens as a threat within their own...
The most important thing to understand about the energy transition is that it’s not optional. Delay would be fatal. It’s time to make a plan—however sketchy, however challenging—and run with it,...
But cloudy Germany, not sunny California, has the advantage when it comes to solar electricity, with a capacity of 38 gigawatts compared to a mere 11 in the Golden State as of 2015.
L’énergie grise des routes solaires pourrait les empêcher de tirer plus vite que leur ombre. Après la forte émulsion médiatique des dernières semaines, elles pourraient retomber rapidement à plat...
Renewable energy, presented as environmentally friendly and clean, must turn out to be harmful to humans and the environment. There's an ironic, vindicating righteousness in believing, as intensely...
It’s enough to make you despair: French Energy Minister Ségolène Royal has announced the construction of 1,000 kilometers of solar panels, which would be fine if she didn’t plan to pave roads with...
In its fifth year of operation, Germany’s first offshore wind farm, Alpha Ventus, once again surpassed expectations. The first people (besides me) now say that feed-in tariffs for offshore wind are...
The United States could slash greenhouse gas emissions from power production by up to 78 percent below 1990 levels within 15 years while meeting increased demand, according to a new study by NOAA and...
Key developments in China and India this week provide more confirmation that the global electricity markets are transforming a great deal faster than anyone expected.
So we are backing up the cheap renewables with fossil fuels that are not so cheap, and the solution to that is to use the fossil fuels that are not so cheap all the time? That sum does not quite add...
Japan has given the go-ahead to 85,550 megawatts of clean energy projects since the introduction of an incentive program in July 2012, with solar comprising the vast bulk of the new capacity.
Are we paying too much for electricity now, or were we just paying too little before?
In terms of final energy, the share of renewables grew from 11.9 percent in 2011 to 15.3 percent in 2015, an increase of 3.4 percentage points over five years. At that rate, Germany would overshoot...
The 2014 reform of the Act on Renewable Energy (formerly the Act on Priority for Renewable Energy) has reduced investment in Germany to a measly $10.6 billion, down 42% from 2014.
In 2015, Germany added more renewable electricity than ever before in a single year, bringing the share of green power in total supply up to 33 percent. But the government seems keen on slowing down...
This is the paradigm shift we have been working for, and now it is even part of the official UN climate change agreement, supported by all governments of the world. In other words: Paris has in fact...
The UN Climate Change Conference COP21 ended last weekend with 195 governments agreeing on a new climate treaty, and this Paris agreement is a big breakthrough! . . What makes me so confident is the...
However, the international Energiewende reporting makes me want to rub my eyes. If one is to believe those reports, industry is fleeing because energy costs are going through the roof.
he City of San Diego voted today to approve the Mayor's Opens external link in new windowClimate Action Plan, which establishes a legally binding goal to reduce the city's greenhouse gas emissions...
A big reason Canada has residual credibility in the climate change talks is because shutting down Ontario coal plants was the biggest single CO2 reduction in all of North America.
In 2000, the German government launched its Renewable Energy Sources Act. This visionary initiative enabled Germany to increase its percentage of renewable electricity from six to 31 in only 15 years.
Chabot examines Denmark's 2012 policy to address climate change and finds, surprise, that the Danes are well on their way to meeting their objectives--ahead of schedule.[more]
Saskatchewan's power company has confirmed that it will double the percentage of electrical renewable energy used in the province by 2030, 15 years from now.
Canada’s leader on climate change is now Alberta. Just like that, the province has gone from pariah to paragon. On Sunday, Premier Rachel Notley’s New Democratic government unveiled a program to...
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo plans to order state regulators to mandate that, by 2030, half of all power consumed by New Yorkers be generated from renewable sources that emit much less carbon dioxide, people...
Alberta’s Climate Leadership Plan accelerates the transition from coal to renewable electricity sources, puts a price on carbon pollution for everyone, and sets emissions limits for the oil sands.
By 2030, half of Saskatchewan’s power will come from renewable sources, with wind, solar and geothermal energy all thrown into the mix.
Germany exports more electricity when demand (and hence prices) are high; it imports when demand and prices are low.
One of the lessons learnt from KP, is that it is easier to get across a focused environmental issue to the USA public. It is harder to communicate to the USA people what a sensible energy policy is,...
The state in northeastern Austria now gets 63% of its electricity from hydroelectric power, 26% from wind energy, nine percent from biomass and two percent from solar.
Environmental activist David Suzuki, Naomi Klein and several others speak during a news conference to launching “Leap Manifesto--to transition the country off fossil fuels while simultaneously...
The great free lunch. . . Net cash cost of energy transition to 2040 ≈ $0.
As in other countries, German industry can be asked to change power consumption in order to stabilize the grid. Now, it turns out that the policy option is used so seldom that it is to be done away...
The Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) said that an agreement has been reached with the lignite power station operators Mibrag, RWE and Vattenfall on putting 2.7 GW first into a...
People are becoming “prosumers,” increasingly making their own energy as well as consuming it. As citizens, they have a right to do so. we should not even be asking what big companies need to do. We...
A new study finds that Germany has physical space for roughly 50 percent more onshore wind capacity than the country would need for 100 percent green electricity.
For nearly three years, global attention has focused on the three arrows of Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s “Abenomics” as well as his aggressive new security policies. Yet beneath the radar,...
Two-thirds of Albertans (66 per cent) think the government should prioritize diversifying the province’s economy over helping the oil and gas industry be more competitive (29 per cent).
This month, I have focused on the pushback against renewable energy growth in Spain and Italy along with the UK. Now, it seems that Denmark is teetering as well.
The NDP government’s push to phase-out coal-fired electricity has strong support among Albertans, who also want to see more renewable power, says a new poll commissioned by the Pembina Institute, an...
Former Ontario Premier, Dalton McGuinty, received the Sierra Club Distinguished Service Award at a ceremony in San Francisco. . . Mr. McGuinty is responsible for closing Ontario’s coal-fired power...
So while the pope may have gotten a good deal wrong, this is one thing he gets right. Not only does cap-and-trade promote speculation, but Francis is correct in pointing out that, in practice, it has...
"We will be looking for a strategy to phase out the use of coal as quickly as we reasonably can — without imposing unnecessary price shocks on consumers, or risking security of supply, or...
The figures are contrary to government reasoning behind substantial cuts to the small-scale feed-in tariff and early closure of other renewable energy support mechanisms, which has been to protect...
While Republican wannabes in the USA seek to live in denial of climate change, and Blairites in Britain wish to live in denial of leadership change, Corbyn prefers to focus on the realities of...
Throughout, the manifesto argues for more citizen influence over the energy system – and not just through supposed consumer “choice”.
For political reasons, the UK seems poised to phase out policy support for wind and solar at a lower level. Based on DECC’s figures (PDF), wind (offshore and onshore) and solar together made up just...
Denmark (40 percent wind power and counting) and Germany (20 percent wind + PV and counting) are the exceptions. They share a grassroots movement of community renewable energy projects. Without that...
New renewables--wind, solar, biomass, biogas, and geothermal-- generated 2.6 times more electricity than nuclear in August 2015.
But the use of tax credits always had its drawbacks. Many potential solar owners were ineligible because they lacked sufficient tax liability (40% of Americans still don’t have enough annual tax...
This document describes and analyses the main characteristics of electricity production, imports and demand in California since 2001. Comparisons are made for Nuclear and renewables, with the clear...
Alberta's Climate Change Advisory Panel is engaging Albertans, Aboriginal communities, and technical stakeholders on key issues related to climate change. This online survey is one of several...
We at CTC have long since abandoned the hope that NRDC or the other big green giant, the Environmental Defense Fund, would lead the charge for a U.S. carbon tax. We’re okay with that, but we ask our...
What would it take to power the entire U.S. economy on renewable resources alone? Three big things: Only build wind, solar, or hydro power plants after 2020; Reduce energy use compared to business as...
Gates says current technologies are too expensive. Someone should tell him that solar power now costs less than nine cents in Germany, less than six cents in Dubai. It is expected to reach 4-6 cents...
EVs are poised to play an important dual role of both reducing carbon from transportation and enabling higher penetration of renewable energy. The pieces are falling into place for a disruptive...
The authors have a hierarchy of steps to take. First, “sufficiency” and efficiency reduces energy demand. Second, renewable energy cover
There is no doubt that the protest was illegal. But so were many of the nuclear protests. The first one in Wyhl (1974) immediately brought together some 25,000 people, and as many as 80,000 came...
French energy activists, Association négaWatt, have released their plan for France to reach nearly 100% renewable energy by 2050 in English. The move is a dramatic step by the French NGO to draw the...[more]
The new hard coal plant going up in Hamm, Germany, is apparently worthless and may never go into operation.
This situation once again disproves the common notion that Germany can “rely” on French nuclear when it needs power. In reality, trading takes place based on price, not dire need to prevent...
Catherine Mitchell launches a series of articles on designing a “no-regrets” energy policy that is as much a plea for sanity in Great Britain as it is an explanation why no resource is 100%...[more]
So far, as said elsewhere, we are witnessing a Government which is dismantling sustainable energy policies. The energy world is broadly going in one direction – and as said before that’s not the same...
Hans-Josef Fell, co-author of the 2000 Renewable Energy Act, is not working to restrict wind farms in his home state of Bavaria. Otherwise, the article does not contain too many factual inaccuracies.
Climate change skeptic and PR consultant Rupert Darwall recently wrote an editorial called “Obama’s Renewable Energy Fantasy” that spins a dire depiction of renewable power as a threat to economies...
ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest oil company, knew as early as 1981 of climate change – seven years before it became a public issue, according to a newly discovered email from one of the firm’s own...
In a brief study, the French operator of the country’s nuclear plants unsurprisingly finds that backup generation capacity for fluctuating wind and solar will need to be as flexible as possible. The...
Overall, electricity from lignite dropped by 3.6 percent, mainly because so much wind power was produced during the winter that it actually cut into this baseload electricity. In contrast, power from...
In a nutshell, France relies on Germany to cover its peak demand, not vice versa. There is, however, a risk of Germany decommissioning so much coal and nuclear capacity over the next seven years as...
The city of Münster plans to use excess electricity on the grid to generate heat, which can be easily stored.
How do we practically achieve that? There are two key elements to refuting misinformation. The first half of a debunking is offering a factual alternative. To understand what I mean by this, you need...
The main takeaway is that the growth corridor – 2.4 to 2.6 GW of annual new capacity net for onshore wind – will produce a much higher share of renewable electricity, but the target will not be met...
Denmark is a global leader in transforming its energy system to a more sustainable model, with high levels of renewable electricity and heat, and high energy efficiency. Its transformation is not...
Germans consume only a third as much electricity as Americans do. Their power bills are thus not so large.
With more than a quarter of the country’s electricity now coming from renewable sources, Germany’s energy transition – or Energiewende – is delivering reliable electricity, reducing emissions, and...
It would work exactly like the successful solar tariff, with one small change. There would be a cap on the fossil fuel electricity bought under the system. That cap would be calculated from the...
What this graph shows, unequivocally, is that solar and wind do reduce fossil fuel usage and greenhouse gas emissions. The data is clear, publicly available in the Eurostat database. Bernard Chabot...
Former parliamentarian Alan Simpson bemoans the paucity of serious debates of public paucity in the recent British election concluded today. Beginning in Churchillian tones, he laments "What...[more]
So the auction has just resulted in a large group of losers, a higher price than with feed-in tariffs, and a two-year postponement of the roughly 150 megawatts just awarded.
While political parties differ widely on their approach, most call for phasing out coal-fired electricity
Shell successfully lobbied to undermine European renewable energy targets ahead of a key agreement on emissions cuts reached in October last year, newly released documents reveal.
If we are to tackle climate change, we need all hands on deck. Subsidizing imported natural gas and its associated emissions is going the wrong direction.
What are the findings? The leaked PDF has two blank pages where the executive summary should be. So I wrote my own.
Given GB’s disastrous auction policy in the 1990’s, one can understand the scepticism of this from the German renewable energy industry. Again, this may have unforeseen impacts.
If the Act is not replaced, the UK will be treading energy water until four or so years time when we will be forced to rethink a new Act anyway. Yes, this means putting EMR on hold until new...
To raise the rate of self-sufficiency in energy supply without depending on nuclear power while trying to stop global warming, it is vital to make renewable energy a major power source as quickly as...
In our 13th post, Mr. Perlin said, “Reagan came into office and declared war on solar technologies, which led the National Science Foundation’s chief scientist Lloyd Herwig to declare, instead of...
The politics of renewable electricity in the UK: the roles of policy feedback and institutional context
Alan Simpson has posted another insightful and witty skewering of British political elites--this time in the Labour Party. As a former Labour MP himself, his essay is as much a cri de coeur from one...[more]
The NYT has published another grossly inaccurate article about the European Union, and Germany in particular, in which the author mainly displays her personal agenda. She claims an EU study...
I’ll focus on what seems to me to be the error with the most important implications: that the anti-nuclear component of Germany’s energy transition has caused a rise in CO2 emissions.
So don't we need some new, more radical targets for Scotland? 150 per cent by 2025 would seem moderate (perhaps even puny) in this scenario. Actually Scotland is making rapid progress towards its...
A number of policies have been used historically in order to stimulate the growth of the renewable electricity sector. This paper examines four of these policy instruments: renewable electricity...
Former Chairman of the Arizona Corporation Commission Gary Pierce held about a dozen private meetings with executives of APS, the state’s largest electrical utility (and which is regulated by the...
That equates to about 31 percent of Japan's total energy production in fiscal 2013, which stood at 939.7 billion kWh. In fiscal 2013, renewable energy accounted for just 2.2 percent of the total.
The best news about this study is not its findings, though they will no doubt be widely circulated. Rather, it is a sign that Siemens has moved from unrealistic criticism of the Energiewende to...
Creationism, climate denial and anti-vaccination rage: long before the measles outbreak in the US, a deep mistrust of scientists infected some strands of the American conservative movement.
In an e-mail to Brown in January 2014, Cherry dangled PG&E’s backing for CPUC Chairman Peevey’s pet project — a $4 billion coal-gasification plant planned in Kern County — as a possible reward for...
Big energy firms such as Total, Iberdrola, E.On and Enel have together adopted a dominant position in trade bodies such as the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) and European Photovoltaic...
A country report published by IRENA finds that the United States could have 27 percent renewable energy (not just electricity!) by 2030, up from 7.5 percent in 2010 – and much higher than the 10...
In comparison to its European neighbors, France has fallen off the renewable energy bandwagon, according to the most recent report by Bernard Chabot. In 2014 wind produced 3.6% and solar PV only 1.3%...[more]
Despite lavish talk about increasing renewable energy and the start of renewable mandates in 2002, the PUC has authorized more fossil-fueled energy than renewable energy during Peevey’s tenure, with...
So, in short, the new CfD system replicates the existing ability of the electricity majors to siphon off up to 30 per cent of the incomes supposedly paid by electricity consumers for renewable...
Alan Simpson blasts Britain's ruling party and government bureaucrats for an ideologically driven rush to a "capacity market" in response to a "manufactured," that is, imaginary, crisis.[more]
The North-to-South transmission lines are not needed; they are a waste of money, designed to increase the cost of the rnergiewende and thus do discredit it, and to split the environmental community...
This mountainous city has moved another step toward its goal of supplying all of its energy needs with the area’s most visibly abundant resource.
All these developments have resulted in Germany generating less electricity from fossil fuels in 2014 than in the last 35 years.
DECC’s auction reflects GB’s current energy policy: wasteful, thoughtless, parochial and supporting the status quo. This was a real opportunity to implement a radically different, demand focused...
The government could have chosen a better way, by prioritising measures that really do solve the energy trilemma – incentivising interconnection, treating demand-side management as a priority,...
Climate disruption jumped to the fore of the global political agenda in 2014 and a series of developments cemented both renewable energy and carbon pricing as lead solutions to the crisis.
The institutions through which Japan’s energy technocrats are adapting Germany’s lessons to Japanese circumstances are potentially very powerful. They may be rebooting some of the mechanisms that...
Steps such as the feed-in tariff, though still incomplete, are generally viewed as progress toward increasing green energy in Egypt. The rapid advance of coal projects has shown what can be...
For example, in mathematical terms, if over a 20 year period a wind turbine produces 7 million kWh of electricity annually, its construction will consume approximately 3.5 million kilowatt hours — or...
The investigation is in response to complaints from four Ontario-based firms; Eclipsall Energy Corporation, Heliene, Silfab Ontario and Solgate. Ontario removed the 60% domestic content requirement...
Attorneys general in at least a dozen states are working with energy companies and other corporate interests, which in turn are providing them with record amounts of money for their political...
We seem to have been scared into believing that a further increase in the use of renewable energy would cost us dearly.
The more an article contains evidence-based findings, the more it moves away from propaganda to professional analysis.
'Forum For the Future', in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, blow away the alleged conservatism of British farmers by indicating how large quantities of British electricity supply (much...
The call for a coal phaseout has been in the foreground for the past month in Germany. It all started with a leak about a discussion proposal to switch off between 5 and 10 GW of coal plant capacity,...
The use of wind energy (both onshore and offshore) was investigated with regard to the consumption of neodymium (Nd) and dysprosium (Dy), which are increasingly being employed in high field strength...
German clean energy policy expert Dr. David Jacobs paid Canada a visit this week to dispel a few myths about the Energiewende. While addressing potential downsides, Jacobs talked about the lessons...
If the policy is implemented... The renewables sector has come to see the current Social Democrats as a party of coal power; the party traditionally represents unions, including coal miners. But this...
Indeed, the law of the Japan’s Feed-in Tariff system allows utilities to refuse requests of renewable electricity producers for grid access “when securing a smooth supply of electricity by said the...
To accelerate the spread of power generated from renewable energy sources, the government must take responsibility for expanding the capacities of utilities to take on energy.
A new study by Fraunhofer IWES investigates how much natural gas could be offset by renewables and efficiency, and one graphic indicates the implicit message that the energy transition could make...
Hawaii’s utilities just resubmitted long-term energy plans to the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, and there was at least one very nice surprise: Hawaii Electric Light Company (HELCO), the utility...
Meeting 100% requires citizen and business engagement, no question. It will also require institutional innovation, like renewable energy cooperatives and green bonds that allow people to invest...
Publications investigating a 100 percent supply of renewable energy continue to pour in. Last week, the World Future Council produced a Policy Handbook that is unique in two ways. First, it covers...
A recent study commissioned by Agora Energiewende comes to the conclusion that the German Energiewende does not need new electricity storage within the next 20 years. Instead, flexible fossil-fueled...
The goal of fully transitioning the world’s total energy mix toward renewable energy sources is no longer a utopian ideal: it is being achieved in a number of places around the world today. Hundreds...
This year electricity generation from coal is down in Germany and last month only 14.45 TWh. This is not only a hefty 20% decline compared to the previous year, but also the lowest monthly coal power...
the U.S. has made renewable energy mandates an option for the states, who in turn have almost all given control of the mandates to their electricity monopolies (e.g., utilities). Typically, these...
The results of a three-year project investigating what a purely renewable power supply would look like have been published. The findings could be a roadmap for the coming years bar unforeseen...
In other words, since 2006 we have witnessed a stabilization of Germany’s impressively reliable grid even as some 35 gigawatts of solar and 35 gigawatts of wind were installed on a grid with peak...
There is a pattern among these examples of politicians rejecting the full body of available scientific evidence and the consensus among climate experts – each is in an English-speaking country.
The people of El Hierro envisioned a new possibility for their island community and have achieved self-reliance supplying their electricity demand with a combination of wind and hydro-power.
According to the FT, National Grid said the closures should not affect the UK’s energy supply. “Demand is low at this time of year, and a lot of wind power is being generated right now,” it said.
In the short to medium term the fossil fuel interests and their supporters – both witting and unwitting — are fighting the battle of their corporate lives to preserve the privileged position they’ve...
Nonetheless, some pretty significant patterns are apparent. Perhaps most notably: Not only is the United States clearly the worst in its climate denial, but Great Britain and Australia are second and...
“The popularization of renewable energy has increasingly allowed local municipalities to produce electricity on their own,” said Tetsunari Iida, director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy...
Nonetheless, some pretty significant patterns are apparent. Perhaps most notably: Not only is the United States clearly the worst in its climate denial, but Great Britain and Australia are second and...
Japan is indeed poor in fossil fuels—but among all major industrial countries, it’s the richest in renewable energy like sun, wind, and geothermal. For example, Japan has nine times Germany’s...
Rejecting the previous idea of “the faster the better” sure sounds like putting on the brakes.
The renewable energy sources solar, wind, hydro and biomass produced a total of about 81 TWh and accounted for approximately 31% of electricity production.
I argue that nuclear energy ceased to be a viable option in the world's energy mix as the result of the disappearance of the subsidies it received in the form of plutonium purchases by the military....
It is becoming increasingly clear that no German politician is holding the baton for renewables policy in Germany, especially after the recent amendments were approved on a Friday. Today, we take a...
The Bundestag just voted overwhelmingly in favor of the governing coalition’s proposes to change the country’s renewables policy. The grand coalition of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats got...
Interestingly, Ireland recently saw its share of wind power peak at 50 percent of power demand, an issue that went largely unreported (why is everyone so focused on Germany?).
The former East German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern became the first German state to generate more electricity with renewable energy than its own domestic consumption. In 2013 the state on the...[more]
It remains to be seen how board members will vote on upcoming issues. But philosophically, renewable-energy proponents seem to hold a 7-5 advantage.
On the border to Denmark, Schleswig-Holstein is a largely rural state – and Germany’s windiest area. It is home to the country’s only Energiewende Minister, and it will produce as much green...
Looks like the Wind Turbines won! Overall, supporters of renewable energy landed almost 70% of the vote, and the PC's, who made a big campaign issue of killing off renewable energy via the Green...
A tongue-in-cheek review of Baedeker's new guidebook: Deutschland--Erneuerbare Energien erleben (Germany--Experience renewable energy) by geographer Martin Frey. The book is an update of his...
Germany has experienced a boom in local energy initiatives aiming at 100% renewable energy. The webinar will offer an overview of progress, and highlight the strategies that have worked, including...
Here, we have the coal conundrum of the Energiewende: is Germany building new coal plants to replace nuclear despite the country’s green ambitions? This paper finds that the concern is based largely...
An in-depth look reveals that coal is not making a comeback in Germany. The current addition of new coal projects in Germany is a one-off phenomenon. Recent projects started in 2005-2007 as part of...
I frequently find myself feeling somewhat schizophrenic in the world of the American media. I will be looking at a reality which has very clear features (to me), and I will find it being nearly...
A large-scale shift away from coal to a variety of electricity sources including solar, wind, and geothermal power, could be accomplished in 20 years with only a slight price increase in the first...
President Obama plans to reduce carbon emissions from power plants by 30 percent by 2030. At first glance, it sounds impressive – but the reference year is 2005, and emissions from electricity are...
The Danish Energy Agency has published an energy-scenario report and five sub-analyses on the energy system of the future and the challenges that need managing up to 2050 as fossil fuels are phased...
Former prime ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Morihiro Hosokawa on Wednesday established a new entity to promote renewable energy as part of a joint antinuclear campaign that previously led Hosokawa...
System size distribution of total Italian solar PV installations through 2013. 17% of total installed solar PV capacity is in systems less than 20 kW in size. Another 21% of capacity is in the range...[more]
In 2013 Spain generated nearly 44% of its electricity with renewable sources, 30% from new renewables. Wind energy alone provided nearly 21% of Spain's electricity--as much as nuclear. [more]
In 2013 Italy generated nearly 34% of its electricity with renewable sources, 17% with new renewables. Solar PV provided nearly 5% of Italy's electricity. [more]
As retired Navy Rear Admiral David Titley, an expert on climate change, wrote in a Fox News editorial in an effort to shake some sense into the heads of denialists: “The parallels between the...
This week, a coalition of companies that provide leasing contracts for solar to home and business customers declared war on this “value of solar” policy, and pretty much every financial model for...
As detailed below, the Government's survey shows that the public is much more supportive of onshore wind - the technology they are determined to curb - compared to the technologies to which they want...
Some thoughts about the role of the church in Germany’s switch to renewables and lower consumption driven by citizens, energy cooperatives, and communities. While energy policy is a divisive issue in...
Alone among the major economies, Germany is moving purposefully to phase out fossil fuels while also shuttering nuclear power. Germany’s energy makeover, or “energiewende,” appears to be thriving, as...
Last week, the EU adopted new rules on “public support for environmental protection and energy.” The outcome is a clear compromise; though still containing misleading labels such as “market-based,”...
The Stiftung Umweltenergierecht has published an 89 page analysis (in German language) explaining how the recent move by the European Commission to violate Germany’s legislation competences is...
The UK has successfully lobbied to have a clause removed from the new EU state aid guidelines that would have hampered support for fossil fuels.
On Tuesday, Germany announced some new policy reforms to its high-profile 'energy revolution'. Some reports have suggested the country is slamming on the brakes to prevent renewable energy further...
On Friday, German power provider Eon confirmed that it will shut down a nuclear plant ahead of schedule. The premature discontinuation of lignite excavation also announced that day, however, is a...
Natural gas in storage in the US continued its decline in the most recent update from the US Energy Information Agency. (Why doesn’t Canada publish this type of data?) The ongoing cold winter reduced...
Areas with periodic droughts, like California, Australia, and even the US and Canadian west (remember the dust bowl) need to preserve their rivers and aquifers, or face severe economic consequences....
Japan added 7,044 megawatts of clean energy capacity since it began an incentive program in July 2012 through the end of last year.
In any normal situation, such hard facts would simply be reported – it's not like there's no way to say "carbon emissions are slightly down year-over-year" in German.
Some have forecast that the fracking boom may be close to running it’s course. The depletion rates for fracked gas are very high – that is, the well stops producing very quickly. We may not have the...
Bernard Chabot is back today with an update of his overview of power data from California for 2013 as a whole. The statistics are taken from CAISO, but you may find slightly different data elsewhere....
We should get on with building the pipeline of wind and solar projects now.
Why can’t the U.S. propose and take the lead in a new Marshall Plan — this one targeting Eastern Europe — that would: weatherize millions of homes; install combined heat-and-power systems in tens of...
The transition to a sustainable energy economy and its deliberate and unconscious sabotage . . .
Three years after the Fukushima/Daiichi nuclear disaster, the Global100RE Ambassadors are highlighting the need to refrain from using hazardous nuclear and fossil energy sources and instead shift...
Over at Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), Michael Liebreich now claims responsibility for the cost breakthroughs of renewables. Adding insult to injury, he then argues that the policy that...
Angela Merkel’s visit to London yesterday is being widely reported in the context of David Cameron’s efforts to secure EU reform.However, the presence of Europe’s electorally most successful leader...
The United States, where powerful industries are skilled at downplaying environmental risks, appears to have embraced the skeptic movement first, in the run-up to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Back then,...
At the same time, the open cut coal mine that provides fuel to the power station is burning; a slow, intense fire that sits at the coal seam face. The fires, suspected to have been deliberately lit,...
Beckman writes that "analysts" speak of "gross inefficiencies" in national schemes: "wind and solar power get built where subsidies are highest rather than where there is most wind or sun in Europe."...
As someone with a moderately open mind, I promote the sharing of best practices. If you support renewables, feed-in tariffs (FITs) seem an obvious choice; they have been used successfully – even...
In solidarity with BWE, I’ve endorsed their campaign by taking the small step of including one of their themes in the banner of my web site. I’ve posted one banner in the original German and one...[more]
We show, using policy analysis and socioeconomic considerations including uncertainty, that in the first phase, it is beneficial to focus on establishing support policy instruments which reduce risk...
The German Government is also critical of the substance of the draft guidelines. They say that it is too early for transiting to an auction model immediately. - See more at:...
The push against renewables is also a desperate attempt to protect incumbent firms on a market that might trend away from big business and towards small producers if market forces and democracy...
California’s over reliance on fossil fuels for generating electricity, notably natural gas, led the state’s electricity system operator to call an emergency on Thursday, 6 February. The move called...[more]
A shortage of natural gas triggered by extreme cold weather in much of the United States and Canada is impacting fuel supplies to Southern CA power plants and reducing electricity generation. The...
Most Americans now believe that there is enough recoverable natural gas lurking under our feet to heat and power this country well into the next century. A fairy tale to be sure, but as long as it is...
Local governments across Japan are seeking to supply their regions with 100% renewable energy, three years after the major earthquake which resulted in a nuclear disaster. At the Community Power...
In his State of the Union, President Obama added to the conventional wisdom that supplanting coal with natural gas will act as a bridge toward a climate solution. Unfortunately, gas is more of a...
Several discussions of the working group pointed to feed-in tariffs (FITs) as an important tool with which to approach price-parity between incumbents and newcomers in the renewable energy...
The German Environmental Agency announced official figures today, unfortunately for 2012, not 2013. They confirm that Germany exceeded its Kyoto target by a wide margin. Nonetheless, it remains...
In other words, we pay twice for bad solar policy in America. Complicated tax incentive, interconnection, and contract policy makes solar cost more to install than in mature markets like Germany....
You heard it here first, because the forecast is mine – CO2 emissions from German power consumption are likely to decline this year for a number of reasons. But the coal phaseout is unlikely to begin...
Just before Christmas, Spanish grid regulator REE published a PDF in English with quite a bit of interesting information. The bit of news that has gone viral is that wind power was the biggest source...
Between 1 and 2 PM, December 31 2013, the last coal fired generating station in Ontario stopped producing power. No more coal will be burned in Ontario to produce power. The coal shutdown is the...
Japan’s energy policy is at a watershed; the country must now decide which form of energy to adopt as its foundation of the society. Japan Renewable Energy Foundation is urging the government to take...
Richard Miller was particularly critical of the UK government's policies, including abandoning large-scale wind farm projects, the reduction of feed-in tariffs for renewable energy, and support for...
The fact that Robert Habeck is the first Energiewende minister in Germany – in its northern-most state, Schleswig Holstein – is only one of the attributes that distinguishes the 43-year-old,...
In a remarkable display of how renewable energy has come of age in Germany, renewables--primarily wind and biomass--generated one billion kWh in two days.
Before the election, the CDU was the party advocating a faster transition, and the FDP coalition partner was always hitting the brakes full force. . . Now the CDU is the slower partner, and the SPD...
One marvels at how different the situation is in Germany, where both historic power production and forecasts are available from the Transparency EEX website (in English and German), and you can also...
The knowledge from Faust’s book was translated into an active solar building program in the 1820s through the 1850s in Lower Bavaria, Hessen and Prussia. . . Faust’s ideas were implemented in...
Over 16,000 demonstrators from across Germany took the streets of Berlin to demonstrate for renewal energies. They tired to send a clear signal to the government to move toward the defined goals.
Early visions of what a competitive market would look like included the separation of generation and supply, liquid and transparent energy wholesale markets as well as real consumer choice between...
I’d already marked up my version of Matthias Willenbacher’s book My Indecent Offer to the Chancellor in the faint hope of some day posting a review from the German—it’s difficult and time consuming...[more]
Sometimes, Der Spiegel misconstrues issues so well that even experts have trouble understanding what is meant.
"I wanted to step back and celebrate what has been achieved so far by reminding everyone that Germany is not only switching to renewables and lower consumption, but also to energy democracy -- normal...
Over the years I’ve noted more than once the observation that most major environmental groups in Germany give a full-throated endorsement of renewable energy, the energiewende, and wind energy in...[more]
Ed Davey's excuse for limiting wind power contracts to 15 years whilst Hinkley C gets a whopping 35 year contract is blown away by some elementary history checking. Lots of wind turbines in Altamont...
The UK government’s announcement of a preliminary deal with EDF and its financial partners on the Hinkley Point C European Pressurised-water Reactor (EPR) project, was met with a mixed response. ...
It was one of the most ambitious renewable energy programs in the world when it launched in 2009, committing the Canadian province to buy power from thousands of new renewable energy systems. It was...
Major English-language media have been propagating a false narrative about the stunning success of Germany’s transition to renewable energy: the Energiewende. To hear them tell it, the transition has...
Over the past year, we have heard a lot of charges that Germany is switching to coal. Many of us have noted that this effect is quite temporary. Now, Germany’s most prominent coal field, Garzweiler,...
