Energy

Despite the best efforts of the UK government, 10 percent of Britain’s energy will be generated from offshore windfarms thanks to a deal between SSE, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and SDIC Power of China, to build Beatrice offshore wind farm, according to industry trade body RenewableUK.  RenewableUK’s Chief Executive Hugh McNeal …

Without electricity storage, we stand no chance of maintaining our economy using renewable energy.  Unfortunately, we lack any scalable battery technology to meet this challenge.  However, the problem might be that we are looking for answers in the wrong places.  Rather than a single hi-tech solution, a dispersed combination of …

Last week we saw yet another headline proclaiming that another country had produced all of its electricity from renewables.  This time it was Portugal; the week before it was the UK that – for all the wrong reasons – went “coal free”.  Before that, Germany and Denmark have, on occasion …

Low oil prices since 2014 are taking their toll on the economy of Saudi Arabia according to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard at the Telegraph: “Saudi Arabia faces a vicious liquidity squeeze as capital continues to leak out the country, with a sharp contraction of the money supply and mounting stress in the …

Renewables and nuclear will be the fastest growing energy sources by 2040 according to the latest projections from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).  Renewables are expected to grow by 2.6 percent per year and nuclear by 2.3 percent; with the highest growth rates in developing, non-OECD states. Unfortunately, almost …

Competition in the renewable energy sector is about to heat up, says Selina Williams at the Wall Street Journal.  This is because major global oil and gas companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and Total have begun to invest in the sector: “While the investments of Europe’s biggest energy companies …

New Nuclear Watch Europe, an industry-funded pressure group, called on ministers to review which nuclear projects are most likely to be built, according to Kiran Stacey at the Financial Times.  In particular, ongoing problems with the Hinkley Point C project threaten to undermine the whole industry: “Other projects are currently …

Far from celebrating Britain going “coal free” last week, I am dreading the short-term consequences. In an apparent triumph for renewable energy, the UK National Grid went coal free on several occasions last week: “In what green energy supporters have described as a “historic turning point” for the UK’s power …

Third Energy’s application to hydraulically fracture an existing gas well at Kirby Misperton in north Yorkshire looks set to be given the go-ahead according to Nina Chestney at Reuters: “[A] report by the head of planning at North Yorkshire County Council was prepared ahead of a meeting of councillors due …

The Energy Act 2016 was passed into law yesterday.  The Act – which is seen as an attack on renewable energy – is designed to promote further development offshore and onshore oil and gas in an attempt to arrest the sharp fall in output from the North Sea fields.  Secretary of …