Energy

Following the collapse of the Doha talks to freeze oil production, many analysts had expected oil prices to fall.  In the end, prices remained fairly stable – although still a long way short of their 2014 peak.  One reason why this might have happened is that the oil glut has moved …

The end of the 2015/16 financial year has seen a wave of insolvencies in the renewable energy sector according to the Yorkshire Post.  The wave of bankruptcies and redundancies are directly attributable to the UK government’s decision to scrap subsidies and impose new taxes on the industry: “According to the …

Economists and politicians have been reassured that there is twice as much oil beneath the ground as humanity has used to date.  However, international security expert Nafeez Ahmed argues that nearly half of the 1.7 trillion barrels of oil still to be recovered does not actually exist. The discrepancy, reported …

Centrica – the parent company of British Gas – has made a u-turn on its approach to energy generation according to Emily Gosden at the Telegraph. Previously, Centrica’s manifesto for cutting wind farms in favour of more large gas-fired power stations helped to inform the current UK energy policy.  However, …

A fifth of global energy generation came from renewables in 2012 according to the International Energy Agency.  But which countries use the highest proportion of renewables in their energy mix?  Perhaps it is the hi-tech Germans?  Or maybe it is the fast-expanding Chinese? Not even close!  Only two European countries …

The global energy system is set to undergo a revolution similar in magnitude to that experienced by the communications and computing industry, according to the former CEO of SSE, Ian Marchant: “Now there are already one million small generators from community-owned wind, small scale biomass, rooftop wind and solar, and …

The collapse of Peabody – the world’s largest private coal corporation – may speed the transition to renewable electricity generation according to Claudia Assis at Market Watch: “Since 2010, more than a third of coal-fueled power plants have been retired or are scheduled to be retired, and the market for …

The UK government’s claim that fracked gas is a ‘clean, low carbon transition fuel’ rests solely on the tight regulations designed to avoid the mistakes made in the USA. It appears, however, that potential drillers are deterred by such heavy-handed regulation.  Even operating under the Wild West conditions seen in …

New York start-up TransActive Grid enabled the first ever peer-to-peer paid transaction of energy in the USA yesterday.  In doing so, the company aims to usher in a revolution in the way energy markets operate. Traditional energy markets are based around big and expensive national and international infrastructure that favours …

In Britain, the EU and USA, we tend to leave our future energy supplies to the “free market”.  It is true that governments provide exploration grants and subsidies to oil and gas producers.  Nevertheless, decisions about where and when to drill are left to the directors of the energy companies. …