Featured Posts
Time to accept that wind farm costs are not falling
There has been a consistent narrative that the cost of building new wind farms is falling, with falling subsidy [...]
Windfall tax harms oil and gas production and must be cut
In May last year, the UK Government introduced a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies [...]
Why Norway’s views on energy security should ring alarm bells across Europe
Norway's energy security would appear to be a done deal, yet the past couple of years have been very [...]
Addressing the high real cost of renewable generation
Over the past few months we have been inundated with claims from interested parties that more renewables are the [...]
Recent Posts
Synchronous condensers help stabilise the GB electricity grid
This month, Statkraft and ABB announced the construction of two synchronous condensers on Lister Driver in Liverpool. The Lister Drive project will provide a range of grid stabilisation services to National Grid ESO, including inertia, short circuit current and [...]
Getting building energy performance right is essential for net zero – part III
This is the final post in my series on the energy performance of buildings. The first two (here and here) dealt with issues relating to the fabric of buildings, while in this post I will look at the behaviour [...]
Getting building energy performance right is essential for net zero – part II
This is the second post in my series on the energy performance of buildings. The first looked at the Government's primary building energy target, measured by the flawed Energy Performance Certificate. This post will look at the wider issues [...]
Getting building energy performance right is essential for net zero – part I
Buildings are the second largest contributor to UK emissions at just under 20% of the total. There are two elements to the energy performance of buildings: energy is used in the running of the building, primarily heating and lighting, [...]
Is geothermal energy the next hot topic?
The use of hot springs has been known since antiquity and there is evidence that Native Americans used geothermal energy for cooking as early as 10,000 years ago, yet despite this, by the end of 2019, there was only [...]
Brexit effect de-coupling the energy market
On 1 January 2021, the UK left the EU's internal energy market (“IEM”), meaning that trading over the interconnectors between GB and the EU us no longer be managed through market coupling (except for Northern Ireland which remains part [...]
The energy white paper fails to deliver a detailed plan for net zero
December saw the publication of the long-awaited energy white paper, which built on Boris Johnson’s 10-point energy plan. In 170 pages, the white paper describes in high level terms how the Government plans to achieve its 2050 net zero [...]
A-Z of 2020: a year to forget
Looking back over the year, I would normally write about the interesting developments in the energy markets, and what might be expected in the coming year (and indeed, I will be writing something along those lines in the next [...]
A Christmas message
2020 has been a strange, horrible year, but one in which many of us have explored new ways of digital working. In that spirit, here is my slightly different Christmas blog (with thanks to my family for their artistic [...]
FES-2020 costs indicate massive investment needed for net-zero
Last week, National Grid ESO published the first costings for its Future Energy Scenarios (“FES”). The key conclusions of its analysis are: The cost difference between the four scenarios is just 7% The total cost of each scenario over [...]
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