Featured Posts
New report: The true affordability of net zero
This evening my latest report: The true affordability of net zero, was launched at an event hosted by The [...]
Norway turning away from electricity interconnection
Norway is turning away from electricity interconnection as its governing coalition collapses over disagreements over energy co-operation with Europe. [...]
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 [...]
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
Finding ways to exploit Iceland’s unique energy resources
Back in April, the press was full of the news that a new Icelandic energy project could revive the prospects of IceLink, the Iceland - UK interconnector project. This week has seen progress in another energy project which may [...]
The Clean Growth Strategy: long on ambition, short on detail
Last week the Government published its long awaited Clean Growth Strategy, described by the Telegraph as the coming of age of the green agenda. Clean growth is defined in the document as growing the UK's national income while cutting greenhouse [...]
The energy price cap is finally on the table but will anyone actually be happy with it?
Yesterday the Government published its draft Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill, essentially imposing caps on some energy bills until 2020, with a possibility of extending until 2023. "The Government wants markets to thrive and we continue to [...]
Measuring grid inertia accurately will enable more efficient frequency management
Last week saw the news that National Grid has successfully trialled a method of measuring the inertia of the electricity system in real time. This may seem like a technical curiosity, but it has major implications for system management. [...]
Local flexibility markets mark the emergence of the new DSOs
The electricity system is in transition. Transmission connected, centralised synchronous generation is being displaced by multiple small installations of intermittent asynchronous generation connected at the distribution level. Advances in sub-transmission technology including as storage, smart homes, electric vehicles, DSR [...]
Changing regulatory landscape for electricity storage is not all good news
The last couple of months have seen some interesting newsflow in relation to electricity storage. Storage projects are increasingly popular, with developments occurring at every level of the system from grid-connected utility-scale projects to behind-the-meter domestic storage, and the [...]
LAES: a cool idea if it can be shown to be cost effective
In June, Highview Power Storage secured funding from Innovate UK to modify its Liquid Air Energy Storage ("LAES") system to improve its response times. LAES is an interesting concept, as it provides the potential for bulk energy storage without [...]
Using artificial intelligence and machine learning to manage the electricity grids of the future
Existing power grids were designed to transmit electricity over relatively short distances, however, increasingly grids are required to supply major cities from remote offshore wind farms at the same time as integrating local generation. With generators feeding variable amounts [...]
Interconnector projects move forward, but are they as good as they seem?
The first sections of the new electricity interconnector between the UK and Belgium were installed this month with the laying of the first 59km section of the Nemo Link, a joint venture between the UK's National Grid and Belgium's [...]
Further evidence that climate models overstate global warming
Yesterday scientists from the Universities of Exeter and Oxford together with University College London, announced that climate change is not as bad as previously thought due to modelling errors. In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the [...]
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