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
Critical minerals for the energy transition: lithium, cobalt and nickel
Continuing my series on critical minerals, in this post I will look at some of the main metals required for lithium-ion batteries, the core component in electric cars and current battery-based grid-scale electricity storage solutions, lithium, cobalt and nickel. [...]
Critical minerals for the energy transition: copper and aluminium
Following on from my post about the need to secure critical minerals for the energy transition, in this post I look at copper and aluminium, two metals essential for the delivery of the huge increase in grid infrastructure that [...]
Accessing minerals critical to the energy transition will be challenging
Following on from my recent post about the challenges of upgrading power grids to meet net zero ambitions, in this post I will set out the issues relating to the supply of critical minerals for the energy transition. This [...]
Energy market outlook – what can we expect in 2024?
Yesterday I reviewed the key market themes in 2023. In this post I take a look at what we can expect in 2024... The past couple of years have been dominated by concerns over energy prices, particularly gas. However, [...]
Energy market review of 2023
At the end of each year, I like to look back at the past year and ahead to what the coming 12 months might bring (which I will cover in a separate post tomorrow). In the past, I have [...]
Forgotten Christmas traditions
In days past, Christmas looked very different to what it does today. Many modern Christmas traditions originated in the Victorian era, but some had their origins in older traditions, legends and superstitions. In fact, most of what we think [...]
Extensive power grid upgrades and expansion threaten the energy transition
People are becoming increasingly concerned about the mineral requirements for the energy transition and how these will be met. In October, the International Energy Agency (“IEA”) published a report entitled Electricity Grids and Secure Energy Transitions in which it [...]
Cost of energy debts may be added to price cap
Today Ofgem has launched a couple of new price cap consultations (wholesale costs review and additional debt costs review consultation) which both close on 17 January. The debt costs review in particular has hit the headlines and is widely [...]
Grangemouth closure has echoes of Rough gas storage
Eighteen months ago I wrote a blog entitled: Cakism in energy policy begins to bite which gained a lot of attention, in which I pointed out that policy-makers tend to want to have their cake and eat it when [...]
New report: Prospects for nuclear energy in the UK
This week my nuclear paper for the Global Warming Policy Foundation (“GWPF”) was published: Prospects for nuclear energy in the UK. The GWPF has taken a somewhat more negative interpretation of my report than I expected – yes, we [...]
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