China’s effective ban on Australian coal since October is more political retaliation than climate statement and may have ended up as a bit of an own goal. While the ban has contributed to widespread Chinese blackouts during freezing winter snap, Australia’s coal exports have just shifted to new markets as prices continue to surge in …
China ban more musical chairs than Death Of Coal Read More »
On Friday (January 7) the French electricity grid operator RTE asked consumers to reduce their power consumption because things were getting tight. French citizens were asked to put off running the dishwasher or doing a load of washing that evening because there might not be enough electricity. That day total electricity demand in France reached …
Energy efficiency (EE) has been portrayed as the “low-hanging fruit” of climate policy. Apparently improving the efficiency with which energy is used is as easy as picking money up off the ground. The latest global summary of progress on EE suggests otherwise: global improvements in EE have been steadily slowing over the back end of …
We’re getting less efficient at energy efficiency Read More »
Anyone who thinks gas doesn’t has a global future hasn’t been paying much attention to the gradually escalating geopolitical tensions arising in the South China Sea. Since 2014 China has been building seven artificial islands around reefs it claims as its own territory in the middle of the Sea. The reason for this is simple: …
The recent announcement by telephony giant Telstra about its plans to become an electricity retailer is not so much new, green or innovative. But it may mark an important inflection point in the evolution the electricity market: the demise of the vertically integrated retailer. Telstra has been kicking the tyres on getting into electricity since …
China is the world’s biggest greenhouse emitter, the second biggest economy and the biggest manufacturer of wind turbines, solar panels and batteries in the world. It is both the problem and the solution to climate change. In September in an address to the United Nations General Assembly China’s President Xi Jinping said that China would …
NSW Energy Minister, Matt Kean, shouldn’t be so coy. His sudden reveal this week is politely called the “NSW Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap“. It is more aptly titled “The End of the Competitive Electricity Market and a Return to the Central Planning of the State Electricity Commissions of the 1980s”. It is a sweeping reform agenda. …
There’s one, unavoidable, simple rule in business life: someone has to pay for it. Every solar farm, power station, smart meter or transmission line has to be paid for by someone. Either consumers or taxpayers. Nothing is free. The current Grand Designs blueprint for the future of the National Electricity Market is the Integrated System …
Electricity has hosted some of the biggest technology rivalries in modern history: Edison and direct current vs Tesla and alternating current, Gates and Microsoft vs Jobs and Apple. Now the stage is set for the latest duel between bitter rivals: Yu and hydrogen versus Musk and lithium ion. Who is Yu? We’ll get to that …
