The extent to which fracking can lift production impresses Sheila McNulty in the FT. “That is something those fixated on the concept of peak oil seem to resist understanding,” she concludes. Her long article doesn’t mention environmental issues.
Solarcentury
The company I founded in 1998 to design and supply solar energy solutions for the built environment. Solarcentury
Solar Aid
The charity I founded in 2006, with a 5% contribution of Solarcentury profits, to help deliver solar lighting to Africa. Solar Aid
Archive for June, 2011
Citizens across world oppose nuclear power, favour solar, poll finds.
June 23, 2011 NuclearA new opinion poll from Ipsos MORI tells us how the battle for hearts and minds is going: 62% of citizens in 24 countries across the world oppose the use of nuclear energy, with a quarter of those having change their minds after Fukushima. In the UK, the split is 50:50. In France, 67% are opposed. The Guardian environment editor finds himself impressed with the data. Solar is the most popular energy technology.
IEA oil release “changes the market pyschology” on oil.
June 23, 2011 OilHedge fund bulls are reviewing their tactics, the FT reports. Lawrence Eagles, head of oil analysis at JPMorgan:“The IEA’s move limits the near-term upside to oil prices.” Javier Blas of the FT thinks the move makes sense, and likens it to a “smart bomb” usage of the IEA’s reserves (whereas before releases had been assumed to be a nuclear option only). See here for a summary of the recent history leading up to he decision.
Locations for 8 new nuclear power reactors released by UK government.
June 23, 2011 NuclearThe eight sites are: Bradwell, Essex; Hartlepool; Heysham, Lancashire; Hinkley Point, Somerset; Oldbury, south Gloucestershire; Sellafield, Cumbria; Sizewell, Suffolk; and Wylfa, Anglesey. All are adjacent to existing nuclear sites. The Guardian notes that this the first major announcement on the future of nuclear power in the UK since the Fukushima disaster in Japan.
Oil price falls as IEA decides to release 60 mbd from reserves to offset Libyan decline.
June 23, 2011 OilThe 28 IEA countries decide to release 2mbd for 30 days. The FT notes that it is is only the third release since the start of the IEA in 1974. The IEA press release notes: “The normal seasonal increase in refiner demand expected for this summer will exacerbate the shortfall further. Greater tightness in the oil market threatens to undermine the fragile global economic recovery.” The US leads, contributing 50%.
“Climate change is a struggle for the soul of America: Al Gore.
June 22, 2011 ClimateWriting in Rolling Stone magazine, Al Gore argues that the US electroal system is broken, and only a mass movement can now deliver. He has harsh words for Obama’s lack of effort. Last paragraph: “The climate crisis, in reality, is a struggle for the soul of America. It is about whether or not we are still capable — given the ill health of our democracy and the current dominance of wealth over reason — of perceiving important and complex realities clearly enough to promote and protect the sustainable well-being of the many. What hangs in the balance is the future of civilization as we know it.”
Transocean blames BP for the Macondo spill.
June 22, 2011 OilIn its internal report, Transocean claims BP’s decisions were “driven by BP’s knowledge that the geological window for safe drilling was becoming increasingly narrow”. BP failed to properly assess, manage and communicate risk to its contractors.
O&G industry figures that floating LNG terminals will take the public heat off gas production.
June 22, 2011 GasThe FLNGs, as the industry is now calling them, allow production where once it was too expensive to put in pipelines, and is out of the public eye. The first, Shell’s, is set for Australia. Others are thinking of following suit, the FT reports.
EU emissions will not rise as a result of Germany’s nuclear phase out.
June 22, 2011 Climate, Coal, GasGerman emissions will rise: Point Carbon estimates by 493 megatonnes by 2020. But emissions will not rise overall across the EU because the EU emissions trading scheme has an absolute cap on emissions from energy-intensive industry until 2020. Countries where generators switch away from coal, because of the resulting increase in carbon price, are likely to see their emissions dip. This includes the UK.
US Supreme Court ruling vindicates use of Clean Air Act to fight global warming: NYT.
June 22, 2011 ClimateA NYT editorial professes that use of the Clean Air Act to fight global warming has now been very much vindicated: a positive spin on the decision. The EPA “plans to propose new rules to regulate emissions from new and existing power plants by next September. With the failure of cap-and-trade legislation last year, the E.P.A.’s rules are among the last remaining regulatory weapons the government can use to combat global warming; a counterattack from some power companies and their Congressional allies can be anticipated. The court’s reasoned reaffirmation of the law and the government’s obligation to carry it out is thus timely and welcome.”
Leaked Russian nuclear stress test report reveals a disastrous state.
June 21, 2011 NuclearA report for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev prepared by Rosatom in the wake of Fukushima is leaked to NGO Bellona. It reveals that Russia’s atomic reactors are grievously under-prepared for both natural and man-made disasters ranging from floods to fires to earthquakes or plain negligence.
US public has little idea how certain scientists are about climate change.
June 21, 2011 ClimateA Yale University poll finds that just 13% of US citizens get the correct answer when asked, which is that in fact about 97 percent of American scientists say that climate change is happening.
AP investigation finds US regulators relax standards as plants age.
June 20, 2011 NuclearFrom leaking valves to busted seals and nozzles, the NRS undermines safety by softening standards, the AP concludes.
EIA budget cuts will cloud understanding of oil markets.
June 20, 2011 OilA range of services will go, including the publication of data on US oil reserves, and a study of the link between prices and trading. This at a time the G20, including the US, has called for greater transparency in commodities trading.
U.S. Supreme Court rules against states on global warming case.
June 20, 2011 ClimateThe long-running suit against five big power companies ends in an apparent victory for the utilities. The justices unanimously overturn a U.S. appeals court ruling that the lawsuit now involving six states can proceed in an effort to force the coal-burning plants to cut emissions of gases that contribute to climate change. Regulating greenhouse gases should be left to the EPA under the revised clean air laws, they rule.
Ernst & Young report on UK solar PV shows large-scale grid parity as soon as 2016.
June 20, 2011 Clean EnergyThe report predicts that, with continued support in the short term, the levelised cost of large-scale solar PV will be no higher than retail energy prices by 2016-19. Panel prices will halve from 2009 – 2013, falling to $1. Solar PV can play “an important role” in UK electricity targets, E&Y concludes.
“Fukushima report shows nuclear power can never be safe and cheap”.
June 20, 2011 NuclearSo says Damian Carrington in the Guardian, commenting on the IAEA report on the Fukushima disaster. ” The first “independent” review of the safety failures during Japan’s nuclear disaster reveals some chillingly obvious “lessons” to be learned”.
“Germany goes back to black in snub to green power”: Reuters.
June 20, 2011 Clean Energy, Climate, CoalThe German government is not boosting existing renewables policies consistent with the nuclear phase out, analysts observe. Those with coal and gas capacity, such as RWE and Eon – the same companies losing nuclear – are set to benefit as things stand.
Texas law requires frackers to list chemicals they use in gas drilling.
June 20, 2011 GasThis is significant, the WSJ reports, because although other states have done the same, if it happens in Texas the gas industry knows the writing is on the wall.
Obama is right to leave the Strategic Petroleum Reserve alone even as prices rise.
June 19, 2011 OilSo says Ed Crooks in the FT. The 727 mb reserves in Louisiana salt domes would only lift the pain temporarily, and risk the US even worse off if oil supply worsens rather than improves.
Wall Street has an “irrational, dangerous hatred of solar stocks”.
June 19, 2011 Clean Energy, Finance“Solar is undervalued, thanks to the market’s continuing focus on oil,” argues Garvin Jabusch of Alt Energy Stocks on CNBC.com. “Solar is hated (and shorted) in spite of being the fastest-growing energy sector in the U.S. (67% 2010 growth; 66% growth just in the first quarter of 2011) and in the world (70% 2010 growth), and also even though its shares trade at very low valuations already.”