Mercury

Accelerating energy transformation is key for a climate-safe future. The future of tomorrow depends on the energy decisions we are making today. Source: Renewable Energy: A key climate solution – IRENA OK, if I share a post reporting that “renewable energy is a key climate solution”, I am unlikely to provide you with exceptional insights, I guess. But the infographics that has been produced by the International Renewable Energy Agency in this webpage is really fantastic and deserves to be seen!…

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In the last weeks, Katowice, Poland hosted the 24th Conference of Parties (COP24), the yearly session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). As most of you know, COPs are essentially the most important yearly event concerning climate change, where fundamental decisions are (or, sometimes, are not…) made by world countries towards global mitigation action. Hence, a post on this topic is mandatory (here the link to the post dedicated to last year’s COP23 in Bonn). The…

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Large CCUS deployment will be needed for successful clean-energy transitions Source: Carbon capture, utilisation and storage finally catches the spotlight – IEA More than one month has passed since I completed the research task concerning CCS, however I would like to share this post appeared yesterday on the International Energy Agency website. Preliminary note: the IEA normally prefers talking about CCUS, i.e. highlighting the term “utilization” (that you find in the post title), but obviously we are talking about the same…

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Energy efficiency has been critical in decoupling economic growth from rising energy consumption Source: Efficiency should always be the first answer – IEA In my research I have been focusing on low-carbon power technologies and on how they could contribute to the transition towards a fully decarbonized energy sector. However we often forget that, as the title of this post clearly states, “energy efficiency should always be the first answer”. Before trying to understand how to generate clean energy, in fact,…

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Estimates jeopardise Trump’s hopes of reviving mining industry in US Source: Financial Times This news reminds me of an old post that reported the progressive decrease of wind and solar costs. Apparently these two technologies have now reached coal, i.e. the benchmark technology, at least “in many areas of the US”, as stated in the article. Now the tendency must be consolidated, of course, but it is normally stressed that renewables will really take off only when they become cheaper…

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Growing ‘disconnect’ between energy markets and emission targets Source: Financial Times Whereas old-technology and high-emissions coal-fired power plants have progressively been approaching the end of their operational life in Western countries, in Asia (notably China and India) such plants are averagely much more recent, and many are under construction. This will result in a lock-in of carbon dioxide emissions for decades, with detrimental effects on climate change mitigation. This is one of the biggest issues regarding  the energy sector in…

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Explore key findings from the IEA’s market report on renewable energy Source: Renewables 2018: Key Findings The International Energy Agency has recently published the “Renewables 2018” report, which discusses both the market status and the forecast from 2018 to 2023. The report is not for free, but the relevant webpage provides plenty of information, both as an overview and sorted by sectors (power, heat, and transport). The executive summary can also be downloaded. It is practically impossible to summarize the…

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Speaking at the Oceans Partnership Summit during G7, IRENA Director-General Adnan Z. Amin underlined the potential of offshore renewable energy to meet energy demand, stimulate economic growth and generate employment – hallmarks of the global energy transformation. Source: IRENA points to offshore energy benefits for economies at G7 Offshore wind in the spotlight: is this technology going to be a game changer in the power generation sector in the next decades? For sure, so far renewable development has mostly focused…

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New IRENA brief highlights positive momentum for off-grid renewable energy, and its transformative impact as a key pillar of Sustainable Development Goal 7 Source: Off-grid Renewables are Growing, Bringing Socio-economic Benefits to Millions I had missed this interesting brief published by IRENA about one month ago! As discussed in many posts, one of the main topics within the MERCURY project is the analysis of the issues related to the penetration of variable renewable energies in the electricity grid. For this…

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I am a physicist, and an energy and sustainability science researcher, and I live in California because of its penchant for not just setting but actually achieving big goals and adopting bold visions others may consider too ambitious. What California proposes, we research, debate and then accomplish. In fact, we often exceed the goals skeptics have deemed unmeetable. This is why I believe that California should — and ultimately will — pass into law the “100 Percent Clean Energy Act”…

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