Article by Dr David Mutch & Anthony Price
A Local Energy Market (LEM) is an intuitively simple idea. A consumer is using energy; their neighbour’s solar panel is generating surplus. Instead of selling this surplus to a supplier, who then sells it back to their neighbour, the generator sells direct to their neighbour. The generator gets a better price, incentivising renewable generation and benefitting the environment, their neighbour gets cheaper energy, and the varying price of electricity encourages energy generation and consumption at times of day that benefit the distribution network.
Posted in The Science Stuff
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By Dr. Diana Böttger et al.
In this article we analyze three different scenarios for a complete defossilization of the German energy supply system. The focus is hereby on flexible technologies and synthetic fuels in the year 2050. These technologies are necessary to balance supply and demand in a system based on weather-dependent renewable energy sources. The power sector is able to cover a considerable share of the energy demand in the heat and transport sector. This is made possible by flexible sector coupling technologies such as heat pumps and electric mobility. All considered models manage to find solutions for a deep defossilization if flexibility and storage options are available.
Posted in The Science Stuff
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Article by Dr. Axel Berg
Since the financial crisis of 2008, the leading industrialised countries have increasingly closed themselves off and protected their own industries and agriculture. The rules of the World Trade Organization are increasingly being ignored. Bilateral trade agreements are on the rise. Trade is becoming increasingly unfree. Under US President Trump, the policy of isolation has been accelerated. In 2020, Corona comes and deals another blow to the world economy: the vulnerability of our global system is becoming more and more obvious.
Posted in How it could be done
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Vamos al futuro
Spain. The South of Europe shows us what a coal exit without generous palliative measures on the part of the state looks like: in Spain, the end of climate-damaging energy production is taking place much more quietly, but above all much more quickly. Seven of Spain's 15 coal-fired power stations were taken off the grid at the end of last month.
All but two of operators of the remaining plants have already applied for decommissioning. Greenpeace Spain assumes that no coal-fired power plants will be on the grid by 2025 at the latest. This would mean that the Iberians would be much quicker than Germany, which does not want to shut down its last coal-fired power station until 2038.
Posted in The Mix
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