The Netherlands: home to wind mills, tulips… and one of the world’s ten largest fields of natural gas. But what was once seen as a blessing is increasingly viewed as a thing of the past. Craig Morris asks: is it time to break with the Dutch tradition of “pretty continuation”?
All posts tagged: Gas
The irreversible momentum of clean energy
President Barack Obama discusses the long-term potential of renewable energies and sees the global energy transition as irreversible. Now more than ever, the world needs to embrace the opportunity of clean energy and cooperate on its climate goals.
Renewable energy production stagnates in Germany in 2016
After strong growth in 2015, there were only minor changes in the share of renewables last year. In fact, the most surprising thing is the change in natural gas. Craig Morris takes a look.
Will power prices ever support new nuclear build?
Although some have argued that new nuclear is necessary for the power mix, Jan Ondřich disagrees. He takes a look at the numbers and finds that in the next 30 years, there’s no way that nuclear can compete with a mix of solar, wind, and gas.
Renewable energy in Belgium
Over the last ten years, Belgium has seen the share of renewables in its final energy consumption grow from 2% in 2005 to 8% in 2014. The country is still on track to meet its 2020 objective of 13%. However, because of political bad blood between the different regional and federal authorities, some doubts arise about whether or not Belgium can reach its overall goal. Michel Huart calls for an inter-federal energy vision and an effective collaboration between its different competent authorities.
Success of EU foreign policy hinges on climate and energy security
Europe’s global strategic interests have become inseparable from managing climate risk and the global Energy Transition, write Luca Bergamaschi, Nick Mabey, Jonathan Gaventa and Camilla Born of the independent climate and energy think tank E3G. In a new report, EU foreign policy in a changing climate, they set out how Europe can make these themes a central thread in its foreign policy.
The Ukrainian crisis can be solved—with an Energiewende
A Ukrainian Energiewende could go a long way to resolving the current geopolitical crisis around the country, writes Oleg Savitsky of the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine in a new report for the Succow Stiftung. According to Savitsky, it would reduce Ukraine’s dependence on Russian gas and uranium as well as on coal from the breakaway regions, while at the same time reducing pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and the risk of a nuclear disaster. It would also help to combat corruption and usher in economic growth and a more equitable society. Savitsky calls on the EU and Germany to set up a “Marshall Plan” to bring about a Ukrainian energy transition, rather than trying to maintain Ukraine as a failed gas transit state.
Israel: the “energy island’s” transition to energy independence
After several decades of stagnation, the recent discovery of significant natural gas deposits in the Mediterranean, which could supply Israel’s energy needs for the coming decades, and the introduction of domestic renewable energy generation could signal a rapid energy transition for Israel. Noam Segal explains.
Will Germany reach its 2020 target for renewable power this year?
In the first half of 2016, 36.4 percent of the electricity produced in Germany was renewable according to preliminary data. The target for 2020 is only 35 percent – and that figure does not include power exports. Renewables seem to be cutting into both coal power and nuclear; gas is up. Craig Morris explains.
Berlin’s Renewable Energy Fiasco… Revisited
Although the Wall Street Journal has called the German energy transition a “fiasco,” Javier López Prol argues that renewables are clearly a success. Fossil fuels only seem cheaper as they externalize costs onto the environment, and that higher electricity costs are not the economic catastrophe that critics claim.