Life in Grimsby, England has changed since the boom in offshore wind power in the UK. Government efforts to drive down the price of the technology and cut the country’s climate pollution have also helped out depressed communities, Chris Bentley reports.
There are many steps we can take to deal with the flexibility of renewable energy: better storage, smart meters, lowering demand via efficiency. But what about getting wind to help balance out the grid in Europe? John Timmer of ArsTechnica looks at harnessing weather patterns for the energy transition.
On Friday, a 28-page text covering the main policy fields cursorily was published after a previous draft had been leaked. For energy policy, the changes are encouraging, but a lot of question marks remain. Craig Morris takes a look.
Local communities are at the forefront of the clean energy transition in Germany, with some villages relying 100% on renewable energy. Pavol Szalai spoke to some mayors there and found that German villagers are proud of their work.
The recent news of alleged “subsidy-free” offshore wind power in Germany has drawn a lot of international attention. Craig Morris spoke with Andreas Wagner, head of Germany’s Offshore Wind Foundation, not only about the reasons, which have been well reported, but about some downsides, which have not.
On Tuesday, the German Wind Energy Association (BWE) published stats on new turbines in 2016. Both onshore and off, wind growth continues to be healthy. And PV was also added roughly in line to keep feed-in tariffs from rising. Craig Morris takes a look.
A video made by HuffPost last year praises ocean energy. Today, Craig Morris takes a look at how the technology has progressed – and what is wrong about how that video portrays renewables that work.
The decision to go ahead with Hinkley shows that any technology with a long timeframe is a juggernaut in an energy world of foreshortening planning horizons. But other questions remain open: can an EPR be built at all? Why is new nuclear cheaper outside the UK? And isn’t Hinkley at least a good low-carbon complement to wind and solar? Craig Morris takes a look.
We recently wrote about record wind power production in 2015, which was partly due to windy conditions. But a lot of new capacity was also added. Unfortunately, the rush reflects the storm before the calm; the onshore sector in particular fears the switch to auctions. Craig Morris explains.
Last year, wind power production in Germany increased by around 50 percent – and the country already had the third largest fleet of wind turbines worldwide. But the biggest improvement is in minimum power production. Your German word for the day is “Dunkelflaute.” Craig Morris reports.
