Greener energy in transport, industry, and our electricity networks - plus all that goes with this
One challenge in building a new electrified energy intensive production facility is getting access to the (hopefully green) electricity. Has a West Virginia project found the solution?
The decarbonisation challenge has two parts, technology and cost. In many cases we have a technological solution, we now need to focus on making it more cost competitive.
It's sometimes easy to forget that financial markets are driven by sentiment. The 'facts' that investors believe to be true matter. For green steel, apparently 80% of investors believe the risk profile for metallurgical coal will increase in the next decade. A clear market signal.
Energy security can be an abstract concept. But sometimes it's very real. And it can clash with environmental concerns. In that case energy security seems to win, as it recently has done in India.
The EV charging chicken and egg? We need more high quality 'public' charging to drive EV sales - which will probably require industry consolidation
We frequently hear that before we even think about rolling heat pumps at scale we need to sort out home insulation first. This is not true.
The sad answer is probably not. The current best technology in cost terms for new steel is a blast furnace - which uses a lot of coal. So bad for the environment.One solution being heavily promoted is carbon capture. But other options look better.
In the 'first' real world test, EV's were successfully used to support the electricity grid when it was under stress. There is still a lot of work to do, but V2G looks like a viable technology
Could consumers be pushed into greener choices using pricing? Is stealth taxation a good thing or not?
The use of gas will decline dramatically as part of the transition to net zero. Modelling at European levels shows that by 2050 about 70% less gaseous fuels will be used. Which raises the question of what happens to our gas grid infrastructure?
Can more wind and solar lead to lower electricity prices for consumers. The answer is broadly yes - and some consumers are already seeing the benefit.
In the EU, six out of ten new car registrations are corporate. You might think this was a perfect opportunity to easily sell more EV's. Big fleets and bulk deals. But apparently not.