Greener energy
Greener energy in transport, industry, and our electricity networks - plus all that goes with this
How hard is it to get rid of coal fired electricity?
It's not as impossible to get rid of coal fired electricity generation as you might think. And no - you don't have to replace it with gas. Low carbon electricity grids are within reach, but getting there takes time
The cheapest energy is the energy you don’t use
The cheapest and greenest energy is the energy we don't use. And this is especially true in industry, where energy waste reduction can result in real financial gains. Plus benefits to the planet and wider society.
Decarbonised cement - are we getting closer?
And sorry - the short answer is not really. But we can make progress faster than we might think, just by spreading current best practice
Can new technology 'save' our transmission grids?
One new (ish) type of interconnector is attracting more attention. Ultra High Voltage DC (UHVDC) enables electricity to be transported vast distances with low line losses. Could this be our best solution?
The refinery of the future
Refineries are important parts of the current industrial complex as they process crude oil into useful products such as fuels and feedstocks for various important chemical processes. Of course we know that burning fossil fuels is a major contributor to man-made greenhouse gas emissions so cutting down our use of
Sunday Brunch: Does Europe want cheaper green steel?
What if green steel could be produced cheaply outside of Europe? If that meant putting domestic industry jobs at risk, would governments be keen?
China to end new coal power additions before 2030?
Are we near peak coal in China? We frequently hear that 'it's pointless trying to cut carbon emissions in the West, when other countries continue to build new coal fired power stations'. And the country that gets the most attention is China. But what if this
Where we end up with battery technology matters.
does battery technology matter, and are we worrying about the wrong raw material issues?
How important are public chargers?
If cheaper EVs start to become the norm soon, will the absence of fast public EV chargers hold back adoption? Sadly yes.
EV sales growing - but where this is happening matters
Will this be the decade of cheaper Chinese EV's as they push into the mass market?
If we cannot connect new renewables to the grid ...
New renewable electricity generation is only useful if it's actually connected to the grid. Without that 'simple action' none of us can use the electricity.
Heating and the importance of systems thinking.
The Heat Pump Summit took place at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford on 10th April. Despite a long history of heat pump innovation and usage - the first large scale heat pump in the UK was in operation in 1945 in Norwich - household installed heat pumps