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An evergreen chronology of Energy Flux articles about variable output clean power generation and storage technologies, including demand-side response, flexibility and power grid modernisation

Seb Kennedy

Jan 1, 2021

Energy Flux

Tilting at windfall taxes

FIRST UP: Windfall taxes are always popular because they conveniently shift blame onto ‘greedy corporations’. The energy industry is often painted as the villain, but clawing back excessive earnings made at the expense of consumers is easier said than done. That’s right here in this email 👇…

2 years ago · 3 likes · Seb Kennedy

Energy Flux

Will the world ever have a single unified power grid?

A highly ambitious initiative to roll out a worldwide web of electricity interconnectors to trade solar and wind power across continents and time zones won high-profile backing at COP26 this week. The ‘One Sun One World One Grid’ concept is beguilingly simple, but implementing it promises to be anything but. The initiative is gaining traction, yet the s…

2 years ago · Seb Kennedy

Energy Flux

Inflation and volatility roil green PPA market

Buying green electricity via a long-term power purchase agreement offers a great way for corporations and utilities to insulate themselves from price volatility and reduce their carbon footprints. Energy-intensive companies that signed PPAs prior to the global energy crunch are sitting pretty. Some are making good margins reselling cheap power into red…

2 years ago · 2 likes · Seb Kennedy

Energy Flux

‘The decarbonisation horse is out of the barn’

Energy and commodity inflation is running rampant. The post-lockdown bull run is unlike anything the world has seen this century, with markets threatening to overheat. But none of today’s market turmoil can derail the decarbonisation megatrend that is funnelling ever-greater sums of capital into clean energy technologies…

2 years ago · 4 likes · Seb Kennedy

Energy Flux

UK wind subsidies go negative

First up: There’s only one story worth talking about this week: soaring European energy prices. It’s complicated, so today’s break-out story is a bit longer than usual. And: A corollary of crazily high power prices is, yes, negative subsidies. Wind farms are now paying money back to the UK government…

2 years ago · 2 likes · Seb Kennedy

Energy Flux

Moore’s law doesn’t apply to renewables

Spectacular cost reductions in wind and solar technologies over the last decade underpinned enthusiastic predictions of renewables devouring fossil fuel market share at an ever-accelerating pace through 2030 and beyond. But the factors required to achieve sustained cost reductions as expressed in Moore’s law do not all apply to energy technologies, acco…

2 years ago · 2 likes · Seb Kennedy

Energy Flux

US can run on 100% renewable power – but should it?

It could be cheaper than you think to shift the US power mix to 100% renewables by 2050, but driving out the most efficient fossil fuel generators will almost certainly prove to be economically impractical – particularly if the transition is accelerated. That’s the headline conclusion from a detailed new study that seeks to quantify the challenge of rea…

2 years ago · 1 like · Seb Kennedy

Energy Flux

Solar PV enters uncertain new chapter

The assumption that solar PV costs will continue falling forever is crashing into messy market and geopolitical realities. The polysilicon spot price has spiked since the New Year amid frantic buying stoked by fears of shortages, which in turn exacerbated supply chain bottlenecks. Prices might have peaked for now, but US lawmakers are pushing to crack d…

2 years ago · 2 likes · 2 comments · Seb Kennedy

Energy Flux

Chevron takes a punt on solar-plus-storage tech

Baseload dispatchable renewable power is the Holy Grail of the energy transition. An Australian technology company promising to deliver it has lured big-hitters such as US oil supermajor Chevron and oilfield services giant Schlumberger into its latest funding round. The addition of other strategic partners also bodes well for commercialisation and rollo…

2 years ago · Seb Kennedy

Energy Flux

Is the UK getting its first wind-powered oil platform?

Offshore oil and gas operators are by necessity a conservative bunch, but the energy transition is nudging them out of their comfort zone. A major new project to power North Sea offshore platforms using floating offshore wind turbines will require operators to get comfortable with variable output power supply and contract with third party generators und…

2 years ago · Seb Kennedy

Energy Flux

Ambitious Icelandic wind project aims to export power to UK grid

The UK could start importing vast volumes of offshore wind power from Iceland via dedicated long-distance subsea cables, just in time to replace the last retiring coal-fired power stations. That’s the vision of Anglo-American joint venture wind developer Hecate Independent Power, which has unveiled a highly ambitious plan for 10 GW of fixed and floating…

3 years ago · Seb Kennedy

Energy Flux

EVs and wind turbines face critical minerals supply crunch

Supplies of critical minerals essential for key clean energy technologies such as electric vehicles and wind turbines need to pick up sharply over the coming decades to meet the world’s climate goals. Potential supply crunches for copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earths create energy security hazards for governments, according to a…

3 years ago · 2 likes · Seb Kennedy