Energy in Demand News, August 9-10, 2026

The US-Iran war is encouraging a global switch to clean energy. Noah Gordon, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace describes in the Financial Times the positive transition to clean energy: “With a significant proportion of global supplies of oil and liquefied natural gas bottled up in the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the US-Iran war, the world has been rushing to find readily available alternatives to fossil fuels. The conflict has accelerated a clean energy boom that was already under way. The clearest real-time measure is sales from China, the world’s green workshop. In March, April, May and June 2026, Chinese exports of solar panels and components, batteries and electric vehicles were 47 per cent higher by value ($84.9bn) than in the same period last year.” But Gordon cautions: “Anyone who cares about the climate should be glad to see millions of people installing technologies that will cut future emissions. Unfortunately, this pursuit of self-interest can only take the clean energy transition so far. The idea that incremental individual decisions will be enough to curb the threat of climate disaster is a fantasy. Governments must keep tilting the playing field for three reasons:” self-interest, the quest for economic resilience and the need for carbon removal. He ends with this advice: “It’s a wonderful thing to have clean energy progress driven by economic self-interest and the need for energy security. But there’s still no avoiding the need for states eventually to force fossil-fuel operations to shut down and mandate carbon removal.” Okay, governments, we’re counting on you.

A Financial Times newsletter questions whether over-investment in natural gas could drive up US electricity bills. “A new report shared exclusively with Energy Source found that meeting data centre demand primarily with gas — a long-lived, high-cost asset — creates financial risks for utility customers.  According to the RMI, a sustainability think-tank formerly know as the Rocky Mountain Institute, some utilities are making large investment decisions before determining, through system-wide planning, what combination of generation, storage and transmission would be the most cost-effective in meeting new demand. RMI estimates that over-investment in gas resources could raise the power bills of an average US household by $94 to $118 a year, worsening affordability for Americans who are already struggling with soaring electricity costs.” The New York Times also discusses this push to power data centres with natural gas – such as an Amazon plant just approved in Texas that the NYT says could become “the largest single source of climate polution in the United States.” The air pollutionis a major risk, it writes: “​If built as planned, the gas burning plants — scattered across states including Texas, Ohio and Wyoming — could release as much planet-warming pollution in a year as roughly half of all the passenger vehicles in the United States, according to estimates based on permits, regulatory filings and other data compiled by the Environmental Integrity Project.”

Like a similar deal in March incentivizing French oil giant TotalEnergies to cancel wind projects in the US, the New York Times reports that the Trump administration is paying the German energy firm, RWE, $1.22 billion to abandon plans to build wind farms off the coasts of New York, California and Louisiana. RWE “will spend $900 million to acquire an indirect 16 percent stake in a liquefied natural gas project in Louisiana and sign a $300 million order for new gas turbines that generate electricity. The company said it was planning to build at least 15 natural gas peaking plants in the United States.” So much for air pollution and carbon emissions.

In planning travel over the upcoming weeks, here are some useful ideas to help you along:

• Check out the Good Night Train website for the unique way to travel through Europe while you sleep.
• There’s never been a more important moment to travel right in Europe with masses of overdevelopment, cruise ships, walking pollution and captive cetaceans still hot topics when it comes to responsible tourism issues in Europe. Check out the Responsible Travel website.
• World Walks provides us with walking holidays in Europe.
• Here are 15 remarkable mountain peaks in Europe to conquer in summer.
• Cycling for Softies provides us with the 15 best cycling holidays in Europe in 2026.

François-Marie Arouet (1694-1778), known by his pen name Voltaire, a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, satirist, and historian, gives us an important message on success: “To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.”

EiD welcomes your views about this week’s selection of posts on the zero-carbon energy transition:

• Energy crises are driving a renovation revolution
• The demand-side blindness at the heart of UK energy policy
• The politics behind climate scepticism
• Blog by Rose Morrison – EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive takes effect: what 40% of energy demand means for building renovations
• The hidden crisis Britain’s Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary must confront
• New report on meeting New York City’s energy demand challenge
• From parking spaces to power stations
• Scotland has the wind. Others get the profits
• Energy-efficient electric drying with superheated steam
• Carbon capture: tackling today’s emissions and yesterday’s

Please send your comments on any of the posts. Please recommend EiD to your friends and colleagues.

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