Batteries: a threat to the grid or the key to its future?

On the Euronews website, Liam Gilliver discusses about a new report that claims that the battery boom could trigger power outages, but experts say the risk is ‘tiny’. Warnings about batteries causing blackouts are overstated, while batteries are becoming essential to making much larger amounts of wind and solar usable.   Batteries can save Europe’s … Continue reading Batteries: a threat to the grid or the key to its future?

Energy storage: Europe’s missing link to energy security

In an article on the Oil Price website, Haley Zaremba discusses how energy storage is the missing link between Europe’s renewable-energy expansion and genuine energy security.   EU Locks In Plan To Triple Energy Storage Capacity By 2030 The EU has agreed to nearly quadruple its energy storage capacity, from 55 GW today to a … Continue reading Energy storage: Europe’s missing link to energy security

The new energy security: less waste, more resilience

Deborah Gordon and Marko Solomon write on the RMI (formerly the Rocky Mountain Institute) website that that energy security, economic security and climate security can no longer be treated separately—and that efficiency, finance, policy and electrification need to work together.   Bolstering Energy, Economic, and Environmental Security in a Warming World: Learnings from London Climate … Continue reading The new energy security: less waste, more resilience

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 … Continue reading Energy in Demand News, August 9-10, 2026

Scotland has the wind. Others get the profits

Paul Dobson writes on The Ferret website about an investment vehicle managed by JP Morgan and state-backed firms from France, Norway and China own Scottish wind farms which have paid tens of millions in dividends this decade. The question is whether Scotland can expand renewable energy while ensuring that substantially more of the economic value … Continue reading Scotland has the wind. Others get the profits

Energy in Demand News, August 2-3, 2026

Frank Elderson, a member of the European Central Bank’s executive board, told the Guardian that the  climate emergency and the breakdown of nature poses a dramatically growing risk to the global economy. He said it was clear the rising frequency of natural disasters linked to global heating poses a threat to financial stability. “Nature-related risks … Continue reading Energy in Demand News, August 2-3, 2026

Making solar power available on demand

In an article on The Conversation website, Vera Moerbeek, Doctorante en physique, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS); Université de Perpignan Via Domitia writes about the next generation of energy storage: thermal batteries using thermophotovoltaics (TPV) that could make solar power dispatchable without relying on lithium-ion batteries. What are your views?   How next‑generation … Continue reading Making solar power available on demand

The cheapest gas is the gas Europe never uses

Michael Kern writes on the Oil Price website that rather than focusing on securing ever more LNG imports, Europe can strengthen its energy security by reducing gas demand through heat pumps, renewable electricity and energy efficiency.   Hitting EU Renewables Targets Could Slash Gas Demand a Quarter by 2030 The European Union could save a … Continue reading The cheapest gas is the gas Europe never uses

Energy in Demand News, July 26-27, 2026

As this week’s Energy in Demand was being prepared, more than 280,000 people had been ordered to flee or lock down as huge wildfires swept Spain and France, prompting Madrid to declare a national emergency and the French authorities to order the total evacuation, by land and sea, of one of the country’s best-known holiday … Continue reading Energy in Demand News, July 26-27, 2026

Bridging Europe’s electrification gap

Ron Bousso writes on the Reuter’s website that Europe knows where it wants to go, but faces a perilous decade in which high energy costs could permanently damage industrial competitiveness before the benefits of electrification are realised.   Europe’s electrification dream won’t spare a painful decade Europe faces a looming "death valley" of high energy … Continue reading Bridging Europe’s electrification gap