Coal use in Germany increases even though the low carbon transition is underway

No one said the transition to a low carbon economy would be high and everyone is watching Germany’s effort with great interest. Stefan Wagstyl writes in the Financial Times that electricity production from brown coal actually rose last year and now it is at the highest level since 1990. The new coalition government envisages the … Continue reading Coal use in Germany increases even though the low carbon transition is underway →

How rooftop solar systems are affecting energy companies

We talk about being in an energy transition and it cannot always be a win-win situation, as much as we would like it to be.  Mark Chediak, Christopher Martin and Ken Wells from Bloomberg news service write a very detailed account in renewableenergyworld.com about how utilities in the US are starting to fight back.  This … Continue reading How rooftop solar systems are affecting energy companies →

We need to live within our biosphere’s thresholds

Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation wrote in the Observer about society’s need to live within our means in a material sense.  As he argues, limits govern everything, even though the way we behave gives no indication we have learned that lesson.  Simms argues that our economies – and this is a lesson that … Continue reading We need to live within our biosphere’s thresholds →

Harvesting the benefits of LED lighting

Eleanor Harding recently wrote in the UK’s Daily Mail about the effect that LED lighting is having on growing strawberries.  Essentially, LED lighting confuses the fruit into thinking it is summer.  Wish it worked that way for all of us but this is a good start.Strawberry yields forever: LED lighting fools plants into thinking it's … Continue reading Harvesting the benefits of LED lighting →

Evaluating behavioural energy efficiency programmes

Katherine Tweed writes on the Greentechefficiency website about the difficulty in evaluating many energy efficiency programmes in the US.  She reviews a recent report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). She explains that a dearth of data is making it difficult to effectively evaluate nearly 300 programmes across the U.S.   Can … Continue reading Evaluating behavioural energy efficiency programmes →

Explaining the drop in energy consumption in Australia

Hugh Saddler, a research associate at the Centre for Climate Economics and Policy at Australian National University, analyses the recent drop in energy demand in Australia in an excellent article in the Climate Spectator.   The demand drop mystery explained Until 2010, for well over a century, through two world wars and the Great Depression, … Continue reading Explaining the drop in energy consumption in Australia →

More gloom in retrofitting houses in Britain

Several EiD posts in the past few months have reported on the difficulties in getting the new energy efficiency financing schemes in the UK – the Green Deal and the Energy Company Obligation – to achieve their expected impact. Damian Carrington writes in the Guardian about, as Andrew Warren of the Association for the Conservation … Continue reading More gloom in retrofitting houses in Britain →

Will there be a new approach to Germany’s energy transition?

Jeanette Seiffert writes on the Deutsche Welle website about the views from the new economics minister on what it will take to reform Germany’s energy transition.  Now that Germany has a new coalition government, it will be interesting to watch how the country’s energy policies evolve.   Germany's economics minister Gabriel seeks reform for renewable … Continue reading Will there be a new approach to Germany’s energy transition? →