Lenz Blog. The decision to reduce CO2 emissions in the EU by 40% until 2030 comes with a nice qualification: The European Council endorsed a binding EU target of an at least 40% domestic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990. “Domestic reduction.” As EU Climate Change Commissioner Connie … [continued]
Originally published on Lenz Blog. Energiewende Germany wrote this on Twitter: Renewables have grown more than nuclear been shut down. Coal? In decline again. Rod Adams, who tries to delay deployment of renewable energy since he rightly perceives it as dangerous competition to his preferred nuclear option, challenged that: @EnergiewendeGER Do you have … [continued]
Originally published on Lenz Blog. The parties of the German government have introduced a proposal for surcharge industry rebates on May 20. I would like to highlight and briefly discuss two points. The introduction to this proposal has this to say about the relation to the EU Commission guidelines: Ungeachtet des Umstandes, … [continued]
Originally published on Lenz Blog. Here is yet another reason why the reductions German energy intensive industry gets when paying surcharges are not subsidies, and therefore none of the EU Commission’s business. In more enlightened times, when the Green Party was part of the German government, Germany adopted an ecotax. The idea … [continued]
Originally published on Lenz Blog. CleanTechnica just published an interview with Sunpower CEO Tom Werner. He makes some points interesting when discussing energy from the desert. From the interview: “Large scale PV can be distributed generation and it doesn’t have to be really big, it can be done near the point … [continued]
Originally published on Lenz Blog. GTM Research has released some figures for last years’ solar panel market. Thanks to this Tweet by Kees van der Leun for the link. They show Yingli on the top spot for both production at 2.622 GW, beating second rank Trina by 0.062 GW, and for shipments at 3.234 … [continued]
Originally published on Lenz Blog. Greenpeace has published a short report on recent trends in Chinese coal consumption, titled “The End of China’s Coal Boom.” Thanks to this Tweet by Kees van der Leun for the link. The report shows plans of multiple provinces in China to either reduce or massively reduce … [continued]
Originally published on Lenz Blog. I have written extensively about the fact that the market order for electricity in Germany is broken. A search with the term “merit order” brings up those posts. These questions are complicated. With this post, I will try to make a very simple point: “Merit” should not … [continued]
Originally published on Lenz Blog. The recent news about reforming the Law on Priority for Renewable Energy in Germany is not great for people like me. As Hans-Josef Fell (one of the original authors of the law) explains in much detail, the reform that will likely become law is restraining growth just about everywhere. … [continued]
Originally published on Lenz Blog. The EU Commission has adopted a useless and harmful Communication titled “Guidelines on State aid for environmental protection and energy 2014-2020“. Here are a couple of remarks. 1. How To Work Around the Useless and Harmful EU Commission Guidelines These guidelines are on “State aid”. … [continued]
