Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s London Future of Energy Summit just wrapped up. As usual, the highlight of the show was the presentation from Michael Liebreich, Founder* and Chairman of the Advisory Board. This article and the next one were kicked off by a couple of tweets Karl Graves sent my way that featured two of Michael’s brilliant slides.
Almost every nuclear power plant in the US is losing money. New nuclear facilities will never be profitable says BNEF. Green Tech Media says solar in the US will equal nuclear in installed capacity by the end of this year.
Recently, Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicted that the cost of new wind and solar would soon beat the cost of refurbished coal plants. Now BNEF predicts that solar will beat the cost of existing, fully depreciated and unrefurbished coal plants by 2032. And wind will follow soon after.
The most recent cover story in The Economist announces, “The death of the internal combustion engine… it had a good run. But the end is in sight.” In a remarkable account, The Economist reports that the internal combustion engine’s “days are numbered. Rapid gains in battery technology favour electric motors instead. … Today’s electric cars, powered by lithium-ion batteries, can do much better.”
Bloomberg’s renewable energy affiliate forecasts that wind and solar power will make major inroads into the global market share of natural gas within a decade. This is a crucially important question for major oil companies who are betting their future on gas.
The heads of major parts suppliers to the auto industry remain skeptical about electric cars. They think conventional cars will be with us for a long time yet.
The US Solar Energy Industries Association has hit out at a new report prepared by Suniva and SolarWorld in defence of their Section 201 trade case seeking a tariff and price floor on all imported solar components, calling the notion “preposterous” and arguing that the two companies brought the collapse of their businesses on themselves.
Bad news may be on the horizon for Big Oil as electric cars gained traction this past week. Bloomberg reports that “France plans to end the sale of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles by 2040” and “Volvo Car Group became the first major manufacturer to say it will start phasing out vehicles powered solely by fossil fuels.” Who’s poised to fill this gas-mobile void? “More than a dozen automakers are jostling to lead the U.S. electric-car race, but Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) sees a clear winner separating from the pack: Tesla Inc.”
Clean energy investment in the second quarter of 2017 reached $64.8 billion, boosted by two massive solar parks in the United Arab Emirates according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, an encouraging 21% increase on the first quarter of this year, but still down 12% compared to a year ago.
Global investment in energy fell by 12% in 2016 according to new figures from the International Energy Agency, the second consecutive year of investment decline for the sector, with continued decreases in upstream oil and gas spending.
