Klimaat en Energie – BL

Benchmark Brent crude oil prices averaged $81 per barrel (b) in 2024, in line with the $82/b for the year that we had forecast in our January 2024 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) and more in-depth analysis. In the January 2024 STEO, we forecast that markets would be relatively balanced in... Read more »

Average wholesale electricity prices at major trading hubs in the Lower 48 states were lower in 2024 than in 2023. In addition, prices were much less volatile than they have been over the last few years. Lower and more stable electricity prices in 2024 were mostly driven by low natural... Read more »

In our January 2024 Short-Term Energy Outlook, which includes data and forecasts through December 2026, we forecast five key energy trends that we expect will help shape markets over the next two years.... Read more »

After a decade of nearly flat prices from 2011 to 2021, inflation-adjusted fuel prices for natural gas vehicles increased in 37 states from 2021 to 2023, according to new estimates in our State Energy Data System (SEDS). Real U.S. natural gas prices for vehicle fuel remained 25% below their peak... Read more »

In this remarkably candid and personal discussion, Bill shares several stories publicly for the first time. The post Greg Robinson, host of the World Changing Podcast, interviews Bill about his journey into clean energy appeared first on Freeing Energy.... Read more »

Freeing Energy dives deeply into the lessons from computer history and their application to energy. The post How the History of Computers Predicts the Future of Energy: Bill Shares Research from Freeing Energy at the Computer Museum of America appeared first on Freeing Energy.... Read more »

FREYR may not be a household name in the US but their CEO is delivering on his vision to make the most efficient and most environmentally responsible battery plant in the US. The post Podcast 99: Tom Jensen of FREYR Battery – From Giga Arctic to Giga Americas, the most... Read more »

Forbes Magazine explores the role of innovation in the century-old electric power industry. The post Forbes Magazine interviews Bill Nussey about the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and how local energy is reshaping the century-old grid appeared first on Freeing Energy.... Read more »

Michael Gale interviews Bill Nussey about "Breaking the Gordian Knot of energy thinking by 2035" The post Forbes’ Futures in Focus podcast host Michael Gale interviews Bill Nussey about the Inflation Reduction Act and the unstoppable economics of local energy appeared first on Freeing Energy.... Read more »

John Berger and Michael Grasso of Sunnova share their vision for solar+battery neighborhoods and why California's state regulators are dragging their feet The post Podcast 98: John Berger and Michael Grasso: Sunnova wants to build a ground breaking local energy powered neighborhood and that is rattling cages. Will regulators let... Read more »

Growing up in India, I experienced the shortage of electricity very personally. We did not have access to uninterrupted, good quality power. The thing that always bothered me was a thermal power plant I could see from my house. It was burning coal to produce electricity for the City of... Read more »

Nicole Jansen is a rockstar podcast host who talks with Bill to tackle--head on--the biggest myths in clean energy and the biggest business opportunities, as well The post Nicole Jansen, host of the Leaders of Transformation podcast talks to Bill: How can you tap into the global energy market and... Read more »

Listen in as Donnel Baird gives us a peek into a journey of why he started BlocPower, what drove his evolving vision, and how he is scaling his business to retrofit old, fossil-fuel powered heating with smart new heat pumps and solar panels. The post Podcast 097: Donnel Baird –... Read more »

Berlin, Germany (SPX) Jan 15, 2025 "Over the past three years, global project announcements for green hydrogen have almost tripled," says PIK researcher and lead author Adrian Odenweller. "However, only seven percent of the production capacity originally announced for 2023 has been completed on time during this period." According to... Read more »

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 17, 2025 Scientists are exploring innovative ways to tackle carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a significant driver of climate change. Carbon capture - the process of isolating and removing CO2 from industrial emissions like cement or steel production - is a crucial tool in this effort.... Read more »

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 15, 2025 Federal reservoirs have the potential to significantly contribute to meeting the country's solar energy needs, according to a recent study published in Solar Energy. Geospatial scientists Evan Rosenlieb and Marie Rivers, along with Aaron Levine, a senior legal and regulatory analyst at the... Read more »

Upton NY (SPX) Jan 16, 2025 A new analysis of data from the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) reveals fresh evidence that collisions of even very small nuclei with large ones might create tiny specks of a quark-gluon plasma (QGP). Scientists believe such a substance of... Read more »

Washington (AFP) Jan 17, 2025 The United States unveiled a new rule Friday to tighten an exemption allowing low-value imports to enter the country duty-free, taking aim at Chinese shipments that might be benefiting from it. The proposal disqualifies certain products from the low-value, or "de minimis," exemption, which allows... Read more »

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 16, 2025 Researchers from Xi'an Jiaotong University and the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, have developed an innovative method to produce single-cell protein (SCP) using carbon dioxide (CO2) and electricity. Detailed in the journal Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, this bioprocess leverages... Read more »

Washington (AFP) Jan 17, 2025 Elon Musk's self-proclaimed persona as a top-class gamer took a thrashing on Friday, as video game enthusiasts mercilessly mocked the tech billionaire following a disastrous performance in a livestream. The uproar - tinged with hilarity - left the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX battling the... Read more »

San Francisco (AFP) Jan 17, 2025 "I almost, like, don't know how to define myself without TikTok," content creator Ayman Chaudhary sighed, reflecting the consternation of millions over US authorities' scheduled banning Sunday of the hugely popular app. After months of legal tussles, the US Supreme Court on Friday upheld... Read more »

Rome (AFP) Jan 18, 2025 Benedetta slid a manicured nail through the sellotape of a mystery package to unwrap a garden hoe and earbuds. Her friend discovered she had bought some sort of harness. The Italian students are among hundreds of people at this "blind sale" of unclaimed packages, where... Read more »

San Francisco (AFP) Jan 17, 2025 Skepticism rages about whether Elon Musk actually put in the hours to become a top player of video games "Diablo IV" and "Path of Exile 2." The fourth main installment in the Blizzard Entertainment series "Diablo" came out in 2023 and a "Vessel of... Read more »

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jan 20, 2025 As electric vehicles (EVs) grow in both popularity and physical dimensions, the size of their batteries has increased substantially to enhance range and performance. However, this trend toward larger EVs is undercutting their environmental benefits, offering only limited reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG)... Read more »

Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jan 20, 2025 Researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a novel superconducting material by blending iron, nickel, and zirconium. The resulting polycrystalline alloy exhibits superconducting properties and a distinctive "dome-shaped" phase diagram, which is a signature of unconventional superconductivity. This advancement could pave the way for... Read more »

Omaha NB (SPX) Jan 20, 2025 Researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) have developed a new sorghum variant that can outperform soybeans in oil production, with great potential as a clean source of renewable fuel. Scientists have long worked to create new sustainable sources of... Read more »

Boston MA (SPX) Jan 20, 2025 In a two-part series, MIT News explores the environmental implications of generative AI. In this article, we look at why this technology is so resource-intensive. A second piece will investigate what experts are doing to reduce genAI's carbon footprint and other impacts. The excitement... Read more »

From modest beginnings in 2011, Power Capital Renewable Energy (PCRE) has become one of Ireland’s foremost independent power producers (IPPs). Joint CEO and co-founder Justin Brown told pv magazine that despite Ireland’s challenging environment for solar, the company sees a lot of opportunity and is taking full advantage.... Read more »

The US Geological Survey (USGS) has released its first map of potential geologic hydrogen reserves in the United States, while Plug Power has secured a $1.66 billion US government loan guarantee to scale low-carbon hydrogen production nationwide.... Read more »

Longi has issued a profit warning for 2024, forecasting a net loss of up to $1.11 billion – a sharp decline from last year’s profit of $1.42 billion.... Read more »

Mercom Capital Group says inflation, high interest rates, trade disputes and policy ambiguity all contributed to a drop in corporate funding and merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the solar sector last year.... Read more »

German scientists have identified 18 typologies of power purchase agreements for the renewable energy market. Their research is intended to support policymakers, scientists and investors in implementing their own PPA analysis and choices.... Read more »

A rise in electricity demand led to an increase in electricity prices across some European markets last week, while a drop in gas prices contributed to lower prices in others, according to AleaSoft Energy Forecasting’s latest analysis.... Read more »

In a new weekly update for pv magazine, Solcast, a DNV company, reports that december brought striking contrasts in solar irradiance across Europe, with Northern Europe experiencing irradiance levels up to 30% below the already dim seasonal average, while regions south of Europe’s major mountain ranges saw irradiance up to... Read more »

This week, Women in Solar Europe (WiSEu) gives voice to Brigite Gonçalves, Head of Utility-Scale PV Business Developer at Portugal's EnergyCon. She says Women in the solar industry face unique challenges, such as underrepresentation in decision-making roles and the persistence of unconscious biases. "To achieve equity, the solar sector must... Read more »

Wood Mackenzie says that a 30% increase in upstream spending will be needed to meet stronger oil and gas demand under a delayed energy transition. The research firm warns that this scenario could strain supply chains, inflate costs, and push Brent crude prices above $100/barrel by the 2030s.... Read more »

The Middle East Solar Industry Association’s (MESIA) latest report says solar capacity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region grew by 25% in 2024, with local manufacturing and energy storage also accelerating.... Read more »

The new 51.2 kWh modular storage system connects to European wholesale electricity markets such as NordPool and uses artificial intelligence (AI) to track and analyze dynamic tariffs. It offers three-phase backup and is virtual power plant-ready.... Read more »

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined, but an investigation will begin once the fire is extinguished.... Read more »

Clean Energy Associates says it has identified five looming risks to the US battery energy storage industry, as analysts predict significant policy shifts under US President Donald Trump's upcoming administration.... Read more »

China is building its first gigawatt-scale residential virtual power plant (VPP) in Jiangsu province. The project will connect millions of high-power household appliances to a cloud-based energy pool to improve grid stability and boost renewable energy use.... Read more »

Recent policies from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would lower emissions and force an early retirement of most U.S. coal plants, speeding up the transition away from fossil fuels with limited cost, a new study shows. However, whether those rules will stay intact during an upcoming Trump administration is... Read more »

If you were a bird flying thousands of miles over land or sea with other migrating birds, what would you talk about to pass the time? Songbirds may converse with other species during their long migrations, forming social bonds and possibly exchanging information about the flight, according to a new... Read more »

Survivors of the deadly Los Angeles wildfires are calling for lawsuits and policies to hold those most responsible for global climate disasters accountable, reported The Guardian. Increasing evidence shows that oil and gas companies have known for decades that fossil fuels are the cause of global heating, but they have... Read more »

The Constitutional Court of Ecuador has determined that coastal marine ecosystems have rights of nature, including the right to “integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes,” per Chapter 7, Articles 71 to 74 in the country’s constitution.... Read more »

For decades, 3M — a multibillion-dollar chemical company based in Minnesota — sold its firefighting foams as safe and biodegradable, while having knowledge that they contained toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), according to newly uncovered documents, reported The Guardian. Starting in the 1960s and continuing until 2003, 3M’s firefighting... Read more »

The United Kingdom’s crackdown on climate protesters is setting a “dangerous” global precedent, according to the UK Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) Yasmine Ahmed, reported The Guardian. British authorities are undermining democratic rights, particularly the right to protest peacefully, according to HRW’s World Report 2025. “Many of us had... Read more »

According to a new proposal put forth by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Florida manatee, a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, will remain listed as a threatened species and will be submitted separately for protections from another subspecies, the Antillean manatee. The Antillean manatee has been... Read more »

The largest mountain range in Oregon, the majestic Cascades stretch from British Columbia, Canada, to Northern California. Scientists from University of Oregon (UO) and partners recently discovered a hidden gem beneath the Cascade range that is desperately needed in the West: water in volumes much higher than had previously been... Read more »

More than 97 million United States residents have been exposed to contaminants in their drinking water that are unregulated and could affect their health, a new analysis by Silent Spring Institute has found. Hispanic and Black communities have a higher likelihood of their water being contaminated by unsafe levels of... Read more »