Author: Graham Foster

Stay knowledgeable with free updatesThe author is creator of ‘Exponential’In a single era, the price of photo voltaic panels has plummeted by an astounding 99 per cent. The value collapse is exceptional. It additionally proves that energy markets are being propelled by know-how. For centuries, the rhythmic hum of generators, powered first by coal, then by oil and gas, has been the heartbeat of business progress. But their proliferation is much less the story of free markets than energy and manipulation. As early as the 1870s, John D Rockefeller of Standard Oil colluded and consolidated to control the provide and value…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeAgeing computer systems and an outdated electrical energy community means National Grid is usually unable to make use of batteries designed to ship low-cost inexperienced energy, it has admitted. Batteries had been being neglected by Britain’s community operator as much as 30 per cent of the occasions when they’re cheaper than different energy sources, Craig Dyke, from National Grid’s electrical energy system operator, stated. “We do still acknowledge we still have more work to do,” he stated, blaming a spread of technical elements together with outdated computer gear on the community operator and never sufficient…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest without costThe host nation for the upcoming UN COP29 local weather summit skipped over the transition from fossil fuels in an inventory of priorities for the gathering in Azerbaijan, focusing as an alternative on energy storage, waste methane and battle. The “action agenda” of worldwide initiatives and pledges that Azerbaijan plans to put ahead in Baku in November features a sixfold enhance in battery storage capability, sweeping expansions to electrical energy networks and cuts in emissions from methane from natural waste. It additionally features a name for motion plans for tourism and water.But it didn’t cowl plans…

Hello from New York, the place we’ve had one other chaotic weekend of politics. Former president Donald Trump was protected on Sunday after one other obvious assassination try. There are 49 days till the election.In right this moment’s version, I report on the newest developments in synthetic intelligence and rising electrical energy demand. You may recall Simon’s current piece on the rise of digital energy vegetation and UK-based Octopus Energy. Today, I take a look at the firms that would revenue from the power-hungry development of AI.ESG investing Electricity suppliers are ‘next derivative on AI’ As demand for synthetic intelligence…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest without spending a dimeSweden’s government has dominated out a monetary rescue of Northvolt because the nation’s inexperienced battery start-up fights for survival.Ulf Kristersson, the centre-right prime minister, stated on Monday that Sweden needed to place itself as a number one nation for the inexperienced transition with new firms reminiscent of Northvolt and H2 Green Steel supplying established teams reminiscent of Volvo Cars and Atlas Copco.But he added: “There is no question of the Swedish state going in and becoming a shareholder. Right now, the ball is in the court of Northvolt’s shareholders.”The Swedish battery group is…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeBP has put bp Wind Energy, its onshore wind business within the US, estimated to be price $2bn, up for sale because it trims its renewables business and sells off underperforming belongings. The UK-listed oil main mentioned it will promote the 9 wind farms it owns outright and its share in a tenth in Hawaii so as to concentrate on Lightsource bp, the photo voltaic energy business it’s within the course of of shopping for. BP additionally wrote down the worth of its offshore US wind business by $1.1bn final 12 months after struggling to make…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest without spending a dimeThe growth of synthetic intelligence will exacerbate a looming scarcity of copper, a metallic very important for the clear energy transition, miner BHP has warned.The rise of information centres and AI, which requires extra energy-intensive computing, may increase world copper demand by 3.4mn tonnes a 12 months by 2050, BHP’s chief monetary officer Vandita Pant informed the Financial Times.“Today, data centres are less than 1 per cent of copper demand, but that is expected to be 6 to 7 per cent by 2050,” she mentioned. “There is a lot of copper in data…

Standing in entrance of the modernist structure of Brasília’s presidential palace, a triumphant Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva contemplated the complicated balancing act that lay earlier than him. “The world expects Brazil to once again be a leader in tackling the climate crisis,” he informed crowds gathered for his inauguration in January final yr. “And an example of a socially and environmentally responsible country, capable of promoting economic growth.”The election that returned Lula to energy was billed as pivotal for the destiny of our planet. His defeated rival, former president Jair Bolsonaro, had been accused of turning a blind eye…

Chile has performed down warnings that plans to cut revenues for smaller renewable power operators might set off a wave of debt defaults and hurt the nation’s hard-won belief from international buyers.The US Chamber of Commerce and power buyers raised the alarm after President Gabriel Boric’s leftwing coalition unveiled a draft invoice that would scale back revenues earned by smaller, principally photo voltaic providers producing lower than 9MW to assist fund an electrical energy subsidy for poorer customers. Finance minister Mario Marcel advised the Financial Times that the issues had been overblown. “People should not overreact,” he stated. “It’s reasonable…

The closure of Scotland’s solely oil refinery subsequent 12 months has accelerated efforts in Holyrood and Westminster to plot a pathway for a inexperienced future on the sprawling industrial complicated at Grangemouth.Petroineos’ choice to flip the location right into a fuel-import terminal, first trailed in November, will lead to a net lack of 400 jobs — a transfer the union Unite has known as “industrial vandalism”.The disaster kinds Labour’s most critical check in Scotland, the place the social gathering gained dozens of Westminster seats on the common election in July. After his victory, Sir Keir Starmer, prime minister, pledged to…