The best way to ensure innovation in a technology, is for a market to exist for that technology. If necessary the market must artificially be created, which is often achieved (in the case of renewable energy) by offering subsidies. In most case, these subsidies are production subsidies, paid per unit energy produced. If the return [...]

They certainly help, but they are not the whole story. I understand “commercial partnership” to mean a company contracting research or development work to a research centre at something close to the real cost. If this improves the performance of an energy technology, then it can certainly contri [...]

If you need to wipe the complacent smile off the face of any politician who professes satisfaction at the progress made in energy efficiency, show them McKinsey’s cost curve for greenhouse gas abatement (p4, http://www.e [...]

To ensure that future generations inherit a world with ecosystems at least as robust as today’s and that enables them to take at least as much pleasure from the natural environment as we do today, we must we think about the long-term impact of everything we do.

An obvious thing to avoid is depl [...]

Decentralising our energy generation capacity and making it less dependent on fuel transported over long distances will make our supply more secure. But transforming today’s energy supply system – which is dominated by a relatively small number of large power plants – into one with a much larg [...]

Is there a more devilish political challenge than climate change?

The climate change problem is such that the parties involved – governments and citizens – can freeload on the efforts taken by others to address it. The effects of climate change will be felt least by the group best able to deal with [...]

If the opportunities are disguised, then the disguise is pretty thin.

Renewable energy will be cheapest and greenest form of energy. The question is when this day will come. Up until the start of September, Europe’s photovoltaic industry had set itself the target of producing 3% of Europe’s electr [...]

Among the more honourable reasons that governments might have for pushing biofuels are to protect the environment and to reduce imports of oil from countries that could conceivably stop supplying us.

The claim that biofuels are green has, however, been called into question in many studies. Most of [...]

There is no shortage of interesting new ideas for generating or using electricity or heat cleanly. Examples abound in all fields of renewable energy, whether marine, wind, solar energy, or any other category, and in grid technology and load management.

Facing as urgent a threat as climate change, a [...]

There are various ways of interpreting this question, so I will choose this one: “Will renewable energy sources ever be able to satisfy fully the world’s energy needs?”

By far the majority view of the energy industry is that ultimately the world’s energy supply will come from renewable energy. But [...]

There are many strategies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slow down global warming much more cheaply than CCS. Many of them in fact have a negative cost: they would deliver a net economic benefit to society even in a world where carbon emissions are not constrained.

Work by McKinsey (http [...]