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Germany’s “Energiewende” is not as successful as thought
Currently, Germany is in the process of completely transforming its energy sector at a pace unmatched by other industrialized nations. It describes the country's politically supervised shift in direction from nuclear and fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. The very term "Energiewende" is some 30 years old, but nowadays, the term is primarily associated with a fundamental policy shift in the country after the 2011 nuclear plant disaster in Fukushima, Japan. In the wake of Fukushima, Berlin oversaw the immediate closure of eight nuclear plants in Germany, with the rest of the stations to be shut down by 2022.
read more... 02/01/2014
Hydropower in Switzerland
Currently in Switzerland there are 556 hydropower plants which are able to generate more than 35,380GWh per year. Hydroelectricity is the most important domestic primary source of energy, producing about 60% of Swiss electricity.
read more... 02/01/2014
Gazprom increased its gas supplies to Europe
Last year, Gazprom increased by 16 % the supply of natural gas to Europe to 161.5 billion cubic meters, with Germany, Italy and the U.K. ledding the increase in gas imports from Russia. European customers such as Germany’s RWE AG and Italy’s Eni SpA obtained lower gas prices under their long-term supply contracts with Gazprom. Supplies to Italy increased by more than 60 %.
read more... 02/01/2014
Daily: UK gas prices the lowest level in the last 7 weeks on an oversupplied system
Brent crude decreased 2 cents at $112.16 per barrel at 10:22 GMT, while U.S. crude was down 8 cents at $100.24. The contract broke above the $100-mark on Friday for the first time since the end of October. U.S. crude oil stocks fell by 4.7 million barrels last week as the Gulf Coast continued to shed inventories, even as U.S. oil production reached a 25-year high. While the spread between the two benchmarks widened on Monday to around $12, it is expected to narrow as the Keystone XL pipeline is set to start operations in the United States.
read more... 30/12/2013
Global Carbon Emissions set to reach new record high in 2013
According to new figures from the Global Carbon Project, global emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels are set to rise again in 2013 reaching a record high of more than 36 billion tones. An increase of about 2.1% expected for the current year, would mean that global emissions from burning fossil fuel would be 61% above 1990 levels.
read more... 30/12/2013