An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.

Featured in this week’s Blowout is the Paris Climate Agreement, where the big issue is no longer how to cut emissions but why the developing countries aren’t getting the $100 billion/year the developed countries promised to give them. Coming later we have global oil demand to hit 100 million bpd; oil & gas in the North Sea and Norway; the Russia-China gas pipeline; coal in North Carolina, South Africa, Poland, Queensland and the EU; Fukushima’s first radiation fatality; Austria appeals Hinkley Point verdict; melting glaciers and Swiss hydro; France names new energy minister; Alberta pulls out of Canada’s climate plan; Australia declares climate ‘single greatest’ security threat; EVs in the EU; solar companies consider leaving UK; Brexit to drive up energy bills and whether global warming caused Roger Federer to lose a tennis match.

Blowout 245

An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.

This week’s lead stories feature Australia’s new government, which has no plans to cut emissions but promises not to abandon its Paris Climate Agreement commitments. How are these two conflicting goals to be met? Coming later we have OPEC, Iraq, Iran’s oil and US sanctions; more Norwegian gas for UK; cap-and-trade in Ontario; coal in China; French environment minister Hulot resigns, France’s nuclear industry rejoices; Japanese utility to curtail solar in favor of nuclear; Tesla backs off privatization; California targets 100% renewable electricity by 2045; the UK wind and solar industries want subsidies restored; Kalashnikov’s new EV; how beavers make climate change worse and how meeting Paris Agreement targets would give us 217 million more tons of fish each year.

Blowout 244

An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories compiled by Roger Andrews.

This week we feature the Trump EPA, which is proposing a major rollback in US coal plant emission restrictions (no details presently available). To follow we have OPEC and the Iran/Saudi standoff; Saudi Arabia denies plans to scrap the ARAMCO IPO; Nord Stream 2 to bypass Denmark; more production cuts at Groningen; rising EU carbon prices; Australia’s Turnbull ousted; nuclear in Taiwan, Sweden, South Korea, New England, the Middle East and North Africa; a slowdown in California renewables; New Zealand’s first battery storage project; Scotland’s floating wave turbine; the Brexit aftermath; Britons want more subsidized solar and how mass-produced Volkswagens cause drought in Mexico.

Blowout 243

An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.

We lead off this week’s Blowout with Elon Musk’s impulsive tweet about how he can take Tesla private for $420/share with “funding secured”. We follow up with OPEC forecasts slower growth in oil while US refineries struggle to keep up with demand; the Permian Basin is either a major resource or it isn’t; yet another review of the Keystone XL pipeline; gas peakers in India; coal in Germany, the US and the EU; Chinese AP1000 reactor reaches full power; Australia’s NEG moves along; SMRs in UK; wood-burning at Drax; and how global warming will degrade law enforcement and cause more sewage leaks in Canada.

Blowout 242

An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.

We begin with the $2.4 trillion battery required to keep California’s lights on and follow with OPEC; the oil tanker crisis; Kuwait fracks in Canada; Azerbaijan gas; Rio Tinto exits coal; Russia fuels its offshore nuclear plant; Moorside nuclear in doubt; blackouts in South Africa; Australia’s National Energy Guarantee; peaking plants in Europe; an “alarming collapse” in UK renewable investment; 5,000 UK churches go renewable and how heatwaves increase deaths in UK but decrease them in Spain.

Blowout 240

An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.

…Exxon’s Guyana oil discovery; oil majors shifting into natural gas; the EU to import more US LNG; coal in Spain, India and Australia; South Africa can’t afford Russian nuclear; China, nuclear and the UK; US heatwave causes grid reliability problems; Europe and intermittent renewables; the world’s largest pumped hydro plant at the Boulder dam; the UK ditches FiTs and approves fracking; Ofgem proposes EV reforms; the UK to double offshore wind capacity how global warming causes more suicides.

Blowout 239

An eclectic mix of energy and climate news studies from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.

Moving on we have more OPEC; record US oil & gas production; Gazprom’s next giant gas field; coal in Australia, the US, South Africa and India; nuclear in India, China, the US, Ghana, Niger and Bangladesh; falling global investment in renewables: California’s emissions down; looming EU energy efficiency fines; the ongoing UK wind drought; volcanic activity melts the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and Svalbard was 6°C warmer 10,000 years ago.

Blowout 238

An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.

This week we feature OPEC, which has agreed to raise production without specifying by exactly how much. The market, however, appears to regard this outcome as favorable and oil prices are up. We follow with the oil potential of the northern seas; surging US gas production; leaking methane; nuclear in Japan, China and Korea, coal and Trump’s trade war; Germany puts jobs before CO2; renewables in India and California; biomass in Europe; energy storage in New York; EVs in Paris; Norway’s electric plane; pumped hydro for Loch Ness; flow tests at Horse Hill; Antarctic ice; football in Nigeria and how we humans have five years to fix climate change or face extinction.

Blowout 234

From earlier in the week:

The BP 2018 Statistical Review, electricity and CO2 emissions

An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.

This week’s feature story returns us to the UK, which despite previous failures is once more looking into carbon capture & storage. But this time it will be done with a “profoundly large scale sequestration system” big enough to ” arrest the progression of climate change”. This is a hard act to follow, but we do our best with stories on OPEC; renewables, solar subsidies, coal and Rosatom in China; Germany finally sets up a coal phaseout commission; Sweden approves Nordstream 2; too much solar in California and Australia; not enough wind in UK; Drax plans more biomass; Swansea tidal lagoon numbers are “awful”; another way of extracting CO2 from air; liquid air energy storage and why we haven’t found aliens yet – climate change killed them.

Blowout 232

Earlier in the week:

3 Billion will die from global warming

An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.

Topping the list this week is Germany, which has again delayed setting up the committee that will decide how to phase out its coal plants. Could it be that Germany is finally coming to realize that it can’t phase out its coal (and nuclear) plants and keep the lights on? We follow up with stories on OPEC; Venezuela and Russia; the North Sea makes a comeback; the “Bulgarian Stream” pipeline; the US-led international alliance to push nuclear power; cheap coal edging out gas generation in Europe; India running out of coal; the UK to pay to stay in Euratom; synchronous condensers instead of batteries in South Australia; solar panels that generate energy from raindrops and a renewed search for the Loch Ness Monster.

Blowout 230

An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.

The big news this week is Trump’s re-imposition of sanctions on Iran, which will cut Iran’s oil production to the point where, combined with cratering oil production from Venezuela, it could cause another oil price spike. We follow with our usual mix – more on Iran, Venezuela and OPEC; oil in Norway; gas pipeline constraints in Europe; Japan moves to coal; British Columbia misses its renewables target; stalemate at the Bonn Climate Conference; California to mandate rooftop solar on new houses; Tesla’s 1GW battery; hydrogen storage in UK; the Swansea Bay tidal standoff; more cracks at Hunterston and how the ravages of climate change threaten historical records.

Blowout 228

An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.

This week’s lead story features media hysteria over the alleged dangers of nuclear power. Russia’s first floating nuclear plant has begun its journey from St. Petersburg to Murmansk and is already being described as a “floating Chernobyl” even though it doesn’t have any fuel loaded. We follow up with a mix of hopefully more educational stories on OPEC and Angola; oil company profits rise; Nord Stream; US nuclear plant closures;  Allianz to stop insuring coal miners; coal miners making money because of the “war on coal”; Denmark’s EV debacle; Mercedes exits the US home battery market; the enormous pumped hydro potential of Indonesia; frustration at the Bonn Climate Conference; Ireland faces EU emissions fines; energy efficiency rollouts in the UK and how you can now earn UN carbon credits by riding your bicycle:

Blowout 227

An eclectic mix of energy and climate news stories from around the world compiled by Roger Andrews.

This week we feature the impact of renewable energy on electricity prices. The question is, if renewables are so cheap why are electricity rates increasing? To follow: OPEC achieves 150% production cut compliance; 2018 oil price to average $65; US gas pipelines under threat; Gazprom pumps record gas to Europe; more US nuclear plant shutdowns; more gas plants for sale in UK; US EPA agrees biomass is carbon neutral; Taiwan’s energy shortage, hydro and geothermal in Kenya; Australia’s NEG to kill renewables; South Africa explores energy storage; Brexit won’t change UK’s “climate ambition”; cracks in Hunterston reactor; the UK’s first blockchain energy transfer (all of 1kWh), and how climate change shrinks birds.

Blowout 226