Gas in transition

Cleaning up gas is key to its future in a decarbonised energy mix

FORESIGHT Climate & Energy Autumn / Winter 2017

Devoting an entire issue of FORESIGHT Climate & Energy to the subject of electricity storage in grid networks might seem like overkill, but the more evidence we unearthed about the role of storage, the more we saw an urgent need to set the record straight.
Electricity storage, it turns out, is no more essential for reliable supplies of electricity from a power system based on variable sources of renewable energy, like wind and solar, than for a system based on fossil fuels and nuclear power.
FORESIGHT examines the complex case for electricity storage in power systems in its latest issue. We trust you’ll enjoy this readable walk, undertaken with a cool head through a hot topic of our times.

We face a fundamental change of the cost structure on the supply side and a need for a fundamental change.

Jochen Kreusel

- Market innovation manager in the power grids division at ABB Power

They [the European Commission] are looking at this stuff backwards. I still think they are convinced the short-term market model could work even though they are also starting to realise that you need something parallel, with long term price signals that give investors confidence to invest in infrastructure and allow them to see a decent market return.

Francesco Venturini

- Global head of renewables for Italian utility Enel

Despite tremendous cost decline of wind and solar technologies, electricity prices will probably remain too low to attract the level of investment needed.

Fatih Birol

- Executive director of the International Energy Agency

The greatest barrier to overcome is the integration of variable renewables into electricity systems. This will require developing power system flexibility and also a friendly deployment of variable renewables.

Fatih Birol

- Executive director of the International Energy Agency

Policy

Utilities and distributed generation

Americans say they lack the consensus for the change seen in Europe

Markets

Boards feel the heat from investors on climate risk

Mitigation of climate risk is moving to the top of the agenda for senior management and company boards

climate risk, sustainable finance, Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure

Cities

Europe heads for low carbon heating the Danish way

District heating, where heat from a central generator is distributed underground to warm a network of homes or businesses, is commonplace in Denmark and other Nordic and Baltic countries, but, until now, it has remained a rarity elsewhere in Europe

Business

Defence plans needed to avoid blackmail and blackouts

As the deadline for EU member states to update or develop national cyber security strategies fast approaches, FORESIGHT looks at what companies should be doing to ensure cyber resilience in the energy sector given new challenges posed by the transition to a decarbonised economy and a more decentralised power system.

@FORESIGHTdk TWEETS

Thu. Jan 1, 1970

Cities

Electric avenue

Despite an increase in sales in recent years, electric cars remain a novelty in many countries. One street in Norway, however, is miles ahead. Out of the 150 families living on Søndre Vei, a street outside Oslo, nearly 90% of them drive electric cars.

Photo essays