Rhein on Energy and Climate

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After months of tough horse trading the House of Representatives adopted an 1100 page (!) bill aiming at curbing American green house gas emissions. The vote was 219 to 212! Unfortunately, the bill falls far short of what would be necessary to put the USA into the driver’s seat at the forthcoming climate negotiations in… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Exploiting the immense solar energy potential of the Sahara for supplying all countries around the Mediterranean and Europe with clean energy has been a vision since the technical development of large-scale solar power generation in the mid-1980s. In 2007 the Club of Rome has presented the DESERTIC Concept, the realisation of which would combine the… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

At their meeting in Kuala Lumpur the IATA members have committed to achieve “C02 neutral” growth by 2020. Even if this commitment is vague, the fact that the airline industry has started to engage in a discussion on how to cope with climate change is by itself a signal that it sees the necessity to… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

During the weekend of June 5-7th, STATOIL-Hydro, the Norwegian oil and gas company, has inaugurated the first floating wind turbine off the Norwegian coast. The new device might give a tremendous boost to wind energy in general and off-shore wind energy in particular. It allows installing wind turbines in water depths up to 700 meter,… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

On June 1st, the preparations for the Copenhagen Climate Conference have entered into their final phase, with 182 negotiation parties and some 4000 delegates assembling in Bonn and finally starting to discuss legal texts. A 53 page option-paper submitted by the UN Climate Secretariat serves as the basis. But it lacks focus and realism. ·… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

In a recent interview with the Financial Times the new US Secretary for Energy, CHU, has ruled out the chances for raising the federal gasoline tax as not being politically feasible. That is regrettable, though no surprise to those familiar with US politics. US action against climate change, as envisaged by the Obama Administration, focuses… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

Conventional climate policy relies on curbing emissions and fossil energy demand. Emission caps on utilities, oil refineries, steel and chemical energies are the principal tool for fighting against climate change. High taxes on gasoline and subsidies on renewable energies complete the tool box. This approach aims at making fossil energy more expensive and encouraging investment… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

The answer is: yes, though wind power is still far ahead. It will therefore take 20 years or more before the globally installed solar capacity will exceed that of wind power. At the end of 2008, the global capacity of wind energy exceeded 100 GW, about half of which installed in Western and Northern Europe,… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein

No other country on earth wastes more energy than Russia. According to Russian estimates, the country could save about 40 percent of its energy consumption if its energy sector functioned according to Western standards. The losses due to poor heat isolation of buildings, outdated equipment in industry and power generation and transmission are colossal. It… » read more

Posted by Eberhard Rhein