Energy makes the world go round

A role I have picked up recently is President of the Energy Institute. This is a not for profit organisation which promotes knowledge, skills and best practice in the energy industry. One benefit of membership is that you get the bi monthly publication 'energy world'. I have just caught up with the July/August edition. The range of articles shows how varied and important energy is. Here are just some things I picked out.

1. In a brief summary of BP's Statistical review of world energy the magazine points out that even in a year of low global economic growth, energy consumption was still up 1.8%. I intend to spend longer looking through the BP report soon.

2. The World Nuclear Association reported that whilst nuclear capacity increased by 3.7 GW, output globally was down 7% reflecting the continuing issues in Japan.

3. Renewable energy continues to grow with reports on solar in Japan, Mexico and Belgium (a car plant) and wind in Australia, Mongolia, Sweden, France and Chile. It is truly a global business now.

4. New gas plants continue to be installed in Europe in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. In the latter  case its a small aero derivative plant designed to complement renewables. I have long believed that a combination of gas and renewables are the key to the electricity supply industry.

5. A summary of the progress being made on Green deal and ECO installations under the UK Government's energy efficiency policies. Although lots of people have had Green Deal assessments not many have actually gone all the way through  and I worry about how complicated the whole thing has become.

6.  A summary of the British Geological Survey report on the potential shale gas in the Bowland Basin in the north of England. They estimate there could be hundreds of years of UK gas demand but the key will be how much is actually recoverable and that needs drilling and engineering work which hasn't really started yet.

7. A review of global thermal power generation prospects. Apparently there are 1,647 thermal generation projects under development with India accounting for over half. For example, a 3.2 GW coal fired station is under construction in Madhya Pradesh state and a lot of coal build is planned. In the US the focus is on gas plant given the low gas prices. The Middle East is also seeing a move towards gas. However, a follow on article points out that investment in Europe is declining rapidly. This shows yet again how electricity is frequently a regional business with different drivers affecting different parts of the world.

As well as all this there were articles on US climate policy, distributed energy, UK energy policy, support for advanced offshore wind technologies, super critical coal power plant efficiencies, waste to energy gasification, the future of heat networks in the UK and the Czech Republic and geothermal energy in Ireland. 

However, the most interesting article for me is one about the Ashdown awards which supported the UN's sustainable energy for all initiative. SolarAid, a charity I have an involvement with, won the International Gold Award and it is really good to see the Energy Institute give coverage to the energy needs of the devolping world.

And all that in one issue.