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Dutch IGCC pioneers chalk up pain and gain Emergency response is behind schedule in the European public sector A new refining industry in Europe's Asian Corridor Commission proposes milestone energy proposal Replace fuel oil with distillate? Cancelled projects will sustain margins “Marine distillate not fuel oil from 2010” Branson's biofuels megastore You heard it here first: refinery CO2 storage a reality in Norway Buncefield 2: Investigation critical Where now for Swedish Class 1 diesel My slow awakening to climate change The luckiest motorist alive Safety row goes on over Europe's largest LNG terminal New WHO guidelines on city air quality put focus on diesel Would LNG really 'evaporate harmlessly' in an accident? Another lesson in the thermobaric bomb Spare a thought for the oil-rich But will the good times keep on rolling? Carbon storage and the zero emissions refinery Everything just changed E85 and high octane gasolines The problem of small-minded young engineers New Permit Regulations Biodiesel newbuilds and a new green superfuel Spilled wine and our split industry Drilling down into the prospects for IGCC The beginning of the start of the end of oil | European ministers meet to discuss milestone energy proposal This month we’re publishing the Gasification 07 supplement with HP. It’s very timely since it coincides with discussion at European Council level on the 8th of March of Europe’s Strategic Energy Review. The review is ambitious in scope, dramatic in its language and makes it very clear that a programme of multiple large-scale demonstrations of gasification technology is an urgent and important project for the European Union. The tone of the documents wrapped up in the strategic review should perhaps not surprise us. They’ve been written during a tumultuous time in European energy, security and environmental policy. Without going back over well-reported ground, the last 12 months in Europe have been marked by cross-border power blackouts in Germany and France, intimidating closures of key oil and gas import pipelines by Russian companies, and a heightening of environmental concerns to a level that makes the Brent Spar fiasco look like a Sunday School day out. The review and its manner of presentation – as “a first real energy policy for Europe” – have the makings of a milestone. Rhetoric is cheap, of course, but even so, listen to how Europe’s most senior public official, Commission President José Manuel Baroso, and his two key Commissioners characterise the proposals. President Barroso: “Today marks a step change. Energy policy was a core area at the start of the European project. We must now return it to centre stage. The challenges of climate change, increasing import dependence and higher energy prices are faced by all EU members. A common European response is necessary to deliver sustainable, secure and competitive energy.” Commissioner for Energy Policy, Andris Piebalgs: “If we take the right decisions now, Europe can lead the world to a new industrial revolution: the development of a low carbon economy. Our ambition to create a working internal market, to promote a clean and efficient energy mix and to make the right choices in research and development will determine whether we lead this new scenario or we follow others." Commissioner for Environment, Stavros Dimas: “Climate change is one of the gravest threats to our planet. Acting against climate change is imperative. Today, we have agreed on a set of ambitious, but realistic targets which will support our global efforts to contain climate change and its most dire consequences. I urge the rest of the developed world to follow our lead, match our reductions and accelerate progress towards an international agreement on the global emission reductions". The Commission communiqué pulls no punches. It’s been interpreted as not only an energy policy, but as an attempt to repurpose the European project towards the popular concerns of European voters: the environment, and access to energy that European companies, consumers, and members states can afford, both economically and politically. Europe’s council of government ministers, which along with the elected European Parliament, will turn the proposals into directives, has been presented with the following Commission analysis. • There is a more than 50% chance that global temperatures will rise during this century by more than 5°C. On current projections, energy and transport policies would mean that rather than falling, EU emissions would increase by around 5% by 2030. • With current trends and policies the EU's energy import dependence will jump from 50% of total EU energy consumption today to 65% in 2030. • The internal energy market remains incomplete, which prevents EU citizens and the EU economy from receiving the full benefits of energy liberalization. The latter point is key. The Commission believes consumers and industry pay too much for energy. A fully liberalized internal energy market is remedy number one in President Barroso’s eyes. Items two and three involve accelerating the shift towards low carbon energy and improving energy efficiency. By 2020, 20% of European Energy should come from renewables, and there is a minimum target of 10% biofuels in EU transport fuels. Research spending is to increase by at least 50% for the next seven years. As part of a European Strategic Energy Technology plan, the Commission wants to see 12 large-scale demonstrations of Sustainable Fossil Fuels technologies in commercial power generation. It wants them designed, built and operating by 2015. Although, the Commission will almost certainly pursue more or less conventional coal generation with post combustion carbon capture as well, it is this programme of the review that will kick-start a new Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle coal, waste and biomass industry, with low CO2 emission coal clearly the key element. The objective is a distributed near zero emission coal power industry in place from 2020. IGCC without CO2 capture, what is today called ‘clean coal’, will be succeeded as an industry before the technology is even off the drawing board in most cases. The Commission says it will, if necessary, adopt binding legal instruments and open up the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive or the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Directive to prevent any power plants being built without carbon capture and storage in place. Oh, and another thing, the Commission also proposes what to call this new integrated, low carbon emission hydrocarbon industry, now that “clean coal” no longer cuts it. Sustainable Coal. | |||||||
Download Energy Industry Resumé with work samples Profile: Tim Lloyd Wright MA Here you'll find a brief profile of my work with international energy, transport and associated environmental issues. Energy trends articles You heard it here first: refinery CO2 storage a reality in Norway From the archive... Over-processed fuel leaves oil tankers adrift | ||||||||
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