Energy autarky more difficult than expected
The Dutch Wadden islands aimed to attain energy autarky in 2020. They fail to reach that target. For in order to do this, energy production and consumption don’t just need to match over a year; they also need to match continually, whereas both production and consumption vary considerably over time. That is difficult to achieve.
EASAC: burning biomass often doesn’t reduce CO2 emissions
The European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) urges the European Commission to base its carbon accounting on science and the real effects on climate. The present accounting rules favour energy from biomass. Whereas often, burning biomass doesn’t lower CO2 emissions at all. EASAC suggests a standard based on real emission reductions within 10 years. This
Battery recycling: we need to step it up
Battery recycling is an area long neglected by battery producers. Performance and cost were much more important. So now we are stuck with a rapidly growing heap of worn-out batteries of which we don’t know how to treat it. Or even how to retrieve the valuable materials this heap contains. We need to step up
From solar panel monoculture to multiple land use
Solar energy is rapidly becoming so cheap that it can crowd out other land uses, like agriculture. The farmer may earn a lot more from a monoculture of solar panels than from any crop. But this is an unfortunate development; it may do a lot of harm to the public perception of solar energy. Multiple
Scale issues in the energy transition
The energy transition has progressed quite a bit. To the extent that we can predict the outcome: renewable energy sources will win. But the real problems are surfacing now. The old energy system and the new energy sources have a scale mismatch. That will prove to be the source of much misunderstanding, conflict, and finally
Renewable energy imports
It its latest report, Boston-based Lux Research investigates a global and sustainable energy infrastructure. Can areas with high energy demand but not endowed with much domestic wind and solar energy become self-sufficient? Or will they need to import sustainably sourced energy carriers from elsewhere? And if so, in what form? Lux envisages a new market
The energy transition is a digital transition too
By the end of last year, Dutch Rathenau Institute produced a thought-provoking report on the energy transition (in Dutch). We need artificial intelligence, sensors and other data applications in the energy transition, according to the report. Because we need to switch from a top-down electricity grid to a grid that will primarily be fed from
Compromise, often a solution rather than a liability
Solutions for global problems tend to become part of a compromise, says Huub de Groot. He is a professor in biophysical organic chemistry at Leiden University and works, among others, on artificial photosynthesis, ‘biosolar cells’. Technology moves into our private lives; but it also runs into strict physical limitations and this tends to restrict our
