These pages set out our wider thinking on issues relating to innovation, governance and practice for a sustainable, secure and affordable energy system.
New Thinking
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New Thinking Blog: The European 2030 package and the governance of the carbon market
The European 2030 package and the governance of the carbon market Matthew Lockwood, IGov Team, 10th February 2014 About Matthew: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Matthew_Lockwood Twitter: https://twitter.com/climatepolitics As most observers of climate and energy policy know by now, the European Commission has put forward a 2030 draft package that has a carbon target, but no nationally binding renewables or energy efficiency targets. The European Parliament voted last week for a more ambitious package including those last two elements, but it has no power to impose this on ministers who will meet in March to potentially seal a deal. If we are left with
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New Thinking Blog: Shale Gas & Price Reductions
Shale Gas & Price Reductions – Calling for Informed, Honest & Transparent Leadership Tom Steward, IGov Team, 28th January 2013 About Tom: http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/igov/people/igov-team/tom-steward/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Steward_T Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, David Cameron once again allied the ideas of shale exploration, and cheaper gas prices. He called attention to the effects that the shale revolution has had in the US, particularly in relation to falling energy prices as permitting ‘re-shoring’ of industry. Something he is keen to see replicated in Europe, and particularly in Britain. This is not the first time Cameron has suggested that
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New Thinking Blog: Climate Governance Compromises and their Impacts
Climate Governance Compromises and their Impacts Caroline Kuzemko, IGov Team, 21 January, 2014 About Caroline: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Caroline_Kuzemko Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarolineKuzemko Last week I spent Thursday and Friday at a youth hostel near Milton Keynes (and yes, I did see statues of cows) at an extended workshop on climate governance. This was organised by Dr Chris Shaw, of the Environmental Change Institute, as part of an on going, ESRC funded project: #climatecrunch. The themes of the workshop were ‘risks, rights and responsibilities’ and, although I learnt a huge amount over the two days, there were a few issues that
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New Thinking Blog: UK Energy Security and Supply Chains
UK Energy Security and Supply Chains Richard Hoggett, IGov team, 15th January 2014 About Richard: http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/igov/people/igov-team/richard-hoggett/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/HoggettRD This blog draws it findings from a recent open access paper on technology scale, supply chains and energy security. The need to decarbonise our energy system, ensure energy security and maintain affordability are the central goals of UK energy policy. Although, both David Cameron and Michael Fallon have clearly indicated they see energy security as being the main priority within this trilemma. The UK is not alone in this stance, as energy security is a central and high priority
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New Thinking Blog: Diary of a Switch
Diary of a Switch Catherine Mitchell, IGov Team, 8th January, 2014 About Catherine: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Catherine_Mitchell Stimulated by Ed Miliband’s 2013 Labour Conference ‘reset’ speech, I decided to ‘switch’; to examine my energy bills with more care than I normally do; and to write a blog about it. Switch is the term used to describe an energy customer moving from one energy supplier (in my case from buying gas from British Gas (BG) to Good Energy (GE), which I already buy my electricity from). I describe the switch below but this blog has become about (1) confirming the incredibly
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New Thinking: Why the Government won’t Support Domestic Energy Demand Reduction
Why the Government won’t Support Domestic Energy Demand Reduction Tom Steward, IGov Team, 10th December 2013 About Tom: http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/igov/people/igov-team/tom-steward/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Steward_T Last Wednesday (4th December 2013) saw the launch by Government of the latest Infrastructure Spending Plan, followed on Thursday (5th December 2013) by George Osborne’s Autumn Statement, energy was a hot topic across both of these, notably with confirmed CfD strike prices and announcement of tax breaks for shale gas. What was lacking however was meaningful discussion around the county’s aging and leaky (thermally speaking) housing stock. Given that the housing stock is valued at £4.2trillion
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New Thinking: Uncompetitive Competition – From Privatisation Ideals to the Big Six
Uncompetitive Competition: From Privatisation Ideals to the Big Six Caroline Kuzemko, IGov Team, 2nd December, 2013 About Caroline: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Caroline_Kuzemko Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarolineKuzemko I have recently been re-reading some old academic articles on electricity markets – in particular by Professor Steve Thomas – in order to figure out how we got to this position in the UK. What is clear from his detailed analysis is that those economists and politicians tasked with the privatisation and liberalisation of the UK’s considerable energy assets envisaged a future where competition between companies would help to deliver affordable and secure energy. Early visions
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New Thinking Blog: Coal – the fuel that came in from the cold
Coal – the fuel that came in from the cold Matthew Lockwood, IGov Team, 21st November 2013 About Matthew: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Matthew_Lockwood Twitter: https://twitter.com/climatepolitics Coal is making a comeback in power generation. Burning coal produced 42% of our electricity in the last quarter of 2012, up from only 23% in early 2010. There has been a similar resurgence across Europe. Wholesale gas prices remain high (partly because many long-term contracts remain oil-indexed, and oil prices are buoyant), and coal prices are low. As the US has switched to shale gas in power production, US exports of coal to Europe
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New Thinking Blog: Switched Off – is switching really a measure of consumer engagement?
Switched Off – is switching really a measure of consumer engagement? Richard Hoggett and Caroline Kuzemko, IGov Team, 12th Nov 2013. This time last week Ofgem ran an event on re-engaging energy consumers – at the time of writing you can still watch this online. It was timely, given the current political and media debates over how competitive the energy market is, although it was also acknowledged that even with better competition, prices are likely to remain high, if not rise, because of a range of factors such as on-going investment needs, rising wholesale cost
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New Thinking Blog: German wholesale prices have fallen by 50% since 2008 – why not in Britain?
German wholesale prices have fallen by 50% since 2008 – why not in Britain? Catherine Mitchell, IGov Team, 6th November, 2013 About Catherine: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Catherine_Mitchell When in doubt announce another review. In this case, the Energy Market Review – even though Electricity Market Reform, the already on-going process which is meant to sort out the energy industry problems, has not finished yet. What this new review should conclude is that (1) British energy prices are higher than they need be because the Government, Regulator and large energy companies, for different reasons, are collectively undermining competitive and
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