Article Archive | Page 10

• Hair Triggers in the Ukrainian Energy Sector

  Four explosions went off Friday during the lunch hour in Dnipropetrovsk, an eastern industrial city in Ukraine and home to former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The explosions occurred one week after the opposition leader went on a hunger strike to protest her prison conditions and the political situation in Ukraine. Recently, pundits have waxed prolifically about the link between oil and conflict in the troubled Sudanese region.  In eastern Europe, however, that crisis takes on a unique form in the way of natural gas. Tymoshenko is serving a seven-year prison sentence at a penal colony in Ukraine. She was sentenced…

• Clean Energy Investment Must Change - Reward Innovation not Production

  Over the last five years, the world's largest nations collectively engaged in a massive policy experiment: what happens when governments triple the historic rate of public investment in clean energy?In the U.S., taxpayers will have spent $150 billion between 2009 and 2014, three times more than we did between 2002 and 2007, according to a comprehensive new report, Beyond Boom and Bust, co-authored by Breakthrough Institute with scholars from World Resources Institute and the Brookings Institution.The U.S. wasn't alone. China increased its clean tech spending to $80 billion per year. Europe has had high levels of investment in clean energy…

• U.S. Nuclear Industry Must Find Vast Supplies of Uranium before Next Year

  THE SUPPLY CRUNCH Although nuclear power growth will continue to be driven by emerging economies like China, India, South Korea and even Saudi Arabia, the biggest consumer of uranium in the world today is still the US. There are some 104 nuclear reactors operating in the US, generating about 20 percent of total US electricity. In terms of uranium consumed by utilities, that translates into 55 million pounds of uranium per year. Currently, however, uranium mining in the US only provides about 3.5-4 million lbs per year.In the late 1970s, the US was the world's largest uranium producer, yielding over…

• Taking YPF from Repsol has only made Argentina's Energy Problems Worse

  Argentina’s decision to nationalise YPF – a subsidiary of Spanish energy company Repsol – has been met by international disapproval; though the Argentine government insists that the move had been necessary in order to meet its energy needs. Yet this may not turn out to be the case, particularly with investment in exploration greatly reduced.The expropriation of nearly all of the Spanish company Repsol’s stake in Argentina’s energy producer YPF, announced in a vehement speech by President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, has raised legal alarms worldwide. In fact, the move will not resolve the country’s energy problems in the absence…

• East Africa Grapples with Gaddafi Investment Legacy

  Muammar Gaddafi ruled Libya for 41 years before an armed “Arab Spring” uprising last year drove him from power, leading to his death in October 2011. In 1998 Gaddafi shifted his attention away from unequivocal support of Arab nationalist causes and shifted his gaze towards Africa, telling journalists, “I had been crying slogans of Arab Unity and brandishing the standard of Arab nationalism for 40 years, but it was not realized. That means that I was talking in the desert. I have no more time to lose talking with Arabs... I am returning back to realism... I now talk about Pan-Africanism…

• Will North Korea Disappear if We Ignore It?

  As North Korea celebrates 80 years and uses the occasion to lash out at the treacherous South with vows of a “sacred war” and to boast of its nuclear strike capability against the US, it won’t do to brush Pyongyang aside as simply irrational and unpredictable. Pyongyang is anything but irrational, and while it may be unpredictable, that only attests to the US Intelligence Community’s inability to get a handle on North Korea, which has very painstakingly and deliberately calculated every move it has made under the late Kim Jong-il and his successor son, four-star General Kim Jong-un. There was…

• Libyan Oil Protests Highlights Broader Problems

  Protestors in the former Libyan capital of Benghazi this week demonstrated in front of the Arabian Gulf Oil Co. to demand more transparency. The demonstrators said they were frustrated with how the interim government was spending money, highlighting the growing frustration among post-revolutionary youth in the Middle East. The protests over corruption coincided with one of Libya's first international oil and natural gas expos since the Gadhafi era ended last year. British and U.S. officials were among those whose visit to Libya happened to coincide with the exhibition, raising questions over just what's at stake in the wake of the…

• Nanotechnology Could Make Original Solar Technologies Obsolete

  The solar scenario over the last few decades has historically been dominated by silicone-based solar cells. Today, over 80 percent of the manufacturing infrastructure around the globe is dominated by silicone—the bulk of it now in China. Of course, China's solar manufacturing strategies are a huge part of the shift we're seeing in the market today as others suffer through a glut of materials on the market and rapid crashes in prices of solar cells.The Current LandscapeWhy is silicone dominating? For one, it's an abundant material, coming from sand. Out of the different types of silicone used, the end results…

• The UK will Trade Renewable Energy in order to Achieve 2020 Targets

  The UK government is looking at joint financing of renewable energy projects or trading with other EU countries to help meet its renewable energy targets.The government claims it can reach its 2020 target of meeting 15% of energy consumption from renewable sources through domestic action alone. However, for reasons of cost effectiveness, commercial opportunity and contingency, it could also make use of the ‘flexibility mechanisms’ in the EU’s renewable energy directive.A 2009 report from consultancy Pöyry and trade association Eurelectric said that using flexible mechanisms could save the EU €17 billion ($23 billion) by 2020.The UK’s Department of Energy and…

• Oilprice.com's 5 Most Influential Figures in U.S. Clean Energy

  As Oilprice.com embarks on its Top 5 series, we thought it expedient to begin with our take on the key figures shaping and influencing U.S. renewable energy efforts, not least because the issue of energy security is being prioritized in campaigning ahead of U.S. presidential elections. In considering from the numerous choices for these top five slots, we take into account a number of variables, including investment in renewable energy, the ability to influence policy and shape public opinion, and advocacy efforts. This goes well beyond simply counting coin – it is about innovation, imagination, vision, risk and patience. Arguably,…