Staff

Lessons from the early years of offshore wind in Europe

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The industry is rapidly becoming a major industrial sector of its own. It is rapidly transforming from an experimental sub-sector into one of the largest infrastructure building activities in Europe, with a soon-to-be-macro impact on energy geopolitics. The regulatory process drives everything. First, the economics need to make sense. Second, the permitting process needs to be understandable and stable.

The 2010 ASPO conference: national security aspects

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We have seen a surge of interest and concern from military analysts on the issue of future oil supply, especially during the past five years. Unfortunately, there is very little evidence of concern about peak oil (and therefore no action) from civilian authorities, despite the accelerating trends and increasing warnings from credible military researchers.

The abandonment of technology

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One reason that we may abandon a technology is that the costs outweigh the benefits. Thus the fridge has been abandoned because the cost of maintaining it outweighs the benefit of keeping lunch cold. Other reasons might be that the technology is no longer supportable (for example, if you cannot access fuel, your car is not going anywhere) or another technology appears/reappears to replace it. In this post, I would like to propose a theory by which some, or potentially many, modern technologies could be abandoned. This is an important issue because of its implications for government policy, business investment and of course society as a whole.

The biggest climate conference you’ve never heard of

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The world watched last year’s climate talks in Copenhagen with hope and trepidation. We spent the past two weeks following the ICAO Assembly, the aviation sector’s climate talks in Montreal with equal anticipation. Unlike Copenhagen, there was little coverage, and very limited civil society participation. And now that it’s over, despite most partiescalling it a success, we have to conclude that it’s bad news.

‘Know-How’, ‘Know-What’ and the politics of knowledge for social change

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In an age when wealth and power present a more diffuse and benign face to the world, the soft authority of knowledge is ever more important as a force for social change. The politics of knowledge – how ideas are created, used and disseminated – represents a key issue for the social change community.

Hermann Scheer, German lawmaker and leading advocate for solar energy. dies at 66 (interview)

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Hermann Scheer, one of the world’s leading advocates for solar power, has died at the age of sixty-six. The German economist and politician helped make Germany a renewable energy powerhouse and inspired many across the world to expand the use of solar power. We met up with Herman Scheer last month in Bonn, Germany, for what turned out to be one of his final interviews. [video and rush transcript]