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Key to Europe's future energy security is rebuilding Ukraine's Infrastructure with renewable energy.

We are inviting abstracts for the IAG 2024 in Adelaide for our session on Energy Geography and Renewable Energy.
Energy Geography and Renewable Energy
Organised by: Gareth Bryant (USyd) gareth.bryant@sydney.edu.au, James Goodman (UTS) James.Goodman@UTS.edu.au, Lisa Lumsden (Next Economy) l.lumsden@nexteconomy.com.au, Sophie Webber (USyd) sophie.webber@sydney.edu.au
Sponsored by the Economic Geography Study Group and the Nature, Risk and Resilience Study Group
Transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy are multilevel and transformative. Energy is rescaled, from distributed and household contexts to new greenfield or 'brownfield' wind, solar and storage utilities, regional renewable development modelling, national planning frameworks and global energy and climate policy-making. There is extensive scale shifting by renewable energy corporates and financial institutions as well as by critical climate NGOs and activist networks, that often leverage variations in regulatory regimes or in commitments to decarbonisation. Drivers of transition can be complementary, as 'co-benefits', but they can also collide. Much of the renewable sector is privately owned, albeit dependent on state authority, and the priority of maintaining investor returns can take precedence over emissions reduction. Efforts at maximising returns in neoliberal renewables can exacerbate social divisions, negate community or livelihood benefit and prevent wider democratic participation, involvement or social ownership. All these aspects pose problems for renewable energy legitimacy, driving new contestations and new forms of claim-making, including for social ownership and for socio-ecological priorities to take precedence over corporate interests. We seek papers that address how people interpret these and related transitions, how lives are re-ordered and how the meaning and potential of places is thereby transformed. We are especially interested in how the new socio-ecological geographies of energy can be generative, producing new capacity for climate agency and decarbonisation.
Interested presenters should send (no more than) 250-word abstracts, with title, keywords, authors and contact information to the session organisers by Friday March 22. We will notify accepted papers before the IAG deadline.
Cover image: Illustration by Matt Rota for The Transnational Institute
The post CFP IAG 2024: Energy Geography and Renewable Energy appeared first on Progress in Political Economy (PPE).

Australia has big plans for renewable energies. Its diplomacy has symbolised to the world that it is open to change, but further investment in grid and energy capabilities is still lacking.

The project is a reminder that taxpayers should be skeptical when governments propose large and complex construction schemes.

As pressure grows to phase out fossil fuels and meet emissions-reduction targets, Australia is well placed to harness clean, affordable and virtually unlimited space-based solar power. A report commissioned by the UK government on space-based ...

by Chloe Brenner             In the scientific community, it is common knowledge that accelerating wind and solar power generation is a critical element of the renewable energy transition. In fact, the US Energy Information Administration estimatesContinue reading

It took Russia's invasion of Ukraine to illustrate the strategic mistake of Russian gas dependence in the EU. Forced to reevaluate its energy strategy, the EU has shown that it can be resilient and also that renewables can work.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is America's biggest and most significant national policy geared toward combating climate change. The legislation provides an estimated amount of $300 billion worth of subsidies over the next decade to stimulate a low-carbon transition and to onshore renewable energy manufacturing. While it is a significant achievement to bring renewable energy…

It is no secret that the United States, and all of the world for that matter, is in urgent need of a switch from excessive fossil fuel consumption to renewable energy use. While the currentContinue reading

The EU is facing a key challenge in climate and energy governance. It has agreed to address climate change under the Paris Agreement, and put forward increasingly ambitious policy targets for 2020, 2030 and 2050. However, it is increasingly struggling to fulfil them. The European Green Deal and the proposed European Climate Law reinforce the […]
The post The EU's challenge with renewable energy expansion: What is the way forward? appeared first on Environmental Europe?.

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Nurses in Sri Lanka attend to their work. Photo: Dominic Sansoni/World Bank






















The COVID-19 pandemic is prompting a fresh look at options to ensure reliable power for health facilities , including the Vavuniya General Hospital in Sri Lanka's Northern Province. In line with an overall push to boost the share of renewables, the government of Sri Lanka is pursuing new power solutions for Vavuniya and about 20 other hospitals across the nation.

The World Bank is assisting as part of a multi-sectoral pandemic response in Sri Lanka. Similar initiatives are underway in other countries around the world, including Afghanistan, Madagascar, and Nigeria, to name a few.

Parts of a solution

Distributed photovoltaics (DPV), installed on rooftops or open spaces near buildings, are proliferating as a low-cost option for emergency power supplies. Many developing countries already use DPV as a long-term primary or secondary power source for health care facilities in rural and urban settings. While operating costs are minimal, average investment costs are dramatically lower today than even a few years ago, making DPV more economically attractive. When coupled with batteries, which are also becoming cheaper, DPV systems can contribute to reliable power around the clock.

With these solutions, diesel generators can become more of a last resort, instead of being the main or only source of essential back-up power when the grid is unavailable. Less use of diesel generators helps avoid the high cost of fuel, vulnerability to shortages, and toxic emissions.

Diverse technology options are available for distributed renewables. They range from individual components to pre-packaged "box" solutions which combine DPV, batteries and generators of varying sizes, including up to mini-grid level for larger sites. Under the auspices of the Energy Storage Partnership facilitated by the World Bank, a survey of suppliers has found that significant inventory is available despite logistics disruptions.

Electrical devices are also increasingly available in more energy efficient models, which can help avoid oversized power systems in new health care units. Correct system sizing is crucial where financial resources are limited, but many variables need to be considered.

For example, the electricity needs of intensive care units (ICU) differ greatly depending on how many beds are occupied: temporary ICU wards need significant power, but only for a limited time period. Another key factor to consider is that electricity demand from certain medical services may drop while stay-at-home measures are in force. For instance, some hospitals are deferring elective surgeries during the crisis. System sizing strategies need to examine such factors when addressing the health care sector's power needs in response to the pandemic.

Bringing the parts together

Given all the options, what tools are available to design power solutions for hospitals without full grid electricity? One resource is the HOMER Powering Health Tool, a free online model to help simplify the design process for distributed generation systems for health care facilities. Standing for Hybrid Optimization Model for Multiple Energy Resources, HOMER is a leading resource for mini-grid analyses.

Originally commissioned for USAID's Powering Health program, the HOMER Powering Health Tool has recently been updated to reflect typical COVID-19 response needs with support from the World Bank's Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP). Users enter the electrical needs manually or select default values for pre-listed devices from one of four health facility tiers as a starting point. The tiers include, for example, a small rural dispensary that would typically screen and refer serious cases to larger facilities such as a district hospital. Based on user inputs, the tool calculates least-cost combinations of batteries, PV, and diesel generators sets – including as back-up to grid electricity if this is available for some hours each day.

The tool runs entirely online and can be used an unlimited number of times with no need to sign in or to download a software. It's kept simple for non-specialists to use without requiring special training. This comes with limitations, of course. For certain advanced needs, other products are available, such as the full, licensed software of HOMER Energy by UL or the free System Advisor Model (SAM) of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The latter is especially useful for systems that may feed DPV power to the grid when it is not needed on site. In Sri Lanka, the World Bank is applying these tools to optimize solutions to strengthen power for Vavuniya and other hospitals.

From one to many

With a standard lifetime of 20 years, DPV systems can supply clean energy to the national grid. They can also become the backbone of community mini-grids. The value of both options goes well beyond the pandemic. DPV can help not only the consumers who host the systems but also a power system that it feeds. DPV can reduce grid congestion and energy losses for utilities. It can also displace more costly generation from wholesale sources while promoting resilience.

Sri Lanka has already been promoting DPV such as through its Rooftop Solar Power Generation Project, in partnership with the Asian Development Bank. Nationwide, rooftop installations are on track to reach a total of 200 megawatts capacity by the end of 2020, equivalent to around 7 percent of system peak demand. Northern Province alone has added over 3 megawatts since 2017, including 17 projects in Vavuniya for businesses and households. Consumers with DPV can choose to feed some or all the power generated into the national grid through the utility providers. In all cases, the DPV significantly reduces consumers' bills while providing clean energy to the system at a lower cost than fuel-based generation for grid.

Sri Lanka's initiative shows that solutions to the current crisis can also address longer-term challenges. With a strategic approach, health care facilities can be well-positioned to combat COVID-19 while preparing for the "new normal."

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/alandlee/




Alan David Lee
Senior Energy and Climate Change Specialist
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Andrea Arricale
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From WFAA, "Why a Texas nuclear power plant stopped producing electricity Friday": A problem at a Texas nuclear power plant Friday caused a sudden dip in electricity supply, forcing the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to tap a brand new reserve system to stabilize the grid. … Unplanned nuclear outages are rare, and the […]

To maintain the 1.5 degrees Celsius target by 2030, developed nations must prioritise addressing heavy-emitting industries. This requires, among other things, collaboration with Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like the Caribbean.

In California, which has a slew of renewable energy regulations, the cost of electricity increased three times faster than in the rest of the U.S.—and the state still doesn't even get reliable energy.

Useful information today: The switch to net zero risks driving up household energy bills by £400 a year after a jump in interest rates, a leading think tank has warned.Higher borrowing costs will massively inflate the cost of the green transition, the Resolution Foundation said, with families set to spend an extra £29bn annually on energy by 2050 if rates do not return to 2019 levels.This shouldn't be a surprise. As with nuclear, the vast proportion of the costs is the financing expenses. Fuel costs are pretty much zero for either, there are some operating costs but it's the capital costs that make up the vast bulk of the total, those capital costs must be financed. Therefore returning to positive real interest rates - as we have just done, even though only marginally so - means a change in the costs of renewables.Shrug, obvious, innit? At which point we can leave it - but we shouldn't. The entire concept of net zero - or even dealing with climate change at all - is based upon the idea that not dealing with climate change is more expensive than dealing with it. Now we've just got evidence that dealing with it through renewables - those oh so cheap forms of energy collection - is more expensive than we'd thought. 25 million households, £400 per, that's £10 billion a year. That's also £10 billion a year forever.So, dealing with climate change is now more expensive than we'd thought it was. The benefit of dealing with it is exactly the same as before. That changes the balance of how much dealing - rather than suffering from - climate change we should be doing. We should leave be more and do less to head it off that is. No, there is no way out of this logic. For the logic is that preventing climate change is cheaper than suffering it. But the costs have changed, so the amount of preventing/suffering also changes. A useful guide to who is being realistic - scientific even - on the subject is who makes this point. Those who ignore it aren't.