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Newsletter (copy 27)
Calling time on coal; lessons from a power-savvy home ⚡
Happy Tuesday, dear reader.
Some good news to get things started:
The European Parliament has approved the EU’s exit from the energy charter treaty, an international agreement that’s been holding back climate action.
At one point on April 15, fossil fuels accounted for just 2.4% of the UK’s electricity mix — a new record low.
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Nick Hedley
Editor, The Progress Playbook
The Group of Seven (G7) countries has agreed to shut all of their remaining coal-fired power plants before 2035, according to Britain’s minister for energy security and net zero.
Andrew Bowie said “this is a historic agreement” that sends a signal to the rest of the world that wealthy nations are acting on climate change.
While the countries had already committed to decarbonising their power systems by 2035, the explicit agreement to no longer burn coal for electricity will require more decisive steps from the likes of Japan, which still gets around a third of its power from the dirtiest fossil fuel.
- Read the full story here.
Stuart Humphrey is one of growing number of Brits who keeps a watchful eye on the nation’s electricity mix. When it’s dominated by renewables, he tries to make the most of the lull in prices to run his appliances and slash his monthly utility bills.
In February 2024, Humphrey switched to Octopus Energy’s “agile” electricity plan, which comes with flexible pricing linked to daily supply and demand dynamics. Since then, his monthly energy bill has declined by around £150, he says, adding that he now pays roughly half of the standard variable rate, on average.
Those savings aren’t generated passively, however.
“The agile tariff makes you think about how and when to use your energy,” Humphrey tells The Progress Playbook.
- Read the full story here.
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New pollution standards imposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency will result in “unprecedented reductions” in greenhouse gas emissions from power generation, the World Resources Institute says.
The rules, which target existing coal-fired power plants and any new gas-fired units, will yield $370 billion in net climate and public health benefits by 2047, the EPA projects.
If they want to keep operating, coal plants will be compelled to capture nearly all of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2032 — a costly endeavour that will make them less competitive. New gas plants that operate more than 40% of the time will need to do the same.
“The days of unlimited carbon pollution are over,” Lori Bird, a director at the World Resources Institute, said in a statement.
- Read the full story here.
Making a battery for an electric vehicle typically requires mining hundreds of pounds of hard-to-extract minerals. That’s put a spotlight on batteries’ heavy environmental toll, at least upfront.
But the latest advances in battery recycling, including by leading US battery recycler Redwood Materials, are shrinking EVs’ footprint.
- Read the full story here.
Renewable energy technologies covered 56% Germany’s electricity needs in the first quarter of 2024, according to preliminary calculations by clean energy research group ZSW and utility association BDEW. That’s up from 50% in the same three months of 2023.
The increase came as wind and solar installations advanced and hydropower output recovered, and after Germany shut its last nuclear power plant in April 2023.
The country installed another 3.7GW of solar PV in the first quarter, up from 2.7GW a year before, according to the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur).
- Read the full story here.
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