UK Only Article: 
standard article

Fly Title: 

Two degrees Celsius

Rubric: 

Ahead of the UN climate change conference in Paris, Joel Budd discusses problems with current renewable power technologies and why we need to talk more about innovation

Main image: 

20151128_mma9011_107.jpg

Published: 

20151126

Source: 

Online extra

Enabled
Source: Utilities
Two degrees Celsius: Special report: Climate change

UK Only Article: 
standard article

Issue: 

A modern ark

Fly Title: 

Energy

Rubric: 

Renewable power is good. More renewable power is not always better

Main image: 

20151121_SRP002_4.jpg

ON A BREEZY, sunny day in north-east Germany it seems as though the world is running on renewable energy. Near Altentreptow 50-odd giant wind turbines, the tallest 200 metres high, spin above a potato field, making a gentle swishing sound. The hum from the base of each turbine is the sound of electricity being generated, much of it bound for Berlin. The view from the wind farm, across flat fields, is of another wind farm.
Sadly, this is not how the world’s power is generated. In truth, the view from Altentreptow does not even properly reflect how Germany’s power is generated. The battle to drive carbon dioxide out of the world energy system, which accounts for about two-thirds of human greenhouse-gas emissions, has seen some heartening and visible advances. But clean energy is still being soundly thrashed by the …
Source: Utilities
Energy: When the wind blows

UK Only Article: 
standard article

Fly Title: 

Wasting energy

Rubric: 

For Egypt and others, the alternatives to nuclear power hold more promise

Main image: 

20151128_map503.jpg

EGYPT’S “long dream” is finally coming true, says Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the president. Not the dream of a capable government or reliable services—but the one in which Egypt’s nuclear-energy programme, started back in 1954, finally produces a watt of usable power. The government signed a deal with Russia on November 19th to build its first nuclear plant in Dabaa, on the Mediterranean coast.
Nuclear power has gone out of fashion in much of the world. The share of electricity generated by nuclear reactors has fallen to 10.8%, from a peak of 17.6% in 1996. More reactors have closed than opened of late. But the industry is not in crisis. China, Russia and India are all expanding their nuclear programmes. And several countries in the Middle East are pursuing nuclear power, creating what some have unfortunately called a “boom” in the region.

Some fear where this may lead—a nuclear-arms race …
Source: Utilities
Wasting energy: Why more Middle Eastern states are building nuclear power stations

UK Only Article: 
standard article

Issue: 

The never-ending story

Fly Title: 

Enel and stranded assets

Rubric: 

Italy’s largest power company faces up to the “stranded assets” problem

Location: 

ROME

Main image: 

Awaiting rebirth

Awaiting rebirth

“IT’S not a funeral, it’s a transformation.” That is the positive spin Francesco Starace, the Tesla-driving boss of Enel, one of Europe’s biggest electricity companies, puts on a tough issue looming over the energy industry: stranded assets. He knows of what he speaks. Whereas executives at coal, oil and gas firms shudder at the thought that many of their vast reserves will be stranded if the world turns against fossil fuels, Enel is decommissioning old power plants as if its future depended on it.
Enel has announced that 23 power stations in Italy with a capacity of 13 gigawatts—enough to power a small country—are to be scrapped within five years. The first to be sold, on November 2nd, was …
Source: Utilities
Enel and stranded assets: Anyone want a power station?

AT ONE second after midnight, when the calendar flips to November 11th, millions of Chinese shoppers will start clicking themselves into a frenzy of consumer excess. Through their smartphones, computers and tablets, they will take advantage of steep discounts and other incentives offered by China’s biggest online retailers, who have been busily laying the groundwork with advertising campaigns and assiduous logistical preparations. By the time midnight rolls round the following day, shoppers will have spent billions of yuan, and many of the hundreds of millions of packages that they ordered online will have been delivered to their doors. How did a frivolous and informal Chinese holiday evolve into the world’s biggest single-day retail event?November 11th is “Singles’ Day” in China, a holiday that now occasions these massive movements of merchandise. Since the 1990s it has been observed casually and playfully by unmarried Chinese to celebrate—or perhaps bemoan—their single status. The date was chosen because of the four ones it contains (11/11). Initially, a bit of gift-giving was part of the fun, but it had more to do with socialising and eating symbolic foods like long sticks of fried dough that resemble the number one. It is also called “Bare Branch Day”, after the sadly evocative Chinese slang term for a single man. Today it is commonly referred to as “Double …
Source: Retailing
The Economist explains: Why millions of Chinese will be frantically shopping on November 11th