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Gerard Wynn
Spanish Environmental Groups Say Their Country is Violating European Commission Guidelines; Spain Should Retire Excess Capacity Before Paying Plants to Stay Online
A recent call by two environmental organizations for a formal state aid probe into Spain’s payments subsidizing gas- and coal-fired power plants appears to be well warranted, given multiple breaches of European state aid guidelines revealed by IEEFA in our December 2016 report, “Spain’s Capacity Market: Energy Security or Subsidy?” The Instituto Internacional de Derecho […]
Gerard Wynn
Latest Government Projections Undermine the Case for a Flagship Capacity Market That Subsidizes Conventional Generation
The U.K. government’s latest energy projections, out last week, show a grid dominated by renewables and electricity imports by 2025, exceeding the conventional generation presently supported by the country’s ratepayer-subsidized capacity market. This news comes on the heels of a report we published earlier this month on how interconnection with neighboring countries and renewable energy […]
Gerard Wynn
Grid Proves Resilient in Face of 60% Drop in Coal Use in 2016; New Renewables and Interconnection Are the Future; Capacity Market Has Failed to Incentivize Modernization; More Targeted Auctions Would Help
The U.K.’s capacity market is the weak link in the country’s ongoing transition toward a resilient, low-carbon grid. That is one of the core findings in a report—“Electricity-Grid Transition in the U.K.: As Coal-Fired Generation Recedes, Renewables and Reliable Generation Can Fill the Gap —we published today. The report finds that the U.K. grid is coping […]
Energy Transition Already Well Under Way; Policy Reforms Required to Address Failure of Current System to Incentivize Grid Modernization; Brexit Offers an Opportunity for Change
March 9, 2017 (IEEFA) — The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis published a report today that describes a path by which renewable energy can reliably and economically replace coal-fired generation in the U.K. The report—“Electricity-Grid Transition in the U.K.: As Coal-Fired Generation Recedes, Renewables and Reliable Generation Can Fill the Gap”—examines how recent […]
Zeke Turner for the Wall Street Journal: A battle is raging in Central Europe over the balance of power—the electrical kind. Poland and the Czech Republic see Germany as an aggressor, overproducing electricity and dumping it across the border. Germany sees itself as a green-energy pioneer under unfair attacks from less innovative neighbors. As part […]
Andrew Ward for the Financial Times: Coal-fired power generators were among the winners of contracts worth £378m to generate electricity next winter, highlighting the tension between government efforts to reduce carbon emissions and the need for energy security. Critics have highlighted the apparent contradiction between government plans to phase out all coal-fired power from the […]
Gerard Wynn
Capacity Subsidies May Be Redundant
The U.K. this week holds its biggest auction ever for electricity generating capacity under a multi-billion-pound scheme whose stated aim is to increase investment in new, flexible generation. The intent is to help balance the growth in variable wind and solar power while ensuring there are enough power plants to cover demand. Under the so-called […]
Megan Darby for ClimateChangeNews.com: Spain is propping up old coal and gas-fired power plants with payments for staying open, regardless of how much they generate. The support, worth €1 billion a year, is a needless burden on consumers, according to a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). It is likely […]
Gerard Wynn
Paying Producers for Electricity They Might Never Generate
So-called capacity markets are driving what appears to be a major new trend in energy policy across Europe: More public subsidies for electric utilities. Utilities may get—but not necessarily need or deserve—high-level government support for a variety of reasons, including for their role in equity markets, where they supply returns and dividends for pension […]
Reforms Should Include an Interconnected Grid, an Independent Regulator, and a More Transparent Market
Dec. 13, 2016 (IEEFA.org) – The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) published a brief today showing how Spain provides inflated subsidies to owners of coal- and gas-fired power plants through an expensive electricity-sector capacity market. A dozen European countries, including France, Germany, Italy and the U.K., are either considering or already have […]
IEEFA Report: A U.K. Electricity Transformation Under Way, But in Need of Better Direction
Grid Proves Resilient in Face of 60% Drop in Coal Use in 2016; New Renewables and Interconnection Are the Future; Capacity Market Has Failed to Incentivize Modernization; More Targeted Auctions Would HelpThe U.K.’s capacity market is the weak link in the country’s ongoing transition toward a resilient, low-carbon grid. That is one of the core findings in a report—“Electricity-Grid Transition in the U.K.: As Coal-Fired Generation Recedes, Renewables and Reliable Generation Can Fill the Gap —we published today. The report finds that the U.K. grid is coping […]