Lazard: Onshore wind is cheapest US energy source

Via Utility Dive: " Thermal power plants more competitive than clean energy when considering reliability: Vistra CEO: Even so, in the near term Vistra President and CEO Jim Burke expects solar and batteries to do well because they can be built quickly. " #Energy #Utility #Utilities

“The electric grid needs a diverse range of clean energy resources, including intermittent solar and wind that operate at different times, clean firm sources such as nuclear and geothermal power plants that operate continuously, and variable sources that can be called upon when needed such as batteries and hydropower, as well as flexible energy efficiency and demand response measures that are capable of preventing power outages during extreme temperatures.”    According to a recent report from the Center for American Progress, a crucial aspect of maintaining grid reliability during increasingly common extreme weather events is having a grid powered by a variety of readily available power sources. Read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/getE9X4Z

The energy transition: are we asking the right questions? I say No. Boards, executives and even politicians are grappling with the energy transition, caught between the need to end reliance on fossil fuels, and the unsuitability of intermittent renewables to power society. But what if both perspectives are missing the core issue? My latest article, 'Why the energy transition isn't what you think it is' explores why simply swapping energy sources doesn't solve out systemic challenges. It looks at the hidden costs of renewables, the critical role of fossil fuels, and why the conversation needs to shift from what energy we use to how much. This isn't just an academic debate, it has profound implications for business resilience, long-term strategy, and society at large. Read the full article to understand the systemic realities and some of the no-regrets strategies for navigating this complex situation. I'd value hearing your perspective in the comments. https://lnkd.in/gjTPsAxz #EnergyTransition #Sustainability #ClimateResilience

A rejection of coal as a source of fuel for the power generation plants in Germany means that Berlin needs to look for energy sources elsewhere. With coal being phased out, Russian gas shunned and nuclear power shunned after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, the transition to renewable sources also drove up the cost of energy substantially. Germany's commitment to their renewable energy supply known as “Energiewende” has impacts outside of Germany and nowhere more so than in the Netherlands. Impact 1: The port. The Port of Rotterdam is the home of Europe's largest coal import terminal EMO which provides unloading, storage (7 million tons), screening, washing, crushing, and mixing coal to final specifications of the buyers in Europe. The terminal is equipped with five unloaders providing average unloading capacity of 200,000 tons a day. Change in energy generation strategy in Germany means shrinking orders and shipments. Impact 2: The railways. Shrinking #coal transports to Germany decreasing in 2024 to 4,6 million tonnes marked a reduction of 2,9 million tonnes from 2023 and 5 million tonnes from the peak year of 2022. #railway #commodity #transport https://lnkd.in/dh7ch4Xy

A cure for sudden power blackouts With politicians under pressure to lower the cost of electricity and meet climate goals, more renewables will need to be added to the grid. So the near-term solution to add inertia is using devices called synchronous compensators (or synchronous condensers). I didn’t just get to see one in action in Liverpool, but I also got to visit the Siemens Energy factory this month where they manufacture these grid-stabilizing devices. “It’s huge and complicated to build,” said Sharlena B., head of special electric machinery at Siemens Energy, during the tour of the factory in Mülheim, Germany. The factory has been flooded with demand for synchronous compensators. Without all the protective covering, the device looks like something out of a science-fiction movie. It’s made from thousands of individual parts that are precisely engineered and carefully assembled. That’s needed because the largest synchronous compensators that Siemens Energy builds can provide as much “reactive power” as a nuclear power plant. Inside each synchronous compensator, a rotor — often weighing up to 100 tons (almost as heavy as a blue whale) — spins at 3,000 rotations per minute. The synchronous compensator's 100-ton rotor needs to match the frequency of alternating current, which swings between positive and negative voltage 50 times per second. This is the frequency at which most of the world consumes alternating current coming into homes and offices. If tires rotated 3,000 times per minute, that car would be going at 400 kmph — faster than any F1 car has gone. With a weight of hundred tons, you can get a sense of just how much energy is stored in these spinning devices. It’s why a synchronous compensator can have enough inertia to match that of a turbine in a large power plant that provides electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes. One day the grid could operate without any spinning devices. So-called grid-forming inverters attached to batteries can provide “synthetic” inertia, but grid operators haven’t seen them in operation long enough to fully switch to them. #siemensenergy https://lnkd.in/eMsArE4U

Europe’s Power Markets Are Shifting – Here’s What You Need to Know ⚡ From soaring clean spark spreads in Germany to record solar additions in France, the European electricity market is evolving fast. Key highlights from the latest Argus report: ✅ UK: Week-ahead prices dipped on strong wind output; OTC power volumes surged 22% YoY. ✅ Germany: September clean spark spreads hit new highs, driven by stable gas prices and rising EU ETS allowances. ✅ France: Solar capacity additions set a new record in H1 2025; hydropower deal with the EU reshapes the market. ✅ Nordics: Extended nuclear outages and low rainfall push October contracts higher. ✅ Central & Eastern Europe: Hungarian October contracts climb to €98.45/MWh; Polish week-ahead prices top €100/MWh. Why it matters: -Renewables are accelerating, but volatility remains. -Cross-border capacity and interconnectors are shaping price dynamics. -Carbon costs continue to influence generation economics. What’s next? Expect continued price pressure from weather-driven renewables and evolving policy frameworks. #EnergyMarkets #Electricity #Renewables #CarbonMarkets #PowerTrading #EnergyTransition #EuropeEnergy

Today’s energy system has five highly beneficial properties that help it deliver high performance. For instance, it can move energy relatively easily to where it is needed because current fuels are both energy-dense and easily transportable. Just one average tanker carrying liquefied natural gas can power more than 40,000 homes in the United States for an entire year. Today, fuels such as diesel have about 50 times higher gravimetric energy density (or energy per unit weight) than the batteries used in electric cars. It is dispatchable and can ramp the provision of energy up and down quickly, to the right place at the right time. A gas turbine power plant can move from full shutdown to generating power at full capacity in less than ten minutes. But today’s energy system has flaws. Two stand out. First, it is inefficient, with around two-thirds of all energy being wasted today, mostly due to low energy efficiency in the conversion and use of fossil fuels. Second, the production and consumption of energy contribute to more than 85 percent of global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2). Overall, the energy transition will require both continuing to improve the performance of low-emissions technologies and bringing them together in new ways to deliver high performance. (Ten physical realities the energy transition must tackle – Mekala Krishnan, Chris Bradley, Humayun Tai, and Tiago Devesa – McKinsey Global Institute – April 2025) #energytransition #energysystem #energydensity #diesel #LNG #HVDC #H2 #Hydrogen #Ammonia #EnergyTransportability #Nuclear #Hydropower #Solar #Wind #Geothermal

Did you know that the UK's economy is powered materially by...France 🇫🇷? France generated 7.2% of the UK's electricity over the past year. It's the fourth largest power source after gas (30.3%), wind (29.6%), and nuclear (13.7%). Why should you care? The UK is not energy independent and electricity costs over 50% more here than it does in France. That has a material impact on our competitiveness and has contributed to cost of living pain. While French electricity represents arbitrage (we sell to pricier Ireland and Denmark), we could easily lower our cost to draw more business on-shore and become a bigger exporter to Belgium, The Netherlands, Norway, and even France. How do we lower electricity cost? ⚡ Build wind and solar capacity to diversify against natural gas, bringing down average cost. 🔋 Build more batteries to store renewable energy for times when it's not sunny or windy (a regular occurrence here). 🚙 Unlock electric vehicles as distributed batteries, smoothing out peakiness. It's time to make the UK more competitive. #RenewableEnergy #CleanTech #Sustainability #EnergyTransition #Solar #NetZero #GreenInvestment

Thermal Power Reliability: Vistra President and CEO Jim Burke expects solar and batteries to do well because they can be built quickly. https://lnkd.in/e4Jj6MCb

American’s power bills will go up $3.1–5.2 billion if we keep coal plants running past their scheduled retirement to meet demand, as the DOE plans to do. Households spend a substantial share of their budgets on electricity, but the overall impact of electricity prices goes well beyond your utility bills. Electricity is an important cost of doing business, and an increase in that cost will be passed on to consumers. These rising costs, calculated by Grid Strategies LLC, will also undermine the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing and data centers. This backward-looking decision ignores the market reality that a range of more advanced energy resources — from solar to geothermal to nuclear to batteries and more — combined with our existing natural gas peaker fleet, offer a fundamentally more affordable and economically advantageous system. We face a choice: we can be a nation that makes money extracting the static assets we have, or we can be a nation that generates value by building, inventing, manufacturing, deploying, and adapting. The path to affordability runs through doing and building, not having and extracting.