According to Bloomberg, Warren Buffet’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. is gearing up to drop $1.9 billion on new wind farms in Iowa. The investment might build as many as 656 new turbines by 2015, which would add as much as 1,050 megawatts of wind power capacity to the 2,285 megawatts the company already operates in the state.
The project could also herald a revival in American wind power in general. The anticipated expiration of the production tax credit for wind energy drove a spike in installations in 2012, then a lull into 2013, and finally an anticipated ramp up now that the credit was extended for another year by the fiscal cliff deal………………………………………..Full Article: Source

There’s not much to suggest the European natural gas market will make dramatic gains any time soon, the International Energy Agency said. The IEA said in its monthly journal that European countries consumed 8 percent more natural gas in 2010, erasing the 6 percent decline that coincided with economic crises in 2009.
That agency, however, said that was “an illusion” because of colder winters. When adjusted seasonally, the IEA said gas consumption in some countries is at 10-year lows………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Europe’s program to halt climate change is in disarray with lawmakers in the region expressing concern the drift is undermining the planet’s most significant effort to combat global warming.
Members of the European Parliament’s environment committee meet today for a second time to revive a plan the full assembly rejected that would have boosted the cost of greenhouse-gas emissions. The rebuff left the cost of pollution near a record low, leaving companies with less incentive to reduce emissions………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Markets can misprice risk, as investors in subprime mortgages discovered in 2008. Several recent reports suggest that markets are now overlooking the risk of “unburnable carbon”. The share prices of oil, gas and coal companies depend in part on their reserves. The more fossil fuels a firm has underground, the more valuable its shares. But what if some of those reserves can never be dug up and burned?
If governments were determined to implement their climate policies, a lot of that carbon would have to be left in the ground, says Carbon Tracker, a non-profit organisation, and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, part of the London School of Economics………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Delivered coal prices appear to be exceptionally resilient to the drop in consumption. In fact, while delivered coal volumes have been declining, delivered coal prices have been rising, Barclays noted in a report.
One might expect coal deliveries priced at $3.00 per MMBtu equivalent or more to drop the most as coal-to-gas displacement eats into the coal supply stack………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Coal prices are likely to fall this year, owing to low demand and increased supplies. Citi Research has lowered the price estimates of global thermal coal for this year and the next, citing increased supply and subdued demand in India and China, the key coal-importing nations.
Citi’s commodity research team cut its coal price forecasts for 2013 and 2014 by six per cent and 15 per cent to $89 a tonne and $94 a tonne, respectively. Earlier, the price was estimated at $95 a tonne for 2013 and $111 a tonne for 2014. Citi said the subdued demand in the European and Chinese markets, along with oversupply of 31-41 million tonnes (mt) in 2013-14, would reduce prices further………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Investment totalling a trillion Euros is required before the end of this decade if the European Union is to stave off an energy crisis. That is the conclusion of an eight-month inquiry by the House of Lords into the EU power sector.
The Lords report says that a muddled Brussels energy policy is putting off big investors. In addition, it says there needs to be greater support for Europe’s emissions trading system (ETS)………………………………………..Full Article: Source

“The drive to clean up the world’s energy system has stalled,” IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven told the CEM, which brings together ministers representing countries responsible for four-fifths of global greenhouse-gas emissions. “Despite much talk by world leaders, and despite a boom in renewable energy over the last decade, the average unit of energy produced today is basically as dirty as it was 20 years ago.”
To illustrate this inertia, the report, Tracking Clean Energy Progress, introduces the Energy Sector Carbon Intensity Index (ESCII), which shows how much carbon dioxide is emitted, on average, to provide a given unit of energy………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Europe’s share of international coal trading is rising despite a sluggish economy, as a collapse in emissions permit prices and a global oversupply of coal bolsters the fuel’s profitability in power generation.
Global coal use has been steadily rising, driven largely by soaring demand in developing economies such as China and India. But high European gas prices and healthy production levels from exporters have also made coal more attractive for electricity generation in Europe, prompting a rise in coal burn despite efforts by policymakers to curb carbon emissions………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A flurry of recent reports on the renewable energy sector suggest that, while global investments are down from 2011 records, most of the major economies continue to support a low-carbon economy.
China last year attracted more than $60 billion to its renewable energy sector, passing a U.S. market that saw a 37 percent decline during the same period. At the same time, carbon dioxide emissions have reached new highs, according to the International Energy Agency. Nevertheless, the renewable energy sector was able to weather the global economic storm by showing some resiliency………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), is no stranger to India. She has been engaged in discussions with Indian policymakers and planners for facilitating India’s association with the IEA.
Van der Hoeven, who was in India to attend the fourth Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) that concluded on Thursday, spoke in an interview about the need for India to improve its energy data and emergency systems, the relevance of the United Nations (UN) climate negotiations, and potential developments in the global energy markets. ……………………………………….Full Article: Source

It’s been a bad week for efforts to develop green energy around the world. A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) says that progress towards carbon-free energy production has basically stalled.
“Despite much talk by world leaders,” said IEA executive director, Maria van der Hoeven, “and despite a boom in renewable energy over the last decade, the average unit of energy produced today is basically as dirty as it was 20 years ago.” The IEA uses a complex calculation called the carbon intensity index to show how much CO2 is emitted to provide a given unit of energy……………………………………..Full Article: Source

The world isn’t cleaning up its energy systems despite increasing investment in renewable power, according to a new report. So how has this happened? The answer in one word: coal.
The International Energy Agency (IEA)’s report, released yesterday, measures carbon intensity, or the amount of carbon dioxide released for each unit of energy consumed around the world. It finds that since 1990 carbon intensity has remained “essentially static” - meaning the world is currently heading for six degrees Celsius of warming above pre-industrial levels……………………………………..Full Article: Source

With governments failing to promote green energy, top scientists say the drive to keep temperature rise below 2C has stalled. The development of low-carbon energy is progressing too slowly to limit global warming, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday.
With power generation still dominated by coal and governments failing to increase investment in clean energy, top climate scientists have said that the target of keeping the global temperature rise to less than 2C this century is slipping out of reach…………………………………Full Article: Source

Coal’s golden renaissance … While coal use in electricity generation has dwindled in the United States, it has been staging a quiet comeback in Europe. Coal-fired power generation is growing at an annual rate of 5% and 22% in Germany and Spain, while gas-fired generation is falling by 15% and 23% respectively.
In the UK, coal-fired plants accounted for 39% of electricity generation in 2012, a 32% increase on 2011, while gas use declined by the same amount. “As the dispatch of coal plants is more economic in Europe at current coal and CO2 emissions prices, gas lost 5 percentage points of market share in the power sector in 2012………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The global solar PV market is poised to break through the 100GW of installed capacity mark this year, according to new figures from the International Energy Agency (IEA). The IEA’s Photovoltaic Power System Programme this week published a new report, entitled Snapshot of Global PV in 1992-2012, based on data from 23 countries, including all of the world’s largest solar markets.
It confirmed that there is now at least 89.5GW of solar PV capacity recorded in these core markets, with an estimated 7GW of capacity in place in other markets. It concluded there is at least 96.5GW of capacity installed worldwide, meaning the market almost certainly reached the 100GW milestone during the first quarter of this year………………………………………..Full Article: Source

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Europe is falling dangerously far behind the US in productivity growth and is blighted by crippling energy costs, the pan-EU industry federation has warned. “Europe doesn’t have an energy policy. It has a climate policy,” said Markus Beyrer, head of BusinessEurope.
Mr Beyrer said the US is running away with the shale energy revolution, leaving Europe’s companies in the dust. Spot gas prices are now four to five times higher in Europe, with grim implications for the chemical industry………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The International Energy Agency is interested in deepening its ties with emerging economies, as changes to supply and demand trends increase their role in global energy markets, the group said in a statement published on its web site Friday.
“As the global energy map is redrawn, the IEA’s 28 member countries face many of the same energy challenges as key emerging economies, and we share a common interest in building a secure, sustainable energy future,” the IEA’s Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said in the statement………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Power and gas markets in the European Union are undergoing a period of substantial change due to political intervention, expansion of market reach, and uncertain supply and demand dynamics. Power and gas companies now require advanced technology to overcome challenges that threaten to remove unprepared participants from the market.
Legacy systems that have remained unchanged over the past five years, or have only had minor maintenance-related updates, will struggle to support the minimum requirements for power and gas market participants………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Which source of renewable energy is most important to the European Union? Solar power, perhaps? (Europe has three-quarters of the world’s total installed capacity of solar photovoltaic energy.) Or wind? (Germany trebled its wind-power capacity in the past decade.) The answer is neither. By far the largest so-called renewable fuel used in Europe is wood.
In its various forms, from sticks to pellets to sawdust, wood (or to use its fashionable name, biomass) accounts for about half of Europe’s renewable-energy consumption. In some countries, such as Poland and Finland, wood meets more than 80% of renewable-energy demand………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The world’s energy demand is growing with increasing population and rapid development in emerging markets. Today, about 1.1 billion people in the developed world consume 110 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) in primary energy.
The developing world’s 5.8 billion people consume 140 million boe/d. What this means is that if the developing world were to consume primary energy even at the level of the EU (the most efficient energy users in the developed world), the planet would need a further 270 million boe/d to meet demand. This is more than double the current primary energy consumption………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The BRIC (Brazil, the Russian Federation, India and China) is an interesting political and economic conglomeration. Currently, only the Russian Federation is a major oil exporter, while the ongoing prosperity of both China and India depends on continued access to reliable sources of oil and natural gas imports.
The BRIC acronym is sometimes expanded to BRICS to include South Africa, another energy deficient state, with all five states recently hosting a summit in Durban, South Africa………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The market for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Asia faces uncertainty on a number of fronts, even as gas projects worldwide are seeking customers there, International Energy Agency (IEA) analyst Anne-Sophie Corbeau told Canada’s Financial Post this week.
Among the questions regarding demand from Asia are whether Japan will return to heavy use of nuclear power and how successfully shale gas can be developed in China………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The IMF jumps into the climate change debate with a headline-grabbing carbon tax proposal; Dr John Abrahams talks to us about climate change realities; the idea of the self-driving car gains traction; Shell announces $1 billion annual spending plan on Chinese shale; and a sneak preview of this week’s premium offerings…
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is against government energy subsidies. This certainly shouldn’t come as any surprise for this austerity institution, but its latest report is gaining a decent amount of traction in the media because it’s the first time the IMF has seriously jumped into the climate change theater. It calls for an end to energy subsidies across the board (about $1.9 trillion annually around the world) or for these subsidies to be offset with taxes that could pay for expensive social programs………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The coal exporters – Australia, South Africa, Indonesia and Mosambique – have come out with regulations in the past few months that make the price of the fuel coming from these nations at similar levels.
On one side, the mineral-rich countries are becoming more conservative of taking away revenues generated from their land overseas. Other, they are making sure they sell at premium, even though prices have seen a downward rally recently. This make the buyers such as India wonder are the coal producers also forming an OPEC-like cartel………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Natural gas is positioned to make a sustained impact on the global energy market but only if it’s developed responsibly, the IEA executive director said.
The International Energy Agency hosted its inaugural unconventional natural gas forum in Paris. IEA Executive Director Maria Van der Hoeven said unconventional natural gas development needs a sustainable and responsible approach………………………………………..Full Article: Source

From a president who seems to think energy comes from politics, yet another innovation emerged Mar. 15 in a speech at the Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill. “The only way to really break this cycle of spiking gas prices,” said President Barack Obama, “the only way to break that cycle for good is to shift our cars entirely—our cars and trucks—off oil.”
Like so many of Obama’s proposals for energy, this one is vacuous. If the demonstrated ability of the price of a major oil product to spike justified policies aimed at ending oil consumption, the same argument logically should apply to other commodities. Guess what: Prices of commodities other than oil spike, too………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) looks set to become our most important export over the next five years, as the resources boom slowly deflates, and several LNG projects come online.
According to the Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics (BREE), earnings from mineral commodities are now expected to peak in 2014-15 due to declining commodity prices, particularly iron ore, which will be offset by increased volumes………………………………………..Full Article: Source

This week, the world’s largest concentrated solar planet went into operation. Shams 1 is a massive 100-megawatt power plant in Abu Dhabi with some impressive numbers. The $750 million project produces enough energy to power 20,000 homes and stretches across an area of desert, west of the United Arab Emirates capital, the size of 285 football fields.
“With the demand for energy rising exponentially, the region is undergoing a major transformation in how it generates electricity,” said Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of Masdar, the state-owned company behind the power plant. “In fact, the Middle East is poised for major investments in renewable energy, and Shams 1 proves the economic and environmental advantage of deploying large-scale solar projects.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The International Energy Agency marked the passing of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez by adding its voice to a wealth of editorials pointing to a neglected oil industry which has sapped the country’s output and capacity.
In its latest monthly oil market report, the IEA warns of a “further degradation” of the state oil company PDVSA should Chavez’s policies live on under his hand-picked successor Nicolas Maduro. The IEA also predicted that the country’s net capacity will increase less than 8% over the next five years………………………………….Full Article: Source

Global energy use is set to expand by 33 percent between 2011 and 2035 with an average growth rate of 1.3 percent per annum, said Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance, Minister in Charge of Oil and Gas Affairs, Bahrain.
Sheikh Ahmed, who opened the four-day 18th Middle East Oil and Gas Show and Conference 2013 (MEOS 2013) Sunday (March 10), said that the retreat from nuclear energy in some countries, in the aftermath of the Fukushima incident, led to a rebalancing of the energy mix towards fossil fuels………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A new report by countries by the World Economic Forum has criticized the OPEC-member countries of failing to adjust to the changing energy architectures and renewable energy sources.
None of the member countries have made it to the top 50 list of the energy report, which focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of countries’ energy systems. Titled ‘The Global Energy Architecture Performance Index 2013‘, the report has been compiled in partnership with Accenture and ranks the top high-income countries in the world for adapting to the upcoming energy systems………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Coal has been beaten up in the media and the markets over the past year or so. Being outspoken against coal has been made easy by cheaper, cleaner-burning natural gas, which has been produced in abundance here in the United States recently.
To tackle reductions in both demand and price, coal companies in the U.S. were forced to curtail production and capital spending in preparation for future production. Entering 2013, could the coal market finally have found a trough? To help answer that question, I turned to the conference calls of some of the biggest players in the business to see what their CEO’s had to say………………………………………..Full Article: Source

For the past 40 years, since the Arab oil embargo of 1973, Opec has conspired to set the global price of oil. The rest of the world has simply observed this staggering restraint of trade and done nothing.
If western oil companies tried to do what Opec does, they would be prosecuted within hours. The producers’ cartel, however, can get away with it because its members own 78 per cent of the world’s oil reserves and lie beyond our courts………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Times may be tough for energy commodities, but Encompass Fund Managers Malcolm Gissen and Marshall Berol are hard-core survivors. In this interview with The Energy Report, the dynamic duo share their tactics for winning in 2013 after decades of experience investing in uranium, oil and gas, coal, hydroelectric and geothermal energy.
There are more than 1,200 ETFs on the market. They can be worthwhile, but Wall Street is slicing and dicing sectors and industries into really thin tranches to create somewhat non-transparent indexes. ETFs are not per se better than mutual funds or individual stocks. Investors must look under the hood of any ETF to see if it is investing in stocks, futures contracts or bullion. With that said, we do look at ETFs and have commodity ETFs in our separately managed accounts……………………………………Full Article: Source

Coal’s share of the global energy mix continues to rise, and by 2017 coal will come close to surpassing oil as the world’s top energy source, the International Energy Agency concludes in its latest annual Medium-Term Coal Market Report (MCMR), covering the period 2012-2017.
Although the growth rate of coal slows from the breakneck pace of the last decade, global coal consumption by 2017 is estimated to be some 4.32 billion tonnes of oil equivalent (btoe), versus around 4.4 btoe for oil, based on IEA medium-term projections. The IEA expects that coal demand will increase in every region of the world except in the United States, where coal is being pushed out by natural gas………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Fu Chengyu has global ambitions. In 2005 he led CNOOC, a state-run Chinese energy giant, to make an audacious takeover bid for Unocal, an American oil-and-gas firm. That provoked a protectionist backlash, and CNOOC retreated. (It has since won approval to buy Nexen, a Canadian energy firm.)
In 2011 Mr Fu took over as boss of China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec), another state-run outfit. He has tried to transform the domestically focused firm into an international oil giant………………………………………..Full Article: Source

One-hundred percent green energy for the European Union is realistic by the middle of the century provided the bloc signs up to ambitious energy policy goals for 2030, conservation body WWF said in a report on Thursday.
Debate has begun in Brussels on targets for 2030 to replace the existing set of 2020 goals, which are to cut carbon emissions by 20 percent from 1990 levels, improve energy savings by 20 percent compared with projected use, and increase the share of renewables in the energy mix to 20 percent………………………………………..Full Article: Source

Muted volatility, sluggish trading activity and regulatory changes have conspired to create a tough environment for energy market participants over the past year. That has fuelled a lot of movement in this year’s Risk and Energy Risk Commodity Rankings, with some banks seeing their fortunes fall significantly.
Many investment banks in the energy derivatives market are likely to look on the past year as something of an annus horribilis. Continuing sluggishness in the global economy and low volatility in energy markets generated lacklustre trading opportunities, while a wave of new regulation affecting banking, derivatives and energy markets is also making life difficult for market participants………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The traders’ role in energy and commodities trading is changing rapidly, while physical trading has entered a new era of sophistication and scale. In a newly released and first-time study, Deloitte in Switzerland, the business advisory firm, has analysed the current issues and trends of one of the most important global and Swiss trading sectors.
Changing global economic conditions are giving rise to exciting new opportunities – and challenges – in energy and commodities trading. International trading houses are, whether in oil, metals or soft commodities, extending their reach and scope. In the study entitled “Trading Up – A look at some current issues facing energy and commodities traders“, Deloitte Switzerland presents its view on current issues and challenges facing energy and commodity trading………………………………………..Full Article: Source

A relative slowdown in new wind turbine construction in China was offset by increases in the US, Germany, India and the UK. Wind power expanded by almost 20% in 2012 around the world to reach a new peak of 282 gigawatts (GW) of total installed capacity, while solar power reached more than 100GW, having more than doubled in two years.
More than 45GW of new wind turbines arrived in 2012, with China and the US leading the way with 13GW each, while Germany, India and the UK were next with about 2GW apiece………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The world’s superpowers have traditionally relied on those countries rich in energy. But as the world moves to renewables, who will emerge as the new leading nations? “[O]ur oil addition is not just changing the climate system; it is also changing the international system… First, and most important, through our energy purchases we are helping to strengthen the most intolerant, antimodern, anti-Western, anti-women’s rights, and antipluralistic strain of Islam - the strain propagated by Saudi Arabia.
“Second, our oil addition is helping to finance a reversal of the democratic trends in Russia, Latin American, and elsewhere that were set in motion by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communism…I call this phenomenon ‘the First Law of Petropolitics’: As the price of oil goes up, the pace of freedom goes down…”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

As the global economy slowly recovers from the 2008 financial crisis, indicators point to a significant mid- and long-term rise in energy consumption, specifically in oil and natural gas. Despite recent developments in renewable energy resources and the increasing production of hydrocarbon from shale reserves, it looks likely that both consumption and prices will climb higher over the coming decades.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, in its annual review for 2013, reported that, despite energy efficiency regulations by developed countries, global consumption rates are on the rise………………………………………..Full Article: Source

According to new U.S. Energy Information Administration data, China burns nearly as much coal as the rest of the world combined. Coal consumption grew in the country for the 12th year in a row in 2011 and accounted for 87 percent of the 374 million ton global increase in coal use in 2011.
China overtook the U.S. as the world’s biggest carbon emitter in 2007, and became the world’s biggest consumer of energy in 2010. David Frum noted that the statistics make greenhouse gas emission restraint goals posited by the Kyoto Protocol look “obsolete.”……………………………………….Full Article: Source

The amount of fresh water consumed for world energy production is on track to double within the next 25 years, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects. And even though fracking—high-pressure hydraulic fracturing of underground rock formations for natural gas and oil—might grab headlines, IEA sees its future impact as relatively small.
By far the largest strain on future water resources from the energy system, according to IEA’s forecast, would be due to two lesser noted, but profound trends in the energy world: soaring coal-fired electricity, and the ramping up of biofuel production………………………………………..Full Article: Source

China’s coal use grew 9 percent in 2011, rising to 3.8 billion tons. At this point, the country is burning nearly as much coal as the rest of the world combined.
Coal, of course, is the world’s premier fossil fuel, a low-cost source of electricity that kicks a lot of carbon-dioxide up into the atmosphere. And China’s growing appetite is a big reason why global greenhouse-gas emissions have soared in recent years, even as the United States and Europe have managed to curtail their coal use and cut their carbon pollution………………………………………..Full Article: Source

U.S. energy independence has been a dream since the oil embargoes of the 1970s. But this vision of a “Saudi America” has always been just a dream. Investors and non-investors alike started talking in earnest about realizing that dream last November. That was after the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) latest World Energy Outlook said that the U.S. would overtake both Saudi Arabia and Russia in oil output by the second half of this decade.
Its forecast calls for the United States to be producing 11.1 million barrels a day in 2020 compared to Saudi Arabia’s 10.6 million barrels a day. The IEA’s Outlook went on to say that by 2035 the United States could be almost self-sufficient in energy, and talks about “Saudi America” began to surface………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The coal industry has taken a beating in recent years. The discovery of natural gas in the U.S. has reduced the role of coal in the electric power industry: In 2012, the demand for coal has declined and coal companies, such as Arch Coal, have suffered from this drop in consumption. So, is it time to count out coal? I think this sentiment is premature.
During 2012, the consumption of coal in electric power industry declined compared to previous years: in the first nine months of 2012, total consumption reached 615 million short tons; during the same time in 2011, consumption reached 722 million short tons………………………………………..Full Article: Source

The International Energy Agency, or IEA, is predicting a growth in global oil demand in 2013, a growth led by a resurgent Chinese economy. The Paris-based intergovernmental agency predicts that average world oil demand this year will shoot up by 930,000 barrels per day from 2012 levels.
The market’s immediate response wasn’t surprising. As expected, global crude oil prices inched higher, and the West Texas Intermediate futures hit a 17-week high. The IEA now forecasts global demand to average 90.8 million barrels per day in 2013………………………………………..Full Article: Source

According to a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), demand for energy has been increasing steadily since 2000, and coal supplies account for nearly half of the incremental primary energy supply globally. Coal demand grew 4.3 percent in 2011 alone and is unlikely to decrease in the foreseeable future.
“Coal’s share of the global energy mix continues to grow each year, and if no changes are made to current policies, coal will catch oil within a decade,” Maria van der Hoeven, IEA executive director, said………………………………………..Full Article: Source