GWEC has launched the Global Wind Energy Memorial Award in honour of its late CEO Steve Sawyer, who passed away last year. The Award reflects Steve’s vision and raison d’être. He was an exceptionally influential leader in civil society, with a distinguished career in Greenpeace, and built GWEC into a leading renewables industry representative during his time as CEO.
Blog
Energy Safety Nets: Using Social Assistance Mechanisms to Close Affordability Gaps for the Poor
This is first-of-its-kind research investigates 25 support schemes for energy access for poor households in six countries, namely Brazil, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Kenya and Mexico. Energy Safety Nets are defined as energy support schemes that allow poor parts of a country´s population to gain access to essential electricity services and clean cooking. These are essentially consumer subsidies (not support for companies, which provide energy access). Who should read this?
Global Futures Report
A new report by WWF says half a billion USD lost from global GDP under a Business as Usual scenario of economic development; the study covers 160 countries. ´Eastern and Western Africa, Central Asia and parts of South America would be hit particularly hard as a result of the changes in price, trade and production levels (with annual GDP losses of up to 4%).´
Thoughts about the Corona Crisis
Global attention on the Corona crisis is unparalleled – I certainly never saw such global attention for such a long time focused on one topic only. Not even the opening of the Iron Curtain in 1989 can really compare to this situation, where all over the globe people take the same measures and try to stay informed at the same time. Yet the discussions concern a huge range of different aspects – so how can we start to orientate ourselves in this extraordinary global debate?
Hydrogen – Baking Hot
Imagine biting into fresh, warm bread … knowing that its production only used clean hydrogen. This may soon be possible in Tyrol, in western Austria, where Europe´s largest Pressurized Alkaline Electrolyser (PAE) is being built.
Hydrogen is much talked about as fuel and energy storage system for the future; the International Energy Agency calls it ´a fuel, an energy carrier and a building block of all electro fuels´. But most of the H2-production today stems from fossil fuels and would only be close to carbon neutral under a rigid system of carbon capture and storage. But what about real CLEAN hydrogen?