Editor’s blog

How new-build assets stack up against behaviour change is exactly the question we should be addressing in public planning

‘Relevant technical experts’ must respond this week to provide input to BEIS over how energy planning and national planning statements will take account of sustainability and the required Habitats Regulations Assessment. Six national planning statements that underpin planning decisions on energy assets were…

When can we retire ‘demand’ and ‘supply’?

Electricity and energy industry models are starting to diverge from the centrally dispatched model dominated by large generators, and demand side response – although often an opaque term to users – is becoming a familiar part of the landscape. Initiatives…

Range anxiety again?

Think tanks Bright Blue and Policy Exchange raise some useful policy proposals aimed at speeding up the rollout of electric vehicles (see story here). A couple raise questions. Policy Exchange would see government offer competitive tenders and long term contracts…

Do you need an energy butler?

From time to time I find myself trying to explain how the energy industry is changing to people who couldn’t give a picowatt. Here is my latest analogy: In the past you have had an energy butler, happy to meet all…

A good idea a decade ago?

Once again Kwasi Kwarteng MP talks up nuclear as “The only way we can get decarbonised firm power which isn’t intermittent …We will need a source of power that isn’t fluctuating, that isn’t dependent on the wind blowing and the…