Welcome to another edition of Green Energy International’s blog, focusing on all the main talking points from around the renewable energy sector across the globe.

Not long after our first blog post, the world was shocked by the images coming out of Ukraine of Russia’s invasion, and in the coming weeks we all saw the harrowing images coming out of the conflict. Aside from the widespread devastation to infrastructure and Ukrainian soceity, the world jumped to action to begin sanctioning Russia for their actions. Among many were the punishments selected to hurt the Russian energy sector, of which has a strong influence over the energy supply for Europe. This has once again brought renewables to the fore front of international attention, with many European nations vowing to invest heavily into their renewable industries, some including nuclear within their definition of renewables. Some have been more cautious, such as Germany, concerned over their reliance on Russian gas supply for domestic usage.

At home in the UK, reliance on Russian gas is not as severe as on the European continent, with supply also known to come from middle eastern countries and our north sea neighbours, Norway. However, this has still launched the UK government to announce a swathe of promises across the board on renewables, most notably being offshore wind. There has been talk of reducing the planning constraints to try and fast track wind developments in order to get more in operation sooner. There has been less noise made about solar, with the most notable statements on solar development made focusing on rooftops, both household and commerical. This was coupled with the Chancellor announcing that some rooftop systems would be VAT exempt at the development stage, to encourage more households to take up solar panels upon their roofs, in order to try and mitigate rocketing energy prices.

How far the government is going is as expected, not far enough. Its frustrating to see solar down the pecking order in terms of priority, being seen as behind wind and nuclear for significant advancements and incentives. The key to self-sufficiency is a diverse mix of sources, in order to cover any potential issue with one element of the mix. For example, if the UK was fairly self-sufficient thanks to offshore and onshore wind, and a bad storm was to damage several wind farms either on or off shore, then the majority of power generation from this source is lost temporarily, and leaves the country left relying on what was produced and then stored. This is alongside any other sources of energy, which would then need to be ramped up. Therefore, its important the government do not become short-sighted and too focused on just wind, solar is perfectly viable in this country as well. The nuclear issue is a tricky issue and divides opinion, their opinion normally dependent mainly on people’s proximity to their nearest nuclear power station. With many being wound down and redeveloped, elements of the government want them ramped up and brought back online or at least replaced. France are a strong case study of how a nation can operate nuclear power as a large proprtion of its energy mix, with varying opinions from the public on how happy they are about it, especially after the Fukushima nuclear incident.

One must not forget the big name in all of this, hydrogen. Hydrogen is getting ever closer as being adapted into the mainstream, with the hope it will be a mainstream fuel for transport and industry in the coming years. There was big news recently as tech giant Elon Musk announced that the development of Tesla vehicles would be moved from electrical battery powered to being powered by hydrogen fuel in 2024. The hope is that greater recognition of the use of hydrogen will drive the demand to increase the development of green hydrogen in particular. With the volatility the world now faces with energy: rising gas and oil prices, conflict and impending climate change – the development of green hydrogen could not be a more welcome sight. It is now about ensuring the development continues and is adopted in the mainstream.

That is all for this latest blog entry, thank you for reading and we hope to see you in the coming months for the next edition.