Despite COP26 talks, last year saw renewable growth fall to its lowest level since 2010, with these figures falling every year since 2015. If the UK is to hit its 2050 net-zero targets, Government and businesses must ensure that they uphold the COP26 pledges throughout 2022. With the UK’s ambitious targets to cut emissions by 78% compared to 1990 levels, and ensure all electricity comes from clean sources by 2035, tougher policies are needed to make sure that the country does not falter in its commitments to meet the 1.5C global warming target.
In climate circles, ‘energy transition’ is the phrase on everyone’s lips. The global effort to shift energy generation away from polluting fossil fuels to clean, green renewables is as massive a challenge as anything the world has faced.
By Lyndsey Burton, managing director of Choose.co.uk
Renewable energy is at the forefront of efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the UK yet 2021 showcased both the highs and lows of relying on renewables.
I’m a little bemused. Inevitably the ScotWind lease awards were going to trigger all sorts of claims about how the Scottish offshore wind supply chain will gain from this huge project, but nobody seems prepared to explain exactly how this will happen given that we don’t actually have a supply chain of any note particularly when it comes to the high value hardware.
By Conrad Purcell, Infrastructure and Energy Projects Partner at Haynes Boone
By 2030 half of all UK wind farms will be over 20 years old. Not only will the wind turbines have reached the end of their design life after 20 years, but the projects' leases, planning permission and other contracts will have been structured around this 20 year period.
The ScotWind licencing announcements on January 17th were certainly a welcome and hugely material vote of confidence in the future of the offshore energy sector in the UK.
Maybe yesterday should be renamed Green Monday rather than Blue Monday. It was certainly a day to celebrate the ambition for renewable energy in Scotland as the ScotWind licencing round was announced with provision for significantly more GW than anticipated.
It has been more than 20 years in the making, but at last Aberdeen has got its big chance to prove that it really can become a major player in offshore renewables and especially wind.
On July 14, 2021 the EU unveiled its much anticipated ‘Fit for 55’ package of proposals to align the trading block with its 2030 emission reduction targets.
By Co-written by Rio Jon Piter Silitonga, Bintang Widhana and Kevin Hor - The ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE)
As the world moves towards a net-zero scenario for the building sector, it is anticipated that significant investments are required to achieve this scenario.
Since early 2020, the challenges presented by Covid-19, coupled with increasing pressure to decarbonise operations, resulted in the oil and gas sector facing one of the most challenging, and transformative, periods in its history.
The New Year is a time for staying close to home so, in that spirit, I will take a look at some energy-related issues that affect the Western Isles and will come to a head in 2022.
By Matthew Culver, Partner at CMS, with David Rutherford, Senior Associate and Firas Albani, Associate
Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa, with the government highly dependent on oil revenues. As such, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is crucial to the country and the state.
With the results of the first ScotWind offshore licensing round now imminent, it is perhaps worth having a wee cogitate about what the sustainable benefits or otherwise could accrue to Scotland.
We’ve made it to 2022, it’s easy to think 'how are we still in this situation!?' You could be forgiven for feeling like 2021 almost didn’t happen. That old saying ‘two steps forward three steps back’ comes to mind. But it’s more important than ever to focus on your own mental wellbeing and for companies to focus on employee metal health and wellbeing now.
Building an additional 10GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 is an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle that makes up Scotland’s plans to try to reach Net Zero. ScotWind will be ground-breaking both in terms of size and opportunity.
It’s been 20 years since Ørsted (at that time called Dong Energy, and very much a major oil & gas company) commissioned Vindeby in Denmark, which was the world’s first offshore wind farm. It took another 10 years from this modest start (5MW, powering just 2,200 homes) for the offshore wind industry to really start to take off.
By Audun Martinsen, partner & head of energy service research, Rystad Energy
The Omicron virus variant has plunged the world into yet more uncertainty in recent months – but even so, 2021 will be remembered as the year when the pandemic loosened its grip on global energy markets and the supply chain could start to recover from last year’s 14% drop in global energy spending. Investments grew 7% this year, putting economies, energy demand and the supply sector on the road to recovery.
By Nick Dalgarno, managing director, Piper Sandler
As the curtain falls on 2021, a year largely dominated by the three Cs – Covid, COP26 and Cambo – we’re seeing strong energy market fundamentals underpinned by high commodity prices which would usually signal greater optimism for the year ahead.
By Charlie Jordan, UK Offshore Wind Director, Iberdrola
As we head into 2022, Scotland is set to play a leading role in a new global offshore energy industry that will transform the role offshore wind plays in the UK’s energy mix.
By Neil Gordon, chief executive, Global Underwater Hub
In a year that continued to be dominated by the pandemic and the rapid acceleration of the energy transition, both the underwater industry and its representative body have been evolving.
