Articles by
Craig Morris
Renewables International: German PV auctions: told you so
By
Craig Morris
So the auction has just resulted in a large group of losers, a higher price than with feed-in tariffs, and a two-year postponement of the roughly 150 megawatts just awarded.
Boell: Why is UK wind power so expensive?
By
Craig Morris
In a nutshell, the UK overpays wind power in particular because big utilities with big expectations for returns run the show, whereas new players and communities have largely driven the German wind sector up to now – and they were more interested in getting the transition moving than in increasing their personal profits.
Boell: Suppressed French report says 100% renewables is possible
By
Craig Morris
What are the findings? The leaked PDF has two blank pages where the executive summary should be. So I wrote my own.
Boell: “Seasonal storage not needed for now”
By
Craig Morris
In line with previous investigations, such as the one by Fraunhofer ISE, the AEE finds that storage across weeks at a time will “not become relevant until renewables make up at least 60 to 80 percent of power consumption.” In contrast, short-term storage (for hours or a day or two) will be needed sooner, but it will partly also pertain to stabilizing the grid.
Renewables International: No time for fact checking at the New York Times
By
Craig Morris
The NYT has published another grossly inaccurate article about the European Union, and Germany in particular, in which the author mainly displays her personal agenda. She claims an EU study occasioned her piece, but had she even read it?
French nuclear power history – the unknown story
By
Craig Morris
French Environmental Minister Ségolène Royal . . . defended (article in French) the policy of “getting out of all-nuclear” (sortir du tout nucléaire). Here, something easily gets lost in translation: all-nuclear (tout nucléaire).
Boell: Few new German energy co-ops in 2014
By
Craig Morris
Last summer, the umbrella organization for German energy cooperatives announced that the willingness of energy cooperatives to make further investments in the current year had already fallen from 92 percent in 2013 to 70 percent in 2014. The number of newly founded co-ops has also been on the decrease since the peak in 2011
Boell: Renewables have made power cheaper for German industry
By
Craig Morris
The best news about this study is not its findings, though they will no doubt be widely circulated. Rather, it is a sign that Siemens has moved from unrealistic criticism of the Energiewende to unrealistic cheerleading for it. Two cheers for Siemens!
Renewables International: New German wind growth record in 2014
By
Craig Morris
According to data released yesterday by German wind power association BWE and German engineering association VDMA (PDF), the country installed 4,750 megawatts of onshore capacity last year, up more than 50 percent from the 2,998 megawatts in the previous year and nearly 50 percent more than the record year of around 3,200 megawatts (2002).
Renewables International: US could nearly quadruple share of renewables
By
Craig Morris
A country report published by IRENA finds that the United States could have 27 percent renewable energy (not just electricity!) by 2030, up from 7.5 percent in 2010 – and much higher than the 10 percent it would have under business as usual.
Wind roars on in Germany
By
Craig Morris
German wind power production hit a new record level in 2014, though it only rose slightly – by around one percent to 52.4 TWh.
Renewables International: “Germany cannot get 0.9 percent of its electricity from wind power”
By
Craig Morris
An ad in Die Zeit from 22 June 1990 posted by a German nuclear organization shows how greatly wind power was underestimated. And how nuclear never lived up to the dreams of its supporters.
