Articles by
Jérôme Guillet
There will be no new nuclear power plants in the West
By
Jérôme Guillet
The call for more nuclear power - already loud when the debate was “only” about whether NordStream 2 made sense or not - has grown significantly since the war against Ukraine has started and underlined (yet again) Europe’s dependency on Russian gas. Macron’s announcement in early February to build new nuclear power plants has been followed recently by a strong push to do the same in the UK and by the decision in Belgium to expand the life of its existing plants.
The EU energy policy has long been a mess – here’s why
By
Jérôme Guillet
As we grapple how to urgently do something about the EU’s dependency on Russian oil&gas, it is worth reminding everybody that this situation is a direct, obvious result of longstanding core elements of EU energy and competition policy and that as long as this is not acknowledged, it will be really hard to do something about it.
The lazy (and incorrect) use of the word “subsidy”
By
Jérôme Guillet
A "subsidy" is a straightforward allocation of taxpayer money by a public authority to prop up the production of a good or service by the private sector, used to offset market failures and externalities for a greater good. A CfD, however, is a contract whereby one party (public or private) trades a volatile price for a good against a fixed price for the same good, and another party takes the symmetrical position. They are obviously different things.
The Economic and Political Consequences of the Last 10 Years of Renewable Energy Development
By
Jérôme Guillet
But the cat is out of the bag: once renewable energy reaches a critical mass, its impact on power systems is pretty much irreversible and no amount of lobbying by utilities is going to get them their previous business model back: wind turbines and solar panels are there and they will keep on cranking out zero-marginal-cost MWh for a very, very long time...
The new economics of the [wind] power sector
By
Jérôme Guillet
There's naturally a push to stop further investment in renewables - but here's the second hard truth: the cat is out of the bag: once renewable energy reaches a critical mass, its impact on power systems is pretty much irreversible and no amount of lobbying by utilities is going to get them their previous business model back: wind turbines and solar panels are there and they will keep on cranking out zero-marginal-cost MWh for a very, very long time...
UK Wind Power “Debate” : Latest Debunking
By
Jérôme Guillet
The deceptively-named Global Warming Policy Foundation (often mentioned on ET, try here and here) think-tanks on climate change (obfuscation), renewable energy (opposition), and conventional energy sources (support). In this case, the Imperial College team (from the Centre for Energy Policy and Technology plus the Business School, and help from the Department of Electrical Engineering) refute the main planks of the GWPF's testimony before the Committee, and in passing present some interesting arguments and new research data. . .
Jérôme Guillet: The Economist’s sad hack job about German energy policy
By
Jérôme Guillet
A thorough evisceration of a poorly researched, poorly written, sneering critique of Germany's energiewende by someone who actually knows what he's talking about--a must read. . .
Wind power topics at Euro Tribune by Jérôme Guillet
By
Jérôme Guillet
Below the fold is a (hopefully) complete list of ET diaries and stories related to wind power. . .
Financing European energy infrastructure by Jérôme Guillet
By
Jérôme Guillet
Another insightful article by a financier who raises debt for large offshore wind projects. . . "There are no "neutral" policy choices, and energy will always be political - and it's time what the implicit political choices of current policies be acknowledged.
Jérôme Guillet: ExxonMobil says wind is cheapest form of electricity generation–
By
Jérôme Guillet
So the conclusion can be that wind costs roughly the same as traditional power sources - with none of their drawbacks, whether troublesome exporters to deal with, dangerous mining practices for local communities or unhealthy, and durable, by-products. And it's ExxonMobil saying so.
The cost of wind, the price of wind, the value of wind
By
Jérôme Guillet
An excellent primer on why wind energy (and solar PV) needs feed-in tariffs. . .
Gore sets goal of 100% carbon-free electricity by 2020: Can Wind Meet It?
By
Jérôme Guillet
I thought I'd comment on the technical feasibility of the plan, and the underlying economics of such an endeavour. . .
