EnergySource

EnergySource provides analysis and insight on key energy issues, making sense of key energy trends and their implications for geopolitics, geoeconomics, policy, and markets.

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EnergySource

Mar 10, 2021

The pandemic and electricity transformation in the United States and the European Union: Developments in 2020

By Robert F. Ichord, Jr.

Electricity sector developments in 2020 demonstrated the key role of renewables and nuclear power in achieving President Biden’s goal of realizing “a carbon pollution-free electricity sector by 2035” and the EU’s target of 55 percent emissions reduction by 2030. But it also reinforced the magnitude of the challenge ahead, with fossil fuels still representing 60 percent of the power generation mix in the United States and 37 percent in the European Union, as well as the importance of pursuing an aggressive sustainable recovery plan to avoid a rebound in emissions.

Coronavirus Energy & Environment

EnergySource

Feb 25, 2021

In Texas and California, blackouts highlight the challenge of balancing reliability with cost

By Jonathan Gillis

Over the past year, the United States has endured two major “load shedding” events, first in California and now in Texas, in which electric system operators instructed transmission owners to reduce demand by rotating blackouts across service areas. In both cases, customers were left wondering how an entire region could run out of electricity. The answer lies in the complex and contentious world of “resource adequacy,” one of the most challenging issues in electric system planning and market design.

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

EnergySource

Feb 19, 2021

How a HALEU bank could work

By Stephen S. Greene

Lack of a long-term, reliable source of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel represents a critical risk to the deployment of advanced reactors, which could be a key source of carbon-free electricity in the future. However, a HALEU fuel bank could resolve the conundrum facing advanced reactor developers and potential HALEU fuel suppliers by supporting the production of HALEU for advanced reactors and resolving the uncertainty faced by reactor developers and their potential customers and sources of financing.

Energy & Environment Nuclear Energy

EnergySource

Feb 17, 2021

Rapid response: SPP/ERCOT winter freeze energy crisis

By Global Energy Center

Atlantic Council Global Energy Center staff and nonresident senior fellows share their thoughts on the SPP/ERCOT winter freeze energy crisis and the way forward in this rapid response piece.

Energy & Environment Energy Markets & Governance

EnergySource

Feb 12, 2021

As the United States develops advanced reactors, a new fuel supply chain is critical to national security

By Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr. and Admiral Richard Mies

Over the past five years, the United States has made meaningful progress in the development of advanced nuclear reactor designs critical to keeping the country on the cutting edge of nuclear technology. These positive trends signal a growing need for the Department of Energy to address a key challenge that many reactor developers face as they move toward deployment: the lack of a reliable source of high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel.

Energy & Environment Nuclear Energy

EnergySource

Feb 10, 2021

A paradigm shift under President Joe Biden: From “energy dominance” towards climate cooperation

By Friedbert Pflüger

The US return to the Paris Agreement and the appointment of John Kerry as the new US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate indicate a new paradigm: international energy and climate cooperation is back on the agenda. While there may be challenges to achieving broader goals, hopes are up for a transatlantic New Energy Deal between the United States and the EU in light of new policy substance with ambitious climate targets, and a new tone.

Climate Change & Climate Action Energy & Environment

EnergySource

Feb 5, 2021

Charting a path towards net-zero: The importance of US leadership in carbon dioxide removal

By Anne Canavati

Under the Biden-Harris administration, the United States can and must reemerge as a global leader on climate action. Accelerating research, development, demonstration, and deployment of a range of carbon dioxide removal applications is a critical step to achieving US and global climate targets.

Climate Change & Climate Action Elections

EnergySource

Feb 2, 2021

Reconciling transatlantic differences over Nord Stream 2

By Daniel Fried, Richard L. Morningstar, Daniel D. Stein

From the time it was first proposed in 2011, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has divided the United States and the project’s European supporters, principally Germany. Nord Stream 2 is not simply a US-Europe issue or a US-Germany issue, however. Many in Europe, including Central and Eastern European countries, the European Parliament, and those […]

Energy & Environment Europe & Eurasia

EnergySource

Feb 2, 2021

Developing countries offer enormous market potential for long-duration energy storage

By Sandra Chavez

Achieving deep decarbonization requires energy storage that can store more power for longer durations. Lithium-ion batteries, thus far, have played a key role in supporting the integration of renewable energy resources into the electric grid. But as the share of variable renewable energy in power systems grows around the world, new energy technologies that can store electricity for longer durations at low cost are needed. Developing countries present enormous market opportunities for innovative long-duration energy storage technologies that can support the integration of greater shares of variable renewable energy into weak power grids, replace diesel generators, and provide seasonal balancing.

Energy & Environment Energy Transitions

EnergySource

Jan 21, 2021

Why digitalization is the future of energy as big oil and gas players decarbonize

By Leo Simonovich

The way companies handle the rapid transformation caused by digitalization across their value chains—and their resilience and security against cyberattacks—will become a major market differentiator. As the oil and gas industry increasingly relies on digitally connected energy assets, automation, and remote operations, cyber risks will have a direct, and growing, impact on operations. Cybersecurity is quickly becoming a key enabler of companies’ competitive advantage in the digitized energy future, protecting core value by ensuring trust and providing stability of operations and resilience against unplanned outages.

Cybersecurity Energy & Environment
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