About Barney Smith

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So far Barney Smith has created 160 blog entries.

The Chinese car market and the prospects for an electric future

Electric cars were at the forefront of the Chinese Motor show, which started on Wednesday 25 April in Beijing. News about new models was accompanied by a flurry of announcements about future Government regulation of what is now the largest car market in the world. (Figures from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) show [...]

By |2018-05-03T09:59:53+00:00May 3rd, 2018|Transport|Comments Off on The Chinese car market and the prospects for an electric future

ITM and Hydrogen

ITM Power is not a huge company. A market cap of around £110 million would result from the share price of 33.50p on Friday 27 April. Yet the company is in the forefront of innovation in the use of hydrogen generated from renewable energy to reduce carbon emissions, both in the transport sector and in [...]

By |2018-04-30T20:21:46+00:00May 1st, 2018|ITM Power|Comments Off on ITM and Hydrogen

Indian Wind tariffs stay competitive in 5 April auction

Power tariffs remained reasonably low in one of the largest auctions conducted by the state-run Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), which ended on 5 April 2018. 2 Gigawatts (GW) of wind power was up for auction and the winning bids were Rs2.51 and Rs 2.52 per kilowatt hour respectively. That is not quite as [...]

By |2018-04-11T07:43:47+00:00April 11th, 2018|Wind|Comments Off on Indian Wind tariffs stay competitive in 5 April auction

Uruguay: a beacon of hope for renewables?

When the going gets tough in the sometimes heated debate in the UK, Germany and elsewhere about the optimum place of renewables in electricity generation, it may be refreshing to point out that there are places in the world where renewables are the whole answer to the question. Most of them are small, with only [...]

By |2018-04-11T09:13:28+00:00April 6th, 2018|General|Comments Off on Uruguay: a beacon of hope for renewables?

What is the likely shape of the future market for gas in the UK?

There are purists who would like to believe that gas has no long-term future,  that it will serve only to help fuel the transition to a renewables future. Others believe that gas has a long term role as a fuel, cleaner than coal or oil, which can help us to meet our decarbonisation targets and [...]

By |2018-03-20T10:17:31+00:00March 20th, 2018|Oil & Gas|Comments Off on What is the likely shape of the future market for gas in the UK?

GWEC releases Wind Energy Figures for 2017

Recently, the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) released their annual market statistics for 2017. They make interesting reading for they cover a period when kilowatt/hour prices for electricity generated by both on-shore and off-shore wind came down sharply. During 2017, total world-wide installed electricity generating capacity rose by some 52,573 MW to give a global [...]

By |2018-03-07T15:08:26+00:00March 7th, 2018|Wind|Comments Off on GWEC releases Wind Energy Figures for 2017

Renewables in Germany: some thoughts

Germany was perhaps the first major industrial power to embrace renewables, so it may be instructive to look at the lessons to be derived from their experience so far. Maybe the first point to make is that “the market rules” does not mean that commercial companies necessarily prioritise the future of the planet. When the [...]

By |2018-01-27T18:08:38+00:00January 27th, 2018|General|Comments Off on Renewables in Germany: some thoughts

China is reinforcing its pre-eminence in renewables

Almost exactly twelve months ago a report was issued noting that China was reinforcing its increasing dominance in renewable energy by a programme of aggressive investment both at home and around the globe. That report came from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). On 9 January 2018 IEEFA produced a follow-up report [...]

By |2018-01-20T21:36:29+00:00January 20th, 2018|General|Comments Off on China is reinforcing its pre-eminence in renewables

What drove TOROTRAK into receivership?

On 7 December at 07.30 it was announced that the Board of Torotrak had decided to appoint administrators from Deloittes  “as soon as is practicable” and to suspend the company’s listing on the London Stock Exchange, where the shares were quoted at 0.07 p. This was not totally unexpected: Torotrak had been warning that lack [...]

By |2018-01-09T08:16:08+00:00January 9th, 2018|Torotrak|Comments Off on What drove TOROTRAK into receivership?

New study suggests palm oil production can have unexpected consequences

Figures for 2016 show that global palm oil production was over 62 million tons. This is the highest production volume of all vegetable oils, exceeding the second biggest oilseed crop by more than 10m tons and thus of considerable significance in terms of renewables. This tonnage is mainly produced by Indonesia (53 per cent) and [...]

By |2018-01-16T17:23:24+00:00January 1st, 2018|Bioenergy|Comments Off on New study suggests palm oil production can have unexpected consequences
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