Fifth Update of May 2019 – An overview of last week’s Energy news

Below is this week’s summary. It should be a one minute read relevant to UK energy with links to documents for those who wish to read more.

(Click a bullet point to open the relevant article)

Tuesday – 28th May

• Wood Mackenzie predict $215 billion will be spent on new LNG supply plants over next 5 years expanding supply by 50%.

Wednesday – 29th May

• Major UK energy companies have written to UK Prime Minister to suggest UK pushes to host the next International Climate Conference in 2020.

• Norwegian Equinor (rebranded from Statoil) will join investment to make Drax power station carbon neutral or net carbon negative using Carbon Capture and Storage. Drax uses coal and wood pellets to generate electricity at present. A similar idea was previously known as the White Rose project but was cancelled by UK Government withdrawing funding in 2015.

• A youth group within German far-right party “Alternativ fur Deutschland” blames lack of support from younger people on support for coal and ‘climate skepticism’.

• The energy we hear so little about: the energy we don’t use. Nations are falling behind commitment to become more energy efficient.

Thursday – 30th May

• Freedom molecules is the new name for US natural gas exports .. think it’ll catch on?

• Australia, currently world’s biggest exporter of liquid natural gas is facing a domestic supply and demand crunch meaning they will be importing LNG within several years.

• Renewables investment halved between 2015 and 2017 with jobs in sector dropping by 30-40% in similar period.

Friday – 31st May

• Another record for UK electricity generation without coal: two weeks and counting.

• … And finally, expansion of US exports of Liquid Natural Gas or “freedom molecules” to Europe continues with first supply to Bulgaria (looks like it’s catching on!)