European lawmakers have called for a renewable energy target of 35% for 2030 – rather than the 27% which the European Commission proposed in 2016. The MEPs have now backed measures substantially raising the European Union’s clean-energy ambitions. By 2030, more than one-third of energy consumed in the EU should be from renewable sources such as wind and solar power. The measures are intended to help cut carbon dioxide emissions. The EU is the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States, releasing about 10% of global emissions.
Major shifts in the global energy landscape, particularly related to electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy sources, mean that MEI expects global CO₂emissions to plateau by 2030. However, increased global energy demand means emissions will remain at more than double the level required for a 2 degrees Celsius warming pathway. Ole Rolser, Associate Partner and Solution Leader at MEI, comments: “Despite the significant momentum around EVs and renewable energy sources taking an increasing share of the power market, to realise the 2 degrees pathway scenario, we’d have to see much broader, much more disruptive change than what we’re seeing now.”
World clean energy investment totalled $333.5 billion last year, up 3% from 2016 and the second highest annual figure ever, taking cumulative investment since 2010 to $2.5 trillion. An extraordinary boom in photovoltaic installations made 2017 a record year for China’s investment in clean energy. This outpaced changes elsewhere, including jumps in investment in Australia and Mexico, and declines in Japan, the U.K. and Germany. The figures up 3% from a revised $324.6 billion in 2016, and only 7% short of the record figure of $360.3 billion, in 2015.
ICONIQ Motors, a China-based EV company, has reached agreement to test its autonomous driving concept at Masdar City. The ICONIQ SEVEN, one of the world’s latest EV models is a futuristic vehicle, built on an intelligent, connected vehicle platform integrated with Microsoft’s AZURE cloud technology; and is set to hit the market in 2019. “Masdar City has put smart and sustainable mobility at the centre of its strategy, as highlighted by the historic success of its flagship driverless Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system,” said Yousef Baselaib, Executive Director of Sustainable Real Estate at Madsar. “It is the ideal location to test innovative autonomous driving concepts.”
In the latest issue of its “Energy Infrastructure Update” (with data through November 30, 2017), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) notes that proposed net additions to generating capacity by utility-scale wind and solar could total 115,984 megawatts (MW) by December 2020 – effectively doubling their current installed capacity of 115,520 MW. The numbers were released as FERC prepares for a January 10 meeting to consider U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s proposal for a bailout of the coal and nuclear industries.