The IEA’s World Energy Outlook in 6 charts. Here is our pick of top charts from the IEA’s latest annual World Energy Outlook (WEO), as promised in our earlier post. These are about the big trends that we (mostly) agree with. In yet another follow-up post we will also write about that the…

The world is either going to be constrained by the high price of energy, cook itself or it will use a lot of gas, barring a revolution in renewables. In our earlier post we showed some enduring energy trends. In this one we take a look at what happens if these trends broadly continue. This is…

A bit more than 4 barrels of oil. Or about 700 liters. That is how much oil the average person uses each year globally. And it has been the same for the past 30 years. BP recently published its annual data deluge regarding energy markets. We calculated some interesting ratios and present them in…

The EU is getting worried about the high energy prices paid by European companies. Well, maybe they should have thought of that earlier. Another EU summit was held last week, where energy issues were discussed (among other topics). However, the issue of tax avoidance and tax fraud seems to have…

In what does Europe beat the world, and what does America excel in? We were also inspired by the world map that went viral on the net last week: more people living inside of a circle than outside of it… We made a couple versions for the energy industry too. The following mind-blowing map came…

‘The United States is on the path to a cleaner and more secure energy future’. But the President does not have much to do with that. President Obama has just unveiled a “blueprint for a clean and secure energy future” for the US. The press reports noted that the controversial Keystone XL…

Showing typical zombie signs: far from well and alive, but not quite dead, and acting in an unpredictable way. By István Zsoldos and Péter Simon Vargha There are efforts to resurrect it. For example, the EP Environment committee has just backed a proposal to temporarily freeze some quota…

A pipeline project is made of steel and political stability along its route. Both of these things got scarcer and more expensive in the past 10 years, while the alternatives became more abundant. Nabucco seemed to be a good idea 10 years ago. But then the world changed. The Nabucco gas pipeline…

Introducing carbon taxes instead of the currently struggling European cap-and-trade (ETS) system would be a good idea. Let’s hope the Italians mean it, and that this enthusiasm will survive the upcoming elections. Italy’s environment minister, Corrado Clini recently said he would propose a…

The worse drought in the US in 50 years and sky-rocketing corn and food prices have called attention to the irrationality of biofuels again. But the truth is that ethanol and biodiesel have always been prohibitively expensive even without a drought, and not a good way to reduce CO2 emissions. Now…

Solar power has been a booming business recently, thanks in part to fast declining costs, but more importantly governments that sprinkled it with lavish subsidies. And the curious thing was that the governments that could afford it the least were among the most generous. In 2011, almost a third of…