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RAP experts keep their finger on the pulse of the energy sector and provide timely analysis of topics impacting stakeholders TODAY.
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Network charges: Paving the way for industrial electrification and competitiveness
The Commission and others have identified renewable electricity as the main lever to reduce gas imports and reduce industrial carbon emissions. Yet electricity prices are often significantly higher than fossil fuel prices, so the business case does not always stack… View Summary +
How to drive industrial electrification for climate and strategic independence
Electrification is the name of the game Heat is a crucial element in almost every manufacturing process, whether it is in the heavy stuff of melting glass and steel or firing ceramics at scorching temperatures (800°C-1,500°C), producing chemicals (100°C-500 °C),… View Summary +
Heat pumps gained European market share in 2023 despite falling sales
Following several years of strong growth, heat pump markets slowed in Europe in 2023. In previous articles for Carbon Brief, we discussed this initial surge in 2021 and explored the impact of the energy crisis in 2022. Yet, despite… View Summary +
How the energy crisis is boosting heat pumps in Europe
Heat pumps are widely seen as the most important technology when it comes to decarbonising heating. Organisations including the International Energy Agency and McKinsey see heat pumps providing most of our heating… View Summary +
How to solve the UK’s heat pump problem
With fossil fuel prices skyrocketing, emissions from homes in the UK stubbornly high and the price of clean electricity from renewables tumbling, it’s clear that we are not taking the right approach to heating our buildings. Heating, which is dominated… View Summary +
‘Hydrogen-ready’ boilers – a lifeline for fossil fuel heating in Europe
The heating industry is in turmoil. The need to decarbonise energy demand as well as the gas crisis caused by the war in Ukraine have led to governments around Europe setting phase-out dates for the installation of fossil fuel heating… View Summary +
From laggard to leader: How Poland became Europe’s fastest-growing heat pump market
With the war in Ukraine compelling everyone to rethink their energy strategies and focus on getting rid of Russian fossil fuel imports, while maintaining what is left from the affordability of energy supply, the go-to tactics are achieving several energy… View Summary +
How Europe can rapidly reduce its gas dependency
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them,” Albert Einstein famously said. Yet this is exactly what the European Commission appears to be doing in its forthcoming strategy for more affordable, secure and… View Summary +
How heat pump sales are starting to take off around the world
Experts see heat pumps as one of the main solutions for tackling the carbon emissions associated with keeping buildings warm, both in the UK and internationally. Yet sales of the technology, often likened to a… View Summary +
Europe’s gas decarbonisation package: Putting new wine in old wineskins?
Putting new wine in old wineskins is a timeworn saying first mentioned in the Bible. Doing so is not a good idea we are taught: ‘the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as… View Summary +
