We’re once again thinking through the practical and theoretical impacts of the pandemic on energy, in the near-term and well into the future. 

Shayle and Stephen talk with Ramez Naam, a futurist, science-fiction author and energy expert. Ramez joined The Interchange last August to talk about some future scenarios for energy. The world is a dramatically different place today, so we’re bringing him back to recalibrate our sights.

We’ll talk about a wide range of subjects, including: oil consumption, behavior changes, demand for electric cars, and whether we’re delaying the energy transition.

Questions we'll answer:

• Does this

Iberdrola closed on two deals in the space of a week for wind projects in France and the U.K., including nearly 300 megawatts of operating capacity.

The Spanish utility has promised to accelerate its investment plans in 2020, bringing forward procurement commitments and hiring 5,000 additional staff as part of its own coronavirus stimulus plan. That plan appears well underway.

At the end of last week, Iberdrola closed on an acquisition of French developer Aalto Power for €100 million ($109 million). In the process, it gained 118 megawatts of operational onshore wind and a 636-megawatt pipeline in France.

On Wednesday Iberdrola subsidiary Scottish Power announced the acquisition of 165

U.S.-listed renewable energy yieldcos have fallen in and out fashion since they burst onto the markets early last decade. Where do they stand today as investors reassess the energy landscape in a post-coronavirus world?

Leading yieldcos like NextEra Energy Partners, TerraForm Power and Atlantica Yield all saw rapid rises in their share prices in late 2019 and early 2020. The surge came after years of lackluster performance that followed the initial yieldco boom and then bust of the mid-2010s.

Yieldcos focus on the relatively low-risk business of operating wind farms, solar arrays and other clean-energy assets, and they typically offer investors a generous dividend.

The recent revived interest in yieldcos

Duke Energy is standing behind its plan to double its renewable energy base to 16 gigawatts by 2025 despite the depressing effect the coronavirus outbreak is having on its utilities.

Duke's first-quarter income from its utilities business fell, and the results don’t reflect the full impact of the COVID-19 stay-at-home and business closure orders, CEO Lynn Good said on a Tuesday conference call. 

In April the picture darkened further: Duke's total electricity sales fell 5 percent, dragged down by a 12 percent slide in demand from industrial customers that was only partially offset by higher-than-usual residential sales.

Utilities across the country are reporting dramatic drops in commercial and industrial energy demand. Many

Another of the world’s largest battery projects is moving forward with construction in Southern California amid the coronavirus slowdown.

Strata Solar will begin construction in July on its 100 megawatt/400 megawatt-hour battery plant in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles along the coast. County authorities signed off on the final approvals over Zoom, allowing the project to keep on schedule, Strata SVP of Energy Storage Joshua Rogol told Greentech Media. It should be operational by early 2021.

That’s a welcome development for a project that serves as a test case for replacing new natural gas plants with non-emitting battery storage. Strata’s Ventura Energy Storage project is the

Duke Energy is standing behind its plan to double its renewable energy base to 16 gigawatts by 2025 despite the depressing effect the coronavirus outbreak is having on its utilities.

Duke's first quarter income from its utilities business fell, and the results don’t reflect the full impact of the COVID-19 stay-at-home and business closure orders, CEO Lynn Good said on a Tuesday conference call. 

In April the picture darkened further: Duke's total electricity sales fell 5 percent, dragged down by a 12 percent slide in demand from industrial customers that was only partially offset by higher-than-usual residential sales.

Utilities across the country are reporting dramatic drops in commercial and industrial energy demand.

Current conversations around the energy transition often focus on the power and transportation sectors. But decarbonization of other sectors, such as heat, is also critical to meeting national and regional climate targets.

Heat makes up 35 percent of global energy consumption, and when it comes to space heating, direct combustion of fossil fuels in buildings plays a dominant role across the globe and is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Natural gas and fuel oil satisfy 60 percent of heating needs of households in Europe. In the U.S., the share is about 75 percent. In China, coal and gas boilers make up more than 90 percent of

The CEO of German utility giant E.ON has called on the German government to intervene to keep down the costs of renewable electricity and “fast-track” the energy transition.

Johannes Teyssen said Berlin needs to cap the tariff added to customer bills to pay for the country’s renewable support schemes, the so-called EEG levy. Any shortfall in that support should be covered by federal funding, including proceeds from the new carbon tax, Teyssen said Tuesday.

Reduced demand during the coronavirus lockdown coupled with ample wind and solar generation has seen German power prices turn negative, even more so than usual. So far in 2020 there have been 179 hours of negative