New research from @ecioxford.bsky.social + Danish Technological Institute finds heat pumps can cut industrial heating costs by up to 75% vs hydrogen boilers — the fastest, most affordable path to decarbonising industrial heat. ➡️Read more: tinyurl.com/3e39ypht #HeatPumps #NetZero #Decarbonisation

The end of the internal combustion engine? Sales of petrol and diesel cars in China peaked in 2017 and are now falling rapidly. The shift to electric and low-carbon transport is well underway—and EV sales are rising fast.

Good thread from Dave about the new IEA "Current Policies Scenario" making a lot of the headlines. Here is a very quick mock-up I made of what this scenario assumes for solar PV additions through to 2035, with historical context. I'll let you decide whether this seems likely.

The Talatan Solar Park in China is absurdly huge — stretching across 600 km² of the Tibetan Plateau (about 7× Manhattan’s size) and generating around 17 GW of power. It’s so big you can see it from space — a shimmering sea of panels.

Europe is a world leader in industrial electrification solutions: 61% of all industrial heat pump and electro-thermal storage manufacturers are headquartered in Europe. US is also very strong in electro-thermal storage when it comes to companies located there. Note: This is preliminary data.

Contrary to some media reports, heat pumps aren’t new tech — they’ve been around for 100+ years! ✅ First built in 1856 by Peter von Rittinger ✅ Zurich City Hall used one from 1938–2001 ✅ UK’s first in 1945 (Norwich) ✅ ~200 million in use worldwide today

Better than hydrogen was expected, but better than natural gas is *shocking* Technology is moving at breakneck speed these days.

NEW RESEARCH: Our study shows high-temperature heat pumps are the most cost-effective path to decarbonising industrial heat at low to medium temperatures. We find industrial heat pumps can cut heating costs by up to 75% vs h2 & and beat natural gas. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

China’s CO2 emissions have now been flat or falling for 18 months, starting in March 2024. This trend continued in the third quarter of 2025, when emissions were unchanged year-on-year. If this trend starts to move into sustained carbon emissions reduction it would be hugely significant.

NEW RESEARCH: Our study shows high-temperature heat pumps are the most cost-effective path to decarbonising industrial heat at low to medium temperatures. We find industrial heat pumps can cut heating costs by up to 75% vs h2 & and beat natural gas. www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Europe is a world leader in industrial electrification solutions: 61% of all industrial heat pump and electro-thermal storage manufacturers are headquartered in Europe. US is also very strong in electro-thermal storage when it comes to companies located there. Note: This is preliminary data.

A decade ago, solar power barely registered in Hungary’s electricity mix — just 0.2% of generation. Back then, nuclear, coal, and gas dominated the grid. Fast forward ten years and solar power now supplies around 1/4 of Hungary’s electricity — a remarkable transformation.

There's an army of people out there telling us change is impossible. Only that it is not. 10 years ago electric vehicles plaid almost no role in global car sales. Today one in five cars sold worldwide is electric.

What if we had no electricity and everything ran on fossil fuels? This ad keeps making me chuckle. Enjoy if you have not seen it or rewatch as it is just gold.

Good news: more than 50% of the world’s economies have seen carbon emissions from fossil fuel power generation peaking. And with the speed of change in the electricity sector many more will join this growing list in coming years.

Batteries are coming to Europe. Earlier this year Europe’s largest battery storage site went live at Blackhillock, Scotland. The facility has a capacity of 300MW/600MWh. Much larger batteries are under development: A huge 1 GW / 4 GWh system is being constructed in Jänschwalde, Germany.

I often read on social media that Germany just replaced nuclear with coal. That is evidently not the case. Coal generation is down by more than 60% over last decade with nuclear now gone. However, Germany could have phased out coal by now if it had kept nuclear generation going at 2011 levels.

Join me in conversation with one of the world's most provocative environmental thinkers, @georgemonbiot.bsky.social. We talk climate, hope & action. The event takes place @orieloxford.bsky.social on 21 Nov, 3:30pm. Free to attend. Book your place now: www.alumni.oriel.ox.ac.uk/events/oriel...

Solar’s price drop is astonishing: panels are now 98% cheaper than when I first analyzed them in 2004. Today, building a fence with solar can be cheaper than using wood.

“Heat pumps are superior in efficiency to condensing boilers, even if the heat pumps are powered by electricity from a power station burning natural gas.” Not me saying that but the late Prof Sir David MacKay. More in my @carbonbrief.org article 👇 interactive.carbonbrief.org/factcheck/he...

A historic turning point for clean heating in Europe: For the first time, in the first half of 2025 sales of heat pumps in Germany have surpassed those of gas boilers. This is a big milestone, demonstrating that the transition away from fossil fuels in our buildings is not just a future ambition.

ICE vehicles waste a whopping 80% of the energy in their fuel. Electric vehicles are propelled by entirely different mechanisms. Energy enters the vehicle as electricity, which directly powers the drivetrain: EVs need not convert one form of energy to another resulting in much higher efficiency.

Despite negative press reporting the energy transition is well underway. In the UK, we see strong demand for electric vehicles and solar panels. And the more people learn that these technologies can offer them tangible benefits the more others will adopt them too.

China’s rise as the world’s clean energy superpower is reshaping global decarbonisation. The full implications are only starting to sink in. An important new FT piece highlights that while much of the debate has focused on how Europe and the US should respond, the bigger story might be elsewhere.

We often forget how far we have come: Today almost 3/4 of EU electricity generation is from non-fossil energy sources. It is not long ago that fossil fuels dominated the EU's electricity mix. This year their share is approaching 1/4 of EU electricity generation. Source is @ember-energy.org

“People don’t want energy; they want hot showers and cold beer.” This is what Amory Lovins once said and so true. Most primary energy we use is wasted in converting heat to work. We don’t have to replace all primary energy - we only need to deliver the energy services more efficiently.

GOOD NEWS: Solar and wind book again in 2025. Ember just released the latest estimates with solar and wind additions this year. ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

Trump claimed at the UN: “They [China] build them, but they have very few wind farms. So why is it that they build them and they send them all over the world, but they barely use them?” Answer is: they actually do. China has more wind power than any other country.

From hard-to-abate to ready-to-innovate: Heineken has just announced a major step toward decarbonising industrial heat: The company will install a 100 MWh thermal energy storage system near Lisbon, in partnership with @rondoenergy.bsky.social and EDP. www.energy-storage.news/cold-beer-ho...

Critics of renewables often point to land use as a reason not to do wind & solar. Land use IS a real issue for all energy assets incl renewables unless onsite. But what critics conveniently forget is huge land impact of fossil fuels. Aerial view of fracking sites in Texas. 👇

For too long, industry has been labelled a “hard-to-abate” sector. It’s time to rethink that. With rapid advances in electrification and energy efficiency, much of industry is not hard to abate — it’s ready to innovate.

I never paid any attention to the Stanford University database of the top 2% most cited scientists worldwide but apparently I have been included since 2021...

Europe’s gas prices are still far above the U.S. Sept 2025: $11.1 vs $3.0 per MMBtu — nearly 4× higher. Even before the crisis, Europe paid more. The only lasting fix? Less gas, more renewable energy, more efficiency and more clean electrification. ⚡️

Where is the energy transition headed? In my recent conversation with El Pais, I discussed the major challenges and opportunities in Europe’s energy transition, focusing on electrification, taxation, and policy alignment. elpais.com/extra/energi...

Where is the energy transition headed? In my recent conversation with El Pais, I discussed the major challenges and opportunities in Europe’s energy transition, focusing on electrification, taxation, and policy alignment. elpais.com/extra/energi...

Industrial electrification is the new frontier: Next week I will give the opening keynote at one of Europe’s leading events on Industrial Heat Pumps in the heart of Prague.

The underlying fundamental economics have changed dramatically: solar is now so cheap that businesses and households all around the world install it often without subsidies. Throw in batteries and the business case just keeps improving.

One of the world’s largest industrial heat pumps is coming to Boston. A 35MW system will use energy from the Charles River and deliver steam to heat more than 70 million square feet of buildings across Boston and Cambridge — hospitals, schools, homes, and businesses alike.

The power of crowd-sourcing: My list has now expanded to 100 companies worldwide. I'm sure I missed many - send them my way!

Where are the industrial electrification solution providers based? I started drawing a global map. It includes industrial heat pump + electro-thermal storage manufacturers. Please take a look and make suggestions for changes - very much work in progress: www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/e...

Just two decades ago, China had little capacity to manufacture cars — and owning one was considered a novelty. Today, China produces and exports more cars than any other country in the world. Meanwhile we in Europe still pretend we can somehow stop EVs from taking off by holding on to old tech.

Rolling back clean energy policies to “save” European industry will backfire. It may seem attractive in the short term, but it’s poor industrial policy in the long run. Standing still on climate policy undermines competitiveness. Industry needs stability and long-term direction, not uncertainty.

GOOD NEWS: A new £95 million low-carbon heat network in Milton Keynes, UK will use waste heat from data centres and large heat pumps to provide heating for buildings across the city, including Milton Keynes University Hospital. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Interesting study from researchers at UCL on how wind power has held down energy costs in the long term. The key argument is that it has lowered gas prices in Europe by reducing demand for gas. And actually most of the savings are on gas, not electricity bills www.theguardian.com/environment/...

One of the key barriers to electrification is the ratio of electricity to gas prices. The tax rate on electricity used in industry is much higher in most European countries than the tax rate on fossil gas. There are many options for reform: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @ember-energy.org

How strong is Europe’s policy framework for industrial electrification? Our expert survey: not very. ⚙️ Policy priority electrification: 2.3 / 5 ⚙️ Policy priority heat pumps: 1.7 / 5 ⚙️ Regulatory support: 1.3 / 5 Huge potential — weak readiness. Full paper 👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How strong is Europe’s policy framework for industrial electrification? Our expert survey: not very. ⚙️ Policy priority electrification: 2.3 / 5 ⚙️ Policy priority heat pumps: 1.7 / 5 ⚙️ Regulatory support: 1.3 / 5 Huge potential — weak readiness. Full paper 👉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

ECI researchers say the UK’s home insulation failures reveal systemic flaws — not just bad installs. Time for long-term, coordinated retrofit policy. #EnergyEfficiency #Retrofit ⬇️

My take on the new TBI report published today: "Cheaper power and clean power are not competing priorities. The diagnosis underplays the root cause of the UK’s energy cost challenge: dependence on imported fossil fuels and the volatility they bring." www.sustainableviews.com/tony-blair-i...

Just want to put on record that I respectfully disagree with Tim’s piece. Replacing fossil fuel cars with electric vehicles is important, but from a health, climate and wellbeing point of view we should be aiming for fewer cars imo