Britain Axes Wooden Stoves // EIA: Solar Over 50% of New Capacity in 2023

Britain Axes Wooden Stoves

The UK government wants to tighten regulations on wood-burning stoves to reduce air pollution.

The new rules would limit the amount of smoke emitted by new wood burning stove models from 5 grams per hour to 3 grams in high-risk areas. The impetus for the new rules isn't just about emissions, however. The health impacts of wood burning have become an important concern.

"Evidence about the health implications of PM2.5 has been building since the 1990s, when a US study found that people in a heavily polluted Steubenville, Ohio, died several years younger than those in the least polluted cities," reports Bloomberg. "Later research linked high levels of fine particulate exposure to heart and lung diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as pregnancy complications and dementia."  

Wood burning is a major source of fine particulate emissions, contributing 17% to PM2.5 emissions in 2020, up from 3% in 1990 in the UK. There have been more extreme calls for a ban on domestic burning, but the UK government isn't interested.

The regulations will only apply to new appliances. Many stove companies are not concerned about the change because their products already meet the new standards. But what's easy for industry could be hard for councils. Monitoring and enforcement are challenging enough on their own, but made harder by the lack of clarity on implementation. 

EIA: Solar Over 50% of New Capacity in 2023

Solar and batteries are about to have a big year in America. Of the 54.5 gigawatts of new capacity being added to the grid this year, 54% will be solar and 17% will be batteries. 

Here's a breakdown of capacity adds by source form the Energy Information Administraiton.

Solar: U.S. utility-scale solar capacity has risen rapidly since 2010 but experienced a 23% drop in 2022 due to pandemic-related challenges. Developers plan to install a record 29.1 GW of solar power in 2023, more than doubling the previous record of 13.4 GW in 2021. 

"In 2023, the most new solar capacity, by far, will be in Texas (7.7 GW) and California (4.2 GW), together accounting for 41% of planned new solar capacity," reports the EIA. 

Batteries: Battery storage capacity is expected to more than double with developers planning to add 9.4 GW to the current 8.8 GW. The majority of new battery storage will be installed with wind and solar projects. California and Texas are again the leaders of the pack--71% of the new capacity will be added to these states.

Natural Gas: "Developers plan to build 7.5 GW of new natural-gas fired capacity in 2023, 83% of which is from combined-cycle plants," reports the EIA.  "The two largest natural gas plants expected to come online in 2023 are the 1,836 megawatt (MW) Guernsey Power Station in Ohio and the 1,214 MW CPV Three Rivers Energy Center in Illinois."

Wind: In 2023, developers plan to add 6.0 GW of wind capacity. Over the last year or so, wind capacity additions have started to slow after the 14 GW peaks in 2020 and 2021. Again, Texas takes a leading position: it expects to see 2 GW of wind added to its grid this year. The only offshore wind we can expect to come online is New York's 130 MW South Fork Wind. 

Nuclear: "Two new nuclear reactors at the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia are scheduled to come online in 2023, several years later than originally planned," reports the EIA. "The reactors, with a combined 2.2 GW of capacity, are the first new nuclear units built in the United States in more than 30 years."

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Conversation Starters

1. Modi expects India's gas demand to skyrocket. "Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday projected that the country’s gas demand would rise 500% due to the rapid pace of development, while its share of global oil demand would more than double," reports Oilprice.com. "While the Indian prime minister did not offer a specific time frame for this major boost in demand, he said that the country’s energy demand would be highest in the present decade. Modi’s statement, delivered during the opening ceremony of India Energy Week 2023, coincides with a recent OPEC report that expects India to be the largest contributor to incremental demand, with the country expected to add some 6.3 million bpd until 2045."

2. Russian oil is flowing East in response to Europe's embargo. "The European Union's full embargo of Russian oil products came into effect on Feb. 5, but data from traders and Refinitiv show that the bulk of Russia's fuel oil and vacuum gasoil (VGO) is already being shipped to other regions, mostly in Asia," reports Reuters. "In January, less than 5% of Russian fuel oil and VGO was shipped to EU countries, including some 100,000 tonnes to Agioi Theodoroi in Greece, about 80,000 tonnes to the Latvian port of Ventspils and 30,000 tonnes - to the Italian port of Augusta."

3. An earthquake has interrupted crude loading at a Turkish terminal. "Turkey's Ceyhan oil terminal has been shut after a loss of power and tank damage after a major earthquake rocked central southern Turkey and northern Syria on Feb. 6, local shipping agents and official sources said. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC), Iraq-Turkey and Batman-Dortyol oil pipelines all pass through the zone hit by the quake, and seaborne exports from Azerbaijan and Iraq via Ceyhan had been around 1 million b/d, according to tanker tracking data," reports S&P Global. "There has been significant damage to the Iskenderun region near Ceyhan in the Mediterranean, an official at shipping agent Wilhelmsen's local office told S&P Global Commodity Insights. He could not say if there had been any damage to the Ceyhan oil terminal facilities."

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