Shale gas is burning in Poland after gas firm PGNiG SA torched a flare on one of its rigs. Poland wants to become one of the major players in the European gas market within the next two decades, with the state-controlled natural gas firm starting commercial production in 2014. --Marynia Kruk, The Wall Street Journal, 19 September 2011
For decades, advocates of 'peak oil' have been predicting a crisis in energy supplies. They've been wrong at every turn. Things don't stand still in the energy industry. With the passage of time, unconventional sources of oil, in all their variety, become a familiar part of the world's petroleum supply. They help to explain why the plateau continues to recede into the horizon—and why, on a global view, Hubbert's Peak is still not in sight. --Daniel Yergin, The Wall Street Journal, 18 September 2011
Ukraine will use its natural gas pipeline to start exports of shale gas and methane to the European Union within the next seven to 10 years, Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Boyko said. His comments, in a weekend interview with Inter television, contrasted with earlier remarks from Prime Minister Mykola Azarov who suggested Ukraine may be forced to dismantle its gas pipelines if Russia keeps building Europe-bound pipelines bypassing Ukraine. "Such a radical scenario is not threatening us because we expect to fill the pipeline with our own gas," Boyko said. --Platts, 19 September 2011
Beijing's carefully crafted message about shifting towards a green future is primarily designed for Western markets eager for alternative energy sources and as a defence against these same governments putting greater pressure on China to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. --John Lee, The Australian, 19 September 2011
A wind farm has been paid £1.2 million not to produce electricity for eight-and-a-half hours. The amount is ten times greater than the wind farm's owners would have received had they actually generated any electricity. --Edward Malnick and Robert Mendick, The Sunday Telegraph, 18 September 2011
The full folly of wind turbines is revealed in our report today. Because the electricity it produces cannot be stored, one wind farm has been paid more than £1 million simply to ensure that it does not produce electricity for eight hours. In return, taxpayers face higher electricity bills and an economy that is damaged because its costs have been artificially inflated by the decision to use wind as a principal source of power. It is a ludicrous situation. It is becoming increasingly clear that the commitment to wind power is based on dogma, not evidence. But the truth is that you can’t meet a country’s energy needs from dogma – as ministers will discover soon enough. --Editorial, The Sunday Telegraph, 18 September 2011
Two thirds of wind turbines in the UK are owned by foreign companies, raking in half a billion pounds in subsidies added to household bills. Calculations by the Renewable Energy Foundation think tank on behalf of this newspaper show that, from next year, ROC subsidies to wind farms owned or part-owned by foreign firms will total £523 million. Lord Lawson, a former chancellor and chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, said: “If it were a sensible policy then I would have no concern. "But since it is anything but a sensible policy – it is absolutely pointless, it is extremely expensive and extremely damaging both for the British economy and for British consumers – to have so many foreign companies creaming off the subsidy merely adds insult to injury.” --Edward Malnick and Robert Mendick, The Sunday Telegraph, 18 September 2011
