1. G8 responds to IEA advice on energy efficiency
2. Getting a handle on industry's energy performance
3. CO₂ capture & storage: technology, financing, legal aspects
4. Learning more about technology learning

• Solar heat worldwide performance
• Double skin building facades
• Geothermal events and information
• Quicker energy technology data search
• Financing technology transfer

• International Workshop on Degradation Issues of Fuel Cells, Crete (Greece), 19-21 September 2007.

• Conference Building Low Energy Cooling and Advanced Ventilation Technologies in the 21st Century, Aghia Pelaghia, Crete (Greece), 27-29 September 2007.

• Deploying Demand Side Energy Technologies Workshop, Paris (France), 8-9 October 2007.

• 7th Annual Workshop of Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading, Paris (France), 8-9 October 2007.

• 3rd Workshop on Building the Hydrogen Economy: Enabling Infrastructure Development, Shanghai (China) 22-24 October 2007.

• Methane to Markets Partnership Expo: A Forum for Projects, Technology, Financing and Policy, Beijing (China), 30 October – 1 November 2007.

• Expert workshops organised by the IEA Implementing Agreement on Industrial Energy-Related Technologies and Systems (IETS), Amsterdam (Netherlands), 6-7 November 2007.

• 9th IEA Heat Pump Conference, Advances and Prospects in Technology, Applications and Markets, Zürich (Switzerland), 20-22 May 2008.

• 9th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, Washington, DC (United States), 16-20 November.

• IEA to receive International Star of Energy Efficiency award from the Alliance to Save Energy

1. G8 responds to IEA advice on energy efficiency. Leaders of the world’s major industrialised nations have said they will take forward concrete energy-efficiency recommendations from the IEA. The Agency has again been asked to take a key role in promoting action on the conclusions reached at the 6-8 June G8 Summit in the German resort of Heiligendamm, where the IEA energy-efficiency recommendations were presented. Showing cost-effective steps for reducing energy demand by 15% - and energy-related CO₂ emissions by 20% - against business-as-usual projections for 2030, the 12 recommendations focus on energy use in buildings, appliances, transport and industry. Summarised here, they mark a milestone in the IEA's three-year G8 Plan of Action, which provides guidance to governments on promoting energy-sector innovation, better practices and improved energy technology. Besides energy efficiency, the plan covers clean coal technologies, CO₂ capture and storage and energy indicators analysis. The IEA NEET initiative (Networks of Expertise in Energy Technology) is bringing emerging economies into the effort. An IEA G8 Summit brochure presents selected output and messages.
The complete set of IEA energy-efficiency recommendations can be accessed here and UPI's post-G8 Summit interview with IEA Executive Director Claude Mandil here. The Heiligendamm website provides more G8 Summit documentation, including the Summit Declaration on Growth and Responsibility in the World Economy. IEA's energy-efficiency analysis and promotion is to receive an International Star of Energy Efficiency award from the Alliance to Save Energy - see below.

2. Getting a handle on industry's energy performance. Is the industrial sector pulling its weight in the drive for energy-efficiency around the world? Huge advances have certainly been made over the past 25 years. And further progress is entirely within reach. But performance in saving energy and reducing industry's 36% share of worldwide CO₂ emissions varies among regions, countries and industrial sub-sectors. Important new insight is provided in Tracking Industrial Energy Efficiency and CO₂ Emissions, recently released by IEA as part of wide-ranging analysis requested by G8 leaders. Working with groundbreaking energy-indicators methodology, the authors explain how advanced technologies already in commercial use could do wonders for the most energy-intensive industries. They demonstrate how proven technologies and best practices in the world's manufacturing industry as a whole could reduce energy consumption by some 600 to 900 million tonnes of oil equivalent, or 1.5 times Japan's entire energy consumption today. They show how industry's CO₂ emissions could be trimmed by between 19% and 32% per year. Visit the IEA Online Bookshop.

3. CO₂ capture & storage: technology, financing, legal aspects. A central focus in today's energy technology debate is the greenhouse-gas mitigation potential of CO₂ capture and storage (CCS). Three recent publications from the IEA energy technology network provide essential new reading on different aspects of this exciting approach to cleaning up fossil fuel combustion. The free downloadable 17-page brochure Capturing CO₂ from the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEA GHG) presents concise descriptions of the three technologies for removing CO₂ at power plants, along with discussion of diverse factors affecting choice of power plant and capture method.
Also published under the IEA GHG banner is the report Expert Workshop on Financing Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS): Barriers and Solutions. This records the proceedings and conclusions reached at a June 2007 event in London organised jointly by IEA GHG and the IEA Clean Coal Centre (IEA CCC). The report and the workshop presentations can be downloaded from the IEA CCC website. IEA GHG and IEA CCC are international energy technology R&D programmes operating within the IEA collaborative framework.
The new IEA study Legal Aspects of Storing CO₂ - Update and Recommendations builds on the long experience of the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme and several years of IEA collaboration with the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum. The book provides an overview of regulatory frameworks affecting CO₂ storage, including property rights, jurisdictional issues, interactions with GHG emissions trading schemes and treatment of CO₂ storage in international marine environment protection treaties. Case studies, background information and recommendations are included. Visit the IEA Online Bookshop.

4. Learning more about technology learning. Insight on how costs for emerging new energy technologies are likely to decline over time is crucial for R&D programme planning and investment decisions. Experience curves can help measure the costs and potential of deployment programmes for emerging technologies and point to the most promising policy options. Over the years, learning curves have shown that regular investment cost reductions can be expected with each doubling of installed capacity of a given technology. But is it always as simple as that? A workshop at IEA Headquarters in Paris on 11-12 June enabled a group of experts to update on use of experience curves for the design and evaluation of deployment programmes, with special focus on key supply technologies: renewables, carbon capture and storage, nuclear and battery technologies. A final session discussed the role of governments in funding, policy and international co-operation. The workshop report summarises the discussions, extracts findings and records the workshop's key messages. Access the workshop's presentations here.

 

• Solar Heat Worldwide: Markets and Contributions to the Energy Supply 2005. This downloadable 2007 report from the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (IEA SHC) reports 10% growth in the solar thermal sector in reporting countries and provides a wealth of information on capacity and market developments. Access the press release and the report.

• Double Skin Facades: A Literature Survey - A downloadable 250-page report on this technique for facades of buildings, from the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (IEA SHC) in collaboration with the IEA Implementing Agreement on Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems (ECBCS). Click to download. Click for contacts' e-mails: IEA SHC; ECBCS.

• IEA programme website developments:
- The IEA Geothermal Implementing Agreement programme has added new website sections containing public service announcements and additional geothermal information/data.
- The ETDEWEB database search at the IEA Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDE) now highlights search terms in the search results and in the bibliographic citations (over 3,884,000 bibliographic records and more than 183,000 full text documents).

• Broadening the base of financing for technology transfer - A progress report on the Private Financing Advisory Network (PFAN) - A summary of the IEA Climate Technology Initiative (CTI) side event at the Twenty-Sixth Sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 8 May 2007 Bonn (Germany).

• Free technology newsletters from IEA's international collaborative programmes:
- AMFI Newsletter - Issue 2/2007, April, from the IEA programme on Advanced Motor Fuels.
- E3Light - Issue 1/2007, May, from the energy-efficient lighting project of the IEA programme on Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Centres.
- Greenhouse Issues - Number 86, June 2007, from the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme.
- IETS Newsletter - Issue 2/2007, July, from the IEA programme on Industrial Energy-Related Technologies and Systems.
- Newsletter of the IEA programme on Ocean Energy Systems, Issue 8, May 2007.
- PV Power - Issue 26, June 2007, from the IEA Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme.

• Summary of IEA-ENEL Workshop on Sectoral Approaches for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in the Power Sector, Rome (Italy), 30-31 October 2006. Organised jointly by IEA and the Italian power company ENEL, this brainstorming considered various aspects of the electricity sector in the context of climate change mitigation, with special focus on sectoral approaches.

• Highlights from the Eurelectric Annual Convention and Conference The Next 10 Years, Antwerp (Belgium), 11-12 June 2007. At this recent event, organised with support from IEA, expert speakers and panelists debated the key challenges in creating a competitive, secure and sustainable European energy market. To access the highlights, visit Eurelectric's website.

• The free downloadable IEA Energy Statistics Manual has recently been published in Russian. This aid to strengthening the expertise and experience of energy statisticians is also downloadable in French, German and Spanish.

• The latest IEA reviews of energy policies in individual IEA countries.
- Energy Policies of IEA Countries - Germany - 2007 Review. See press release.
- Energy Policies of IEA Countries - Ireland - 2007 Review. See press release.
- Energy Policies of IEA Countries – The Republic of Korea - 2006 Review. See press release.

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• International Workshop on Degradation Issues of Fuel Cells, Crete (Greece), 19-21 September 2007. The IEA Implementing Agreement programme on Advanced Fuel Cells (IEA-AFC) sits on the organising committee for this workshop, which will aim to gain understanding of fundamental degradation issues, pinpoint measures to increase fuel cell lifetime and reliability, and identify necessary R&D and future activities to evaluate degradation and harmonise test procedures. Click for the second announcement and the agenda.

• Conference Building Low Energy Cooling and Advanced Ventilation Technologies in the 21st Century, Aghia Pelaghia, Crete (Greece), 27-29 September 2007. Co-organised by IEA's Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre (AIVC) as its 28th conference, this event aims to cover all aspects of technology and building design dealing with ventilation and passive cooling techniques. AIVC is part of the IEA Programme on Energy Conservation in Buildings & Community Systems (ECBCS). Consult the website.

• Deploying Demand Side Energy Technologies Workshop, Paris (France), 8-9 October 2007. A Workshop in the Framework of the G8 Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development, this event will bring together key experts with hands-on experience in technology deployment policy setting from governments, industry, academia and international organisations in both IEA Member and non-Member countries. They will be invited to share experience and provide input to the IEA's 2008 Energy Technology Perspectives publication. Visit the IEA website.

• 7th Annual Workshop of Greenhouse Gas Emission Trading, Paris (France), 8-9 October 2007. Organised by the International Emissions Trading Association, the Electric Power Research Institute and the IEA, this 7th workshop will provide an opportunity for government, business and NGO stakeholders in the emissions trading debate to discuss some of the key issues relating to international climate policy. Visit the IEA website.

• 3rd Workshop on Building the Hydrogen Economy: Enabling Infrastructure Development, Shanghai (China) 22-24 October 2007. Workshop objectives: to bring together public and private sector officials in an international strategic process to evaluate transition planning scenarios for the expansion of infrastructure for the hydrogen economy; to inform policymakers on opportunities to accelerate the process. Visit the IEA website.

• Methane to Markets Partnership Expo: A Forum for Projects, Technology, Financing and Policy, Beijing (China), 30 October – 1 November 2007. This event, for which the IEA is an organising sponsor, will provide the opportunity to promote project opportunities and technologies for methane recovery and use. Visit the event pages on the website of the Methane to Markets Partnership. The IEA contact is Tom Kerr.

• Expert workshops organised by the IEA Implementing Agreement on Industrial Energy-Related Technologies and Systems (IETS), Amsterdam (Netherlands), 6-7 November 2007 on the following topics: Use of membranes for hydrocarbon separation (contact: Jaap Vente); Industry-based biorefineries (contact: Isabel Cabrita); Industrial combustion (contact: James Quinn).

• 9th IEA Heat Pump Conference, Advances and Prospects in Technology, Applications and Markets, Zürich (Switzerland), 20-22 May 2008. This event will focus on technology, markets, policy and standards within a context of desired environmental benefits and energy conservation. Heat pumps will be addressed, along with air conditioning and refrigeration equipment, also systems for residential, commercial and industrial applications, together with heat pumping technologies for heating and cooling of low energy houses and systems for district heating and cooling. Visit the website of the IEA Heat Pump Centre and the conference website.

• 9th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, Washington, DC (United States), 16-20 November. Organized by the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and with sponsorship from the United States Department of Energy, this is the latest in the series of Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT) conferences, created in 1997. Visit the conference website.

• The IEA is to receive the Alliance to Save Energy's International Star of Energy Efficiency award for the Agency's analysis and promotion of energy efficiency. The award will be presented in Washington D.C. on 20 September. See IEA press release and further information on the Alliance to Save Energy website.