1. Unleashing the real potential of renewables
2. Wake-up call from IEA on energy efficiency
3. Switching off incandescent light bulbs
4. New IEA collaborations ... heat pumps, electricity networks, energy storage, hydrogen

• Vision, roadmaps for sustainable buildings
• Validating building energy simulation
• Black liquor gasification
• Newsletters: Ocean Energy, GHG R&D
• IEA ETDE & energy technology information

• Free Key World Energy Statistics 2007
• Efficient non-engine vehicle components
• Split-incentive barriers to energy efficiency
• IEA Dutch-language website

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

• Workshop New Energy Indicators for Buildings and Appliances: The Way Forward, Paris (France), 25-26 October 2007

• Expert consultation Sustainable Biomass, Dubrovnik (Croatia), 25-26 October 2007.

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

• Workshop on Carbon Capture and Modelling - Global, Regional and National Perspectives, Crawley (United Kingdom), 1-2 November 2007.

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

• Workshop CO₂ Capture and Storage - International Progress & Future Prospects, Paris (France), 7-8 November 2007.

• Workshop on Ecodriving, Paris (France), 22-23 November 2007.

• Workshop New Energy Indicators for Transport: The Way Forward, Paris (France), 28-29 January 2008.

• 3rd IEA GHG International Oxy-Combustion Network Workshop, Yokohama (Japan), 4-6 March 2008.

• 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 2008.

1. Unleashing the real potential of renewables. Renewable energy can make huge contributions to security and sustainability of global energy supply. So why is the share of renewables in the energy mix not larger? Why are many renewables technologies still far from the energy mainstream? What deployment barriers do renewables face and how can they be tackled? The OPEN Bulletin put some questions to Hans Jørgen Koch, Executive Committee Chair of the IEA Implementing Agreement programme on Renewable Energy Technology Deployment (RETD). Click to access the interview.
RETD is one of 41 IEA international energy technology collaborations. It provides a forum where energy policy makers and market actors can discuss and develop deployment issues and strategies. The newly released 192-page study Renewables for Heating and Cooling – Untapped Potential is the fruit of RETD work with the IEA Secretariat and experts in other IEA collaborations. Focusing on biomass, geothermal and solar energy, it examines technologies and markets, evaluates national case studies, pinpoints best practice and offers policy recommendations for mobilising the real economic potential of renewable energy heating and cooling systems. Download the study from the IEA website. Learn more about the RETD programme from the newly renovated RETD website.

2. Wake-up call from IEA on energy efficiency. Since 1990, energy efficiency in IEA countries has been improving much more slowly than in previous decades. While greater energy efficiency certainly continues to help limit growth in energy use and CO₂ emissions, the pace of current efficiency gains has slipped back to roughly half the rate in the 1970s and 1980s. Which sectors are the worst offenders? And what can be done to curb the efficiency decline?
The recently launched IEA publication Energy Use in the New Millennium: Trends in IEA Countries provides some answers. Its findings from analysis of energy use and efficiency developments in buildings, appliances, transport and industry respond to a request from G8 leaders at their Gleneagles Summit in 2005. The 165-page IEA study overviews trends, examines each sector individually and points to policy implications in its conclusions. It offers food for thought, notably on how household and services-sector electricity use is expanding faster than that of fuels like gas and oil, or how benefits of more efficient vehicles are eroded by greater congestion, changing driver behaviour and more in-car amenities. Visit the IEA's Online Bookshop.

3. Switching off incandescent light bulbs. The future of inefficient incandescent light bulbs looks increasingly shaky. Government policies in place, or under preparation, in numerous countries are set to phase out roughly half the global market for inefficient incandescent lamps and more could be in the pipeline. Since early 2007, virtually all the OECD countries have joined a phasing-out effort that could see the disappearance of incandescent lamps within a decade.
The Energy and Natural Resources Committee of the United States Senate was recently briefed on the subject by IEA energy efficiency specialist Paul Waide. He provided updates on the status of policy efforts around the world to phase out incandescent lighting, on the estimated energy and CO₂ savings potential and on timelines of developments to date. He also provided insights regarding international policy dynamics and their effects on markets. Paul Waide's testimony can be accessed here, together with a recap on IEA Secretariat activities supporting the phasing out of incandescent lamps. See also the IEA website pages on energy efficiency.

4. New IEA collaborations: heat pumps, electricity networks, energy storage, hydrogen. New projects are created regularly within the IEA's international energy technology Implementing Agreement programmes. These are some recent new additions.

• The IEA Heat Pump programme's new project, Annex 34, will focus on "Thermally Driven Heat Pumps for Heating and Cooling", with the goal of reducing the environmental impact. Areas and applications with the greatest environmental benefit, the best economics and the greatest market potential will be identified.

• Two new projects have been created by the IEA Implementing Agreement for Electricity Networks Analysis, Research & Development (ENARD), dealing respectively with "Distributed Generation System Integration in Distribution Networks" (Annex II) and with "Infrastructure Asset Management - Phase 1 - Distribution Systems” (Annex III). Meanwhile, Spain has just joined the ENARD programme.

• Also bringing two new projects to its portfolio, the IEA programme on Energy Conservation through Energy Storage has recently created Annex 21 on a "Thermal Response Test" for underground thermal energy storage, and Annex 19, dealing with "Optimised Industrial Process Heat and Power Generation with Thermal Energy Storage".

• For its part, the IEA Hydrogen Implementing Agreement programme has three more projects in progress. They address: "Small-Scale Reformers for On-Site Hydrogen Supply" (Task 23); "Wind Energy and Hydrogen Integration" (Task 24); and "High Temperature Production of Hydrogen" (Task 25).

• The IEA Implementing Agreement on District Heating and Cooling will launch its new three-year period of operation in June 2008. The programme, which integrates work on combined heat and power, seeks project proposals from participating countries that meet defined areas of interest. Parties wishing to submit a project should visit the DHC-CHP website. Proposals should be presented by 1 November 2007.

• Vision and Research Roadmap for Future Sustainable Buildings and Communities. Downloadable from the website of the Energy Conservation in Buildings and Community Systems (ECBCS), this 23-page report describes the research roadmap established by the IEA Future Buildings Forum Think Tank workshop on "Future Sustainable Buildings and Communities", 22 March 2007 in Espoo, Finland. The Future Buildings Forum is conducted under the buildings-related IEA Implementing Agreements and the End-Use Working Party within the IEA collaborative framework.

• Empirical Validations of Shading/Daylighting/Load Interactions in Building Energy Simulation Tools. The product of a joint effort between the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (IEA-SHC) and the ECBCS programme, this 200-page report presents data sets for use when evaluating the accuracies of models for glazing units and windows with and without shading devices. It draws on studies believed to be among the most detailed empirical validations of solar gain models implemented in building energy simulation programmes ever performed. Download from the web-pages of IEA-SHC Task 34.

• Black Liquor Gasification. This publication from IEA Bioenergy contains a summary and the conclusions from an IEA Bioenergy workshop that reviewed developments in black liquor gasification for production of energy and/or biofuels for transport. Participants discussed the remaining technical or strategic barriers to be overcome to speed successful demonstration of black liquor gasification technologies and market penetration. Download from the IEA Bioenergy website.

• Free technology newsletters from IEA's international collaborative programmes:
- Newsletter from IEA Ocean Energy Systems, Issue 9, October 2007.
- Greenhouse Issues from the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme, Number 87, September 2007.

• Energy technology information - How valuable is ETDE to you? To mark its 20th anniversary, the IEA Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDE) has launched a call for users' feedback - see ETDE website. One of IEA's international collaborations, ETDE offers users in participating countries and in almost 60 developing nations free access to nearly four million citations of energy-related research and policy information from worldwide sources. Findings available through ETDEWEB represent a lot of research funding. Much current information is directly accessible in full-text electronic format. Distributed searching broadens ETDE's reach. Alert systems provide updates. ETDE's 20th anniversary celebrations included a conference in Lisbon (Portugal) in July on Advancing Energy Science and Technology through Multilateral Information Exchange (access presentations here).

• Free Key World Energy Statistics 2007, downloadable free. At a glance, clearly-presented data on the supply, transformation and consumption of all major energy sources. Download from the IEA website. For the full range of IEA statistical publications, visit the IEA website.

• Fuel Efficient Road Vehicle Non-Engine Components - Potential Savings and Policy Recommendations. Downloadable free, this paper studies policies and measures to improve on-road fuel efficiency of vehicles by focusing on energy efficiency of automobile components not generally considered in official fuel-efficiency tests, namely tyres, cooling technologies and lightings. Download from the IEA website.

• Mind the Gap- Quantifying Principal-Agent Problems in Energy Efficiency. A lot of potential energy savings can fall through the cracks when equipment users have little say in the choice of a product they use. A landlord, for example, may prefer low cost to energy efficiency when purchasing appliances for rental property. But it is the tenant who pays the electricity bills. This new IEA publication takes an in-depth look at the complexities of typical split incentive barriers. It draws on eight case studies in residential, commercial and end-use sectors in IEA countries and offers some suggested remedial policy packages. Visit IEA's Online bookshop.

• IEA Dutch-language website. Hosted by SenterNovem, an agency of the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, this Dutch-language IEA website has recently received a new look. Visit the website.

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• 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.

• Workshop New Energy Indicators for Buildings and Appliances: The Way Forward, Paris (France), 25-26 October 2007. The purpose of this workshop is to discuss what new indicators and data are needed to support energy efficiency policy for buildings and appliances and to inform and guide the future development of the IEA’s indicators work in these areas. Visit the IEA website.

• Expert consultation Sustainable Biomass, Dubrovnik (Croatia), 25-26 October 2007. Organised by Tasks 29, 38 and 40 of IEA Bioenergy, together with the Energy Institute Hrvoje Pozar and Joanneum Research, this workshop will address key questions relating to different aspects of sustainability. For details, visit the website of IEA Bioenergy, one of 41 programmes operating in the IEA collaborative network.

• 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.

• Workshop on Carbon Capture and Modelling - Global, Regional and National Perspectives, Crawley (United Kingdom), 1-2 November 2007. Organised jointly by the United Kingdom Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform together with the IEA, this workshop will enable leading energy technology modellers and policy makers to draw key messages from findings of studies on future deployment of carbon dioxide capture and storage. Visit the IEA website. Invitations to this event can be requested from Kamel Bennaceur at IEA.

• 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).

• Workshop CO₂ Capture and Storage - International Progress & Future Prospects, Paris (France), 7-8 November 2007. This workshop will bring together key stakeholders and experts from around the world to identify ways to speed full-scale demonstration of this crucial technology. Co-hosted by the Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering of the United Kingdom, together with the IEA Coal Industry Advisory Board, it will look at scientific, technological, engineering, commercial, regulatory and policy challenges. Visit the IEA website.

• Workshop on Ecodriving, Paris (France), 22-23 November 2007. This workshop will aim to provide support for policy makers in developing and implementing schemes to promote ecodriving, a way of driving and equipping vehicles that reduces fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Findings will feed into the preparation of recommendations to G8 heads of state at their 2008 summit and serve as input to the May 2008 Leipzig International Transport Forum on Energy for Transport: The Challenge of Climate Change. Visit the IEA website.

• Workshop New Energy Indicators for Transport: The Way Forward, Paris (France), 28-29 January 2008. The purpose of this joint IEA/International Transport Forum (ITF) workshop is to bring together statisticians, analysts and policy-makers to share information about different approaches to transport data collection and indicators development and use. It will help guide the IEA’s future energy indicators work relating to transport and support the ITF’s work on the connection between transport and energy markets. Learn more from the IEA website.

• 3rd IEA GHG International Oxy-Combustion Network Workshop, Yokohama (Japan), 4-6 March 2008. Organised by the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEA GHG), IHI, JPower and JCoal, this event will look into the different issues relevant to retrofitting or repowering of power plants with oxy-combustion technology with CO₂ capture. It will review the progress of various research and development activities in oxy-combustion technologies for power generation industry with CO₂ capture. Learn more from the CO₂ capture and storage pages of the IEA GHG website.

• 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 2008. 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.