1. Powering vehicles differently
2. Capturing carbon dioxide, storing it safely
3. Industrial energy efficiency: IEA and China share findings
4. Network-driven electricity demand management: 45 case studies
5. New IEA international projects, new participants

• Predicting photovoltaic performance
• Heat pumps in sustainability scenarios
• Newsletters from IEA programmes

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

• Conference International Cooperation on Energy Efficiency: Working Together for a Low-Carbon Economy, Geneva (Switzerland), 28 May 2008.

• Workshop Sustainable Rural Energisation in Major Emerging Economies, Paris (France), 28-29 May 2008.

• Symposium Material Development for Thermal Energy Storage - Phase Change Materials and Chemical Reactions, Bad Tölz (Germany), 4-6 June 2008.

• EURELECTRIC Annual Convention & Conference, Barcelona (Spain), 16-17 June 2008.

• EUROSUN 2008 - 1st International Conference on Solar Heating, Cooling and Buildings, Lisbon (Portugal), 7-10 October 2008.

• 29th AIVC Conference, Advanced Building Ventilation and Environmental Technology for Addressing Climate Change Issues, Kyoto (Japan), 14-16 October 2008.

• 9th International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies, Washington, DC (United States), 16-20 November 2008.

• Fourth International Conference on Clean Coal Technologies for our Future (CCT2009), Dresden (Germany), 18-20 May 2009.

• International Conference on Thermal Energy Storage - EffStock 2009 – Stockholm (Sweden), 14-17 June 2009.

1. Powering vehicles differently. The number of vehicles on the world's roads will grow steadily over coming decades, especially in countries where rapid economic growth is transforming people's life-styles. By 2030, the global vehicle fleet could have swollen from some 900 million today to more than 2.1 billion (excluding two-wheelers). The transport sector is expected to account for well over half of the rise in global oil demand over the coming three decades.
So what can be expected from the various options that could steer the world's vehicles away from petroleum-based fuels? Nils-Olof Nylund is co-author of a recent study, Status and Outlook for Biofuels, Other Alternative Fuels and New Vehicles, prepared within the IEA Advanced Motor Fuels Implementing Agreement programme (IEA-AMF). The OPEN Bulletin asked Dr. Nylund for his insight on some key issues. Click to access the interview. Dr. Nylund is Vice Chair of the IEA-AMF Executive Committee. He also serves as a Vice-Chair of the IEA Working Party on Energy End-Use Technologies. IEA-AMF is one of the 42 IEA international energy technology collaborative programmes. The IEA website provides some more IEA views about biofuels.

2. Capturing carbon dioxide, storing it safely. Once CO₂ has been captured from fossil fuel combustion in power plants or factories, what are the factors governing assurance of optimum safety and security in its subsequent storage? Answers can be found in Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide – Staying Safely Underground, newly published by the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEA GHG). This 27-page booklet summarises current knowledge about permanence and safety of geologic storage of CO₂. The authors discuss the properties of CO₂ and look at suitable storage locations, the storage process, potential for leaks, detecting such leaks and fixing them.
IEA GHG is one of IEA's technology collaborations and a leading source of seminal work on CO₂ capture and storage, notably the free downloadable technical study CO₂ Capture Ready Plants. This 117-page report draws on in-depth engineering and cost analysis of key coal-combustion technology to offer answers to numerous questions about the concept of CO₂ "capture ready" power plants for future retrofit. It was produced in support of the G8 Gleneagles Plan of Action.

3. Industrial energy efficiency: IEA and China share findings. China is targeting a 20% improvement in its energy intensity by 2010, with a massive energy-saving contribution from the nation's industrial sector. Crucial insight into the prospects for reaching this goal emerged from the IEA's workshop in Beijing in March, organised in co-operation with China's Energy Research Institute (National Development and Reform Commission). Under the banner International Comparisons of Industrial Energy Efficiency, the event enabled participants from IEA countries and from China to compare notes on reducing the energy bills in the top five energy-consuming industries: iron & steel, cement, pulp & paper, chemicals & petrochemicals and aluminium. IEA has much experience to share in developing and exploiting data that provides indicators of who uses how much energy. The Beijing workshop findings (see "Proceedings") and the presentations can now be accessed in both Chinese and English on the IEA website.
The IEA Beijing workshop was one in a three-year series of industry-focused IEA energy efficiency workshops. Visit the dedicated IEA webpage.
See also the downloadable IEA Information Paper Assessing Measures of Energy Efficiency Performance and Their Application in Industry, which explores different measures of energy efficiency performance.

4. Network-driven electricity demand management: 45 case studies. A set of case studies on network-driven demand-side management (DSM) projects in different countries around the globe are now downloadable from the website of the IEA Demand-Side Management Programme (IEA-DSM). These studies and their assessments are part of a broad set of recently released findings from IEA-DSM Task XV, which explores wide-ranging DSM measures to reduce demand on electricity grids but also maintain system reliability and defer needs for network expansion longer-term.
Also recently released by IEA-DSM Task XV and downloadable from its web pages, Research Report No. 3 - Incorporation of DSM Measures into Network Planning - explains how network-driven DSM measures interact with electricity market structures and regulatory regimes. Report No. 4, Evaluation and Acquisition of Network-driven DSM Resources focuses on ‘best practice’ principles, procedures and methodologies for evaluation and acquisition of network-driven DSM resources. IEA-DSM is an IEA international collaboration.

5. New IEA international projects, new participants. IEA Implementing Agreement collaborations evolve continuously to meet new challenges. Some recent new projects:

• "Micro Demand Response and Energy Saving" is the focus of a new project launched by the IEA Demand-Side Management Programme (IEA-DSM) This new IEA-DSM Task XIX will define demand-response and energy-saving products and how to actually deliver them into the residential and SME markets on a commercial basis using energy saving service providers (ESSPs) and demand aggregators (DAG). It will build on previous work demonstrating that relatively small amounts of demand flexibility can have large benefits in reducing peak capacity requirements. Learn more from the IEA-DSM website.

• The IEA Energy Technology Systems Analysis Programme (ETSAP) is embarking on a new Annex XI: JOint STudies for New and Mitigated Energy Systems, or JOSTNAMES. The new project will further advance the MARKAL/TIMES modelling and analysis tools that help decision takers to identify optimal energy-system pathways and mobilise technology policy responses to today's pressing energy challenges. MARKAL is notably used by the IEA Secretariat's Energy Technology Perspectives project. ETSAP's network of national experts around the globe generates in-depth domestic, multi-country, regional and global energy/environmental analyses using a common, comparable, open methodology. Interested parties should contact Gian Carlo Tosato.

Recently signed new participations in IEA energy technology programmes.

• Australia, Austria, France and the United States have become contracting parties in the IEA Implementing Agreement for a Co-operative Programme on Efficient Electrical End-Use Equipment (4E).
• The United States has become a contracting party in the IEA Implementing Agreement on Electricity Networks Analysis, Research and Development (ENARD).
• Italy, New Zealand and Spain have become contracting parties in the IEA Implementing Agreement on Ocean Energy Systems (IEA-OES).

• Performance Prediction of Grid-Connected Photovoltaic Systems Using Remote Sensing. This 43-page report from Task 2 of the IEA Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (IEA PVPS) addresses the challenge of delivering secure, reliable power while managing uncertainties. It discusses use of solar irradiation calculated from satellite images for performance predictions. Different system performance evaluation models are described and comparisons made between use of calculated irradiations and other systems. Conclusions are drawn on the related achievable accuracy. Download from the IEA PVPS website.

• Heat pumps in sustainability scenarios is the theme of an article by Neil Hirst, Director of the IEA Office of Energy Technology and R&D, in the current IEA Heat Pump Centre E-Newsletter. Mr. Hirst provides insight on the role that heat pumps could play in coming to grips with today's global energy challenges. The summary version of the newsletter can be downloaded here.The full version is available to countries participating in the IEA Heat Pump Programme.

• Free energy technology newsletters from IEA international collaborative programmes:
- IEA Clean Coal Newsletter, Number 55, March 2008, from the IEA Clean Coal Centre.
- Newsletter, No. 1 2008, May, from the IEA Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Implementing Agreement (IEA-HEV).
- IEA Ocean Energy Systems Newsletter, Issue No. 10, April 2008, from the IEA Ocean Energy Systems Implementing Agreement (IEA-OES).

• The IEA is offering a 10% reduction on the price of the forthcoming 2008 edition of Energy Technology Perspectives (ETP). This second edition of the flagship IEA technology study presents the technology options and strategies to 2050 that can tackle energy resource constraints and threats to the global climate. The 10% reduction is offered until publication on 6 June 2008, when ETP resumes its cover price of €100. Order now.

• Energy Efficiency of Air Conditioners in Developing Countries and the Role of CDM. More efficient air conditioning in developing countries could substantially cut electricity consumption. This IEA Information Paper explores the effects and feasibility of measures that might be undertaken as projects under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism. Download from the IEA website.

• Offshore Wind Power - Experiences, Potential and Key Issues for Deployment. This report, drawing notably on a Berlin IEA workshop in December 2007, contains an overview of offshore wind power's status and prospects, also reporting on environmental factors for offshore projects, prospects for coming decades and new offshore concepts. Joint research projects under the IEA Wind programme are discussed. Download this background document from the IEA website.

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• 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.

• Conference International Cooperation on Energy Efficiency: Working Together for a Low-Carbon Economy, Geneva (Switzerland), 28 May 2008. This conference is organised by the Energy Charter Secretariat in close co-operation with the Energy Efficiency 21 Project of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and the IEA. It will bring senior governments and industry experts together with officials from international bodies to discuss ways to improve energy efficiency outcomes through enhanced international co-operation. Visit the IEA website.

• Workshop Sustainable Rural Energisation in Major Emerging Economies, Paris (France), 28-29 May 2008. The objective of this workshop is to gauge interest among major developing economies in working more closely together on issues relating to rural energisation. Invitations to this invitations-only event can be requested from Alexandra Niez at IEA.

• Symposium Material Development for Thermal Energy Storage - Phase Change Materials and Chemical Reactions, Bad Tölz (Germany), 4-6 June 2008. This event, organised by the IEA Energy Storage programme (ECES IA), will constitute a kick-off for a planned joint activity "Compact Thermal Energy Storage; Material Development and System Integration", to be undertaken by the IEA Implementing Agreement collaborations on energy storage (ECES IA), and solar heating and cooling (IEA-SHC). Visit the IEA-ECES website.

• EURELECTRIC Annual Convention & Conference, Barcelona (Spain), 16-17 June 2008. This year's event will focus on the major energy and climate issues facing the European electricity industry, and especially on the European Commission's recently published third package of energy liberalisation proposals and its "green package" of proposals. As in previous years, the event is backed by the International Energy Agency. Visit the IEA website.

• EUROSUN 2008 - 1st International Conference on Solar Heating, Cooling and Buildings, Lisbon (Portugal), 7-10 October 2008. Organised by the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (SHC), Sociedade Portuguesa de Energia Solar, ISES Europe and other bodies, this event will bring scientists, technicians, architects, engineers and citizens to a platform for presenting the latest technologies from around the world. Visit the conference website.

• 29th AIVC Conference, Advanced Building Ventilation and Environmental Technology for Addressing Climate Change Issues, Kyoto (Japan), 14-16 October 2008. This conference will bring together researchers and engineers to focus on a wide range of topics relating to building ventilation and environmental technology. The event is organised by the Air Infiltration and Ventilation Centre (AIVC) in collaboration with the IEA Programme on Energy Conservation in Buildings & Community Systems (ECBCS), of which AIVC is a part. Visit the AIVC 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.

• Fourth International Conference on Clean Coal Technologies for our Future (CCT2009) Dresden (Germany), 18-20 May 2009. Organised jointly by the IEA Clean Coal Centre (CCC) and Forschungszentrum Jülich, this fourth topical conference on clean coal technologies will be held in conjunction with the Third International Freiberg Conference on IGCC and XtL. Consult the CCC website for more details.

• International Conference on Thermal Energy Storage - EffStock 2009 – Stockholm (Sweden), 14-17 June 2009. Organised by the IEA Energy Conservation through Energy Storage Implementing Agreement (ECES IA) and hosted by Swedvac, the Swedish Society of HVAC Engineers, this event will aim to encourage awareness and uptake of solutions for energy conservation through energy storage, including seasonal, diurnal,and short-term storage technologies.  It will bring together design professionals, government officials, manufacturers, environmental consultants, utility personnel and executives, and academic researchers. Visit the conference website.