Energy consumption is linked direct to economic activity. According to Eurostat the most significant drop in European energy consumption – 5.8% – occurred in 2009 and is attributed by the agency “to a lower level of economic activity as a result of the global financial and economic crisis”, although in general the consumption of energy continues to grow […]
A key factor in current gas policy is the fight for the European gas market, which is becoming increasingly politicized. It is very evident that this market requires substantial re-structuring, linked to the consequences of American sanctions policy and changes in the system of gas transport routes, even if not all the transport options announced […]
German politicians’ faint hopes that the administration of new US president Joe Biden would replace wrath with favour have been dashed by an icy Transatlantic reality. Washington continues to take an intransigent stance and threaten European participants in the project with sanctions. But Berlin is still trying to withstand the pressure and save face, by […]
The Arctic is becoming a test case for Europe’s energy policy. The region has substantial oil and gas potential, as well as critical raw materials and renewable energy resources for the energy transition. At the European Arctic Summit in Rovaniemi, it became clear that Europe wants not only to strengthen its security in the far […]
Helium is essential to advanced chipmaking, yet its supply depends on gas-processing plants, cryogenic containers and vulnerable sea routes. Even if normal shipping through Hormuz resumes, producers and semiconductor manufacturers will face a slower, more expensive recovery. The artificial intelligence boom depends on some of the world’s most advanced semiconductor factories. Those factories, in […]
Europe’s energy transition is no longer just about building wind turbines and solar farms. The challenge now is to connect electricity, heat and storage – and to decide who owns the infrastructure and who benefits from it. Feldheim found practical answers to these questions remarkably early. Around 80 kilometres south-west of Berlin lies a […]
Europe is redrawing its energy map around the Mediterranean. With the EU aiming to mobilise €25 billion in investment by 2035, pipelines, LNG terminals and new energy links are bringing North Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and Southern Europe into an increasingly interconnected energy system. Following the 2022 energy crisis, the Mediterranean is gradually returning […]
Extreme heat is exposing a new energy-security risk: demand for cooling rises just as hydro, wind, nuclear and thermal generation come under pressure. Solar helps during the day, but the hardest hours begin after sunset. This summer, Europe was already longing for autumn. Since late May, successive heatwaves had brought punishing temperatures across the […]
The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz is accelerating a fundamental shift in Middle East oil infrastructure. From Iraq and Syria to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, producers are developing alternative export routes that could reduce their dependence on one of the world’s most critical energy chokepoints. Before the war, more than 20 million […]
Germany’s renewable-energy surge in the first half of 2026 is no longer just a climate story. It is increasingly reshaping the economics, security and operating logic of the country’s power system. Renewable energy covered 58 percent of Germany’s gross electricity consumption between January and June, according to preliminary calculations by the Centre for Solar Energy […]
Berlin is opening up an additional route for gas and oil from the Caspian region and, in the longer term, for green electricity and hydrogen. For Germany, this offers a way to strengthen supplies to industry, create new business opportunities and make the European energy market more resilient. Berlin and Baku Expand Their Energy […]
The debate over Hormuz is shifting from whether fees are acceptable to whether they could help restore predictable transit. With Europe, Gulf states and Oman exploring possible models, a once-unthinkable option is moving closer to the centre of regional diplomacy. Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz, through which around a fifth of the […]
Europe is expanding its nuclear capacity, but its radioactive legacy remains unresolved. With the world’s first deep geological repository for spent nuclear fuel only now approaching operation, the conflict between risks measured in millennia and politics shaped by electoral cycles is becoming increasingly visible. At its core, nuclear waste is not merely a technical challenge […]
OPEC+ remains the key coordination mechanism in the global oil market, but its influence no longer seems assured. Disputes over quotas, diverging interests among participants and rising production outside the alliance are gradually changing the rules under which OPEC+ operates. The question is increasingly not whether OPEC+ will formally survive, but how much control it […]
