Latest news with #Ember
GMA Network
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- GMA Network
Why Chef Josh Boutwood advocates for silent kitchens
In an industry often romanticized by the chaos of clattering pans, barking orders, and high-stakes pressure – best demonstrated in the Emmy award-winning series 'The Bear' – Chef Josh Boutwood offers a compelling counterpoint: silence. In the latest episode of 'Power Talks with Pia Arcangel,' the chef behind Helm, The Test Kitchen, Ember, and Juniper said he transitioned to silent kitchens about a decade ago. For Boutwood, communications in the kitchen do not have to be loud to be heard and effective. 'It doesn't benefit the food, screaming or shouting. It doesn't add flavor. It doesn't help the staff's morale,' he told Pia. Boutwood likened the system of a silent kitchen to an orchestra, where one person sets the tempo and everyone plays their part. 'What if we could take out all of the talking and make sure everybody knows exactly what to do at exactly the right time, with just one person controlling the tempo, much like an orchestra?' he said. '[A silent kitchen] has been a lifesaver for me because I no longer get stressed at work, my team members no longer feel pressured, and we are still putting out the best food we possibly can,' he added. Boutwood also believes that the emotions of a chef can transfer to a dish. "You cook with love, it will taste delicious. You cook with anger, it will taste different. You know, you can give the same recipe to two different people in two emotional states and no matter if they follow it line for line, because of their emotional state, that dish will taste different," he shared. You may watch the full episode of Boutwood's 'Power Talks with Pia Arcangel' below. —Hermes Joy Tunac/CDC, GMA Integrated News
Reuters
18 hours ago
- Business
- Reuters
Eastern Europe's stealthy surge in solar generation: Maguire
LITTLETON, Colorado, June 3 (Reuters) - Eastern Europe is often overlooked in discussions about solar power generation in Europe, where the likes of Germany and Spain dominate the growth in deployed solar electricity production. But solar capacity across the nine largest solar producers in Eastern Europe has grown at over twice the pace of Europe as a whole over the past five years, and has helped Eastern Europe double its share of regional solar production since 2019. At least six Eastern European nations will generate over 20% of their total monthly utility-supplied electricity from solar farms this summer, when regional solar radiation levels hit their annual peak. In many of these countries, the rapid solar growth is displacing or curtailing output from coal and natural gas power plants, and is leading to a steeper fall in power sector emissions in Eastern Europe than across the overall continent. Continued growth in solar capacity is expected across Eastern Europe over the medium term as nations there try to curb reliance on imported fossil fuels. This in turn should further elevate the area's importance in driving Europe's broader energy transition momentum. Nine nations across Eastern Europe are driving the region's solar expansion, according to data from energy think tank Ember. In descending order of embedded utility-scale solar capacity at the end of 2024, those nations are: Poland (20.2 gigawatts of capacity); Hungary (7.7 GW); Romania (4.7 GW); Czech Republic (4.2 GW); Bulgaria (4 GW); Lithuania (2.6 GW); Estonia (1.3 GW); Slovakia (1 GW) and Latvia (0.5 GW). Combined solar capacity of those countries was roughly 46 GW at the end of 2024, or roughly 13% of Europe's total 361 GW of solar capacity, data from think tank Ember shows. That collective solar capacity footprint compares to just 9 GW in the same countries in 2019, and so represents a more than 450% jump in utility solar capacity in those countries in just the past five years. Over the same period, solar capacity across Europe as a whole increased by a more modest 145%, and included an 89% rise in German solar capacity and a 246% climb in solar capacity in Spain. The volume of utility-scale electricity production from solar farms has surged across Eastern Europe in response to the higher capacity footprint. In 2019, total solar electricity output across the nine top solar producers in Eastern Europe was around 9 terawatt hours, but was nearly 42 TWh in 2024. That nearly fivefold rise in Eastern European solar output contrasted with just over a doubling in solar output for Europe as a whole over the same period, from around 153 TWh to 361 TWh in 2024. The share of solar power within Eastern Europe's combined electricity generation mix has also sharply climbed since 2019, and exceeds the solar share of electricity production within Europe overall. Solar accounted for just 2% of Eastern Europe's electricity supplies in 2019, but topped 10% for the first time in 2024. For Europe as a whole, solar accounted for a 7% share in 2024, up from a 3% share in 2019. Several Eastern European nations generated over 20% of total monthly electricity supplies from solar farms during the peak summer months of 2024, and are primed to generate even larger solar shares this summer following further capacity growth. Lithuania, Hungary and Estonia all generated more than a third of their total monthly utility-supplied electricity from solar farms during June through August in 2024, Ember data shows. Bulgaria, Latvia and Poland generated 20% or more of their electricity from solar farms. This summer, following the build-out of further capacity across all of Europe, solar's share of the generation mix looks set to swell further - especially in Poland where installed capacity has grown by more than 25% since early 2024. This expanded solar footprint will not only help push Poland's total solar electricity output to a new record this year, but will also serve to further reduce the country's overall power emissions. Coal remains Poland's primary power source, but a near doubling in clean electricity output since 2019 - largely due to a nearly 2,000% rise in solar generation - has helped the country's utilities cut coal power output by 26% in that period. Lower coal-fired generation has in turn cut Poland's power sector emissions from fossil fuel use by 23% or by 22 million metric tons of CO2 since 2019. As Poland is Eastern Europe's largest polluter, the drop in the country's discharge has helped lower regional pollution, too, by 26% since 2019 to 163 million tons of CO2 in 2024. This year, thanks to further increases in solar generation and additional cuts to coal power production, overall emissions across Eastern Europe could fall further and play a key role in advancing Europe-wide energy transition efforts. The opinions expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.
The Star
a day ago
- Business
- The Star
Jakarta's energy plan may sideline renewables
JAKARTA: The long-awaited 2025-2034 electricity business plan (RUPTL) could sideline renewable energy despite containing a huge amount of planned green power, as experts suggested the new power procurement plan was leaning toward repeating past mistakes and undermining energy transition commitments. Dody Setiawan, senior analyst for climate and energy at think tank Ember, told The Jakarta Post on May 28 that the new RUPTL backloaded 72% of the planned 42.6 gigawatt (GW) of new and renewable energy projects to the second half of the 10-year procurement period. Instead, the government and state-utility company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) designed it to frontload 12.7GW of coal and gas plants in the first half of the 10-year period, which is 76% of the planned fossil fuel powered generation in the RUPTL. 'We observed a strong energy security focus in the (new) RUPTL, with large capacity additions to support economic growth and rising demand from downstream industries. 'On the other hand, decarbonisation efforts remain (a) secondary (priority),' Dody said. He added that increased reliance on gas-powered plants would also come with supply risks, given the consistent decline in domestic natural gas production, which could translate into more costly power generation. BMI Research, a unit of Fitch, dubbed the newly launched electricity business procurement plan a 'step back' from Indonesia's energy transition and climate commitment. It pointed out that the 6.3GW of new coal-fired capacity indicates a 'persistent reliance on coal' as a baseload power source despite a 2040 coal phase-target announced by President Prabowo Subianto during the Group of 20 Summit in Rio De Janeiro late last year. Mutya Yustika, an energy economist at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), expected that placing most renewable energy projects in the second half of the RUPTL's 10-year period would raise investors' concerns over risks of shifting policy priorities, regulatory inconsistencies and PLN's capacity to support renewable projects. Despite spanning a decade, the government has a history of revising the long-term business plan midway, which occurred four times from 2015 to 2019 and two times in the past five years. Mutya also pointed out that the previous RUPTL launched in 2021 included 21GW of renewable capacity, half of which was slated for 2025, but it saw far slower-than-expected progress in renewable energy procurement, which may cloud investors' confidence in projects offered by the government and PLN in the future. Instead of the required 2.1GW per year, PLN has only added around 0.6GW annually, highlighting a significant gap between targets and execution. 'Without clearer policies, streamlined procurement and tools like joint transmission networks, investor confidence in Indonesia's renewables will remain low,' she told the Post. This lagging progress has also prompted the government to slash its projections on renewable energy contributions to the national energy mix from initially 23% by the end of 2025 to between 17% and 19% in the same period. The new RUPTL was designed with the assumption that the economy could grow by 8% by the end of 2029, which officials hoped would translate to a surge in power demand roughly at the same pace. However, experts warned this could lead to overestimations, repeating the mistakes of the past administration that resulted in PLN generating more power than the country could consume. In 2015, former President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo launched a plan to add 35GW of electricity to the grid in the next decade, as the administration expected the country's economic growth to reach about 7% over the coming years. Instead, the country's gross domestic product has been growing at an average of 5%, leaving behind an electricity oversupply, mostly from coal-powered plants, with consequences extending to delays and postponement of renewable energy projects. Experts have suggested it is unlikely the country could see the 8% economic growth envisioned by Prabowo as this year's growth is projected to expand below the usual 5% rate. Ember's Dody said if the ambitious projected demand growth fails to materialise, PLN would face another oversupply that would limit access for renewable projects to supply the grid already saturated with power from thermal plants. IEEFA's Mutya warned PLN could face similar pressure as in the past when it was locked into costly coal contracts for excess power that ended up straining its finances. Most power purchasing agreements contained take-or-pay stipulations that obligated PLN to either take delivery of electricity generated by independent power producers or pay a penalty if it chooses not to do so, which guaranteed minimum revenue for investors. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Calls for Drax to be forced to fully disclose its biomass sourcing
The owner of the Drax wood-burning power station should be forced to disclose full details of its tree consumption, campaigners have argued, as MPs review the billions in renewables subsidies the North Yorkshire plant receives. A delegated legislation committee will decide on Monday whether to pass the government's plans to extend billpayer-funded subsidies to the country's biomass power generators, of which Drax is by far the biggest. Green campaigners said a condition of any extension should be that Drax published a key report by KPMG into its operations and sourcing. Reports by the auditor have been provided to the government and the energy regulator Ofgem but not the public. Ofgem has said KPMG shows Drax has not breached rules on sourcing trees for burning from environmentally sustainable forests. However, in separate incidents, Drax had been found to have supplied inaccurate data for subsidies in the past, leading to a £25m fine. Media investigations also found Drax using wood from old-growth forests in the US. Drax is expected to receive more than £10bn in renewable energy subsidies between 2012 and 2027, the current regime period, according to the thinktank Ember. Kingsmill Bond, an energy strategist at Ember, said: 'Burning trees for electricity is extremely inefficient and expensive, and is not effective at mitigating climate change. 'The collapse in the price of solar, wind and batteries in the last five years means that burning trees for electricity is now an obsolete technology. Before we pour any more subsidy into Drax, MPs need to see the KMPG report on where the wood has been coming from.' The government plans to halve the subsidies available for biomass power generation under a revised regime from 2027. MPs on the delegated legislation committee are expected to vote on Monday on the statutory instrument enabling this. Almuth Ernsting, the co-director of the campaign group Biofuelwatch, said: 'If those subsidies are approved, it would result in more carbon emissions, more destructive logging of wildlife-rich forests in the south-eastern US and elsewhere, and more pollution suffered by communities living next to pellet plants in that region – pollution which community activists have denounced as 'environmental racism'.' Mark Campanale, the founder of the Carbon Tracker Initiative, added: 'At a time when renewables powered by wind, solar with back up batteries are growing exponentially around the world, it seems remarkable that the UK still needs to rely on dirty combustion like Drax to reach its climate targets. Instead of importing and burning wood, with all its associated emissions, the UK should be doubling down on natural sources of energy available to us, wind and solar.' A spokesperson for Drax said: 'In their investigation Ofgem found no evidence that our biomass failed to meet the sustainability criteria of the RO [renewable obligation] scheme, nor that the ROCs [renewable obligation certificates] we received for the renewable power we produced had been provided incorrectly. 'Their new statement on the reports we commissioned from KPMG, as well as the prior comments in a public accounts committee hearing by Ofgem's director of audit and compliance, confirm that they reviewed these documents as part of their investigation and found no evidence within them that we were in breach of our sustainability obligations and therefore wrong to receive RO funding.' The spokesperson added: 'Drax provides secure renewable power to millions of homes and businesses when they need it, not just when the wind is blowing, or the sun is shining. The science underpinning biomass generation is supported by the world's leading climate experts, including the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the UK's Climate Change Committee.' A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: 'We are halving the amount of support for Drax, saving money on people's energy bills and contributing to our energy security. Drax will operate for less of the time under a clean power system and will need to use 100% sustainably sourced biomass, with not a penny of subsidy paid for anything less.' The Guardian understands there would be substantial penalties for any breach of the sustainability criteria.
Business Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Times
Solar, wind energy could power a third of Asean data centres in 2030: report
[SINGAPORE] Solar and wind energy could power up to a third of data centres in South-east Asia in 2030 via power grids and without the need for batteries, said a report by energy think-tank Ember. 'This indicates that high battery costs are not an immediate barrier to adopting these electricity sources for data centres,' said Ember, which made the forecast based on estimates of power consumption and solar and wind capacity. South-east Asia is emerging as a data centre hub, but the International Energy Agency has forecast that regional data centres' electricity usage will nearly double by 2030, from 2024 levels. The six major regional economies – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – have 2.9 gigawatts (GW) of data centre capacity in the pipeline, Ember noted in the report. It expects data centres to account for between 2 per cent and 30 per cent of national electricity demand by 2030 in each of these countries. Malaysia is at the upper end of the range. The country's demand for data centre electricity is projected to rise from 9 Terawatt-hour (TWh) in 2024 to 68 TWh in 2030 – accounting for 30 per cent of national power consumption and exceeding Singapore's total 2023 electricity use. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 12.30 pm ESG Insights An exclusive weekly report on the latest environmental, social and governance issues. Sign Up Sign Up As at February 2025, Malaysia hosts 507 megawatts (MW) of operational data centre capacity, mostly in Johor. This is expected to grow to 1.96 GW of installed capacity in the coming years, Ember noted. The think tank forecasts that the resulting emissions from Malaysia's data centres could hit 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) by 2030, the highest in the region. This is especially since the country's power supply is dominated by coal and gas. Indonesia's data centre emissions are expected to quadruple in the same period, from 6.7 TWh in 2024 to 26 TWh by 2030. The country hosts 307 MW of operating data centre capacity as at February 2025, primarily in greater Jakarta, but also increasingly in Batam. Meanwhile, data centre emissions from the Philippines are expected to rise by 14 times, from 0.8 MtCO2e in 2024 to 10.5 MtCO2e by 2030. This comes as data centre capacity is set to hit 300 MW by 2025. Globally, the information, communication and technology sector is estimated to account for up to 2.1 to 3.9 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, comparable to Indonesia's 3.6 per cent share of global emissions in 2023, Ember noted. This figure is set to rise with growing demand for data storage, processing and generative artificial intelligence. Solar, wind opportunity Ember believes that South-east Asia can power data centres without raising emissions, if there is the right policy support, market access and infrastructure planning. It estimated that between US$45 billion and US$75 billion will need to be invested in solar and wind capacity by 2030 to power the region's data centres sustainably. Clean energy is already gaining traction in the region. For instance, Malaysia is developing a 1,000 MW solar farm to power the Johor-Singapore special economic zone. 'Prioritising solar and wind power… would help ensure data centres drive sustainable digital growth rather than deepen reliance on fossil fuels,' said Shabrina Nadhila, Ember's Asia energy analyst. Ember also called for options for smaller data centre operators to procure clean energy. This could include virtual power purchase agreements (PPAs) and green tariffs, where utilities companies offer electricity from renewable sources. 'Expanding these options can improve access to and affordability of solar and wind, while broader programs and targeted incentives can accelerate storage adoption alongside intermittent renewables,' said Ember. Energy efficiency Beyond renewable energy, it will also be crucial for data centres to implement energy efficiency measures from the design phase, said Ember. For instance, optimising air flow in the data centre lowers electricity requirements to run fans for cooling. Immersion cooling can also reduce power consumption by 40 per cent compared to traditional cooling methods, it noted. The think tank highlighted Singapore for incentivising the adoption of green data centre technologies. It called for more targeted incentives in South-east Asia, as well as national frameworks to guide sustainable data centre development.
