BP's Statistical Review of World Energy is widely used as a reference source for energy statistics. Sadly, it turns out that BP's bias as an oil company leads it to distort the data badly. Their categorisation seems to lead to ignoring biomass heat, the largest use of biomass. Consequently, they significantly underestimate biomass's share of primary energy supplies.

Clean energy advocates think we can use the batteries in an electrified road transport system to balance the supply of intermittent renewable electricity with the demand for electricity, including electrified heat and transport. They are wrong. It can work to a small extent, but it barely touches the sides of the problem.

In 2009, National Grid and Ernst & Young published a report on "The Potential for Renewable Gas in the UK", which claimed that by 2020, biomethane should make up at least 5% of our gas supplies, and could be 18% at a stretch (nearly 50% of domestic gas). In the event, biomethane makes up 0.7% of UK gas supplies in 2020. The projections were absurd, and obviously motivated by commercial interest, yet they were widely cited, including by government, and influenced policy. We explore in this report the evidence that the projections were not credible at the time, and the impact of this successful rent-seeking effort.

The decline of coal-fired electricity highlights important challenges for a network relying more heavily on intermittent generation.

Why did the European Commission withhold the national Renewable Energy Progress Reports when it published its biennial EU Progress Report in Feb 2017?

Eurostat is a fantastic resource for energy data. We consider, for example, their interactive map of renewable energy delivery over time by country.

The costs of the support mechanisms for renewable electricity are rising inexorably. From £0.5bn in 2011/12, the UK's environmental levies are now expected to hit £13.6bn in 2021/22.

Efforts to encourage renewable electricity and renewable transport do not have much effect on the overall levels of renewable energy. It is the levels of renewable heat that most strongly influence the overall delivery of renewable energy.