Environment

Coal is ‘king’ as gas prices soar, Total CEO says — and it’s backfiring on cleaner energy goals

Published

4 years ago

October 13, 2021

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In this article

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Vapor rises from the cooling towers of the Turow coal powered power plant, operated by PGE SA, in Bogatynia, Poland.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Surging natural gas prices have led to a jump in coal use, with plants in Europe and Asia firing back up as temperatures decline and the world grapples with worsening gas shortages.

Total CEO Patrick Pouyanne on Wednesday stressed the need to achieve price stability, contending that lower gas prices will reduce the need to rely on the higher-polluting coal, but that the transition to cleaner energy has also created an imbalance in the market.

“High pricing is not good news — of course immediately for my company results are better, but for customers” is it not, Pouyanne told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble during a Russia Energy Week panel in Moscow.

Replacing coal with gas “is good for climate change, but to do that, we need to have a lower price,” the CEO said. “Because coal today is a king, because coal is cheaper than all the other sources of energy.”

Coal-produced electricity has shot up in Europe, and European coal futures have more than doubled since the start of the year. And the irony is clear, as this is happening just as Europe is trying to reduce its use of the polluting fuel. Gas prices in Europe, meanwhile, have nearly quadrupled since the start of the year.

“So for us today prices are too high. We have to find stability, going back to something more normal,” Pouyanne said.

He added that this is not merely a European gas crisis, but a global one, stemming from both a “huge hike in demand for gas from China and Asia,” as well as “more demand for gas because of energy transition, going from coal to gas, which is good for climate change.”

“So that is I think a lesson,” Pouyanne said. “Another is that the more we put renewables in our electric system, we put in intermittent sources which depend on the weather.”

Pouyanne, like many other oil and gas company executives, has noted the risk of renewables that rely on weather. Brazil, which has increased its reliance on hydropower, saw less rain this year, while other parts of the world that have invested heavily in solar and wind power saw less sun and wind.

BP CEO Bernard Looney, speaking on the same panel, echoed Pouyanne’s concern.

“I think that this crisis in Europe has reminded us that energy is part of the lifeblood of society and that energy use is only going in one direction — and that is upwards,” Looney said. “We all understand that the sun doesn’t shine at night and the wind doesn’t always blow so we have that question of renewables’ intermittency to deal with.”

‘A more volatile system’

Talking about governments’ pushes to reduce fossil fuel production and use, Looney said: “At the end of the day, if supply goes away and demand doesn’t change, that only has one consequence, and that is an escalation in price rises. So I’m not suggesting that the onus needs to be put on customers or society, but this is a system, and both the supply and the demand side have to work together.”

“Just simply correcting a supply-side issue without affecting demand will not result in a more stable system, it’ll result in a more volatile system,” Looney added.

Higher gas use due to colder weather earlier in the year “has lowered all the inventories on gas, and so we see today an exceptional circumstance,” Pouyanne said. “I think that after wintertime we should be able to come back to lower prices which would be good for everybody.”

Gas prices are surging to record highs in Europe. Power shortages are also impacting households and businesses across Asia, and have forced factories to shut down.

This has been brought on by supply shortfalls and the transition to cleaner energy, which has spurred higher demand for gas, considered a cleaner fuel. Demand is also rebounding from its Covid-induced slowdown as economies reopen and travel resumes around the world.

Other energy commodities including oil have also soared in recent weeks, with international benchmark Brent crude trading at $83.37 at 12:00 p.m. ET, its highest level since 2018 and up 64% since the start of this year.

U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate hit a seven-year high this week, and was trading at $80.63 at noon ET.

The spike in energy prices comes amid supply chain disruptions and a shortage of shipping containers, both of which have contributed to rapidly rising inflation.

Environment

Rolls-Royce gets in on the EV price war with new, $5,000 lease promo

Published

4 hours ago

November 11, 2025

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Rolls-Royce gets in on the EV price war with new, ,000 lease promo

Even Rolls-Royce Is Now Doing EV Discounts Like It’s A Kia

When the $7,500 Federal EV tax credit expired September 30th, a number of carmakers leaped into action, offering rebates, price cuts, and promos of their own in a bid to keep the good times rolling. Now, it seems like even Rolls-Royce is getting in on the act with a fresh $5,000 rebate of its own for November.

CarScoops is reporting a rare lease incentive offering on the ultra-luxe Rolls-Royce Spectre electric coupe that it says, “replaces the expired $7,500 Federal EV tax credit.”

Granted, with the price of the base Spectre starting at $397,750 and climbing quickly to $467,750 for the Spectre Black Badge model, the big coupe is well above the old $80K cap and its buyers likely make far too much to qualify anyway — but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from my few brushes with Real Wealth™, it’s this: those hate paying taxes.

As such, it’s not that hard to imagine a Rolls-Royce salesperson explaining this in those terms. “This isn’t a discount or a sale or anything so gaudy,” he’d explain, dismissing any concern as petty as price. “We’re simply honoring the tax credit that you deserve.”

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Rolling deep

Rolls-Royce-Spectre-iPhone — Spectre coupe; via Rolls-Royce.

The Rolls-Royce Spectre first rolled (Ha!) into showrooms in 2023 with a perfect sufficient 430 kW (577 hp) electric motor drawing energy from a stout, 120 kWh battery pack good for up to 265 miles (~425 km) of range. The Black Badge version bumps the horsepower to 650 (485 kW), but the purists will tell you that either number is enough.

You can find out more about Rolls-Royce’ EV leas deals, below, then let us know what you think about this sordid business of “discount dash” in the comments section at the bottom of the page.

SOURCE: CarScoops; images via Rolls-Royce.

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Environment

Democratic senators blame White House, AI data centers for rising electricity prices

Published

17 hours ago

November 10, 2025

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Democratic senators blame White House, AI data centers for rising electricity prices

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) speaks to reporters outside the Senate Chamber of the U.S. Capitol Building on Oct. 1, 2025 in Washington, DC.

Andrew Harnik | Getty Images

Democratic senators on Monday blamed the White House push to fast track artificial intelligence data centers and its attacks on renewable energy for rising electricity prices in certain parts of the U.S.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and others demanded that the White House and Commerce Department detail what actions they have taken to shield consumers from the impact of massive data centers in a letter sent Monday.

Voters are increasingly feeling the pinch of rising electricity prices. Democrats Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger campaigned on the issue in the New Jersey and Virgina governors’ races, which they won in landslides last week.

The senators took aim at the White House’s relationship with companies like Meta, Alphabet, Oracle, and OpenAI, and the support the administration has shown for the companies’ data center plans.

The Trump administration “has already failed to prevent those new data centers from driving up electricity prices from a surge of new commercial demand,” the senators wrote. They accused the White House of making the problem worse by opposing the expansion of solar and wind power.

The White House blamed the Biden administration and its renewable energy policies for driving up electricity prices in a statement.

President Donald Trump “declared an energy emergency to reverse four years of Biden’s disastrous policies, accelerate large-scale grid infrastructure projects, and expedite the expansion of coal, natural gas, and nuclear power generation,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said.

The tech sector’s AI plans have ballooned in size. OpenAI and Nvidia, for example, struck a deal in September to build 10 gigawatts of data centers to train and run AI applications. This is equivalent to New York City’s peak baseline summer demand in 2024.

The scale of these plans have raised questions about whether enough power is available to meet the demand and who will pay for the new generation that is needed. Renewable energy, particularly solar and energy storage, is the power source that can be deployed the quickest right now to meet demand.

Retail electricity prices in the U.S. increased about 6% on average through August 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, according to the Energy Information Administration. Prices, however, can vary widely by region.

Download the full letter here.

Environment

Europe’s largest battery storage project is being built in Germany

Published

18 hours ago

November 10, 2025

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Europe's largest battery storage project is being built in Germany

Europe largest battery storage — Image: Fluence

Germany is about to become home to Europe’s largest battery storage system – a massive 1 gigawatt (GW) / 4 gigawatt-hour (GWh) project in Jänschwalde, Brandenburg.

LEAG Clean Power GmbH and Fluence Energy GmbH, a subsidiary of US-based Fluence Energy (NASDAQ: FLNC), are teaming up to build the “GigaBattery Jänschwalde 1000.” The four-hour system will use Fluence’s Smartstack technology, its latest large-scale energy storage solution.

Once complete, Europe’s largest battery storage project will play a key role in stabilizing Germany’s grid and storing renewable power for when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. It’s designed to deliver essential grid services, support energy trading, and boost energy security as the country phases out fossil fuels.

LEAG’s broader “GigawattFactory” plan combines solar and wind farms with flexible power plants and large-scale batteries across Germany’s Lusatian energy region. “By constructing gigascale storage facilities, we’re addressing one of the biggest challenges of the energy transition: ensuring constant power regardless of the availability of renewable energies,” said Adi Roesch, CEO of the LEAG Group.

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Fluence CEO Julian Nebreda described the project as a “milestone for the energy future of Germany and Europe,” adding that it demonstrates how collaboration and cutting-edge technology can “transform the foundation of our economy and our everyday lives.”

The German government recently reaffirmed the importance of storage in building a secure and affordable clean power system. With this 4 GWh giant, LEAG and Fluence are implementing that priority in one of Europe’s most coal-heavy regions.

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