UK
Committee says wholesale gas prices pushed up bills
The single biggest factor pushing up bills up until now has been rising wholesale gas and electricity prices, according to the Energy and Climate change select committee. But the committee criticised the government for loading the costs of building new clean infrastructure onto bills rather than taxes, arguing this penalised the poor and also called on the energy regulator Ofgem to enforce greater transparency on energy company profits.
Centrica likely to push up bills
The company which promised to use profits from high usage over the winter to freeze bills for as long as possible is likely to blame the increasing cost of energy efficiency schemes and network upgrades.
UK to trial 'biggest battery in Europe"
The problem for renewable energy is storage - so at a substation near Leighton Buzzard, three companies are hoping to deploy one of the biggest batteries ever constructed, using lithium manganese technology. The trial comes as the UK government is urged by some to offer similar subsidies for storage as it does for generation.
Balcombe oil protests continue
Anti-fracking protests are continuing at the site of an exploratory oil drilling operation in West Sussex. Sixteen people have been arrested since the protests began on Thursday. Cuadrilla is carrying out exploratory drilling at the site - which is believed to be a potential shale oil prospect, the first in the UK.
WORLD
Chinese coal price falls to 4 year low
The price of coal in China has fallen to four year low as industrial demand slowed. The news comes a China and the EU finally reach agreement on the import of solar panels in a deal which avoids tariffs but limits volumes.
Turkish nuclear plant faces delays
Turkey's environment ministry has rejected an environmental impact assessment for the country's first nuclear plant. The assessment was carried out on behalf of the plant's Russian builders, the state atomic energy company Rosatom.
Australian gas boom struggles
The Economist reports on Australia's dreams of becoming 'the next Qatar' for (coal seam) gas. Costs are rising and the country is facing increasing competition from shale gas elsewhere in the world. There really is a lot of gas about folks.
Scientists look to frack arctic methane hydrates
Japanese and US scientists are testing technology which would allow the extraction of gas from methane hydrates deep under-water - including under the arctic. Japan is one of the few major developed economies not to have recently stumbled across large reserves of unconventional gas in it's land area.
The cost of the Energiewende
Carbon Brief continues its investigation into the German Energiewende - this time looking at the cost of the transition to renewable energy which still retains large-scale public support.
