EGEB: Global natural gas demand set for largest fall on record

In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):

• Global natural gas demand is set to see the largest annual fall on record, says IEA.
• The US East Coast gets its first inductive wireless charging station for buses.
• How the UK transformed its electricity supply in just a decade — Carbon Brief infographic

The Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB): A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Natural gas drops dramatically

Natural gas is on course for the biggest annual fall on record, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported today.

Gas consumption is expected to fall by 4%, or 150 billion cubic metres (bcm), to 3,850 bcm in 2020 due to excessively warm weather and the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The IEA reports:

Faced with this unprecedented shock, natural gas markets are going through a strong supply and trade adjustments, resulting in historically low spot prices and high volatility. Natural gas demand is expected to progressively recover in 2021, however the Covid 19 crisis will have longer-lasting impacts on natural gas markets, as the main medium-term drivers are subject to high uncertainty.

Europe, North America, and Asia are forecast to see the biggest drops in demand, or 75% of the total fall this year. Most of the demand increase after 2021 will be led by China and India.

Oil spill pays for e-bus charging station

As Electrek wrote in April, we’re still suffering from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a decade later. Scientists are finding oil from that spill in the livers of fish, and on the deep ocean floor.

So it’s a consolation that $192,000 of Pinellas County, Florida’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement was spent on the US East Coast’s first inductive wireless bus charging station. (Electrek‘s Fred Lambert wrote about the very first wireless charging system for electric buses, which was in Washington State, in April 2018.)

The new wireless charging station, the 250-kilowatt Inductive Power Transfer Technology, is in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was constructed and installed by A&K Energy Conservation.

The city has two electric buses, which were built by Build Your Dreams, and will be getting four more e-buses by 2021, reports the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA). It wants to move to a fully electric fleet, but has its work cut out — it currently runs 210 vehicles.

The station includes a primary charging plate aimed at reducing wait time for electric buses to be fully charged. An electric bus stops over the charge plate and aligns with it. Once the driver is aligned with the plate, they press a button and a 10-minute charge begins. PTSA’s electric buses average 180 miles or 15 hours before having to recharge.

UK’s move to green energy — infographic

Carbon Brief has put together a really fantastic infographic that meticulously details how the UK transformed its electricity supply in just a decade. Carbon Brief explains:

Carbon Brief has mapped every power plant in the UK, in each year since 2008, as well as taken a look into the future. From the smallest solar rooftop to the largest coal-fired giant, this UK map is the most comprehensive ever published, containing nearly 3,000 larger sites and more than 800,000 smaller ones.

Scroll through the years to see how — and why — the map has changed. Skip to the end for the full interactive map and the methodology behind the data.

This is the story of the policy decisions and other developments behind the UK electricity sector’s decade of transformation.

You can access this great comprehensive resource here.