What's new in Knowledge

Welcome to the latest update from the Energy Institute (EI) Knowledge Service, your hub for energy information.

The evolving energy world has been reported over many years in the EI’s magazines, Petroleum Review and Energy World. It’s now possible, following a digitisation project, to delve into our back issues online dating back to January 1991. Many themes recur over the years – in particular around the steady march towards improved environmental standards. Here are a few stories to whet your appetite: 

In 1993 the debate over the existence of climate change still “raged on” (EW April 1993 p15). The oil industry had started to acknowledge the need to address it (PR March 1993 p114); and low-carbon electricity generation was encouraged in the UK via the Non-Fossil Fuel Levy, primarily used to support nuclear power (PR May 1993 p217).

Meanwhile the fortunes of coal and natural gas rode a see-saw; the future of British coal was in doubt due to cheap coal imports and electricity imports from France (EW March 1993, p6), while gas was simultaneously under threat from potential coal subsidies (PR March 1993 p130). In the end, the Government did support gas-fired generation to meet increasingly stringent environmental legislation (PR May 1993 p209). The Kyoto Protocol climate agreement of 1997 seemingly cemented this direction of travel (EW April 1998, p18), though the potential for low-emission coal via carbon capture and storage was already being considered  (EW June 1998, p20). 

Early renewables progress was slow (PR May 1993 p217), but after a decade of to-and-fro, the downward UK emissions trajectory was finally formalised by The Climate Change Act 2008, introducing the five-year carbon budgets still guiding emissions reductions today (EW January 2009 p6).

Unleaded petrol was widely available by the early 1990s, and motorists were told leaded fuel would be phased out across the EU from 1 January 2000 (PR November 1997 p526). Fuel quality across Europe was being toughened up with the Fuel Quality Directive (PR May 1998 p34). The Vapour Recovery Directive of 1995 reduced emissions at petrol stations – and denied future generations the enjoyment of filling station eau de petrol (PR February 1995 p56).

The environmental benefits of diesel-powered vehicles were touted back in 1993 (EW October 1993 p15), and in 1997 London’s red buses were “turning green” with the adoption of ultra-low sulfur diesel (PR March 1997 p120). Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) was seen as the automotive fuel of the future (PR June 1997 p271) and the potential for fuel cells in transport was already recognised (EW July-August 1998 p12). Fast-forward to today’s concerns about the air quality impacts of diesel emissions, and the formerly “green” diesel buses are being replaced by the “greenest” buses – efficient diesel and hybrid diesel-electric (EW February 2017). 

An area of more dramatic movement is electric passenger vehicles; the EI’s magazines continue to cover everything from battery technology (EW June 2016) to smart charging  (EW April 2018 p28).

Scroll through back issues of Energy World here and Petroleum Review here.