How Qatar’s LNG Decisions Will Impact an Oversupplied Global Market

Qatar is entering the world’s next LNG expansion phase with a large share of uncontracted supply, and how it will navigate this phase is the central uncertainty in the LNG market. To date, Qatar has stuck to a rigid stance of favoring long-term contracts with destination clauses. Going forward, Qatar could expand supply aggressively and thereby depress prices or manage volumes to sustain higher prices. Either approach would significantly influence long-term demand trajectories and competitors’ expansion plans.…

Nickel and Cobalt from U.S. Mines and Refineries: Assessment of Five Dimensions of Mineral Availability

Federal policies in the United States (U.S.) are aimed at increasing domestic mining and refining of critical minerals such as nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co). These two metals are key components in lithium-ion NMC batteries common in electric vehicles. This paper examines active and proposed Ni and Co mining and refining projects in the U.S. to evaluate five dimensions of mineral availability: 1) Geological, 2) Technical, 3) Economic, 4) Political, and 5) Social and Environmental. Only very small amounts of Ni and Co have been mined in the U.S. in recent decades. Despite significant geological resources of Ni and Co …

National Transmission Planning Study

Improving and expanding electric transmission infrastructure in the U.S. is critical to ensuring consumers across the country have access to reliable, affordable power when and where they need it and to enable us to integrate new, clean sources of energy generation into the grid. To understand the transformation needed to ensure the U.S. electric transmission system continues to reliably serve the nation’s electricity customers as the power sector evolves and transitions to cleaner resources, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office led the multiyear National Transmission Planning Study (NTP Study) in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) …

Regionalizing Transition Intelligence

Financial institutions face a critical challenge in assessing corporate transition planning: the absence of regional context. Although climate targets and decarbonization strategies are increasingly common in corporate disclosures, they often overlook the local economic, policy, and infrastructure conditions that shape the pace and feasibility of transition. This disconnect limits the usefulness of assessments, hindering the ability of financial institutions to effectively manage climate-related risks and opportunities.…

Recalibrating the Role of Banks in the Energy Transition

We are at an important inflection point in climate finance. Net-zero aligned targets set with good intentions are now met with challenges from all sides — technical, economic, legal, and reputational. While some fear a retreat in ambition, we see this as an opportunity to check our assumptions, ask better questions, and ultimately chart a new path forward. We need a recalibration — one that will ensure that the role of banks in the energy transition is rightsized to focus on deals, not just disclosure.

In the last decade, banks have overhauled governance, launched net-zero strategies, and built internal capability …

Key Insights from Social Licensing to Operate in Renewable Energy Projects

As renewable hydrogen becomes central to decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors, such as steel manufacturing or heavy transport, deployment in Emerging Markets and Developing Countries depends on obtaining timely environmental and social permits on the social acceptance of hydrogen production plants, often referred to as social license to operate. These are not peripheral tasks as they directly shape project bankability, investment readiness, and long-term project sustainability.

The World Bank’s report, Key Insights from Social Licensing to Operate in Renewable Energy Projects: Applying Lessons to Clean Hydrogen Development, underscores three interlinked challenges. First, unfamiliarity with hydrogen leads many national and local governments to …

Location, Location, Location

This report compares the costs and benefits of one utility-scale, front-of-the-meter (FTM) battery system versus five commercial-scale, behind-the-meter (BTM) batteries of the same aggregate cost in Massachusetts. The report, commissioned by Clean Energy Group for the Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative (CVEC), provides useful information to help CVEC decide between two possible ownership models for future energy storage procurement, while also providing a more general cost/benefit comparison between FTM utility-scale and BTM commercial-scale batteries. In this analysis, the larger FTM battery is considered a community storage project, owned and operated by CVEC on behalf of its constituent municipalities. The municipalities …

Global Methane Footprints Growth and Drivers 1990-2023

Methane has been identified as the second-largest contributor to climate change, accounting for approximately 30% of global warming. Countries have established targets and are implementing various measures to curb methane emissions. However, our understanding of the trends in methane emissions and their drivers remains limited, particularly from a consumption perspective (i.e. accounting for all emissions along the entire global supply chain). This study investigates the most recent dynamics of methane emissions across 120 sectors from both production and consumption viewpoints in 164 countries. It also discusses the status of decoupling of production- and consumption-based methane emissions from economic growth. Our …

US Energy Storage Monitor: Q3 2025

The US Energy Storage Monitor is a quarterly publication of Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables and the American Clean Power Association (ACP). Each quarter, new industry data is compiled into this report to provide the most comprehensive, timely analysis of energy storage in the US.…

Multimodal Dataset for Wind Turbine Blade Monitoring During Lightning Strikes

Lightning strikes pose a significant threat to the structural integrity and operational performance of wind turbine blades. Due to the high probability of lightning strikes but the difficulty in capturing their dynamic data, obtaining comprehensive data on blades subjected to lightning strikes is challenging. This study presents a rare multimodal dataset for wind turbine blade monitoring during lightning strikes (MDWTBM-LS). It includes vibration, load, and strain measurements from fiber optic load sensors and fiber optic accelerometer sensors. It provides real-time records of blade operational status and damage assessments after strikes. The dataset is intended to promote the development of predictive …