About Aedan Kernan

Aedan is a business communications specialist with interests in the development of new technologies and in environmental issues. He is a former managing editor of Supply Network magazine and former editor of Industry Europe. He has edited or written Annual Reports for public limited companies in the UK and the Netherlands. Aedan has also written extensively for Higher Education institutions, mainly on research and internal management issues.
Author Archive | Aedan Kernan
Wave energy technologies will make a significant contribution to Scotland's renewable energy targets - Photo: Oceanflow Energy/flickr

Scottish Marine Energy Moving Forward

Leading engineering companies and commercial banks are putting money in marine energy projects off the coast of Scotland. The Scottish government believes the industry will be competitive with other renewable energy sources by the mid-2020s. Scottish Marine Energy Developing Tidal and wave energy technologies will make an important contribution to Scotland’s goal of generating the […]

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Emissions trading maybe more cost effective for Germany than Feed in Tariffs - Photo: Dimitri Castrique/stckxchng

The Cheapest Route to Germany’s Renewable Energy Goal

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is the cheapest route to Germany’s renewable energy goal, says Professor Colin Vance of the Rheinish-Westfälisches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (RWI-Essen). Most other renewable energy promotion policies are redundant. Germany should ditch its massively expensive feed-in tariff scheme, he believes.   Germany faces a major challenge if it is to achieve its […]

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Pakistan capital Islamabad. The country has offered a high feed in tariff for wind power - Photo: Umayr Sahlan Masud/stckxchng

Pakistan Looks to Wind Power in a Crisis

Pakistan’s national electric power regulatory authority has proposed a feed-in tariff for wind power projects of 14.66 US cents per kWh to run for 20 years. The tariff will be limited to projects of 5MW to 250MW that achieve financial close before the end of 2012. A tariff of almost 15 US cents is one […]

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A silicon wafer - Photo: Piotr D./stckxhcng

Photovoltaics – the Law of Comparative Advantage in Action

China has an important share in world patents for upstream high-value processes in photovoltaic cell manufacture, such as the production of silicon, ingots and wafer segments. But those patenting activities are the result of Chinese public research institutes’ efforts to break the country’s dependence on foreign suppliers of hi-tech components, according to researchers from Mines Paris Tech. That R&D is not […]

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Some wind turbine nacelles can weigh 300 tonnes - Photo: Hepburn Wind/flickr

Design Race in Wind Turbine Drivetrains

This article was first published on Leonardo Energy on 10th January 2011 The silhouettes of three-rotor offshore wind turbines on the horizon is familiar to millions of people in coastal regions around the world. But there is no universal design for the drivetrains within the wind turbines’ streamlined nacelles that sit on top of the turbine towers. […]

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India's greenhouse gas emissions are rising as renewables struggle to keep pace - Photo: Asif Akbar/stckxchng

Indian Budget 2011-12: Renewables Battle to Keep Pace

This article was first published on Leonardo Energy on 16th May 2011 With India’s $1 trillion-plus economy achieving GDP growth of 8.5% in 2011, expected to increase to 9% in 2012, the Indian Government is unable to grow its energy infrastructure fast enough to meet demand. An extra 70 GW of power was planned between 2008 […]

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Photovoltaics - attribute to Neville Micallef - stckxchng

Global PV market up 139% Tougher times ahead

This article was first published on Leonardo Energy on 5th September 2011 A record 18.2 GW of solar photovoltaics was installed across the world in 2010, according to the annual survey from the Californian solar energy consultancy Solarbuzz. That is growth of 139% in installations over 2009. The survey reports that the PV industry generated US $82 billion […]

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I love this pic of turbines against the bright blue sky...

Renewable Energy Articles

  UK’s Offshore Wind Incentive Falls Short   Scotland Marine Energy   Wind: The Cheapest Power Source in Uruguay   Supporting Wind Development with Hydro Balancing Services   Getting an extra ‘Nip’ from Whisky   Depreciation Today over Generation-based Incentives Tomorrow   The Cheapest Route to Germany’s Renewable Energy Goal   Germany Models its Transmission […]

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Renewable Energy

Specialist writing about global renewable energy issues

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The German Reichstag building - Photo: Christa Richert/Stckxchng

German University Clusters of Excellence receive Funding

The German federal and state governments injected more than €2.72 billion of new money in 2012 into leading universities and programs to improve Germany’s research capabilities and ability to compete against the global elite in the university sector. This follows an injection of €1.9 billion in 2007. It went directly against the predominant international trend towards […]

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