Professor of Energy & Climate Policy at University of Oxford Energy Programme Leader at ECI, University of Oxford Senior Research Fellow at Oriel College, Oxford Senior Associate Institute for Sustainability Leadership, University of Cambridge
Only 5.5% of German homes have a smart meter. France, Italy, Spain: >90%. Hard to reward demand shifting when nobody measures it. Germany pays €435m/yr to curtail renewables instead. euronews.com/2026/08/01/not-in-my-basement-why-has-germany-been-so-slow-to-adopt-smart-meters-and-whats-it-costing
Why is Germany so far behind on smart meters?Only around five per cent of German households have a smart meter – compared to almost universal rollout in many other EU nations.euronews.comEnergy abundance is not the same as abundant energy. Nice to see The Hill run with electrofficiency, a term I coined this year: electrify an end use and you cut the energy needed to deliver the same service. thehill.com/opinion/ener...
Energy abundance is not the same thing as abundant energyWe’re living in an energy hellscape.thehill.comIs clean power cheap enough to compete? The argument leaves out the environmental and social cost of fossil fuels that never end up on a bill. These are real and large costs. They are just charged to somebody else. More in new Bright Spots edition: open.substack.com/pub/janrosen...
The bill we never seeThe hidden costs of electricity, and the good news about counting themopen.substack.comPornainen, Finland (pop 5,000) is now heated by a silo of crushed soapstone. I spoke to CNBC about it. 100 MWh, charged when power is cheap, emissions down ~70%. Days to weeks of storage, no critical minerals. www.cnbc.com/2026/07/25/f...
Finland’s radical answer to renewable energy’s biggest headache: The world’s largest sand batteryA small Finnish town has turned to the world's largest commercial sand battery to tackle a major hurdle in the energy transition: intermittency.www.cnbc.comRenewables are overtaking coal as the world's largest source of electricity generation, after near parity in 2025. New @iea.org mid-year update: their share goes from 33% to 37% by 2027, solar and wind from 17% to 21%. EU well ahead of global average. iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/3c66a...
NEW RESEARCH: 61% of Poland's industrial heat could be electrified with technology available in the country today. Industrial heat pumps do about half the work. 17 of 24 industry branches can go fully electric. www.forum-energii.eu/en/modernisa...
Modernisation or marginalisation. How can industrial electrification ensure security, competitiveness and economic growth for Poland?www.forum-energii.euNEW ANALYSIS: One of the most consequential discoveries of the 20th century is marked by a small blue plaque near my office. The lithium-ion cathode, Oxford, 1980. Grid batteries have since gone from one 5 MW project to 267 GW worldwide. New Bright Spots 👇 open.substack.com/pub/janrosen...
Batteries are quietly rewiring the gridFrom a plaque in Oxford to a third of California's electricity peak: how batteries revolutionise the grid.open.substack.comAre environmentalists right to warn against air conditioning? My take in The i Paper: cooling is a how-question, not a whether-question. Air-con runs hardest exactly when solar generates most. A grid ready for mass heat pump uptake can also absorb summer cooling. inews.co.uk/news/science...
Environmentalists say you shouldn’t have air-con. This is why they’re wrongAir-con has a reputation of being bad for the climate, but its impact is negligibleinews.co.ukBREAKING: Electrification Action Plan dropped. The EU just committed to doubling electrification: 46% of final energy consumption by 2040, up from 23% today, where it has sat for a decade. My rapid response analysis of the Electrification Action Plan: open.substack.com/pub/janrosen...
Nine times faster: the EU wants to double electrification by 2040The Commission has launched its Electrification Action Plan. A 46% target and some serious policy measures.open.substack.comThe Commission publishes its ETS and electrification proposals tomorrow. Best read as one file, not two: efficiency, electrification and a coherent ETS1+ETS2 price are one system. It's already delivered a 29% cut in EU energy use since 2000. www.janrosenow.com/uploads/4/7/...
The rise of batteries: California hit 33% of peak load within 22 quarters of batteries passing 1%. Australia 23% in 17, Texas 17% in 16. Great Britain took 28 quarters to reach 17%. Once the curve bends, deployment compounds. More in my next Substack - sign up here: janrosenow.substack.com
Electrify the energy system with clean power and total energy demand roughly halves. That was the core of my Eurelectric Power Summit keynote, now on YouTube (and picked up by The Rest Is Politics). www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqoJ...
Can Electrification Save Europe’s Economy and Climate Goals? w/ Jan Rosenow, Oxford ProfessorYouTube video by Eurelectricwww.youtube.com