This breakthrough technology could ultimately help Europe meet its climate goals in the future.

Researchers in Denmark have set a new world record in efficiency for converting sunlight into electricity by using new windows that allow light to pass through while simultaneously generating power. 

The transparent solar cell technology could provide a breakthrough for renewable energy by transforming skyscrapers and offices into power plants, using their windows to become solar panels. 

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The innovation from the CitySolar project could also help Europe meet its ambitions to make all new buildings nearly zero energy and fully decarbonise the European building sector by 2050.

The researchers from the University of Southern Denmark combined organic solar cells with the material perovskite, which saw an efficiency of 12.3 per cent, which is on par with commercial solar cells. 

The international team say the panels also have a transparency of 30 per cent. 

Until now, transparent solar windows have not been able to absorb enough energy to be able to generate the amount of electricity needed for a building and the panels have previously not been transparent enough for use. 

The CitySolar project says it has now overcome these issues.  

“Transparent solar cells could be the next big step in building integrated energy solutions,” said Morten Madsen, a professor from the University of Southern Denmark who was one of the key researchers behind the breakthrough.

“The large glass facades found in modern office buildings can now be used for energy production without requiring additional space or special structural changes... This represents a massive market opportunity”.

Furthermore, Madsen said that the two materials used in the cells are highly affordable and could be scaled for commercial deployment.

When added to the organic solar cell, the perovskite layer absorbs near-ultraviolet light and the cell absorbs near-infrared light. 

"The tandem solar cell mainly harvests energy from the infrared and ultraviolet parts of the sun's rays, but not from visible light. This allows us to set new efficiency standards for semi-transparent solar windows," Madsen said. 

This then allows the light from the visible spectrum to pass through while leaving the visible spectrum relatively untouched.

The two materials are highly affordable, according to Madsen, making it a suitable technology for commercial-scale deployment.

The project is currently at a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of between five and six, meaning it is between the proof-of-concept and prototype stages.

It has received almost €4 million in funding from the EU and the team is currently in discussions with industry partners to scale up production of the see-through solar panels.

LITTLETON, Colorado, March 26 (Reuters) - Record nuclear power production is helping South Korea to cut imports of thermal coal and LNG to multi-year lows so far in 2025, offering a potential blueprint for other power-hungry nations looking to curb reliance on fossil fuel imports.

Nuclear reactors have generated more electricity than South Korea's coal and natural gas-fired plants since September of last year, and have helped the country's utilities make steep cuts to fossil fuel purchases and use so far in 2025.

Historically, South Korea has been a top-four importer of both coal and LNG, but over the first quarter of 2025 it has cut the combined imports of both fuels by 20% from 2024, thanks to greater home-grown nuclear output.

Continued high nuclear generation could allow for further drops to South Korea's fossil fuel imports going forward and showcase the effectiveness of a nuclear fleet in displacing costly and high-polluting fuels from power production.

NUCLEAR GROWTH

South Korea's nuclear power fleet churned out a record 17.9 terawatt hours of electricity in January, according to data from Ember, which is 20% more than in the same month in 2024 and accounted for nearly 35% of the country's electricity.

A sustained drive to raise efficiency levels of the country's nuclear reactors, alongside the start-up of the Shin Hanul-2 reactor in early 2024, has resulted in a steady climb in South Korea's nuclear-powered electricity supplies.

Between 2019 and 2024, total electricity generation from South Korea's nuclear plants expanded by 29%, from 146 terawatt hours (TWh) to 189 TWh, Ember data shows.

Electricity demand drove a jump in overall global energy consumption growth in 2024, lifting it well above the average pace of increase in recent years, energy watchdog the IEA said today.

Global energy demand rose by 2.2pc in 2024 — higher than the average annual demand increase of 1.3pc between 2013 and 2023 — according to the Paris-base agency's Global Energy Review. Global electricity consumption rose by 4.3pc, driven by record-high temperatures that led to increased cooling demand, growing industrial consumption, the electrification of transport and from data centres and artificial intelligence, the IEA said.

Renewables and nuclear covered the majority of growth in electricity demand, at 80pc, while supply of gas-fired power generation "also increased steadily", it said. New renewable power capacity installations reached around 700GW in 2024 — a new high — while renewable power sources and nuclear together made up 40pc of total generation in 2024, it said.

Global gas demand rose by 2.7pc in 2024, with an increase in "fast growing Asian markets", the IEA said. It noted growth of more than 7pc and 10pc in China and India, respectively.

But "growth in global oil demand slowed markedly in 2024", the organisation said. Oil demand rose by 0.8pc — compared with 1.9pc in 2023 — and oil's share of total energy demand fell below 30pc last year "for the first time ever".

A rise in electric vehicle (EV) purchases was a key contributor to the drop in oil demand for road transport, and this offset "a significant proportion" of the rise in oil consumption for aviation and petrochemicals, the IEA said.

The rate of increase in coal demand slowed to 1.1pc in 2024, half the pace seen in 2023.

"Intense heatwaves" in China and India "contributed more than 90pc of the total annual increase in coal consumption globally", for cooling needs, the IEA found.

Renewables limit rise in emissions

The IEA repeatedly noted the significant effect that extreme weather in 2024 had on energy systems and on demand patterns. Last year was the hottest ever recorded, beating the previous record set in 2023.

"Weather effects contributed about 15pc of the overall increase in global energy demand", the IEA said. Global cooling degree days were 6pc higher in 2024 on the year, and 20pc higher than the 2000-20 average, it said.

But the "continued rapid adoption of clean energy technologies" restricted the rise in energy-related CO2 emissions, which fell to 0.8pc in 2024 from 1.2pc in 2023, the IEA said. Energy-related CO2 emissions still hit a record high of 37.8bn t in 2024, but the rise in emissions was lower than global GDP growth, it said.

"The majority of emissions growth in 2024 came from emerging and developing economies other than China," the IEA said. Emerging and developing economies accounted for more than 80pc of the increase in global energy demand last year, it said.

By Georgia Gratton

President Donald Trump will announce new tariffs on the automobile industry later today, the White House said, at a time of significant uncertainty about his trade policies.

Trump plans to offer further details on the automobile tariffs this afternoon, less than a week before he plans to announce tariffs against major foreign trade partners on 2 April, which Trump has dubbed "Liberation Day". Trump has already imposed a 25pc tariff on steel and aluminum, and earlier this week said he would announce tariffs on imported lumber, semiconductor chips and pharmaceuticals.

Trump last month threatened to impose 25pc tariffs on most imports from Canada and Mexico, starting on 4 March — including imported automobiles and vehicle parts — but he eventually offered a one-month reprieve for US automakers before delaying those tariffs entirely until 2 April.

The scope and timing of the upcoming automobile tariffs remains unclear, and the White House has yet to provide further details. But Ontario premier Doug Ford previously warned that steep tariffs on Canada could cause auto manufacturing in the US and Canada to grind to a halt within as few as 10 days. Earlier this week, Trump said that South Korean automaker Hyundai's recent decision to invest $5.8bn to build a steel mill in Louisiana offered a blueprint for how companies could avoid tariffs.

"This is the beginning of a lot of things happening," Trump said.

Even as a lack of details about the upcoming tariffs has fueled uncertainty for businesses and sharp declines on US stock markets, Trump has continued to announce additional tariffs. On Tuesday, Trump said any country taking delivery of Venezuelan oil or gas would be "forced" to pay an incremental 25pc tariff on any goods imported in the US.

US oil executives appear to be growing tired of Trump's chaotic trade policy, particularly his imposition of a 25pc tariff on imported steel that is used in drill pipes, executives said in a survey the US Federal Reserve of Dallas released Wednesday. The uncertainty over tariffs and trade policy is causing "chaos", they said in the survey, and increasing their cost of capital.

"Tariff policy is impossible for us to predict and doesn't have a clear goal," an unnamed oil executive said in the survey. "We want more stability."

By Chris Knight

JAKARTA, investor.id - Indonesia telah berkomitmen untuk mencapai net zero emission (NZE) tahun 2060 atau lebih cepat. Pada 2022, Indonesia menyepakati Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) senilai US$ 20 miliar, yang salah satu targetnya puncak emisi 290 juta ton CO2 dan bauran energi terbarukan 34% pada tahun 2030. Komitmen ini mencerminkan peluang investasi besar untuk mempercepat transisi energi. Ketersediaan data proyek energi terbarukan, perencanaan, dan informasi pelelangan menjadi faktor kunci dalam menarik investasi bersih.

Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) mendorong ketersediaan data potensi proyek energi terbarukan sehingga dapat memantik penurunan emisi yang signifikan. Manajer Program Transformasi Sistem Energi IESR, Deon Arinaldo, menuturkan bahwa meskipun potensi teknis energi terbarukan Indonesia mencapai lebih dari 3.700 GW, pemanfaatannya, terutama PLTS dan PLTB masih jauh dari optimal.

Melalui kajiannya terbaru, Unlocking Indonesia’s Renewable Future, IESR menganalisa potensi proyek energi terbarukan berdasar regulasi tarif yang berlaku saat ini, seperti Perpres No. 112/2022 serta ketersediaan infrastruktur jaringan listrik seperti gardu induk dan transmisi. Kajian ini mengidentifikasi potensi pengembangan proyek energi terbarukan hingga 333 GW, yang dapat dipasok oleh PLTS, PLTB dan PLTM.

“Melihat potensi ini, tentu saja ada kontradiksi dengan realitas pemanfaatan energi terbarukan di Indonesia. Namun, temuan ini menunjukkan bahwa kita bisa bergerak lebih cepat dalam memanfaatkan energi terbarukan ini, khususnya PLTS dan PLTB,” jelas Deon dalam Diskusi bersama media berjudul Editorial Forum: Meningkatkan Optimisme PLTS dan PLTB Sebagai Tulang Punggung Transisi Energi di Indonesia pada Selasa (25/3).

Pintoko Aji, Koordinator Riset Kelompok Data dan Pemodelan, IESR mengungkapkan bahwa dalam kajian tersebut, 333 GW potensi pengembangan energi terbarukan terdiri dari PLTB daratan (onshore) (167 GW), PLTS di daratan (ground-mounted) (165,9 GW), dan PLTM (0,7 GW). Angka tersebut didapatkan dari hasil simulasi finansial dan skema private-public partnership pada 1.500an lokasi yang berpotensi secara teknis. Dari jumlah tersebut, 205,9 GW atau sekitar 61 persen dari total potensi yang layak secara finansial diindikasikan memiliki tingkat pengembalian Equity Internal Rate of Return/EIRR di atas 10 persen, yang menunjukkan potensi investasi yang menjanjikan.

“Misalnya saja sumber daya minihidro banyak di wilayah Sumatera, sementara potensi tenaga angin terbesar di Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, dan Papua. Di sisi lain, energi surya memiliki potensi menjanjikan di wilayah seperti Sumatera, Kalimantan, dan Sulawesi. Untuk mewujudkan potensi ini, pembangunan infrastruktur yang mendukung, terutama dalam hal transmisi dan distribusi energi, sangat diperlukan,” tegas Pintoko.

IESR mendorong pemerintah untuk mengakomodasi alokasi penggunaan lahan untuk energi terbarukan dalam perencanaan tata ruang daerah, menyederhanakan proses pengadaan lahan untuk mengurangi risiko investasi, serta menetapkan target spesifik per daerah dalam pemanfaatan energi terbarukan. Sementara untuk mengakomodasi integrasi lokasi energi terbarukan dengan potensi keuntungan tinggi, PLN dapat menyusun perencanaan serta perluasan jaringan ke lokasi-lokasi yang teridentifikasi tersebut dan reformasi mekanisme pengadaan. Sedangkan untuk menentukan skala prioritas pengembangan energi terbarukan, IESR mendorong pengembang untuk memprioritaskan proyek dengan potensi keuntungan tinggi dan mengoptimalkan desain serta perencanaan keuangan.

Sementara itu, Herman Darnel Ibrahim, Ketua Pakar Asosiasi Energi Surya Indonesia (AESI) menegaskan, dengan tantangan transisi energi yang semakin mendesak, energi surya menjadi sumber daya yang dominan dan berperan penting untuk masa depan energi Indonesia. Pengembangan teknologi energi surya saat ini sudah matang dan semakin kompetitif, terutama dibandingkan dengan pembangkit tenaga nuklir maupun gas.

Institute for Essential Service Reform (IESR) adalah organisasi think tank yang secara aktif mempromosikan dan memperjuangkan pemenuhan kebutuhan energi Indonesia, dengan menjunjung tinggi prinsip keadilan dalam pemanfaatan sumber daya alam dan kelestarian ekologis. IESR terlibat dalam kegiatan seperti melakukan analisis dan penelitian, mengadvokasi kebijakan publik, meluncurkan kampanye tentang topik tertentu, dan berkolaborasi dengan berbagai organisasi dan institusi.

Editor: Euis Rita Hartati