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Spatial processes in urban energy transitions : considering an assemblage of Socio-Energetic Nodes / G. Debizet, A. Tabourdeau, C. Gauthier and P. Menanteau. Journal of cleaner production, vol. 134, Part A, October, pp. 330-341 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652616300580Urban and energy transitions are increasingly seen as being deeply intertwined. The way this relation impacts our approach to energy transition is a current issue for research. Implementing renewable energy sources in built-up areas challenges incumbent supply chains and large technical systems, especially for electricity, gas and heat. Approaches to transition such as the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) highlight the transformation of socio-technical regimes but have been criticised for overstating stability of regime and for overlooking spatial (and consequently urban) processes. Other concepts are required in order to understand local and non-local relationships between niches and regimes. This paper suggests a constructivist and pragmatic concept for urban energy transition, the Socio-Energetic Node (SEN), thanks to which actors and artefacts can be traced within energy networks. The SEN is a group of elements, which collects, converts and/or supplies energy, built by a decision-maker interacting with stakeholders and regime rules. Having identified SENs in four French eco-districts, we observed how they took shape around continuous energy flows and across decision-making boundaries, highlighting how spatial-scale and place-specificity impact on energy transition.Storage as a flexibility option in power systems with high shares of variable renewable energy sources : a POLES-based analysis / J. Després, S. Mima, A. Kitous, P. Criqui, N. Hadjsaid and I. Noirot, I. Energy Economics, available online 17 March 2016 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988316300445 - Draft : https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01301662In this paper we demonstrate the role of electricity storage for the integration of high shares of Variable Renewable Energy Sources (VRES) in the long-term evolution of the power system. For this a new electricity module is developed in POLES (Prospective Outlook on Long-term Energy Systems). It now takes into account the impacts of VRES on the European power system. The power system operation relies on EUCAD (European Unit Commitment And Dispatch), which includes daily storage and other inter-temporal constraints. The innovative aspect of our work is the direct coupling between POLES and EUCAD, thus combining a long-term simulation horizon and a short-term approach for the power system operation. The storage technologies represented are pumped-hydro storage, lithium-ion batteries, adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage (a-CAES) and electric vehicles (charging optimisation and vehicle-to-grid). Demand response and European grid interconnections are also represented, in order to include to some extent these flexibility options.Europe’s Energy Union: Foreign Policy Implications for Energy Security, Climate and Competitiveness / Thomas Raines and Shane Tomlinson. Chatham House.Europe Programme/Energy, Environment and Resources, March 2016,  29 p. https://www.chathamhouse.org/publication/europes-energy-union-foreign-policy-implications-energy-security-climateThis research paper explores the Energy Union from a primarily foreign policy perspective. It examines the political and economic forces likely to inform the creation of what aims to be, in effect, a single market with flexible and frictionless energy trade between all 28 member states. It considers the internal foreign policy dynamics of coordinating market development among countries whose energy priorities and domestic political imperatives often differ. It also considers the external diplomatic challenges such an initiative presents for the EU as a whole – for instance, the obstacles to developing closer energy links with European Neighbourhood countries that offer alternative sources of imported hydrocarbons but may be politically unstable, authoritarian and/or unable to ensure reliable supply. Further, this paper assesses the implications for the Energy Union of a range of European and global trends: the boom in production of shale oil and gas in the United States; the plunge in oil prices since mid-2014; the likely decline in future coal-fired generation in the EU; and the increasing use of renewable energy in the EU...Asian LNG Demand: Key Drivers and Outlook / Howard V Rogers. Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, April 2016, 85 p. (OIES paper ; NG 106) https://www.oxfordenergy.org/publications/asian-lng-demand-key-drivers-outlook/The LNG Industry has long regarded the Asian markets of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and India as high growth importing markets, willing to sign long term contracts with price terms linked to crude oil prices.  The rebound in Asian LNG demand in 2010, following the post-financial crisis year of 2009, re-affirmed this paradigm with LNG markets further tightening following the Fukushima tragedy. The signal for new LNG supply projects could not have been clearer in 2010 and 2011.While the LNG supply projects triggered by such high demand growth and price signals were being constructed however, Asian demand for LNG began to wane.  This appeared to be partly a consequence of mild winters but also LNG import prices and a general regional economic slowdown, perhaps led by China, also contributed.  This paper seeks to provide a ‘ground level’ understanding of the existing, emerging and potential Asian LNG markets and highlights data sources from in-country government departments, often overlooked from a European or North American perspective.The picture presented in this paper is one of LNG having to shed its mantle of a premium fuel whose import price is linked to that of oil and ‘re-market’ itself as fuel which can contribute to a lower carbon future, by displacing coal in national energy mixes, and equally importantly reducing particulate emissions. This however calls for a radical renaissance in marketing by upstream LNG producers and strenuous efforts in cost reduction through competition in the liquefaction equipment sector.The paper provides a framework for analysing and monitoring these markets which, if not currently deemed to offer the high levels of future LNG demand anticipated from the standpoint of the early 2010s, will nevertheless constitute a key element of the global LNG balance for the foreseeable future. As such they will significantly impact the fundamentals and pricing dynamics of the increasingly ‘connected’ global regional gas markets.Commentaire de la loi relative à la Transition Énergétique pour la Croissance Verte  / Anne-Sophie Denolle, Revue juridique de l’environnement, 2016/1 (Volume 41), pp. 99- 104 https://www.cairn.info/resume.php?ID_ARTICLE=RJE_161_0099La loi relative à la transition énergétique pour la croissance verte (TECV) apparaît sous certains aspects de portée limitée, se bornant à fixer des objectifs vagues et à poser de simples incitations à agir. Mais la loi TECV ne peut se résumer ainsi. Composée de 215 articles, elle renvoie nécessairement à des dispositions prescriptives et techniques, censées concrétiser la transition énergétique. La loi TECV a, qui plus est, le mérite d’aborder la problématique énergétique dans sa globalité, en traitant non seulement des énergies renouvelables mais également de l’isolation des bâtiments, de l’enjeu du développement des transports propres, de la nécessité de fonctionner en circuits-courts en favorisant une économie circulaire moins énergivore.Les certificats d’économies d’énergie : nature hybride d’un outil de l’État piloté par les acteurs économiques  / Anne Rainaud, Revue juridique de l’environnement, 2016/1 (Volume 41), pp. 105-121 https://www.cairn.info/resume.php?ID_ARTICLE=RJE_161_0105Les certificats d’économies d’énergie s’inscrivent dans la logique du développement durable en contraignant les fournisseurs d’énergie à offrir sur le marché des produits qui permettent à leurs clients de réaliser des économies. Des obligations juridiques sont fixées au niveau national aux différentes catégories d’acteurs économiques concernés, et le jeu de l’offre et de la demande sert d’instrumentum pour parvenir aux ambitions étatiques. Les certificats ont donc une nature hybride, en laissant le consommateur avoir une capacité de participer à la réduction globale des énergies utilisées et en obligeant les fournisseurs d’énergie à des résultats de vente qui doivent correspondre au nombre de certificats d’économies à détenir. Créés en 2005, les certificats se pérennisent et se perfectionnent avec la loi sur la transition énergétique pour la croissance verte, notamment dans leur dimension sociale au profit des ménages en situation de précarité énergétique.