Michael Liebreich
@mliebreich
Host @CleaningUpPod. CEO Liebreich Associates. Managing Partner Ecopragma Capital. Founder, Contributor @BloombergNEF. Ex Board TfL, Board of Trade. Olympian. Don't message me - I'm not prepared to give away personal data to prove my age. Srsly BlueSky!
Four more. And we haven't even launched yet. Go @pragmacharge.bsky.social
The EU is targeting an increase electricity's share of Final Energy from 24% to 46% by 2040. The arithmetic of the Final Energy Fallacy makes this entirely unachievable. We need a course correction. mliebreich.substack.com/p/eu-propose...
Amazon has selected @pragmacharge.bsky.social to electrify their trucks on the A2 and A4 in Poland - two of the busiest freight corridors in Europe. Great stuff...
About to go live for the last presentation of my Antipodean tour - in beautiful (but Windy) Wellington, NZ!
On tour with @cleaninguppod.bsky.social! Filming our first mini-series on Australia...
Here's coal use per capita - historical and in the scenarios. See that purple line? That's SSP5-8.5, modern equivalent to RCP8.5. It's not just a bit overcooked, it's bonkers! x.com/Peters_Glen/...
In addition to the #HydrogenLadder, don't forget this chat. What it shows is that until the world is *awash* with clean electricity, every kWh of it you use to make hydrogen could have had 2-9x the impact if used directly, at a fraction of the cost and public subsidy.
Whoever you're replying to, I've blocked - which generally means they are some combination of persistent, aggressive, wrong and dull :-)
You know what's coolest about this? The "emergence" time: how long it takes to be sure that data from year x cannot be from a previous year. The lowest winter month is higher than the highest summer month at most four years before. Winter 2030 output will beat summer 2026. 😎
Please do actual maths. Decarbonising transport eliminates 3.5x the emissions that using the same clean electricity to make fertiliser achieves. As long as transport in Latam is fossil-based, wasting clean electricity decarbonizing fertilizer is bad for the climate. You have to acknowledge it!
First time back in SF since COVID. Riding around in a Waymo, listening to Chemical Brothers Galvanize with the sound cranked up. Goosebumps.
This week on @cleaninguppod.bsky.social, we go behind the scenes with the man coordinating the response to the Gulf crisis. I travelled to Paris to meet Fatih Birol, Exec Director of the IEA, just a week after the release of 400m barrels of oil from its Strategic Reserve. youtu.be/hmHIrtBZIAg?...
Anyone who thinks hydrogen is the solution to energy security in Europe is flat wrong. You would need to believe the price of natural gas is going up 5x and staying there for 15 years! It would be like buying a fleet of snowploughs in case it snows in Riyadh, except at a cost of trillions of euros.
Anyone who thinks hydrogen is the solution to energy security in Europe is flat wrong. You would need to believe the price of natural gas is going up 5x and staying there for 15 years! It would be like buying a fleet of snowploughs in case it snows in Riyadh, except at a cost of trillions of euros.
Here it is, updated to today and on a log basis. It's already as steep as increase as 1973. But yes, not yet the highest oil price ever.
I've just recorded my fifth episode of Cleaning Up this week - with someone who is even busier than me. Watch this space, we'll air it as soon as we can.
It's that time of year again! I am working hard today (honestly), raising money for #SupportingWoundedVeterans. Please like and repost this: the more likes it gets, the more we raise!!!
Here's medium and heavy-duty trucks versus EVs on the same scale. For a couple of years you could could see a few pixels, but then sales crashed, energy in China, the leading market. There is nothing in the data to support belief in hydrogen FCVs.
If you don't like my reasons for the utter failure of #hydrogen FCVs to sell more than a few thousand units (despite 50 years of being funded and promoted), you can make up your own!
It was great to see you, and thanks so much for the copy of your book for my daughters. See you in Singapore in May. Go Canada!
I did my best in my Bloomberg piece on heat. Read the full section on thermodynamics, tell me what you think: about.bnef.com/insights/cle...
I've been cranking numbers. Full year 2025, it looks like nuclear power just about kept its nose ahead of wind and solar. But in H2 2025, while wind didn't quite overtake nuclear, solar did. In 2026 nuclear will drop to third place in the production of clean electricity.
Fusion vs fission. It's fusion for the win - with a bit of help from some solar panels, obviously.
Robert, I can't see who it is you are responding to, which means I must have blocked them for being boring, persistent, aggressive and wrong. But thanks for jumping to my defence! Of course I don't advocate banning hydrogen - I merely point out its horrendous economics and climate opportunity cost.
Country 9 in global oil reserves has invaded country 1 and arrested its president. Country 7 is under sanctions and its refineries are being destroyed. Country 2 is facing off with country 6. And there are riots in country 3. But oil is only $60/bbl. Maybe oil is not as critical as it used to be?