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Ben McWilliams

@bmcwilliams.bsky.social

Affiliate Fellow, studying issues concerning all things (European) energy, climate and clean tech at the Bruegel think tank.

481 Followers  |  86 Following  |  152 Posts  |  Joined: 31.10.2023
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Posts by Ben McWilliams (@bmcwilliams.bsky.social)

nice graph!

25.02.2026 11:16 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Bruegel Clean Tech Tracker Bruegelโ€™s European Clean Tech Tracker compiles economic information on clean technologies. Its objective is to show where Europe stands in these expanding sectors. Explore the latest insights below or...

Data available at :

european-clean-tech-tracker.bruegel.org/overview/dep...

25.02.2026 09:45 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น Last week, the Italian government announced their intent to reimburse the carbon cost paid by gas-fired power plants.

The motivation is clear - Italy has the largest gas share in power production across Europe.

The risk is that this prolongs that dependence and reduces renewables investment.

25.02.2026 09:45 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 20    ๐Ÿ” 8    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 5

European gas demand has grown steadily throughout this winter, main reason being lower prices increasing the attractiveness of burning gas for power.

23.02.2026 11:05 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Bruegel Clean Tech Tracker Bruegelโ€™s European Clean Tech Tracker compiles economic information on clean technologies. Its objective is to show where Europe stands in these expanding sectors. Explore the latest insights below or...

All investments data available at european-clean-tech-tracker.bruegel.org/s/HJsVuQ

17.02.2026 15:25 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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European leaders are discussing how to encourage more investments into clean technology manufacturing facilities; and the rules that should be applied when such investments come from abroad.

๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡บ ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ Hungary and Spain today attract by far the most investment and have much at stake

17.02.2026 15:25 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 12    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Bruegel Clean Tech Tracker Bruegelโ€™s European Clean Tech Tracker compiles economic information on clean technologies. Its objective is to show where Europe stands in these expanding sectors. Explore the latest insights below or...

At the European map view you can see this variable and many others across countries

@bruegel.org

european-clean-tech-tracker.bruegel.org/geography/ov...

11.02.2026 12:31 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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One million Europeans are employed in clean tech value chains. Including batteries, bioenergy, geothermal, hydro, heat pumps, solar and wind. Jobs are doubled compared with 2010.

The data are not available, but EV and nuclear jobs would push this even higher.

11.02.2026 12:31 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 16    ๐Ÿ” 6    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐Ÿญ โ€˜Made with Europeโ€™ not โ€˜Made in Europeโ€™ should guide EU industrial policy

๐Ÿ’ก Read the First Glance by Ignacio Garcรญa Bercero,
@bmcwilliams.bsky.social, @niclaspoitiers.bsky.social and @tagliapietra.bsky.social

๐Ÿ”— www.bruegel.org/first-glance...
#EconSky

10.02.2026 14:45 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
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โ€˜Made with Europeโ€™ not โ€˜Made in Europeโ€™ should guide EU industrial policy The European Union should not go down the path of local-content requirements to protect industry but should remain open to international cooperation

๐Ÿ†• Our argument for "Made with" and not "Made in Europe" to be at the centre of a new European clean industrial policy

@tagliapietra.bsky.social @niclaspoitiers.bsky.social @bruegel.org

www.bruegel.org/first-glance...

10.02.2026 13:46 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 8    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐ŸšจNo 2025 heat pump rebound in France.

Very similar market to 2024. ๐ŸŸฐ

After dropping 40% in 2024, sales of air-to-water heat pumps stayed roughly flat. The 2025 rebound seen in other countries, such as Germany, did not happen in Europe's (still?) leading heat pump market.

06.02.2026 14:25 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Global trade tracker This dataset monitors goods-trade developments among major economies in the wake of the 2025 US tariff hikes

Dataset available here - www.bruegel.org/dataset/glob...

06.02.2026 10:00 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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If you wonder how US & global trade responds to Trump's tariffs ... my colleagues @zsoltdarvas.bsky.social and Marie-Sophie Lappe have the dataset for you @bruegel.org

Among many figures, I find striking that advanced economy trade as % of GDP is retreating back to COVID-19 levels

06.02.2026 10:00 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Looks like German manufacturing has turned the corner.
www.destatis.de/EN/Press/202...

05.02.2026 12:55 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 116    ๐Ÿ” 31    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3
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European natural gas demand bounced back slightly in December 2025. Low prices and a drop in wind led to more gas burned for power. Slight growth in industrial demand too.

www.bruegel.org/dataset/euro...

04.02.2026 11:40 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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a few markets were 'spike-ish', but yes fair point not really a spike at EU aggregate - nonetheless, Jan numbers will be revealing

03.02.2026 16:27 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Bruegel Clean Tech Tracker Bruegelโ€™s European Clean Tech Tracker compiles economic information on clean technologies. Its objective is to show where Europe stands in these expanding sectors. Explore the latest insights below or...

Link to the interactive dataset here:

european-clean-tech-tracker.bruegel.org/s/U6FJNA

03.02.2026 15:43 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The close of 2025 brings yet another EV registration record: almost one-in-four new cars sold in the EU were fully electric in December.

End of year spikes are common as policies end and support schemes phase out. It will be interesting to see January data when available.

03.02.2026 15:43 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Nov & Dec growth was driven by incentivi statali which are now expired, so will be interesting to see how this looks going into the new year

03.02.2026 09:17 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Regarding #Tesla: This is the development of Tesla's share in the German car market since 2023.

29.01.2026 14:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 24    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

also ignores all other non-energy process emissions I suppose. But I found the author's arguments that we may need something beyond temperature targets to be convincing. Wonder if there is a way to combine the best of both?

29.01.2026 09:34 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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is there a good understanding of why German and French electricity prices have decoupled substantially since early 2024?

using the great @ember-energy.org prices dataset - ember-energy.org/data/europea...

28.01.2026 15:55 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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All about CBAM, the cross-border carbon levy The EUโ€™s carbon border adjustment mechanism is live! What happens next?

Earlier this month, the EUs carbon border adjustment mechanism finally began full operations. With @rebeccawire.bsky.social and Ignacio Garcia Bercero @bruegel.org we discussed what that means.

When will companies start paying? Who will be hit the hardest?

www.bruegel.org/podcast/all-...

28.01.2026 14:00 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

A proposal to replace the UNFCCC focus from 1.5 C target to measuring "clean energy shift" - the delta between clean energy growth and energy demand growth. Countries would set and report on hitting such targets.

28.01.2026 09:20 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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European natural gas demand tracker Tracking monthly natural gas demand by country and the EU as a whole, with a breakdown of the power, industry and household sectors where possible

Our @bruegel.org downloadable dataset updated through Nov25 ๐Ÿ‘‡

@keliauskaite.bsky.social
@gzachmann.bsky.social

www.bruegel.org/dataset/euro...

26.01.2026 10:48 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐Ÿ†• EU natural gas demand bounced back slightly as TTF prices fell < โ‚ฌ30 / MWh toward the end of 2025.

This repeats the pattern of winter 23/24.

After summer months of demand โ‰ˆ 20% down on pre-crisis 2019-21 AVG, winter months are โ‰ˆ 10% down

26.01.2026 10:48 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Ember @ember-energy.org release their annual electricity review today, full of great facts and figures as always.

The decoupling of midday solar prices from evening natural gas prices particularly stands out to me ๐Ÿ‘‡

๐Ÿ”‹Big incoming role for batteries.

ember-energy.org/latest-insig...

22.01.2026 08:45 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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NEW | Wind and solar generated more power than fossil fuels in the EU for the FIRST time ever.

๐ŸŒช๏ธ and โ˜€๏ธ made up a RECORD 30% of ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ electricity, up from 20% just five years ago.

https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/european-electricity-review-2026/

21.01.2026 23:01 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 445    ๐Ÿ” 219    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 9    ๐Ÿ“Œ 53
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The unfortunate consequence of tariffs and the uncertainty they create is that Transatlantic trade is slowly disappearing.

For clean tech products, EU - US exports have fallen by two-thirds this year while imports from the US are down by a half.

european-clean-tech-tracker.bruegel.org/s/vREcWw

20.01.2026 15:31 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Struck by this graph from @nathanielbullard.com

In the last month of 2025, a total 65 GWh capacity in batteries were connected in China.

That is more than the sum of batteries connected ever in the EU (around 61 GWh)

16.01.2026 15:11 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0