Portugal’s mining strategy may favour copper over lithium
Portugal already has the largest copper mine in the European Union, operated by Lundin Mining.
With a focus on Europe, this infographic sums up the major changes occurring in energy markets in oil, renewables, sanctions, and more.
Last year, so much changed in the energy market that it takes a bit of extra time to digest it all.
The oil price crashed, but as we showed in last week’s Chart of the Week, even that was not able to stop the glut that is currently being experienced in the United States.
Geopolitical events involving Ukraine and the Middle East prominently affected energy as well. Russia flexed muscles by halting exports of natural gas to Ukraine in June 2014 over a debt dispute. Though exports resumed in December, Ukraine is now buying over 60% of gas from European suppliers like Poland and Slovakia.
The price of thermal coal also continued its decline. Though this is a less followed story than oil, it has big repercussions on countries that use coal as a big part of their energy mix. Meanwhile, wind energy was the second most added energy type in terms of capacity behind natural gas. Many European nations now have a big piece of their energy mix covered by wind: Denmark (39%), Spain (23%), UK (9%), Germany (8%) and Italy (6%).
Want to know how much solar, wind, oil, gas, or nuclear energy it takes to power a major city for a year? Check out our Powering New York slideshow.
Original graphics from: ICIS
