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Francesco Sassi

@frankstones.bsky.social

260 followers 35 following 1.5K posts

Postdoctoral Fellow @statsvitenskap.bsky.social🇳🇴 Energy Statecraft, International Relations, Geopolitics, Diplomacy. Non-resident Research Fellow @ RIE - Bologna🇮🇹

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Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · Jan 17

🚨Publication Alert🚨
I am beyond excited to share with you my latest publication titled "The (Un)Intended consequences of power: The global implications of EU
LNG strategy to reach independence from Russian gas" on Energy Policy.
Link 🫴 authors.elsevier.com/a/1kRs614YGg...
🧵

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Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 18h

geopolitics of the energy transition will also affect, in the future, the way we recognise great powers.
➡️The Venture Global-BP Arbitration is LNG Geopolitics
🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE3374
➡️Milei's Political Crisis and Argentina's Energy Missteps
🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE3321

eklipX Intelligence

rebrand.ly

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 18h

states trying to make up for the gap between them and competing great powers. The feeling though is that, with 24 plants under construction today in China, the EU is just a lagger in a contest with the Washington-Beijing tensions playing a key role.
Beware, the shifting

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 18h

inhabited territory, and/or favourable policy and strategic landscapes, easing the planning of these plants to export electricity and become storage powers.
From this point of view, rising storage powers are
🇨🇱Chile
🇬🇧UK
🇳🇱Netherlands
🇺🇿Uzbekistan
🇮🇱Israel
and many other🇪🇺EU

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 18h

🇸🇦Saudi Arabia
🇨🇦Canada
🇦🇺Australia
🇿🇦South Africa
However, the number is increasing as electricity storage becomes a valuable energy business, particularly for countries with large deposits of critical mineral resources, required to battery construction, large portions of

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 18h

Western European households for an hour.
Currently, in the world we can count 42 plants of this size and half are located in just one country, namely🇨🇳China.
Actually, there are only four countries at the moment hosting these types of technologies and these are
🇨🇳China
🇺🇸US

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 18h

legitimation at the international level.
Just by looking at this map, it is clear that only a few countries have been able to assess their predominance in this sector, investing in large-scale battery projects with 1GWh of capacity, which is equal to supplying nearly 3 million of

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 18h

It is time to consider the shifting energy geopolitics also from the point of view of energy storage and how countries around the world are preparing for an era where the ability to handle fluctuations of electricity demand and supply becomes a new source of power, leverage, and

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Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 18h

🔋The time for Battery Great Powers is here and now

Only a handful of countries in the world are capable or willing to invest in large Gigawatt-scale projects of at least 1GW
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Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · Aug 20

🚨🇨🇳China's #solar #industry is bleeding amid disorderly competition, a struggling domestic economy and international tensions.
#Beijing wants to regulate more an industry dominating the world of #renewables and #green energy sources

Read my analysis here
rebrand.ly/RE3010

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Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 20h

To further explore the energy geopolitics of the🇪🇺Europe🇷🇺Russia🇺🇦Ukraine tensions
➡️Ukraine's Winter Depends on Imported Gas
🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE3352
➡️Tankers, Drones and Deterrence: The Energy War Moves to the North
🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE3342

eklipX Intelligence

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Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 20h

its strengths and weaknesses.
A continent where, luckily, the rule of law still prevails, but where policymakers are increasingly at odds with it and are resuming to dangerous nationalistic views in terms of safeguarding energy systems instead of coordinating systemic changes.

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 20h

answer comes when solicited on the Nord Stream sabotage and, considering the dismissing of charges to the Eagle S captain and crew, believed to be responsible for the disruption of the Estlink 2 undersea cable that halted the supply of electricity to Estonia, Europe shows again

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 20h

The EU Parliament also stated Russia’s sabotage and “hybrid” activities against the EU amounts to state-sponsored terrorism, “even if they fall below the threshold of an armed attack,” preparing the ground for more resolute responses whenever incidents might occur. Yet, no

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 20h

in regard of shooting down drones and other threats entering European airspace, but also increasing sanctions advocated by the EU Parliament against Chinese entities supplying dual-use goods and military items that are essential for Russia’s production of drones and missiles.

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 20h

and hydro assets, it is of increasing relevance how energy is framed also through a military lens which, all things considered, remains a political issue.
In response, the EU policymakers have been fretting in talks about drone walls to the East and surging military rhetoric

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 20h

Considering these events in relation to the significant NATO presence in the Baltics, where energy infrastructures are patrolled by naval and aerial forces, and the high relevance of the Nordic countries to the stability of the EU energy systems, particularly through gas, nuclear

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 20h

escalation of events, incursions, and silent breaching of airspace has intensified in all bordering states between the EU, NATO and Russia.
The intensification of drone incursions, without any significant incident to be reported, has particularly alerted Nordic and Baltic states.

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 20h

Soon we will enter the fourth year of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and through all this time, the security of European energy infrastructures has seen a repetition of events questioning the stability of our systems, particularly during winter times.
Over the last few weeks an

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 20h

🚨🇷🇺Russian covert and overt operations in🇪🇺EU and NATO states in Europe has spiked in recent weeks, signalling once again the importance of critical energy infrastructures for the European security

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Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

To further explore the geopolitics of energy transition
➡️The Oil & Gas U-Turn of New Zealand
🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE3279
➡️The GERD: Fuelling Ethiopia's state infrastructural power
🫴https://rebrand.ly/RE3188

eklipX Intelligence

rebrand.ly

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

consumers, the grid and America’s economic competitiveness” and that there won't be any "American energy dominance" without support to solar power. NextEra argues it continues to support the project while the US Bureau of Land Management holds all cards to pressure shareholders.

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

decided to withdraw the license issued under Biden. To this initiative the solar industry lobby Solar Energy Industries Association reacted by stating to be "deeply concerned that this administration continues to flout the law to the detriment of

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

Nevada including Arevia Power, Invenenergy, Leeward Renewable Energy and ConnectGen would have contributed to the project with capitals and technologies, with power demand in the state seen rising by 35% in less than 15 years, spurred by AI and data centres.
The US Administration

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

Esmeralda 7, with a 6.2 GW of capacity, was intended to power 2 million citizens in Nevada and in the surroundings of the SW state with a unique design of seven solar farms and battery systems linked to each other in the proximity of Las Vegas.
Several green power developers in

Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

🚨🌞The🇺🇸US government cancelled the environmental review of Esmeralda 7, the largest planned solar power plant in North America

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Francesco Sassi @frankstones.bsky.social · 1d

A direct link to the analysis
📜https://rebrand.ly/RE3374