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Solar Cells From China Injured U.S. Manufacturers, International Trade Court Rules
Aug 25, 2015 | Power Magazine
By Sonal Patel
The U.S. Court of International Trade has upheld a determination by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules from China materially injured domestic solar companies. The decision dated Aug. 7 (but made public on Aug. 21) rejects claims by Chinese firms Trina Solar, Wuxi Suntech... -
China is on track to hit its carbon-emission goals sooner than expected
Aug 25, 2015 | Business Insider
By Andy Tully
China may achieve its goal to stop the growth of its carbon emissions before its deadline of 2030 because the country's discharge of carbon dioxide already may be less than reflected in current estimates, according to a new study. Beijing hasn't reported on the level of its CO2 emissions for 2014, but outside groups... -
Renewables cover almost 100% of German demand
Aug 25, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Sandra Enkhardt
On Sunday midday, close to 100% of the electricity demand in Germany was covered by renewable sources. A lot of sun and wind made this possible. Almost 100% of the electricity demand in Germany noon last Sunday was covered by PV and wind power. According to the evaluation by the forum "Together against interim storage... -
UK solar FiTs may be cut by up to 50% - report
Aug 26, 2015 | See News Renewables
By Tsvetomira Tsanova
The new Conservative government in the UK could slash the feed-in tariff (FiT) for solar electricity by as much as 50%, the Sunday Times said Sunday, citing industry sources. In July Amber Rudd, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, proposed to close the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme for new solar projects from April 2016... -
Brazil auction to have 341 projects of 11.3GW competing
Aug 25, 2015 | PV Tech
By Tom Kenning
Brazil has chosen 341 solar projects with a combined capacity of 11.26GW to compete at its First Energy Reserve Auction to be held on 28 August. The Brazilian government's Energy Research Agency (EPE) announced that the state of Bahia had the highest potential with 125 projects of 4GW combined capacity. -
The U.S. Just Approved One of the World’s Biggest Solar Power Plants
Aug 24, 2015 | Yahoo! News
By Todd Woody
Solar is going big. Again. The federal government on Monday green-lit a 485-megawatt solar plant that would generate enough carbon-free electricity to power 180,000 homes when it comes online in the Southern California desert. During the Great Recession, that was nothing unusual about billions of dollars in federal stimulus... -
Doubling down
Aug 25, 2015 | The Economist
Crashing commodities scare not only stock markets. They also strike fear into environmentalists keen to see America move towards renewable sources of energy. Barack Obama sought to bolster confidence in green power at the National Clean Energy Summit on August 24th—a day on which oil prices also fell to below $45 a barrel... -
UN Tasks Businesses On Renewable Energy
Aug 25, 2015 | Renewables Biz
The Special Adviser to the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Post-2015 Development Planning, Ms. Amina Mohammed, monday charged Nigerian businesses to invest more in renewable energy in the country. She made the call at the meeting of Ki-Moon with Nigeria's business and philanthropy leaders in Abuja. -
Not All Renewable Energy Is Created Equal
Aug 25, 2015 | The Huffington Post - Green Blog
By Kelly Stone
Renewable energy is hot right now. Maybe it's because renewables are rapidly becoming more affordable. Maybe it's because President Obama's recent publicity push surrounding his Clean Power Plan is driving interest in climate action. Or perhaps it's because Americans are fascinated by enigmatic entrepreneurs, and Elon Musk...
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Solar Cells From China Injured U.S. Manufacturers, International Trade Court Rules
Aug 25, 2015 | Power Magazine
By Sonal Patel
The U.S. Court of International Trade has upheld a determination by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) that imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules from China materially injured domestic solar companies.
The decision dated Aug. 7 (but made public on Aug. 21) rejects claims by Chinese firms Trina Solar, Wuxi Suntech Power, Suntech, and Yingli Green Energy that, among other things, the ITC did not take into account market conditions before making its injury determination.
Plaintiffs asserted that several considerations showed that the domestic market would have suffered the same fate irrespective of whether their products were available in the U.S.
For one, the price and demand for crystalline silicon PV are tied to the need to achieve grid parity, they argued. Also, government incentives that stimulated demand for crystalline silicon PV products in the U.S. were being phased out during the period of investigation spanning January 2009 through June 2012. The fastest growth in demand during that period was in the utility sector, where grid parity and government incentives had the greatest effect, the plaintiffs claimed.
However, Judge Richard K. Eaton found that the ITC rightly considered the volume, price effects, impact of subject imports, and other external market factors, when it made its determination.
The decision is another victory for defendant and intervener SolarWorld, a German-based firm that is the largest solar manufacturer in the U.S. The company filed antidumping and countervailing duty petitions with the Department of Commerce and ITC in October 2011 covering crystalline silicon PV cells and modules from China.
The U.S. ITC in November 2012 unanimously determined that imports of those products from China materially injured the U.S. industry, clearing the way for the Commerce Department to issue antidumping and countervailing duties of between 31% and 250% on Chinese producers.
Link: http://www.powermag.com/%E2%80%A8solar-cells-from-china-injured-u-s-manufacturers-international-trade-court-rules/
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China is on track to hit its carbon-emission goals sooner than expected
Aug 25, 2015 | Business Insider
By Andy Tully
China may achieve its goal to stop the growth of its carbon emissions before its deadline of 2030 because the country's discharge of carbon dioxide already may be less than reflected in current estimates, according to a new study.
Beijing hasn't reported on the level of its CO2 emissions for 2014, but outside groups estimate it at between 9 billion and 10 billion metric tons. As China continues to invest in its economy, that figure is expected to grow to as high as 20 billion metric tons.
But any estimates of growth are meaningless if they’re based on an inaccurate reading of the current level of emissions, according to Dabo Guan, a climate specialist at Britain's University of East Anglia, one of the 24 authors of the study, published August 19 in the journal Nature. "Without an accurate baseline, any target will become a number-crunching game," he told Reuters.
In fact, the study says, current estimates are overestimating CO2 discharges from China in 2013 by between 10% and 14% because they use a formula to gauge the emissions that doesn't apply to China because of the lower-quality coal it uses, which contains 40% less carbon than coal used elsewhere.
Based on that information, the authors of the Nature study conclude that China's emissions for 2013 were more like 9.13 billion metric tons, below the estimates by the European Union's Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (Edgar) and the energy giant BP.
The Nature paper said researchers carefully analyzed many of the kinds of coal used throughout China, gauging the quality of its combustibility and its carbon content, according to Steven J. Davis of the University of California at Irvine, one of authors of the study.
"We measured thousands of samples of coal from mines across China and found that the carbon content of the coal being burned in China is actually much lower than what has been assumed in previous estimates of emissions," Davis told The New York Times in an email.
Arriving at accurate estimates is likely to be a key topic at negotiations scheduled for December in Paris about reaching a new global agreement on limiting emissions so that each participating countries can have a better idea about how much it must reduce its own CO2 discharges.
The most recent year for which Beijing has published an official estimate of its carbon emissions was 2005, when it said it discharged about 7.47 billion metric tons. An update, with estimates through 2010, is expected next year.
Despite the discovery of an apparent overestimate of China's CO2 emissions, Guan says China still has a lot of hard work ahead to meet its goal on emissions. "China is still the largest emitter in the world," he said in a separate interview with The Times. "But it shows we need to know a more accurate base line for emissions, not only for China but also for the other emissions giants."
In 2006 China passed the United States as the world's biggest air polluter. It now discharges nearly twice as much CO2 than Americans do, and its emissions account for more than one-fourth of the total CO2 being discharged globally.
Link: http://www.businessinsider.com/china-on-track-for-carbon-emission-goals-2015-8
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Renewables cover almost 100% of German demand
Aug 25, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Sandra Enkhardt
On Sunday midday, close to 100% of the electricity demand in Germany was covered by renewable sources. A lot of sun and wind made this possible.
Almost 100% of the electricity demand in Germany noon last Sunday was covered by PV and wind power. According to the evaluation by the forum "Together against interim storage, and for responsible energy politics" the PV plants at noon produced more than 24 GW of solar power.
Wind power contributed more than 18 GW. The electricity consumption in Germany was at around 55 GW at this point of time as indicated by "Agorameter" which gather electricity data in the country.
This demand is seen as pretty low, mostly a result of warm temperatures, the summer break and the weekend, when most commercial operations remained closed. But exactly at such points of time, it can be proven how renewables can come close to covering 100% of the demanded energy.
"Obviously we will not be able to reach the 100% renewable energy mark for 2015 anymore. But in spring and summer 2016, with the addition of new wind power generators, and an unfortunately small number of PV plant additions, the 100% goal is reachable. Historical! If we accelerate the PV plant development once again and keep up the wind power plant development, this can happen quickly," the forum further highlighted.
PV and wind are seen as the "working horses" that will pull the Energiewende in Germany over the next two years. This is further asserted by the fact that electricity from new plants will be delivered at less than €0.10/kWh. On top of that, load management, grid redevelopment and storage will be necessary. More also has to be done in the direction of energy efficiency. The forum suggests a social ecological tax reform to make energy somewhat more expensive, and with the revenue to reduce income taxes on paid work.
Link: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/renewables-cover-almost-100-of-german-demand_100020738/#axzz3jiCfkZX1
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UK solar FiTs may be cut by up to 50% - report
Aug 26, 2015 | See News Renewables
By Tsvetomira Tsanova
The new Conservative government in the UK could slash the feed-in tariff (FiT) for solar electricity by as much as 50%, the Sunday Times said Sunday, citing industry sources.
In July Amber Rudd, Energy and Climate Change Secretary, proposed to close the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme for new solar projects from April 2016, and also said there would also be a review of the FiT programme. The results of a consultation on the FiT are expected in early September.
A coalition of 100 organisations recently wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron calling on him to support small-scale renewables.
“As representatives of communities, co-operatives, workers, local government, farmers, manufacturers, social enterprises and companies who support the development of a green economy we have been surprised and concerned at a succession of recent announcements – from sudden changes to the renewable energy market, to scrapping the Zero Carbon Homes initiative and the absence of energy efficiency schemes – which undermine Britain’s position in the run-up to the climate talks in Paris. In light of this the upcoming review of the FiT is causing great concern.”
According to their letter, the FiT has resulted in 625,000 homes, businesses and communities going solar, and nearly 7,000 homes, offices and communities powered by small wind turbines, micro combined heat and power (CHP), anaerobic digestion and hydro power.
Link: http://renewables.seenews.com/news/uk-solar-fits-may-be-cut-by-up-to-50-report-490016
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Brazil auction to have 341 projects of 11.3GW competing
Aug 25, 2015 | PV Tech
By Tom Kenning
Brazil has chosen 341 solar projects with a combined capacity of 11.26GW to compete at its First Energy Reserve Auction to be held on 28 August.
The Brazilian government's Energy Research Agency (EPE) announced that the state of Bahia had the highest potential with 125 projects of 4GW combined capacity.
Piaui came second with 61 projects of 2GW combined capacity, followed by Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Norte and Pernambuco, which each have potential for more than 1GW combined capacities.
EPE President Mauricio Tolmasquim said: “The large number of qualified projects predicts strong competition in the auction, which will benefit the customer.”
Back in July. EPE registered 649 solar projects totalling 20.9GW capacity for is Second Reserve Energy Auction scheduled for 13 November this year.
Bahia again attracted the most renewable energy projects with 192 solar projects with a combined capacity of more than 6GW.
Link: http://www.pv-tech.org/news/brazil_auction_to_have_341_projects_of_11.3gw_competing
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The U.S. Just Approved One of the World’s Biggest Solar Power Plants
Aug 24, 2015 | Yahoo! News
By Todd Woody
Solar is going big. Again.
The federal government on Monday green-lit a 485-megawatt solar plant that would generate enough carbon-free electricity to power 180,000 homes when it comes online in the Southern California desert.
During the Great Recession, that was nothing unusual about billions of dollars in federal stimulus money fueling big green dreams of carpeting the Mojave Desert with giant solar power plants on government-owned land, a cornerstone of the Obama administration’s efforts to fight climate change. That land, however, often turned out to be home to desert tortoises, blunt-nosed leopard lizards, and other endangered wildlife. Many of those projects went belly-up in partbecause of fierce opposition from environmental groups.
That prompted an effort by the federal government to be “smart from the start” about where it allowed big renewable energy plants to be built. So the Blythe Mesa Solar Project, which was approved Monday, will deploy tens of thousands of solar panels across 3,587 acres of already disturbed or fallow farmland where wheat, alfalfa, and citrus had been grown. No desert tortoises will be harmed.
That won Blythe the support of Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, and other big environmental groups that previously opposed other solar power plant projects.
“Due to the previously disturbed condition of nearly all the land proposed for the project, numerous environmental organizations supported the project because it conformed with our recommended criteria for siting large-scale projects in the California desert,” Jeff Aardahl, California representative for Defenders of Wildlife, said in an email.
The project’s developer, Renewable Resources Group, is a Los Angeles company that invests in green energy and agriculture. “We specialize in developing utility-scale solar…projects on previously disturbed private land,” Tom Eisenhauer, a spokesperson for the firm, said in an email.
Communities that find such gargantuan renewable energy projects in their midst also are getting smarter. Riverside County last year imposed a $150-per-acre annual fee on solar power plants and will collect nearly $500,000 a year from the Blythe project.
RELATED: The Innovation That Lets Low-Income People Profit From the Solar Energy Boom
That the Blythe project is moving forward is also a sign that solar energy is becoming increasingly competitive with fossil fuels. Earlier huge solar power plants had only been commercially viable thanks to a 30 percent federal tax credit. That incentive is set to fall to 10 percent at the end of 2016, meaning the Renewable Resources Group likely thinks it can make money without the government largesse.
Hurdles remain. The company must still sign a long-term power purchase agreement with a utility that wants to buy the electricity generated by the project. If the California legislature passes a pending bill requiring the state to obtain half its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, there will likely be no shortage of buyers of solar energy.
“We don’t discuss PPA status, but we’re planning for commercial operation in the next few years—and we feel good about that,” said Eisenhauer.
Aardahl said the battle to generate clean, green energy while protecting desert wildlife continues despite the approval of projects like Blythe.
“I don’t think that one project sited in an environmentally appropriate location signals that ‘smart from the start’ planning is now the norm,” he said. “Although there are many such projects, most of which are on disturbed private lands, some continue to be proposed on public land we consider inappropriate.”
Link: http://news.yahoo.com/u-just-approved-one-worlds-biggest-solar-power-203436440.html
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Aug 25, 2015 | The Economist
Crashing commodities scare not only stock markets. They also strike fear into environmentalists keen to see America move towards renewable sources of energy. Barack Obama sought to bolster confidence in green power at the National Clean Energy Summit on August 24th—a day on which oil prices also fell to below $45 a barrel, their lowest for six years. Fossil fuels are both cheap and plentiful. The Dow Jones Total Coal Market index has dropped by more than three quarters in the past five years. That makes it harder for the president to wean America, which accounts for 15% of global carbon-dioxide emissions, off them.
Mr Obama announced a plan at the summit which includes loan guarantees worth $1 billion for new research projects into renewables. Financing to pay for the installation of clean energy technologies in homes—such as sticking solar panels on rooves—is also under consideration. This latter measure will “expand opportunities for consumers,” claims Brian Deese, a senior advisor to Mr Obama. The rules would allow homeowners who adopt green technologies to start saving from them immediately; the costs of installation will be covered over time through reduced property taxes.
The policies come as part of a bigger push by the White House ahead of the UN climate negotiations in December. The Clean Power Plan, introduced on August 3rd, aims to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from America’s coal-fired power plants—which are the nation’s largest single source of greenhouse gases—by 32% from 2005 levels by 2030. Power plants overall account for just under a third of all emissions, hence the push for cleaner energy sources.
The most interesting part of Mr Obama’s announcement may well prove to be the $1 billion set aside for research loans. Much energy infrastructure is ancient. Gas turbines came from breakthroughs made in the Second World War. Nuclear reactors are largely based on designs now more than 60 years old. Incremental improvements to solar and wind efficiency will prove useful: last year, the cost of electricity from domestic solar panels fell 10-20% according to Mr Deese. But the development of new storage and battery technologies are needed—particularly for the effective electrification of transport. Ernest Moniz, the secretary of energy, believes more money for research must be found: “we know that there are investors out there waiting to pick up potential breakthrough technologies,” he says.
Mr Obama’s trip to the summit in Las Vegas comes as part of a green week for the president. He will visit New Orleans on August 27th to mark a decade since Hurricane Katrina struck the city, and Alaska on August 31st to bemoan the melting Arctic. The president has stretched executive power to its limit, and perhaps beyond, in the name of limiting climate change. Yet this is not enough for some of his supporters. In addition to the expected attacks from Republicans, Mr Obama is currently being pelted from the left for clearing the way for Shell to drill for oil in the Arctic.
Link: http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/08/clean-energy
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UN Tasks Businesses On Renewable Energy
Aug 25, 2015 | Renewables Biz
The Special Adviser to the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Post-2015 Development Planning, Ms. Amina Mohammed, monday charged Nigerian businesses to invest more in renewable energy in the country.
She made the call at the meeting of Ki-Moon with Nigeria's business and philanthropy leaders in Abuja.
According to her, the investment in renewable energy would in no small measure contribute to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on environment.
According to Mohammed, SDGs are expected to replace the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) at the end of 2015.
"We need to think about finding the innovative ways of greening the economy and it is important we focus on renewable energy. "UN Secretary-General is leading a global initiative - Sustainable Energy for All to achieve universal energy access, improve energy efficiency and increase the use of renewable energy.
"It is important for us to let you know that you can invest in the sector for the benefit of the citizens," she noted.
Mohammed added that "the question of how to finance the SDGs was raised at the International Conference for Financing for Development in Addis Ababa recently.
"It will require trillions of dollars to implement the goals.
"Every sector must contribute and in the insurance sector, there are huge opportunities that we must harness; Nigeria can begin to build strategy in the sector."
Link: http://www.renewablesbiz.com/article/15/08/un-tasks-businesses-renewable-energy
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Not All Renewable Energy Is Created Equal
Aug 25, 2015 | The Huffington Post - Green Blog
By Kelly Stone
Renewable energy is hot right now. Maybe it's because renewables are rapidly becoming more affordable. Maybe it's because President Obama's recent publicity push surrounding his Clean Power Plan is driving interest in climate action. Or perhaps it's because Americans are fascinated by enigmatic entrepreneurs, and Elon Musk of Solar City and Tesla battery ambitions, seems to fit the bill. This discussion is badly needed and should be welcomed.
Watching at least some presidential candidates competing over whose renewable energy plan is best is progress - even if some of them are still ignoring climate change. But plans to promote renewable energy should be carefully crafted and considered. Not all sources of renewable energy are the same. And not all types of renewable energy will benefit the environment or people and communities.
For many, renewable energy is "good" energy - after all, it's not made from fossil fuels so it must be good for the environment and for people, right? Unfortunately, that's not always the case. When evaluating energy sources, we must not only consider greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change, but other environmental impacts such as biodiversity, and air and water quality. Equally if not more important is the impact that producing this energy has on people and communities. Renewable energy policies must be crafted to support technology that meets all of these thresholds.
Many types of solar and wind energy do indeed fit the bill. But n the other hand, corn ethanol and other first generation biofuels fail most, if not all, of these tests.
Food-based biofuels contribute to hunger and undermine land rights around the world. They do this by diverting food crops, and agricultural inputs, to fuel production instead of food. The inflexible demand created by government mandates creates an upward pressure on prices, making food prices more unstable and raising them in the long term. Whether or not people can pay for food is a big part of why nearly 800 million people around the world are chronically malnourished.
At the same time, land-intensive biofuels also help drive land grabs in developing countries, where smallholder farmers - who produce most of the food for local markets - are forced off their land, to make way for large mono-crop plantations.
But that's not all. Corn ethanol also has a number of negative impacts on our environment. The demand for corn ethanol helps drive the expansion of agricultural land. But in changing the way the land is used to grow more crops, we are creating more emissions, particularly if the cleared land is established grassland or forests. Those emissions, combined with the emissions for the production and burning of ethanol, undermine any greenhouse gas emissions savings that this "renewable" fuel may have been provided.
But it doesn't stop there. In order to get the corn to grow, we used more nitrogen fertilizer, but this runs off the fields, polluting our local waterways. Crop-based biofuels also promote large mono-crop plantations, which undermine biodiversity and disrupt local ecosystems.
Taking all of this evidence together, surely it's past time to reform policies such as the Renewable Fuel Standard, which promote food-based biofuels that have such clear environmental and human costs?
Don't get me wrong, transitioning to renewable energy is vital to our future. In fact, a transition to clean, affordable, reliable and safe renewable energy is a key part of the People's Test on Climate, which lays out civil society's red lines for the ongoing international climate negotiations that will culminate in Paris at the end of this year. But our experience with food-based biofuels must be a reminder that, even with a "renewable" label, energy sources must be closely examined and their impacts on both the environment and communities accurately assessed. The world, and its most vulnerable people, cannot afford anything less.
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-stone/not-all-renewable-energy-is-created-equal_b_8033824.html
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