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sFCE Aug 28
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Tamil Nadu, India
Aug 26, 2015 | Conor Ryan
By PV Tech
Module manufacturer Wuxi Suntech has agreed to a shipment deal that will see the company supply around 200MW of solar panels to Indian conglomerate Adani Power for a PV project — currently under development in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. -
Beijing eyes solar consolidation - Yingli in firing line?
Aug 28, 2015 | Business Spectator
By Doug Young
...A sharp drop in prices back in 2011 led to an initial round of consolidation that saw major players Suntech and LDK go bankrupt and their assets get acquired or shuttered. But clearly some more consolidation is still needed to further reduce supply... -
UK Government Proposes Catastrophic Cuts To Renewable Energy Incentives
Aug 27, 2015 | Clean Technica
By Joshua S Hill
The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change has proposed to make calamitous cuts to the country’s renewable energy Feed-in Tariff scheme. Dark Days for UK Renewable Energy. Ever since the re-election of the country’s Conservative Government and the appointment of MP Amber Rudd... -
UK government proposes ‘hugely damaging’ solar support cuts
Aug 28, 2015 | PV Tech
By Peter Bennett
The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is proposing to cut the feed-in tariff (FiT) rates for solar PV installations by as much as 87%. A review of support schemes for renewable energy across the board had been long-awaited in Britain. -
China's flagging economy complicates Brazil's PV market
Aug 28, 2015 | Recharge
By Alexandre Spatuzza
The growing uncertainty over China's economy has cast a pall over Brazil's upcoming solar auction, putting pressure on the government to clarify and streamline its plans for the sector. Demand for solar energy is increasing in Brazil, as domestic power rates rise. Solar developers have a strong appetite for utility-scale projects in the sunny country... -
Nev. Regulators Extend Net Metering In Win For Reid
Aug 27, 2015 | E&E News PM
By Hannah Northey
Nevada regulators have extended their net metering policy through the end of the year, drawing immediate praise from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and temporarily quelling a disagreement between the state's dominant utility and a burgeoning solar industry. -
to-the-point: Germany to back Tunisia’s renewable energy ambitions
Aug 28, 2015 | See News Renewables
By Tsvetomira Tsanova
Germany wants to expand its collaboration with Tunisia in the renewable energy field, the federal minister for economic co-operation, Thomas Silberhorn, told reporters on Tuesday. A 10-MW solar power project is already in progress thanks to a Tunisian-German co-operation in the energy field... -
Australia's Pollution Level Seen Rising Beyond Abbott's Target
Aug 28, 2015 | Bloomberg Business
By Alex Morales
Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are likely to rise in the next 15 years, missing by a wide margin a target proposed for United Nations talks on global warming, a team of researchers said. Without further policies to stem pollution from fossil fuels, emissions will be 27 percent above 2005
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Aug 26, 2015 | Conor Ryan
By PV Tech
Module manufacturer Wuxi Suntech has agreed to a shipment deal that will see the company supply around 200MW of solar panels to Indian conglomerate Adani Power for a PV project — currently under development in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
The installation will utilise Suntech’s Vem PV series modules and is expected to produce around 330GWh of electricity to power the equivalent of 367,000 households. The site is expected to be completed by 2016.
Link: http://www.pv-tech.org/project_focus/tamil_nadu_india1
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Beijing eyes solar consolidation - Yingli in firing line?
Aug 28, 2015 | Business Spectator
By Doug Young
China is likely to see 1-2 of its weakest major solar panel makers close over the next year in a campaign led by Beijing, with Yingli as the most likely candidate to make the first exit.
A couple of new reports from the Chinese solar sector are shining a spotlight on consolidation that’s still needed before the industry can return to health. One report cites the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the sector regulator, saying more such consolidation is necessary and the pace should accelerate. The second is a technical announcement from Yingli (NYSE: YGE), the weakest among China’s major panel makers, saying it has fallen out of compliance with US listing requirements due to its low stock price.
The appearance of these 2 news items on the same day is purely coincidence, even though both are related to the same phenomenon. That phenomenon saw global solar panel production explode over the last decade, as scores of new plants opened in China in response to policy directives and other incentives from Beijing.
As a result, China now supplies over half of the world’s solar panels, and global prices have remained wobbly for much of the last 4 years due to oversupply. A sharp drop in prices back in 2011 led to an initial round of consolidation that saw major players Suntech and LDK go bankrupt and their assets get acquired or shuttered. But clearly some more consolidation is still needed to further reduce supply.
The MIIT is keenly aware of that fact, which has prompted it to issue a statement saying it expects consolidation to accelerate, and for the nation’s strongest players to lead the way for the entire sector. (English article) It adds that despite the state of oversupply, Chinese output of polysilicon, the main ingredient used to make in solar panels, actually grew 16 percent to 74,000 metric tons in the first half of the year.
That would seem to imply that the MIIT is quietly criticizing Chinese panel makers for boosting output even during a weak market, and hints the regulator may step in to forcibly close some weaker producers or at least force them to cut back output. This kind of situation is quite common in China, where manufacturers of raw materials like steel and aluminum actually boost output during a weak market, even if it means selling at a loss.
Acting on Government Orders
They usually behave in such irrational manner under direct or implied orders from their local governments, which want the increased activity to help them meet their economic growth targets. Such orders also carry the implicit guarantee that the government will step in to help companies if they run into financial difficulties by offering measures like loans from local branches of big state-owned banks.
Yingli is one such company, and gets big support from its local government in the industrial city of Baoding where it’s a major employer, even though the company is losing money. Unlike its peers, most of whom managed to return to profitability after several years of losses at the height of the earlier downturn, Yingli has never emerged from the red over the last 5 years.
The company’s financial struggles prompted it to issue a statement earlier this year saying its existence as a business could be in danger, though it later said that investors had misinterpreted that statement. (previous post) Nonetheless, the statement prompted a sell-off of Yingli stock, and the shares have traded at $1 or less since mid-July.
That prompted Yingli to issue another statement saying it had fallen out of compliance with US trading rules that require a company’s share price to remain above the $1 level. (company announcement) Technically Yingli could be forcibly de-listed due to this violation, though companies in such situations can usually return to compliance using a reverse share split.
Still, the company’s troubled situation and shrinking market value — now worth just $174 million — make Yingli an ideal candidate for the kind of consolidation envisioned by the MIIT. Accordingly, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the MIIT quietly engineer a deal for one of the stronger panel makers to make a bid for Yingli, which could quietly disappear by this time next year.
Doug Young is the editor of Young's China Business Blog, which carries commentaries about publicly traded Chinese companies.
Link: http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2015/8/28/solar-energy/beijing-eyes-solar-consolidation-yingli-firing-line
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UK Government Proposes Catastrophic Cuts To Renewable Energy Incentives
Aug 27, 2015 | Clean Technica
By Joshua S Hill
The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change has proposed to make calamitous cuts to the country’s renewable energy Feed-in Tariff scheme. Dark Days for UK Renewable Energy
Ever since the re-election of the country’s Conservative Government and the appointment of MP Amber Rudd to the position of Energy and Climate Change Secretary, the UK’s renewable energy industry has been on tenterhooks, as proposal after rumor after proposal placed the industry in ever more increasing jeopardy.
In June, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) announced that it would be ceasing allowing onshore wind farms access to the country’s main renewable energy subsidy scheme, the Renewables Obligation Scheme (RO). A month later, the DECC revealed that it had not only included more renewable energies into the same category of onshore wind, but that it would be initiating consultations on allowing solar PV of 5 MW or under access to the RO. Additionally, the DECC also initiated a consultation on changing the Feed-in Tariff scheme.
And it was only earlier this month that the Scottish and Welsh Governments teamed up to send a letter to the UK Government, pleading with it to open discussion on small-scale renewable support.
On Tuesday of this week, a coalition of 100 organizations wrote to the UK Prime Minister in an effort to convey their support for small-scale renewable energy electricity ahead of the Feed-in Tariff review. “We are writing to express our strongest support for the continuation of the Feed-in Tariffs (FiT) for renewable energy and ask you to ensure the forthcoming FiT Review supports an ambitious level of local deployment,” the signatories wrote (PDF).
“We are looking to the Prime Minister to take control of energy policy after a summer of hugely damaging policy decisions,” added Leonie Greene, Head of External Affairs at the Solar Trade Association. “There was nothing in his manifesto about rolling back solar power which Government’s own polling shows is supported by over 80% of the British public.” Government Turns a Deaf Ear
However, all of this seems to have fallen on deaf ears, as the DECC has now proposed a cut to the Feed-in Tariff scheme in a review of the system that is set to end on October 23. According to the “Consultation on a review of the Feed-in Tariffs scheme” published by the DECC Thursday, the proposals include “measures to place policy costs on bills on a sustainable footing, improve bill payer value for money, and limit the effects on consumers who ultimately pay for renewable energy subsidies.”
The cuts to the FiT will affect solar PV, wind, and hydropower projects, and attempt to cap government spending on FiTs to £75 million to £100 million from 2016 to 2018/19. Most noticeably, domestic solar support could be cut by 87%, commercial rooftops by 82%, as well as devastating cuts to onshore wind.
From the report, the proposed generation tariffs are as follows:
However, the DECC was clear to state that it would close down the scheme entirely in four months’ time if it believes it cannot keep the FiT spending under cap. Specifically:
If cost control measures are not implemented or effective in ensuring that expenditure under the scheme is affordable and sustainable, Government proposes that the only alternative would be to end generation tariffs for new applicants as soon as legislatively possible, which we expect to be January 2016, while keeping the export tariff as a route to market for the renewable electricity they generate.
Any changes that are approved are set to be fast-tracked, “likely to take effect as soon as legislatively possible, which we expect to be January 2016.”
Among the many recommendations made in the review is the decision to close the FiT to any new technologies, as well as closing the generation tariff to new installations from January 2016 onward. Extensions to existing installations will similarly not be able to access the FiT scheme, as well as a revision to generation tariffs. Immediate Industry Reaction
“What we needed in this Review was a clear vision for how we get to a point where cost effective, small-scale renewables are common-place, with all homes and businesses able to be part of a productive, vibrant low carbon economy,” said RenewableUK’s Deputy Chief Executive, Maf Smith. “This Review is not about how we build that prosperous future but simply about short term politics and accounting.”
“The proposals in the Comprehensive Feed-in Tariff Review are, quite simply, terrible news for homeowners, businesses, communities and those local authorities which have plans in place to develop renewable energy schemes,” said Joss Blamire, Senior Policy Manager at Scottish Renewables. “The levels of reduction in support announced today will severely curtail development of small-scale onshore wind and solar projects and endanger jobs and investments across the country.”
“The cuts could also spell the end for much of the hydro industry, which has enjoyed a recent renaissance but relies more heavily on Government support because of the length of time taken to develop projects and the sector’s high capital costs.” “Rooftop solar has to been seen as one of the key technologies for a decarbonised future, with consumers and businesses also gaining control over the centralised energy market, this is a phenomenally damaging and short sighted decision which sets back this goal significantly and will lead to higher costs in the medium to long term,” explained James Court, Head of Policy and External Affairs for the Renewable Energy Association.
Link: http://cleantechnica.com/2015/08/27/uk-government-proposes-catastrophic-cuts-renewable-energy-incentives/
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UK government proposes ‘hugely damaging’ solar support cuts
Aug 28, 2015 | PV Tech
By Peter Bennett
The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is proposing to cut the feed-in tariff (FiT) rates for solar PV installations by as much as 87%.
A review of support schemes for renewable energy across the board had been long-awaited in Britain. The government office is proposing deep cuts to support for all scales of PV system from 1 January 2016.
Solar Power Portal, the UK-focused site from PV Tech’s publisher Solar Media, reported this morning that DECC is also looking to enforce default degressions each quarter which would see FiT support for some scales of solar end on 1 January 2019. DECC will still implement a contingent degression mechanism that could degress tariff rates by a further 10% depending on deployment.
DECC is also proposing to change the indexation of the feed-in tariff scheme, moving it away from retail price index (RPI) to consumer price index (CPI). The department argues that CPI is a more appropriate way of compensating investors for inflation.
Under the new rates, PV systems of 10kW capacity or below would earn just £0.0163 per kilowatt-hour for generation. Large-scale systems of between 1MW and 5MW would be set at £0.0103 per kWh. Systems over 5MW are no longer supported by the FiT and instead must participate in the contracts for difference (CfD scheme) which is akin to a competitive tender process.
However, the second round of CfD allocations have been postponed indefinitely after an overspend was discovered in the Levy Control Framework (LCF), which is the government mechanism to control the cost of renewable energy subsidies, following last year’s inaugural round.
Medium and commercial scale solar will fare slightly better, with generation FiTs ranging from £0.0369/kWh for a 10-50kW system and £0.0228 for a 250-1000kW system. Impact assessment
The department also produced an impact assessment report, which admits that the proposed changes to feed-in tariff rates for small-scale renewables would mean the UK installing over 6GW less in new renewable generation capacity by 2020/21, mostly solar.
DECC examined the likely effects its proposed drastic cuts to the tariff rate would have on figures such as deployment, the number of installations and its impact on the environment.
The headline figure contained within the assessment is that the government’s proposals would wipe around 6.1GW from the UK’s renewables generation capacity by 2020/2021, with 890,000 fewer households opting to install renewable energy technologies over the next five years.
That lack of PV deployment in the UK would have a substantial impact on carbon emission levels as other energy generation methods are used. Mid-range estimates for this state that just under 1 million more tonnes of CO2 will be emitted each year, a figure which will cost the government around £3.44 million each year under European Union rules. This cost increases to around £610 million by 2055/56.
DECC’s reasoning behind the review has always been to prevent added costs being levied onto customers through higher energy bills, but DECC’s own impact assessment states that the average household would still save less than 1% - equivalent to around £6 per year – through the changes.
Even large energy intensive industrial businesses would save just 1.4% on their energy bills using DECC’s mid-range estimates, with total savings to the Levy Control Framework estimated to be around £450 million.
DECC also warned of substantial risks to employment – termed as a “rebalancing of jobs in the sector” – although claimed it was not able to quantify the impact and has requested input from the sector through the consultation process. Industry reaction: 'hugely damaging'
The proposals were widely condemned by the UK industry and environmental groups, as Solar Power Portal found today. Just last week a coalition of 100 organisations had written to UK Prime Minister David Cameron urging him to support small-scale renewables ahead of a forthcoming comprehensive review of the country’s feed-in tariff regime.
Finlay Colville, analyst, head of market intelligence at Solar Intelligence:
The industry had been bracing itself for DECC's proposed FiT changes, with most anticipating the worse-case scenario from a government that appears to be seeking to distance itself from the solar industry. If bad news comes in three's, then perhaps the FiT review simply concludes DECC's ROC/FiT double-whammy. With ground-mount being left to cling onto CfD's, it is now becoming very hard to see any silver lining to DECC's current anti-solar crusade that would see any meaningful capacity allocated to the next auction round.”
Mike Landy, head of policy, the Solar Trade Association:
The proposals put forward by the Government today, which will now undergo a period of consultation, would be hugely damaging for the UK solar industry and we are now consulting quickly with our member companies as to how to respond.
We will provide a detailed response shortly, once we have considered the proposals in more detail. However, we regret that proposals to suddenly cut Tariffs combined with the threat of closure of the scheme next January will spark a massive market rush. This is the antithesis of a sensible policy for achieving better public value for money while safeguarding the British solar industry.”
Alasdair Cameron, energy campaigner, Friends of the Earth:
From California to China, the world is reaping the benefits of a solar revolution, yet incredibly in the UK David Cameron is actually trying to shut rooftop solar down.
These absurd solar cuts will send UK energy policy massively in the wrong direction and prevent almost a million homes, schools and hospitals from plugging in to clean, renewable energy.
Of course the feed-in tariff should fall as solar becomes cheaper, but the government clearly plans to remove support entirely. This is politically-motivated, and will take away power from people and hand it back to big energy firms.
Instead of championing fossil fuels, the government should focus on developing the UK’s huge renewable energy potential. Policies like this will further undermine David Cameron’s credibility on climate change. World leaders meeting in Paris later this year will have every right to call him a hypocrite.
Link: http://www.pv-tech.org/news/uk_government_proposes_hugely_damaging_solar_support_cuts
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China's flagging economy complicates Brazil's PV market
Aug 28, 2015 | Recharge
By Alexandre Spatuzza
The growing uncertainty over China's economy has cast a pall over Brazil's upcoming solar auction, putting pressure on the government to clarify and streamline its plans for the sector.
Demand for solar energy is increasing in Brazil, as domestic power rates rise. Solar developers have a strong appetite for utility-scale projects in the sunny country, with some 20GW under development.
Yet industry sources say that not all of the pieces are in place to guarantee a healthy market development – and China’s recent economic problems represent another headwind.
China’s recent economic troubles have sparked a renewed round of devaluation of the Brazilian real against the US dollar, increasing the cost of importing panels into the country. Higher panels prices could dent the returns from projects that will be contracted at tomorrow’s auction.
Just a month ago, Brazil’s nascent solar industry celebrated the “realistic” $R349/MWh cap price on solar projects in Friday’s auction – a 33% rise on the R$262/MWh ceiling in place during last October’s solar auction.
As a result, solar developers and manufacturers alike were looking forward to Brazil contracting a record amount of capacity in tomorrow’ auction, surpassing the 890MW contracted last year. Some 12GW have been shortlisted in Friday’s auction.
But the real has fallen significantly over the last month, and is now at its lowest point against many foreign currencies in more than a decade. And the economic problems in China – a major importer of Brazilian iron ore and agricultural products – appear far from over.
The weakened real “will be a challenge” for bidders in the auction, says Rodrigo Sauaia, the normally upbeat executive director of the Brazilian Solar Power Association (Absolar).
Among other challenges for the sector are rising finance costs from Brazil's National Development Bank (BNDES), amid deep government budget cuts, and Brazil’s lack of local solar manufacturing.
Between 70%-80% of the total cost of a solar project in Brazil goes toward components.
With the real falling, everyone in Brazil’s solar sector is looking for ways to reduce risk.
CPFL Renováveis, for example, has not yet decided whether it will bid for contracts for its 500MW solar pipeline.
“PPAs awarded in [the local currency the] real are devaluing almost overnight, and it is incredibly challenging to justify capital expenditures from foreign companies in this financial climate,” says Adam James, senior solar analyst at US-based GTM Research.
James is upbeat about Brazil’s solar market in the long run, however. He predicts that by 2020 Brazil will have 5.7GW of solar capacity installed, more than 1GW of it built by the end of 2017, which is the deadline for projects contracted in 2014 and 2015.
Absolar’s Sauaia, who expects more than 1GW to contracted at this week's auction, is also a long-term optimist.
“The appetite demonstrated by investors is being answered by the support from the government, which announced it would contract 2GW to 3GW through 2018, and from the BNDES which says it is willing to finance solar PV projects with the lowest rates in the local market, as well as new modules assembly plants in the country,” Sauaia says.
Locally produced modules are considered key for developers to guarantee a return on investment. In addition to guaranteeing access to cheap finance from the BNDES, they also reduce exposure to the foreign exchange risk that comes with importing panels.
Nevertheless, PV manufacturers have been slow to embark on Brazil's five-year, stringent local content program.
Brazil has a tiny module capacity today, and no cell capacity.
So far, only China's BYD has firmly announced plans to build a 400MW module assembly unit.
Pure Energy intends to build a 40MW module assembly plant, while this week local start-up Globo Brasil inaugurated a 180MW plant – the country’s first.
Other large global solar manufacturers, including SunEdison, Canadian Solar, Yingli and Jinko Solar, are present in Brazil, with commercial offices importing equipment for a growing rooftop market.
SunEdison last year said it was studying plans for a 140MW module plant in Brazil. But no tier-one solar manufacturers have yet made firm commitments in the country.
Meanwhile, with developers needing to finish the first round of utility-scale projects by 2017, the government is running out of time to iron the wrinkles out of a complex and regionalized tax system, while addressing contradictions like low import tariffs for modules but high duties on the raw materials and components that go into modules.
Making matters worse, fiscal control measures seem to be hampering efforts to support the solar industry from within the government itself.
“The government is late with its [solar] industrial policy,” says Sauaia.
“The mines and energy ministry has done its job by indicating that enough solar will be contracted each year,” he says. “But we need to convince the finance and budget ministries that [industry] revenue will only rise with incentives in place.
“At the moment, they collect almost nothing from the solar industry because it doesn't exist. But in the future – even with low taxes or exemptions [for solar] – a fully-fledged industry will increase tax revenues, including from job creation.”
In such a climate of uncertainty, solar developers can be expected to keep their bids as closer to the R$384 ceiling as possible.
The kinds of companies that can be expected to bid either have strong balance sheets, see an advantage in being a first mover in a big market, or have a larger portfolio of which solar is only a small part, says GTM’s James.
For Brazil’s government, which saw solar as a way to quickly replace expensive and polluting thermal plants and drought-depleted reservoirs, China's downturn could not have come at worst time.
Link: http://www.rechargenews.com/solar/1409885/chinas-flagging-economy-complicates-brazils-pv-market
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Nev. Regulators Extend Net Metering In Win For Reid
Aug 27, 2015 | E&E News PM
By Hannah Northey
Nevada regulators have extended their net metering policy through the end of the year, drawing immediate praise from Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and temporarily quelling a disagreement between the state's dominant utility and a burgeoning solar industry.
The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada voted 3-0 yesterday to approve a measure requiring NV Energy to provide the same net metering rates and credits for rooftop solar customers throughout the rest of the year.
The agency's decision was seen as a reprieve for Silver State solar advocates concerned about rate treatments disintegrating after the state hit its limit on the number of customers allowed to participate in the program, and the state's largest utility, NV Energy, proposed changes that would reduce the value of the credits.
NV Energy last week said the state had reached the cap on net metering months sooner than expected, throwing into doubt the future of Nevada's popular rooftop solar program. Solar interests protested, noting that NV Energy had told lawmakers last spring that the cap wouldn't be met until next year.
Ultimately, the PUC decided to keep current net metering rates in place. The commission could vote in early December to change the policy, PUC spokesman Peter Kostes said.
Reid, who blasted NV Energy at his annual Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas this week for proposing an alternative rate, said keeping the net metering policies intact would allow Nevadans to continue installing rooftop solar panels (Greenwire, Aug. 25).
"As the commission works with NV Energy, solar installers and other stakeholders to come up with a new net metering policy this year, I urge all parties to work toward empowering consumers and maximizing the value of Nevada's enormous renewable energy resources," Reid said.
While acknowledging that NV Energy has "done some really good things" since its 2013 acquisition by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, Reid nonetheless said that on rooftop solar, the company needs to "get real, understand that there's a new world out there" (Greenwire, Aug. 25).
The Nevada net metering fight mirrors similar debates over rooftop solar playing out in other states around the country but has drawn close scrutiny given the Silver State's role as the epicenter of the solar boom.
NV Energy in a statement said that the interim rate was not what the company proposed, but that it supported the bill -- Senate Bill 374 -- that granted the PUC authority to define future net metering rules and rates.
"As we have said from the beginning, we support cost competitive renewable energy in all forms, and will continue to work with stakeholders through this interim period to ensure Nevada retains its leadership position in the development of renewable energy," the utility said.
Link: http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2015/08/27/stories/1060024045
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to-the-point: Germany to back Tunisia’s renewable energy ambitions
Aug 28, 2015 | See News Renewables
By Tsvetomira Tsanova
Germany wants to expand its collaboration with Tunisia in the renewable energy field, the federal minister for economic co-operation, Thomas Silberhorn, told reporters on Tuesday.
A 10-MW solar power project is already in progress thanks to a Tunisian-German co-operation in the energy field, Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) said, citing the minister. Tunisian utility STEG sought engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) bids for the photovoltaic (PV) project near Tozeur earlier this year. German development bank KfW is among the entities providing financing for the farm.
During his two-day visit to Tunisia, Silberhorn also said Germany wants to encourage German firm to make more investments in Tunisia.
Link: http://renewables.seenews.com/news/to-the-point-germany-to-back-tunisia-s-renewable-energy-ambitions-490412
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Australia's Pollution Level Seen Rising Beyond Abbott's Target
Aug 28, 2015 | Bloomberg Business
By Alex Morales
Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions are likely to rise in the next 15 years, missing by a wide margin a target proposed for United Nations talks on global warming, a team of researchers said.
Without further policies to stem pollution from fossil fuels, emissions will be 27 percent above 2005 levels by 2030, the researchers at Climate Action Tracker said in a report Friday. The findings cast doubt on a pledge by Prime Minister Tony Abbott to lower emissions by at least 26 percent over the same time period.
Abbott’s government has been criticized by environmental groups and opposition lawmakers over its climate policies, including promoting coal and ending a program that put a price on carbon emissions.
“Australia stands out as having the most work to do of any industrialized country to achieve its already inadequate climate target,” said Niklas Hoehne, energy and climate policy director at the New Climate Institute in Cologne, Germany, one of four research groups that contribute to the tracker.
Melanie Brown, a spokeswoman in the office of Environment Minister Greg Hunt, didn’t immediately reply to e-mail and voice mail requests for comment left outside normal office hours.
The UN is gathering carbon reduction pledges from more than 190 nations as part of a drive to devise a new global agreement on climate change at a summit in Paris in December. The biggest emitter, China, has pledged to stop its pollution levels from rising by 2030, while the next biggest, the U.S., promises to reduce greenhouse gases by at least 26 percent from 2005 levels in 2025.Australia’s Gap
Climate Action Tracker said Australia’s emissions pledge isn’t a fair contribution to global attempts to rein in global warming pollution. If all other nations took the same approach, warming since pre-industrial times may be double the 2-degree Celsius (3.6-degree Fahrenheit) limit that climate negotiators have agreed to, the group said.
The gap between what’s promised and what may be delivered between now and 2030 adds up to about 3 years of Australian emissions, according to the group.
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-27/australia-s-pollution-level-seen-rising-beyond-abbott-s-target
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