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Here's What the G-20 Nations are Pledging on Climate Change
Oct 5, 2015 | Bloomberg Business
By Alex Morales
The United Nations last December set a deadline of Oct. 1 for countries to submit pledges on what they’re prepared to do to rein in fossil-fuel emissions as part of their contribution to a new deal to fight climate change. As of Friday, 119 submissions were on the website of the UN body overseeing the talks that involve more than 190 nations intending to seal the deal in Paris in December. Those pledges cover 146 countries, because they include a single commitment from the 28-nation European Union. The 10 biggest polluters all submitted documents. Iran is the biggest yet to do so. That country is the 11th biggest emitter, accounting for about 1.5 percent of global greenhouse gases, according to World Resources Institute. Other holdouts include Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Qatar, which hosted the UN climate talks in 2012. -
EV as grid asset: Unlocking a $3 billion energy market
Oct 5, 2015 | GreenBiz
By John Gartner
New plug-in electric vehicles sold between 2015 and 2020 will see more than 75 gigawatt hours of energy storage capacity to support the grid in North America. That's according to a Navigant Research analysis of how emerging power load management programs customized to incorporate plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) will use car battery packs. This back-up power could help defer load during demand response events, consume excess power when over-generation occurs and balance the intermittency of renewables to ensure grid integrity. -
SolarCity producing PV module with industry record 22.04% efficiency from pilot line
Oct 5, 2015 | PV Tech
By Mark Osborne
SolarCity has claimed the highest module efficiencies with 22.04% conversion efficiencies. The company said that its 100MW pilot line in Silicon Valley would be producing the modules in “small quantities” in October, 2015. SolarCity noted that the module with the industry record conversion efficiencies was independently verified by the Renewable Energy Test Center, a third-party certification testing provider for photovoltaic and renewable energy products. -
Oil explorers face testing month over asset revaluations
Oct 5, 2015 | FT
By Kiran Stacey
A little-noticed announcement last week from explorer Tullow Oil kicked off a month-long process that could have significant ramifications for the entire industry. On Thursday, Tullow, which drills for oil in west Africa, told the market it had negotiated with its banks to keep its lending facility at $3.7bn after its reserves were revalued. The fact that its share price rose by 7 per cent afterwards showed how worried investors had been by what otherwise seemed like a technical exercise.
Industry News
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Here's What the G-20 Nations are Pledging on Climate Change
Oct 5, 2015 | Bloomberg Business
By Alex Morales
The United Nations last December set a deadline of Oct. 1 for countries to submit pledges on what they’re prepared to do to rein in fossil-fuel emissions as part of their contribution to a new deal to fight climate change.
As of Friday, 119 submissions were on the website of the UN body overseeing the talks that involve more than 190 nations intending to seal the deal in Paris in December. Those pledges cover 146 countries, because they include a single commitment from the 28-nation European Union. The 10 biggest polluters all submitted documents. Iran is the biggest yet to do so. That country is the 11th biggest emitter, accounting for about 1.5 percent of global greenhouse gases, according to World Resources Institute. Other holdouts include Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Qatar, which hosted the UN climate talks in 2012
Here’s what the G20 nations have promised:
Argentina
An unconditional pledge for a 15 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 relative to a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario. With international assistance, the cut could rise to 30 percent. Business-as-usual refers to where emissions would be in any given year assuming the country took no action to limit them.
Australia
An absolute reduction in emissions of 26 percent to 28 percent in 2030 from 2005.
Brazil
An absolute reduction in emissions of 37 percent in 2025 from 2005. The country has indicated “for reference purposes only” that the reduction would be 43 percent by 2030. The country also aims to eliminate illegal deforestation by 2030.
Canada
A 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions between 2005 and 2030.
China
A pledge for its emissions to reach a peak “around” 2030, making “best efforts” to do so early. The world’s biggest emitter also promises to cut carbon dioxide emitted per dollar of economic output by 60 percent to 65 percent from 2005 and to increase the share of energy from renewables and nuclear power to 20 percent by 2030.
European Union
The 28-nation bloc pledged a 40 percent cut in greenhouse gases by 2030 from 1990.
France
See European Union.
Germany
See European Union.
India
A goal to cut the emissions per unit of economic output by 33 percent to 35 percent by 2030 from 2005. The world’s third-biggest emitter also aims to get 40 percent of its electricity capacity from non-fossil fuels by 2030.
Indonesia
A pledge to cut emissions by 29 percent from a business-as-usual scenario in 2030. Given international assistance, it would raise the pledge to a 41 percent reduction.
Italy
See European Union.
Japan
A 26 percent reduction in greenhouse gases in 2030 from 2013 levels. Renewables in 2030 will provide 22 percent to 24 percent of power in 2030, and nuclear will generate another 20 percent to 22 percent.
Mexico
An unconditional 25 percent cut in greenhouse gas and short-lived pollutant emissions in 2030 versus a business-as-usual scenario. The pledge includes a peak for absolute emissions in 2026, and subject to international assistance, could be raised to a 40 percent reduction.
Russia
A 25 percent to 30 percent reduction in greenhouse gases in 2030 from 1990 levels.
Saudi Arabia
Alone among G20 members, Saudi Arabia had yet to submit its pledge as of Oct. 1.
South Africa
The country pledged to “peak, plateau and decline” its emissions, with the peak occurring between 2020 and 2025, followed by a decade-long plateau, and then absolute declines. It gave an indicative range for pollution levels of 398 megatons to 614 megatons of CO2 between 2025 and 2030.
South Korea
A 37 percent reduction from business-as-usual projections in 2030. The BAU projection is for 850.6 megatons of carbon dioxide in 2030.
Turkey
A reduction of as much as 21 percent from business-as-usual levels in 2030.
United Kingdom
See European Union.
United States
The biggest historical emitter said it will cut emissions by 26 percent to 28 percent in 2025 from 2005 levels.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-04/here-s-what-the-g20-nations-are-pledging-on-climate-change
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EV as grid asset: Unlocking a $3 billion energy market
Oct 5, 2015 | GreenBiz
By John Gartner
New plug-in electric vehicles sold between 2015 and 2020 will see more than 75 gigawatt hours of energy storage capacity to support the grid in North America.
That's according to a Navigant Research analysis of how emerging power load management programs customized to incorporate plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) will use car battery packs.
This back-up power could help defer load during demand response events, consume excess power when over-generation occurs and balance the intermittency of renewables to ensure grid integrity.
Already more than a dozen pilot programs active today are testing the communications links between grid operators and the PEVs. Their outcomes will influence the pace at which large scale programs are deployed.
In many cases, the PEVs will be managed alongside other distributed energy resources, such as stationary storage, natural gas gensets and solar power.
One such program in the San Francisco Bay Area known as ChargeForward, is being conducted by utility Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), which is managing the charging of 100 BMW i3 EVs.
Hear more from BMW and PG&E at VERGE 2015, Oct. 26-29 in San Jose, California.
According to David Almeida, principal program manager, electrification and alternative fuels at PG&E, the utility sends out demand response (OpenADR) signals one day in advance to to BMW servers.
BMW then sends the signals through its ConnectedDrive telematics program to the participants’ mobile devices, as well as the vehicles.
The EV owners can opt out of delaying the vehicle charge, although the default is set to participate. The program provided an upfront incentive of $1,000 for participating, and up to $540 more depending on how often the vehicles respond.Making a market
By 2020, Navigant Research expects that the market for grid services provided by electric vehicles will surpass more than $3 billion annually in North America, primarily focusing on demand response programs.
Almeida told me that one of ChargeForward’s goals is understand how the existing infrastructure can support PEV participation. In the future, PEVs could be used to support the integration of renewable power generation in PG&E’s service territory, according to Almeida.
The utility is now testing programs with residential customers that sends signal to customers to increase energy consumption on demand in order to balance excess generation. Another future application for PEVs will be in frequency or voltage regulation services that help to keep the grid in phase or balanced.
However, using telematics systems over cellular networks to relay grid events, such as in the ChargeForward pilot, is thought have too much latency and won’t respond quickly enough for regulation services. That could change as communications paths become optimized.
Many grid support programs that will come online will combine the mobile batteries in PEVs with stationary storage to provide higher capacity resources.
ChargeForward combines the BMW’s batteries with up to 100 Kw of stationary storage using "second life" batteries taken from Mini-E’s that previously had roamed California roads, said Simon Ellgas, senior advanced technology engineer at BMW.
The stationary storage systems can send or receive power on demand, he said. Ellgas added that there is a strong use case for taking the batteries of out of the cars at the end of their leases and re-purposing them as stationary storage. The leased vehicles could be upgraded for resale with new packs, which likely would be more energy dense and better performing than the batteries they replace, according to Ellgas.
Ellgas said that "part of the goal is to demonstrate what can be done with production vehicles, and this has a strong implication because if it is a success, then we can roll it out at a much larger scale."
At BMW’s headquarters in Munich, the company is gaining additional understanding of the battery packs’ capabilities by being engaged in a variety of battery stationary storage researchprojects all around the world, ranging from residential behind the meter solution to utility-scale (several MW) projects.
Beyond battery second life applications, BMW is interested in selling new packs as stationary storage because the additional market could enable the company to achieve the efficiencies of volume production more quickly, which would lower the per-unit cost.
Using EV batteries to support the grid enables utilities to optimize the regional grid with very low upfront costs when compared to purchasing new generation assets. Also, as EVs are distributed much closer to the points where power is consumed, they can enable utilities to defer investments in transmission and distribution infrastructure.
Programs such as ChargeForward also will lower the cost of owning an EV for consumers by compensating them when they volunteer to delay charging. The success of today’s pilot programs will prove essential to accelerating EV adoption while providing a host of benefits to the grid.
http://www.greenbiz.com/article/ev-grid-asset-unlocking-3-billion-energy-market?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=greenbuzz
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SolarCity producing PV module with industry record 22.04% efficiency from pilot line
Oct 5, 2015 | PV Tech
By Mark Osborne
SolarCity has claimed the highest module efficiencies with 22.04% conversion efficiencies.
The company said that its 100MW pilot line in Silicon Valley would be producing the modules in “small quantities” in October, 2015.
SolarCity noted that the module with the industry record conversion efficiencies was independently verified by the Renewable Energy Test Center, a third-party certification testing provider for photovoltaic and renewable energy products.
SolarCity is building and plans to ramp a 1GW production plant in Buffalo, New York next year.
http://www.pv-tech.org/news/solarcity_producing_pv_module_with_industry_record_22.04_efficiency_from_pi
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Oil explorers face testing month over asset revaluations
Oct 5, 2015 | FT
By Kiran Stacey
A little-noticed announcement last week from explorer Tullow Oil kicked off a month-long process that could have significant ramifications for the entire industry.
On Thursday, Tullow, which drills for oil in west Africa, told the market it had negotiated with its banks to keep its lending facility at $3.7bn after its reserves were revalued. The fact that its share price rose by 7 per cent afterwards showed how worried investors had been by what otherwise seemed like a technical exercise.
Since the 1970s, oil companies have put up their own reserves as collateral for loans as a way to secure improved lending conditions. In return, banks demand to revalue those reserves every six months, in April and October — a process called redetermination.
So for the next month, independent oil explorers will be locked in talks with their lenders, thrashing out how much their assets should be valued at, and therefore how much they can borrow.
Many of these smaller oil companies are already highly indebted, and for some this could be a traumatic process. In extreme cases, banks could potentially reduce credit facilities to below what companies have already borrowed, forcing them into immediate repayments.
“People have gone the secured route in the good times to get cheaper rates,” says one chief executive of an independent oil company operating in the North Sea. “But there is a revaluation every six months and facilities can be expanded or withdrawn, and companies can even end up having to pay money back.”
Victoria McCulloch, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, says: “Some companies are now under a lot of pressure — this looks like a real crunch point.”
For most of the past decade, redetermination has not been a problem. Even in the North Sea, where exploration has disappointed for years, rising oil prices meant credit lines remained stable or were increased.
And companies were happy to take advantage. According to analysis by Jefferies, UK-listed oil and gas explorers have collectively increased their net debt by about 10 times since 2009.
Since last June, however, the oil price has crashed from $115 a barrel to about $50. In that time there have been two rounds of redeterminations, at both of which most lenders were happy to accept that the price would rebound.
Now, for the first time, the industry and its bankers believe oil will remain low for several years, and this will have a knock-on effect for what they are willing to lend for future projects. People close to the process say they expect banks to reduce their oil price forecast for 2019 by $3-$5.
Stephane Foucaud, an analyst at First Energy Capital, says: “The sudden drop in oil price last year has made things very difficult, particularly in the US where borrowing bases have already started being slashed. It is just starting.”
Analysts generally agree that this round of redetermination is unlikely to cause instant havoc in the UK. While companies have taken on large amounts of debt in the past few years, many have also renegotiated their banking covenants in recent months and so still have some headroom.
Of those companies that have reserve-based lending, the North Sea operator Ithaca is closest to the end of its facility, with between £100m and £200m of headroom left. People close to the company say, however, that it is making reductions in operating expenditure to compensate for the lower oil price forecast.
But while companies are unlikely to find their lending lines slashed drastically, some may have to agree to sell assets to keep their available credit high.
One banker involved in the process says: “For the most stretched companies, the most likely response is going to be asset sales. The problem will be if a lot of assets come on to the market at once. Their value will already be depressed because of the oil price, and a glut of sales will only exacerbate that.”
The person, who is personally involved in current negotiations with several companies, adds: “The biggest tension is likely to come within consortiums of banks, with each willing to take a different amount of risk. And also between commercial bankers and their credit committees, the latter of which want to cut exposure to oil and gas in general.”
Another consequence is likely to be that lending for new projects becomes harder to come by — just as the UK oil and gas regulator is encouraging companies not to stop exploration and production.
For two of the most indebted companies in the sector — EnQuest and Premier Oil — the redetermination round proves no immediate challenge as they do not have reserve-based lending.
Both companies renegotiated their covenants earlier this year, but should they wish to extend lending lines next year, they could find the amount on offer is lower.
But for those companies whose lending is more directly based on reserves, that pressure is more pressing and more immediate.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/b21bebc6-683f-11e5-a57f-21b88f7d973f.html?ftcamp=published_links%2Frss%2Fcompanies_energy%2Ffeed%2F%2Fproduct#axzz3ngWV8sLp
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