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Seraphim Solar banking on ‘20-year’ solar boom in US
Oct 9, 2015 | PV-Tech
By Ben Willis
The company behind what will be the first module plant operated by a Chinese firm on US soil since the closure of Suntech’s Arizona factory in 2013 has said it is betting on a “20-year boom” in solar in the US. -
Energy Efficiency Improvements Avoided 870 Million Tonnes Of CO2 In 2014
Oct 9, 2015 | CleanTechnica
By Joshua S Hill
A new report from the International Energy Agency has concluded that energy efficiency improvements since 1990 helped avoid 870 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2014. -
Renewable Energy Financing Hits a Snag
Oct 11, 2015 | The New York Times
By Diane Cardwell
Only a few months ago, it seemed that the renewable energy sector could do little wrong: Stock prices were soaring and money was pouring in as investors flocked to get in on the action. -
UK energy policy slammed as solar company collapses
Oct 8, 2015 | Financial Times
By John Murray Brown, Christopher Adams and Josh Noble
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f3ff7db4-6d9e-11e5-8171-ba1968cf791a.html#ixzz3oMzOfOql One of the world’s biggest renewable energy investors has warned that “draconian” UK subsidy cuts will kill solar power in Britain, blaming policy changes for a pullback that led to the collapse of a big installer and nearly 1,000 job losses. -
China allocates another 5.3GW of PV capacity for over-performing regions
Oct 9, 2015 | PV Tech
By John Parnell
The Chinese government has allocated an additional 5.3GW of solar capacity quota for selected provinces in China. -
GCL contracts Power China Beijing for 50 MW PV project
Oct 12, 2015 | PV Magazine
By BECKY BEETZ
GCL wholly owned subsidiary, Yugan GCL, has entered into an EPC agreement with Power China Beijing worth RMB 440 million (around $69.6 million), under which the latter will develop a 50 MW solar PV project in Yugan County. -
Former Yingli Green executive joins JA Solar
Oct 12, 2015 | PV Tech
By Mark Osborne
PV super league manufacturer JA Solar said it had appointed a former rival’s senior executive as its US President. -
New York State plans for solar on 150,000 homes and businesses by 2020
Oct 9, 2015 | PV Maagzine
By CHRISTIAN ROSELUND
California has long been the standard-bearer for clean energy in the United States, with ambitious renewable energy mandates backed by regulatory action to reform not only the way that utilities procure power, but how they approach resources on the customer side of the meter. -
The CEO and the Activist: Meet the Renewable Energy Odd Couple
Oct 11, 2015 | Bloomberg
By Chris Martin
...Meet the renewable-energy odd couple, the environmental activist and his onetime target, the chief of Italy’s largest utility. -
Punjab aims for full sustainability
Oct 9, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Edgar Meza
Leaders in the Indian state have reiterated their commitment to solar photovoltaic power as they inaugurate the region's largest green energy project. -
India To Simplify Inter-State Transmission Of Renewable Energy
Oct 12, 2015 | CleanTechnica
By Smiti Mittal
The Indian Government is looking to reduce the regulatory hurdles in achieving their highly ambitious renewable energy capacity addition targets.
Suntech Mention
Industry News
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Seraphim Solar banking on ‘20-year’ solar boom in US
Oct 9, 2015 | PV-Tech
By Ben Willis
The company behind what will be the first module plant operated by a Chinese firm on US soil since the closure of Suntech’s Arizona factory in 2013 has said it is betting on a “20-year boom” in solar in the US.
Speaking to PV Tech ahead of the expected completion of its first 150MW of US production capacity later this month, executives from Seraphim Solar said the company had made the move of opening an American module plant based on the long-term potential it saw in the US market.
Earlier this year Seraphim Solar revealed plans to open a 300MW module assembly plant in Jackson, Mississippi, with a view to ramping production to 1GW within three years.
Although the US market is currently enjoying unprecedented growth, there are concerns in some quarters that uncertainties over the future of the federal investment tax credit could prompt a slow-down in deployment after 2016.
But Seraphim Solar’s global executive general manager, Justin Xi, told PV Tech that the fundamental drivers of the US market, particularly in the residential and commercial segments, were strong and that the company anticipated long-term growth irrespective of the ITC.
“If you are talking to a utility [solar] company, for sure the ITC will have a really big impact. But if you think about the residential and commercial markets, these are markets that have a much longer and deeper potential compared with utility scale,” Xi said.
“For the power plants, everybody can do that – wind, biomass, solar. But only solar can be put on your roof – only solar, no others. So there’s a really big potential for everybody to do that. I cannot say everybody will do that, but the potential is there,” he added
Ryan Erwin, Seraphim’s investment partner in the US, added that with the US government pushing states harder to adopt clean energy and close coal-fired power stations, solar’s long-term prospects looked good. “We think it’s a 20-year boom,” he said.
Chinese cell and module manufacturers selling products in the US are currently subject to punitive import duties, but Xi said Seraphim’s modules would be immune from the tariffs, with cells coming from an unnamed manufacturer in Korea.
Xi said the company had no immediate plans to open a cell production line in the US. “Setting up a cell factory in the USA is a much longer procedure,” he said.
Xi added that the main selling point for Seraphim’s modules was their reliability.
“At Seraphim we are focused on the reliability side. So as you know we were the first company worldwide to pass the thresher test,” he said. “And that gives our customers a lot of confidence in our product. That’s a really key point – even if you have a really high power, how can you guarantee the high power will be really stable and will operate for the next 25 years?”
Seraphim is expecting to have the first 150MW of its new US line operational by the end of October, with the full 300MW due on line by the end of the year.
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Energy Efficiency Improvements Avoided 870 Million Tonnes Of CO2 In 2014
Oct 9, 2015 | CleanTechnica
By Joshua S Hill
A new report from the International Energy Agency has concluded that energy efficiency improvements since 1990 helped avoid 870 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2014.
According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Energy Efficiency Market Report 2015, over two decades of energy efficiency improvements throughout IEA-member countries contributed to a cumulative 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions avoided over these last 25 years, which is roughly equivalent to annual emissions by all IEA member countries.
“Per capita energy consumption in IEA countries has dropped to levels not seen since the 1980s yet income per capita has never been higher,” write the authors of the report, released this week. “Energy efficiency improvements over the last 25 years are the primary reason for this uncoupling of energy consumption and economic growth, and have enabled consumers in IEA countries to spend USD 5.7 trillion less on energy, while enjoying higher levels of energy service.”
Specifically, energy intensity throughout the OECD member-states improved by 2.3% in 2014, with energy consumption reaching its lowest levels since 2000, while GDP grew by $8.5 trillion, an increase of 26%.
The report goes a long way to backing up IEA’s analysis that energy efficiency improvements are the most effective tool to reduce energy sector carbon emissions, with the IEA suggesting that such improvements account for more than 40% of the required reductions to limit global warming to 2 degrees.
The IEA points out that energy efficiency investments in IEA countries since 1990 generated 520 Mtoe of avoided total final consumption (TFC) in 2014, which is larger than the larger annual TFC of Japan and Korea combined.
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Renewable Energy Financing Hits a Snag
Oct 11, 2015 | The New York Times
By Diane Cardwell
Only a few months ago, it seemed that the renewable energy sector could do little wrong: Stock prices were soaring and money was pouring in as investors flocked to get in on the action.
That is no longer the case. Low oil and gas prices have roiled the energy markets, and the specter of rising interest rates has rattled investors’ confidence in the industry’s returns. Although energy and financial experts say that the basics of the business remain sound, the lofty stock prices have tumbled, leading renewable energy companies to scramble for new approaches to their businesses.
Nowhere has the retrenchment been more acute than in a newfangled financing mechanism called a yieldco. Yieldcos, public companies conceived by renewable energy companies as a way to raise cheaper capital for project development, have attracted billions in new investments.
The yieldcos buy and operate power plants, mainly those that their parent companies develop. The yieldcos then collect the contracted electricity fees and pay the bulk of them out as dividends. With investors hungry for stable returns, energy yieldcos were greeted with enthusiasm through initial public offerings of their stocks over the last year and a half.
Last week, though, one of the most aggressive companies in the sector called a timeout.
SunEdison, which has bought several companies in recent months in a bid to become the world’s largest renewable energy developer, told investors it would not sell any more projects to its yieldcos, TerraForm Power and TerraForm Global, until conditions change. The company said it would trim expenses and streamline operations, including reducing project development by 20 percent, withdrawing from Britainand cutting roughly 15 percent of its work force.
“We need to adjust our tactics, at least in the short to intermediate term,” Ahmad R. Chatila, SunEdison’s chief executive, said in a conference call with financial analysts on Wednesday.
That adjustment is hardly unique to SunEdison, or even to yieldcos. Last month, NRG Energy announced that it would separate its once-heralded green enterprises — which include a home solar division and an electric vehicle charging network — into a separate company with a tight budget. It also said it would pursue a more limited strategy with its yieldco. On Tuesday, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded that company, NRG Yield, saying the 30 percent decline in its share price in recent months would inhibit its ability to raise money for new projects.
Still, executives and analysts say that the industry’s long-term prospects remain sound.
“Since July, the sun has continued to shine and the wind has continued to blow and the performance of the wind farms and solar farms that are in the ground hasn’t changed at all,” said Paul Coster, an analyst at J. P. Morgan. “This is really in large part turmoil of the market’s own making.”
Nonetheless, that market churn is complicating efforts to push renewable energy to mass scale at a critical time in its development. As subsidies, incentives and mandates totter on the brink of planned and potential extinction, it is more important that the industries reduce costs to compete in the marketplace, experts say. Yieldcos were to be an important part of solving that puzzle. Without them, advocates say, it may be harder to reach that goal.
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“Initially there was some euphoria and some market overreaction to the idea,” said Aneesh Prabhu, a credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s. “But the bloom has come off the rose.”
The idea behind yieldcos was simple on its face: Bundle together completed or nearly completed power projects that ostensibly offered steady, low-risk cash flows in the form of power purchase agreements covering electricity payments over 15 years or so. Because they were tied to power plant developers — including Abengoa, NextEra Energy and Pattern Development — the yieldcos would have steady pipelines of projects from the parent companies and the parent companies could replenish their capital through those sales.
Part of the rationale was that energy development is expensive and renewable energy projects do not have access to tax-advantaged financing mechanisms like master limited partnerships. Those partnerships have spurred the building of oil and gas infrastructure like pipelines over the decades. “This was an inventive twist on master limited partnerships, and provided some of the same benefits,” said Dan W. Reicher, executive director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford. But, he said, they do not get all the tax benefits.
Nonetheless, for a while, the system proved attractive to investors, and analysts and clean-energy advocates predicted ever more activity and success in the sector. More than a dozen yieldcos have formed since 2013, and many have gone public, including 8point3 Energy Partners, a joint venture of First Solar and SunPower that raised $420 million in its initial public offering in June.
But as yieldcos proliferated — each with a hunger to bring in new projects to satisfy investor demand for growth — they drove up competition and prices for projects. Investors began to lose confidence that there would be enough projects to go around. In addition, the threat of rising interest rates made the yieldcos less attractive than more conventional financing. And depressed prices for oil and gas brought down energy values over all.
“Your growth story is only as good as your last project or your pipeline that you’re projecting,” said John J. Marciano III, a lawyer at Chadbourne & Parke who focuses on the development, financing, purchase and sale of energy and infrastructure projects and aviation equipment. “Once one started to go down, the others just probably followed the pack.”
Several analysts and executives attributed the declines to a mismatch between the investors — which include hedge funds looking for a relatively quick return — and the investments, intended to pay back over a long time. Others said investors who were losing money in oil and gas began dumping their renewable stocks to cover those losses.
Either way, the new companies became caught in a kind of self-reinforcing downward spiral in which the drop in share prices raised dividend yields, making it more expensive to borrow money or issue equity. That, in turn, lowered the returns on new projects and pushed down share prices even more.
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“Pretty soon, a number of investors got scared to the point of saying, ‘Look, do we really understand this model and is it broken?’ ” said Michael Garland, chief executive of Pattern Development and Pattern Energy Group. He and others argue that the model works but must go through a market correction and attract different kinds of investors.
At SunEdison, one of the most prominent companies involved, there were additional pressures. Its acquisition spree — especially its purchase in July of Vivint Solar, a fast-growing rooftop solar installer that markets its services to residential customers — left investors wary and confused. Executives at SunEdison, whose stock has declined by 70 percent since the Vivint announcement, acknowledged last Wednesday that they needed to do a better job of explaining to investors what they were doing and why.
Despite all the turmoil, executives say interest in clean energy remains robust. “There may not be that much enthusiasm for yieldcos, but the pendulum has swung to the opposite direction,” with private lenders and corporations making investments, said Lyndon Rive, chief executive of SolarCity. That company has not yet created a yieldco but Mr. Rive said it was “keeping an open mind” to the approach, saying, “Financing is still very strong.”
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UK energy policy slammed as solar company collapses
Oct 8, 2015 | Financial Times
By John Murray Brown, Christopher Adams and Josh Noble
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One of the world’s biggest renewable energy investors has warned that “draconian” UK subsidy cuts will kill solar power in Britain, blaming policy changes for a pullback that led to the collapse of a big installer and nearly 1,000 job losses.
SunEdison, the US-listed group, has rounded on ministers after Mark Group, a Leicester-based home insulation business it acquired only months ago, was put into administration on Wednesday after being sold back to management.
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It said in a statement explaining its decision: “Based on the government’s stated desire to ‘unleash the UK rooftop market' and the programmes and support in place for solar, SunEdison believed that the UK offered long-term opportunities for solar energy.”
“SunEdison took on the challenge of turning [Mark Group] around by leveraging the company’s installation experience in the solar photovoltaic market. We are extremely disappointed that the draconian policy proposals made by the government in August will essentially eliminate the solar PV market in the UK and have made our plan unviable.”
Mark Group was acquired in July by SunEdison. However, its management team bought the company back on Wednesday morning, before appointing Deloitte administrators. Mark Group said ongoing losses had made administration the “only option”.
The collapse is the latest evidence of how green policy reversals since the Conservative general election victory in May have thrown investor plans into turmoil.
Just two weeks ago, the Drax power company said it was pulling out of a £1bn UK climate-change plan because it was now too risky to proceed. It has abandoned five years of planning for a carbon and capture storage system next to its huge North Yorkshire power station. It also blamed “critical reversals” in government support for renewable energy.
The UK solar panel market has been hit hard by changes in the subsidy regime announced by Amber Rudd, the energy secretary. The government has proposed ending assistance as soon as January for small-scale renewable projects and cutting guaranteed prices paid for electricity generated by new rooftop solar installations by up to 87 per cent.
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In comments to Solar Power Portal last week, Mark Babcock, a senior Sun Edison executive, said the “uneconomic” conditions created by the government’s policy changes would result in “sector-wide lay-offs” and a possibly “tragic” outcome.
The job losses on Wednesday night came as another installation company, Climate Energy, also called in administrators, saying it was unable “at this time” to pay unsecured creditors. Talks with a possible buyer were “ongoing”.
Doug Parr, Greenpeace’s chief UK scientist, accused George Osborne of taking “a wrecking ball” to the clean energy sector.
“Evidence is growing that the chancellor’s policies are putting people out of jobs, damaging investment, and harming one of the country’s most promising industries. This should be a wake-up call for David Cameron, who faces international embarrassment ahead of crucial climate talks,” he said.
Friends of the Earth, the environmental campaign group, warned the job losses were “likely to be the first of many as government attacks on efforts to build a low-carbon economy begin to bite”.
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SunEdison had purchased Mark Group for an undisclosed sum to help it grow its residential and commercial sales in the UK. The company said at the time there were no plans for business restructuring or job losses.
However, it has been under pressure from investors and on Wednesday announced it was forgoing investments in countries including the UK, where renewable projects are not profitable, and curtailing its expansion plans for Latin America.
Ahmad Chatila, chief executive, told investors in a conference call: “Our main focus will be in United States, Latin America, India, and China. These are large growing economies with favorable policies.”
“We will exit or de-emphasise certain countries. For example the new proposed feed-in-tariff policy in UK makes the residential market uneconomic.”
The company said it planned to reduce its workforce by 15 per cent “in response to current and expected market conditions”.
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China allocates another 5.3GW of PV capacity for over-performing regions
Oct 9, 2015 | PV Tech
By John Parnell
The Chinese government has allocated an additional 5.3GW of solar capacity quota for selected provinces in China.
A total of 14 provinces have been tasked with additional project development on top of their 2015 objectives. They have been asked to submit their plans for new projects within a month and to commence construction this year. They will have until the end of H1 2016 to connect them to the grid, according to the document released by the National Energy Administration (NEA). The new 5.3GW target has been added to this year’s 17.8GW goal despite the leeway on grid connection dates.
The move comes as some areas in the country have reported grid curtailment issues. In July the NEA reported that 9% of the country’s solar capacity idled in H1 2015 due to grid issues. The figure in the province of Gansu was 28%.
Beijing-based solar industry consultant, Frank Haugwitz, told PV Tech that the new quotas have been designated to specific cities and counties within the province.
“These provinces are believed to have outperformed so far and therefore were granted another 5.3GW,” he said, adding that additional conditions have been attached to the new quotas.
“Some provinces have requirements like competitive bidding, in Inner Mongolia, or only green energy counties are eligible, or exact locations, even specific cities, were identified,” said Haugwitz.
“These selected locations, it is my understanding, are not subject to grid curtailment or experience less curtailment, otherwise what would be the logic to ask for more [capacity]?”
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GCL contracts Power China Beijing for 50 MW PV project
Oct 12, 2015 | PV Magazine
By BECKY BEETZ
CL wholly owned subsidiary, Yugan GCL, has entered into an EPC agreement with Power China Beijing worth RMB 440 million (around $69.6 million), under which the latter will develop a 50 MW solar PV project in Yugan County.
The 50 MW is said to be the first phase of a fisheries PV power station, which is scheduled to be grid connected on or before January 31, 2016.
No further details were provided.
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Former Yingli Green executive joins JA Solar
Oct 12, 2015 | PV Tech
By Mark Osborne
PV super league manufacturer JA Solar said it had appointed a former rival’s senior executive as its US President.
Robert Petrina, most recently the former managing director of Yingli Green Energy Americas has taken on the same role for JA Solar.
Baofang Jin, Chairman and CEO of JA Solar said, "It is a pleasure to welcome Robert to the JA Solar team. Robert's market expertise, extensive business development and operational experience, and outstanding professional track record make him an excellent fit for us. We look forward to his valuable perspective and leadership as we continue to grow our presence and market share across North America."
As JA Solar's managing director & president, North America, effective immediately, Petrina is to oversee business operations in North America, drive customer growth across the utility, commercial and residential segments, and establish JA Solar as a leading partner in the market.
Prior to joining Yingli, Petrina led global silicon procurement for General Electric's Solar Technologies business unit. He also worked at AstroPower, Inc., spearheading the company's silicon sourcing in Asia, Europe and North America. Petrina also served at Chori America, Inc. where he managed chemical product sales in Latin America.
He also serves on the board of the Solar Energy Industry Association as well as serving on Cornell University's Alumni Advisory Board for Sustainability.
Petrina received his bachelor's degree in Applied Economics and Management and his master's degree in Business Administration from Cornell University, where he was a Park Fellow.
Yingli Green has been struggling to manage huge debts that exceed several billion US dollars but has yet to make any major restructuring plans to offset major liquidity issues and warnings of being de-listed from the NYSE.
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New York State plans for solar on 150,000 homes and businesses by 2020
Oct 9, 2015 | PV Maagzine
By CHRISTIAN ROSELUND
California has long been the standard-bearer for clean energy in the United States, with ambitious renewable energy mandates backed by regulatory action to reform not only the way that utilities procure power, but how they approach resources on the customer side of the meter.
But New York may be giving California a run for its money as the most progressive state for policy to enable a transformation of the electric grid. As the latest, on Thursday New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a series of new goals which deepen the state's embrace of clean energy as a means for greenhouse gas reduction.
Topping the list, Governor Cuomo set a target for the state to install solar arrays on 150,000 additional homes and businesses by 2020, a five-fold expansion on the 30,000 arrays that the state has supported since 2013.
As a means to reach this goal, the governor's office mentioned the new "Shared Renewables" virtual net metering program. Under the program, New York residents can subscribe to receive the benefits of a PV array up to 2 MW-AC located on a sponsor's property, through net metering.
This includes multi-unit master metered buildings, which will allow tenants to share in the benefits of solar PV.
EQ Director of Research Justin Barnes says that the NY-SUN MW Block incentive program for large-scale solar will also be key in meeting this goal. The program provides geographically differentiated performance-based incentives to systems up to 2 MW.
“It's going to be as critical to a community renewables project as it is to any other large-scale industrial project,” states Barnes. He also says that while there were few applications for the program after it was rolled out, that interest is increasing.
In addition to the 150,000 new PV installations, Governor Cuomo announced that the State University of New York (SUNY) system will install renewable energy at each of its 64 campuses by 2020. This builds on a previous SUNY commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30% by 2020.
A third pledge was to engage the states in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) to explore the possibility of linking this market with carbon markets in Quebec, California and Ontario.
These three were announced concurrent with the signing of the Under 2 MOU, an agreement between states, provinces and cities globally to play their part in keeping the earth's average temperature from rising more than two degrees Celsius by 2100, versus pre-industrial levels.
New York already has one of the most aggressive targets in the nation for greenhouse gas reduction, with plans to reduce emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80% by 2050.
As a key means to meet this target, New York is currently engaged in a process to rethink the structure of its electricity system, including the role of utilities. Reforming the Energy Vision may be the most advanced process of restructuring in the nation, and is specifically focused on distributed energy resources and providing tools and knowledge to allow customers to manage their resources under a more dynamic system.
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The CEO and the Activist: Meet the Renewable Energy Odd Couple
Oct 11, 2015 | Bloomberg
By Chris Martin
One wears an impeccably tailored navy blue suit. The other sports a giraffe-print dashiki shirt.
Meet the renewable-energy odd couple, the environmental activist and his onetime target, the chief of Italy’s largest utility.
A year ago, Kumi Naidoo, the head of Greenpeace International, and Francesco Starace were sworn enemies, after the group said Enel SpA’s coal plants were killing people. Now, they’re drinking orange juice together at the Four Seasons in New York, discussing the urgent need to fight global warming.
“We were not only not talking to each other, we had legal claims against each other," recalled Starace, who took over as Enel’s chief executive officer in May 2014. He’s expected to discuss the company’s shift to renewable energy during a keynote address Monday at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Summit in London.
“We thought that what Enel was doing was critically necessary and that we needed to acknowledge and encourage it,” Naidoo, 50, said during a joint interview with Starace at the Manhattan hotel. “It was a first, and we welcomed their actions."
The dispute dates to 2012, when Greenpeace introduced a publicity campaign to draw attention to Enel’s coal plants, which it said were belching enough pollutionto kill 1,000 Europeans each year. Rome-based Enel responded with a lawsuit, demanding Greenpeace take down part of its website and withdraw the assertions.Court Battle
While an Italian court eventually ruled in Greenpeace’s favor, the litigation dragged on until Enel dropped the suit this year. Starace said the decision is part of an effort to transform the utility from a coal-powered behemoth to a climate-friendly champion of wind and solar. And with his new ally Naidoo, he’s seeking to spread the gospel to other utility executives.
“We have to acknowledge that the climate clock is ticking and time is of the essence," said Starace, 60. Conventional fossil fuels and nuclear power plants are “a trap,” he said. “A trap for companies to die."Utilities Shifting
Enel is one of several utilities backing away from fossil fuels. As renewable energy becomes both more effective and affordable, and increased regulation of greenhouse gases becomes more certain, a growing number of power companies are recognizing that their historical reliance on coal will face increasing challenges.
Germany’s largest power company, EON SE, announced plans in November to focus on renewable energy and distribution, while consolidating its oil and gas operations and conventional generation assets into a new independent company. NRG Energy Inc., the biggest U.S. independent power producer, is in the process of forming a separate unit for its clean-power assets.
Under Starace, Enel has pledged to close 23 coal plants in Italy, roughly half its fleet, and canceled plans for two more in Italy and Chile. Enel Green Power, the unit Starace formerly ran, is pursuing renewable projects from Brazil to India to Oklahoma. The state-owned company has committed to being carbon-neutral by 2050.
All that made Greenpeace take notice, said Naidoo, a former human-rights campaigner from South Africa.
Enel and Greenpeace held talks in March in an attempt to end their feud. They agreed to work together to encourage other utilities to shift away from fossil fuels. In July, Starace held a teleconference with Greenpeace leaders around the world, as Naidoo tried to calm reservations about teaming up with the former adversary.
On Enel’s side “there was a little bit of fear that we would be manipulated, exploited," Starace said. “The moment I saw him, I knew that was not the case."Renewable Energy
Starace sees the business case for embracing renewables, not just an environmental cause. Big nuclear and coal plants lock utilities into long-term investments that run over budget and don’t keep up with new technology, he said. Yet breaking that cycle requires a transition that’s by no means painless -- Enel produced 29 percent of its power from coal last year, according to company figures.
“You need to be willing to say, even if it’s my own arm, I’ll cut it off if it’s not needed," Starace said. “Big is bad. Our strategy is much more flexible and modular then it was before, and more adaptable to the world we live in."
Enel plans to retire 13 gigawatts of fossil-fuel power by 2020. Starace said his newest coal plant was completed last year and may be retired before its expected 40-year life is up.
“I doubt it will get to 2030," he said.
Naidoo agreed.
“He’s moving away from a fetishism of big, centralized energy plants," he said. “The ethical thing, the economically right thing to do, is not pour more investment into that."
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Punjab aims for full sustainability
Oct 9, 2015 | PV Magazine
By Edgar Meza
Leaders in the Indian state have reiterated their commitment to solar photovoltaic power as they inaugurate the region's largest green energy project.
The Indian state of Punjab has set a goal of becoming completely sustainable in energy generation and is increasingly turning to solar to power its industries and farms.
Speaking on Thursday at the inauguration of the state’s largest solar project – the 34 MW PV plant in the district of Bathinda -- Punjab’s New and Renewable Energy Minister Bikram Singh Majithia said, “We are committed to developing Punjab as a fully sustainable state. Ensuring the state’s upward development trend is important and therefore energy security is critical.”
Majithia added that the state government had “opted to take an aggressive step by turning to solar energy for fueling energy needs of our industries and farmers. Through projects like these we are ensuring that our immediate future as well as that of our coming generations will be more secure and avert an otherwise polluted future.”
Indian solar and wind power group Welspun Renewables commissioned the Bathinda plant in August.
Also speaking at the PV plant inauguration, India’s Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said “Our future development is intrinsically tied in with the development of this industry. Punjab has taken a lead in meeting a significant percentage of its energy deficit with solar projects. I congratulate the state and its people for aggressively embracing this change. Our government is committed to helping the state develop through all possible avenues of development.”
Welspun Vice Chairman Vineet Mittal added that the solar project had strengthened the company’s “partnership with the state of Punjab and advancement of the state’s utility-scale solar industry.”
The Bathinda plant will feed 48 million units of energy into the Punjab state grid annually over the next 25 years, mitigating more that 1.3 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, according to the company.
Welspun has signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a further 151 MW in Punjab and is targeting 11 GW of renewable installations across India. To that end, the company is planning to install 5 GW of capacity in the next few years, with 1 GW of that to be commissioned within the 2015-2016 period. The company is currently active in eight of India's 36 states and union territories.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set the goal of quadrupling the country's renewable energy capacity to 175 GW by 2022.
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India To Simplify Inter-State Transmission Of Renewable Energy
Oct 12, 2015 | CleanTechnica
By Smiti Mittal
The Indian Government is looking to reduce the regulatory hurdles in achieving their highly ambitious renewable energy capacity addition targets.
The Indian Minister for Power, Coal, and Renewable Energyannounced that the Government would soon remove the fee levied on transmission of power generated from renewable energy project between two states, a crucial step towards creating an “enabling and overarching framework” to make renewable energy viable for the common man, the minister added.
Currently, supply of power from one state to the other attracts a regulatory fee payable to the transmission utility. This significantly adds to the final cost of power for the end user, thus making this activity financial unattractive.
The Indian Government is looking to set up large-scale renewable energy projects across the country under its targetto have 175 GW renewable energy capacity operational by 2022. This program would include setting up large-scale hybrid solar and wind energy projects, and since solar and wind energy resources are not distributed evenly across the country, most of these projects are expected to be concentrated in specific states.
To evacuate power from these states to others that are deficient in renewable energy resources, the Indian Government has started working on the ambitious Green Energy Corridors project. The project will set up transmission lines dedicated to renewable energy projects.
Removing regulatory charges may also have a cascading impact on the tariff bids quoted by private sector project developers in the upcoming solar power auctions. Companies looking to develop projects outside the scope of such auctions would likely benefit the most. Earlier this year SunEdison signed a 180 MW power sale agreement from a power plant located in Madhya Pradesh. The company shall benefit from the removal of the inter-state transmission charge as it is required to supply the power to a utility in Delhi, about 600 kilometres away.
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