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UNIDO and China strengthen the global innovation network on inclusive and sustainable industrial development

The China International Centre for Economic and Technical Exchanges (CICETE) will fund a new project to strengthen the global innovation network on inclusive and sustainable industrial development, which is the mandate of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

An agreement on this was signed today by UNIDO’s Director General LI Yong and the Party Secretary and President of the Academic Council of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, YU Xinhui.

The project will establish a Global Science and Technology Innovation Centre at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences as a knowledge base for bringing in best practices and new technologies to Chinese industries, as well as to industries in other developing countries in the region and beyond.

The initiative will be an important component of UNIDO’s Country Programme for China 2016-2020, which features “helping China’s international cooperation” as one of the three key components, along with green industry and food safety. It also aims to make an effective contribution to China’s One Belt, One Road Initiative.

Source: unido.org

Advanced Coal Technologies Could Provide Carbon Relief

iea-coalCoal is not clean. But that does not mean that it could not be made cleaner. And that’s relevant because much of the developing world will remain dependent on coal, as will most developed nations to a lesser degree. At issue then is whether carbon capture and storage is technically possible and if so, at what cost.

“Twenty-two countries have submitted climate plans that include a role for advanced coal technologies,” says Benjamin Sporton, chief executive of the World Coal Association, in a telephone interview. “We are in Marrakech to talk about about the role of that technology. It is misguided for people to talk about how to get rid of coal. We need to be part of the solution.”

The association says that coal is now about 40% percent of the global electricity mix and that in 2040, it will still be 30%. The central question is thus how to make it cleaner as opposed to how to make it go away.

The Asian share of the global coal pie is now about 69% but that will grow to be 77% in 2040. Even China, which will reduce its coal usage from 75% of its electricity portfolio to 49% during this time, will still use 27% more coal because of its anticipated economic expansion. The United States, too, will depend on coal for 25% of electricity in 2040, says the International Energy Agency in Paris.

Sporton acknowledges that carbon capture and storage has been an elusive technology but says in the same breath that it remains within reach. To get there, national governments need to place the same emphasis on its development as they have on the expansion of renewables. Green energies, for example, have received $800 billion in federal subsidies while carbon capture and storage has gotten just $20 billion, all over a 10-year time period.

“The objective here is to reduce emissions,” Sporton says. “Governments are recognizing that carbon capture and storage has a role to play. This is not something that a lot of environmentalists want to hear. But coal is here for decades to come and they can’t wish it away.”

American Electric Power is now retiring 6,500 megawatts of coal-fired capacity, saying that it will be using natural gas that is just as cheap and that releases fewer carbon emissions. First Energy Corp., meanwhile, has closed several coal plants, which had provided 13 percent of its power and Duke Energy is doing the same: In 2008, the utility generated 70% of its electricity from coal. Now that figure is 42%, and falling.

“With the exception of Asia and potentially Latin America, we see coal as continuing on its descending glide path partially due to the Paris accords but more so due to the increasing cost, complexity and financial risk of building such facilities,” says Mark Repsher, an energy expert at PA Consulting Group. “Also, the potential proliferation of the lower cost of natural gas supply across the globe” will have the same effect.

Scrub Hard

But coal use will still exists in the United States, as it will elsewhere around the globe. China’s National Energy Association expects a 20% pop over five years there. Even Germany, bent on expanding renewables, says it will still have a role, as does Japan, which ask why it can’t be used more “efficiently.” What then is the alternative to current coal technologies?

Coal gasification plants scrub the mercury, nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide before they would separate the remaining byproducts: carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen, which could be used to power everything from cars to power plants. The power sector’s biggest such project went live at Boundary Dam in Estevan, Saskatchewan, Canada on October 2, 2014.

And, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Southern Company said that they had completed an initial demonstration phase of carbon capture at Southern’s coal-fired Plant Barry in Alabama, which was able to recover more than 90 percent of the carbon dioxide, send it through a 10-mile pipeline, and inject it underground. But Southern’s oil enhancement Kemper project in Mississippi is $4 billion over budget and two years overdue.

Source: forbes.com

VW Shifts Focus to Electric Cars with US Expansion Plan

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

Volkswagen said it wants to be the world leader in electric cars by 2025 as it unveiled a major shift to clean-energy vehicles in the wake of the dieselgate emissions cheating scandal.

The US market, where the pollution crisis first erupted, will play a key role in the revamp, according to VW brand chief Herbert Diess. He announced a “comeback story” for the region, with plans for electric cars to be built in North America from 2021.

During a presentation at the group’s headquarters in northern Germany, Diess said: “By 2025 we plan to sell one million electric cars per year, and by then we also want to be the global market leader in electromobility.

“Going forward, our electric cars will be the hallmark of Volkswagen.”

Last year, Volkswagen sold 4.4m own-brand passenger cars worldwide. Diess said the company’s switch to electric will be made possible through new investments and economies of scale. He described the move as a crucial part of the troubled brand’s efforts to reinvent itself.

Last Friday, VW announced the biggest revamp in its history, saying it would cut 30,000 jobs to save €3.7bn a year by 2020. It also plans to ramp up investment in future technologies such as electric cars, self-driving cars and digitalisation.

“Our industry will undergo more fundamental change over the next 10 years than ever before,” Diess said. He predicted that the breakthrough of electric cars was just four or five years away and would be driven by environmental concerns.

“For most customers the electric car will soon be the better alternative,” he added.

The shakeup at Volkswagen’s core brand comes as it tries to recover from the biggest crisis in its history after it admitted last year to installing emissions-cheating software in 11m diesel vehicles.

The software could detect when a vehicle was undergoing regulatory tests. It then lowered emissions accordingly to make the cars seem less polluting than they were.

Most of the cars bore the Volkswagen logo but vehicles by other VW group companies such as Audi, Seat and Skoda were also affected. The scandal hurt sales and damaged VW’s reputation, resulting in the group’s first loss in more than two decades last year.

But even before the scandal, VW had been struggling with profitability, weighed down by high costs and low productivity. “The image of our brand has suffered from the diesel crisis, many people no longer trust us as they used to,” Diess said. “Our main task is to win back this trust.”

American customers were particularly turned off by the cheating scandal. This dealt another blow to a brand that has never been very popular in the US. VW is determined to change this, however. Diess said: “In North America we want to write a comeback story.”

The company will start by focusing on core segments such as large SUVs and limousines. Next, under the motto “Electrify America”, it will begin local production of its electric cars in the region in 2021.

“Nowhere else can you make more money by selling cars than in the United States,” Diess added.

Analyst Frank Schwope of Nord/LB bank said he was sceptical about VW’s ambitious US plans. He said the VW group had already taken a big hit there due to the diesel scandal. He pointed to its $14.7bn settlement with US authorities last month. This included compensation for nearly 500,000 owners of the affected vehicles, with more legal costs expected to follow.

Schwope added: “Even if for many Volkswagen executives the US is and has long been seen as a challenge, the country appears to be a bottomless pit for Volkswagen.”

Source: theguardian.com

Tesla, SolarCity Power Entire Island With Solar + Batteries

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

Ta’u, an island in American Samoa, has turned its nose at fossil fuels and is now almost 100 percent powered with solar panels and batteries thanks to technology from the newly combined Tesla and SolarCity.

The microgrid is operated by American Samoa Power Authority and was funded by the American Samoa Economic Development Authority, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Interior.

Radio New Zealand reported that the $8 million project will significantly reduce fuel costs for the island, which is located more than 4,000 miles from the west coast of the U.S. Ta’u’s 600 residents previously relied on shipments of diesel for power. At times, a shipment could not arrive on the island for months, meaning the island had to power ration and faced reoccurring outages.

But the new microgrid replaces this reliance on dirty fuels with more affordable solar energy, as Peter Rive, SolarCity co-founder and CTO, detailed in a blog post about the project, adding that the microgrid is designed to optimize system performance and maximize savings.

“Factoring in the escalating cost of fuel, along with transporting such mass quantities to the small island, the financial impact is substantial,” Rive wrote. He pointed out that the microgrid also eliminates “the hazards of power intermittency” and makes “outages a thing of the past.”

The microgrid, which only took one year to build, features 1.4 megawatts of solar generation capacity (or 5,328 solar panels) and 6 megawatt hours of battery storage from 60 Tesla Powerpacks. An estimated 109,500 gallons of diesel will be offset per year.

“Before today, every time we turned on the light, turn on the television, turn on maybe the air conditioner, all of the cash registers in China, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia go ‘cha-ching,’ but not after today,” SolarCity market development director Jon Yoshimura told Radio New Zealand. “We will keep more of that money here, where it belongs.”

With the Powerpacks, the island can store solar energy at night, allowing for around-the-clock use. The microgrid allows the island to stay fully powered for three days without sunlight and can recharge to full capacity in only seven hours.

A hospital, high school and elementary schools, fire and police stations and businesses will be using the new clean energy source.

“It’s always sunny out here, and harvesting that energy from the sun will make me sleep a lot more comfortably at night, just knowing I’ll be able to serve my customers,” local resident and business owner Keith Ahsoon told SolarCity.

“This is part of making history,” Ahsoon added. “This project will help lessen the carbon footprint of the world. Living on an island, you experience global warming firsthand. Beach erosions and other noticeable changes are a part of life here. It’s a serious problem, and this project will hopefully set a good example for everyone else to follow.”

Ta’u could be an example for other islands around the globe facing similarproblems.

“Ta’u is not a postcard from the future, it’s a snapshot of what is possible right now,” Rive wrote. “Renewable power is an economical, practical solution for a growing number of locations and energy needs, and islands that have traditionally relied on fossil fuels can easily transition to microgrids powered by solar and storage today.”

Source: ecowatch.com

China is Building a Giant Solar Plant at Chernobyl

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

A new solar summer rises from the ashes of nuclear winter. Two Chinese energy firms will be constructing a new solar power plant in the exclusion zone near the Chernobyl nuclear reactor, which suffered a powerful explosion in 1986 that poisoned the surrounding area with nuclear radiation. “There will be remarkable social benefits and economic ones as we try to renovate the once damaged area with green and renewable energy,” said Shu Hua, the chairman of GCL System Integration Technology (GCL-SI), one of the firms tasked with the project. Making the best of a bad situation could prove inspiring to others as the global community begins the hard work of implementing the Paris Agreement.

A 1,000 square mile exclusion zone of forests and marshland surrounds the former Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine and has been largely off-limits since the 1986 disaster. The reactor itself will be covered next year by a $1.6 billion steel arch. GCL-SI has not revealed details regarding where the new solar power plant will be built or how much it will cost. However, GCL-SI management states that the project will be safe for workers. “Ukraine has passed a law allowing the site to be developed for agriculture and other things, so that means (the radiation) is under control,” said a manager who spoke anonymously.

The Chinese firms in charge of building the solar power plant are attempting to build up an international presence and reputation for clean energy excellence. Even before their Chernobyl project, the Chinese have successfully reformatted contaminated land into renewable energy generators. To discourage urban expansion from absorbing more farmland, China has implemented policies that encourage solar and wind power plants on damaged land, including in Shanxi, the country’s top coal province. With 43 gigawatts of generating capacity expected by the end of the year, China is currently the world’s top solar power generator. In the race towards global energy dominance, China is also well ahead. 72 percent of the global solar power components produced in 2015 were made in the People’s Republic.

Source: inhabitat.com

Oil and Gas Companies in North America Less Green Than Those in EU

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

Oil and gas companies in North America are lagging behind their European counterparts in cleaning up their operations, new research has found, with higher greenhouse gas emissions and less investment in clean alternatives.

ExxonMobil and Chevron of the US, alongside Canada’s Suncor, ranked lowest in a review conducted by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) of 11 of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies. At the top of the table came Statoil of Norway, Italy’s Eni and the French company Total.

Companies were rated on criteria including their greenhouse gas emissions and their asset mix, which is determined by the hydrocarbons they extract, and the methods used; their climate-related goals, such as investments in renewables and other forms of low-carbon energy, if any; whether they make efforts to capture and use methane, or flare it; their use of water, and whether they are likely to be affected by water shortages; and the efficiency of their operations.

The North American companies ranked so low in part because of their exposure to tar sands, particularly in Canada, and their lack of investment in conventional gas. This is in part explained by the history and geography of the different companies involved: Suncor, for instance, from its headquarters in Montreal, set up the first commercial operation to exploit the Canadian oil sands in the 1960s; while Statoil, with its history of exploration in the North Sea, has had a longer focus on conventional gas.

However, factors such as investment in alternatives to fossil fuels, and efforts to reduce emissions from their operations, are matters that are within each company’s control. European companies also face more pressure from governments and activists to become cleaner and reduce emissions, while such pressure is likely to abate further in the US in the next few years under the presidency of Donald Trump and a Republican-dominated Congress.

Three major companies – Saudi Aramco, Russia’s Rosneft and PetroChina – were unranked in the CDP report, entitled In the Pipeline and published on Tuesday, because they refused to respond to the organisation’s questions.

The Bank of England is also pursuing greater disclosure on climate change issues from the oil and gas sector, with a view to assisting investors. Mark Carney, the governor, has asked a taskforce on climate-related financial disclosure to report to him in December, giving information that would be useful for investors to judge the climate strategies of fossil fuel companies.

Paul Simpson, chief executive of the CDP, said: “There are reasons to be optimistic. Some oil and gas majors have the balance sheets to transition to much lower carbon business models, and play a key role in implementing the goals of the Paris agreement.”

Tarek Soliman, senior analyst for investor research at the CDP, said: “On both sides of the Atlantic, international oil and gas majors need to look at how they fit into an energy system which achieves the goals laid out in the Paris agreement. Our research shows that European companies have been more active in developing transition strategies for the coming decade, which is expected to feature peak oil demand, and are starting to implement these. But more needs to be done across the board.”

Source: theguardian.com

USAID Announces $4 Million to Solar Start-ups for African Off-Grid Energy

derAt the 22nd session of the UN Climate conference (COP 22), Power Africa Coordinator Andrew M. Herscowitz announced $4 million in new investments to eight companies that are revolutionizing household solar power across Africa through the Scaling Off-Grid Energy: Grand Challenge for Development. The Enterprise Awards are expected to create up to 120,000 additional connections in off-grid communities.

“The Grand Challenge for Development is designed to support innovators like these eight companies who are scaling up their inventions,” said Herscowitz. “The options for powering your home and business are changing, and these types of innovations will create opportunities to transform the power sector in homes across the planet,” he said.

The Scaling Off-Grid Energy Enterprise Awards provide seed funding to solar start-ups to support geographic expansion throughout Africa, test new business models and tap into private and public financing.

The new awards will enable recipients to expand home solar power solutions to existing and new African markets, improve payment and distribution processes, and bring down costs for customers:

Greenlight Planet (Nigeria,Uganda) is expanding sales of low-cost solar home solutions through state of the art pay-as-you-go technology and deep distribution networks.

d.light (Kenya) is developing and expanding on software, training materials, and a call center to support a direct distribution model.

Fenix (Zambia) is expanding energy access through its expandable solar solutions kits that include options to power phones, lights, radios, televisions, and other appliances.

Orb Energy (Kenya) is establishing partnerships with banks and microfinance institutions to finance consumer solar system purchases.

VITALITE (Zambia) is distributing pay-as-you-go solar home systems, televisions, solar lamps, and appliances for rural, off-grid communities.

PEG Africa (Ghana) is testing new digital payment tools that will help rural customers more easily pay for their solar home systems using mobile money.

Shinbone Labs (Benin, Ghana) is directly selling pre-packaged, expandable, low-cost solar kits that can be remotely activated, monitored and, in the future, paid by mobile phones.

Village Energy (Uganda) is building a last-mile solar distribution and servicing network in rural Uganda by training young men and women to become technicians and retail shop managers in their communities.

USAID’s U.S Global Development Lab issued the awards as part of a competitive process through the Development Innovation Ventures program. Applications were evaluated based on three criteria: cost effectiveness relative to traditional alternatives, the plan for collecting rigorous evidence of success, and proposed pathways to scale if proven effective.

The Scaling Off-Grid Energy Grand Challenge is a $36 million initiative launched by Power Africa, USAID, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), and the independent charity, Shell Foundation. The goal is to empower entrepreneurs and investors in achieving 20 million connections so households in sub-Saharan Africa have access to clean, modern and affordable electricity by 2030.

Last week, Microsoft, Acumen, and the United Nations Foundation joined the Grand Challenge for Development as aligned partners committed to leveraging their investments, capabilities, and networks. “With aligned partners like Microsoft, Acumen, and the United Nations Foundation who are investing in or supporting the off-grid solar sector, we can accelerate the growth of the household solar sector in Africa,” said Herscowitz.

In addition, the Global LEAP Awards Off-Grid Refrigerator Competition was launched with a prize purse of $600,000, through cooperation between Grand Challenge partners Power Africa, USAID, the U.S. Department of Energy, CLASP and DFID through the Ideas to Impact Programme.

The Scaling Off-Grid Energy Grand Challenge for Development founding partners work together to align existing investments as well as collaborate on new efforts to address market barriers or failures in the African energy access market, and speed the introduction and growth of new, innovative products and services by enterprises and other actors.  The Grand Challenge for Development will initially focus on the household solar market, as the most immediately scalable and investment-ready segment of the off-grid market.

Source: usaid.gov

OPEC Secretary General visits IR Iran

OPEC Secretary General, HE Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, met with IR Iran’s Minister of Petroleum, HE Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, during a closed-door session on November 19 in the capital city of Tehran.

According to sources in the Ministry, the two oil chiefs discussed recent oil market developments, and economic and geopolitical uncertainties facing the market.  They also considered the future of climate change negotiations and the UN’s Paris Agreement, following the recently concluded COP22 in Marrakesh.

HE Zanganeh pledged continued support for the implementation of the Algiers Accord and stated that he remains confident that an all-inclusive agreement can be reached during the upcoming OPEC Ministerial Meeting to be held in Vienna on 30 November 2016.

In his remarks, the Secretary General acknowledged the flexibility and accommodation already shown by IR Iran in reaching the Ministerial decision of 28 September.  He also added that he looked forward to Minister Zanganeh’s continuing leadership – not only by contributing to the consensus needed for implementation of the Algiers Accord but also by actively working with his counterparts from other OPEC Member Countries in that regard.

“The participation of Iran in the implementation of the Accord is crucial and I remain optimistic,” said the Secretary General.

The Secretary General further acknowledged the rapidly changing dynamics in the political economy of the world with the attendant impacts on the oil market.  He also stressed the need for cohesive action by OPEC in collaboration with non-OPEC producers in the spirit of equity, fairness and transparency.

The meeting in Tehran is the latest of a series of consultations that HE Mohammad Barkindo has been having with officials from OPEC Member Countries in his bid to ensure that OPEC-14 “will be able to execute the Algiers agreement” as mandated by the Conference.

Source: opec.org

Investment in Renewables

1x-1On Nov. 4, Walmart announced an aggressive plan to increase its investments in renewable energy, pledging to power half its operations from wind, solar, and other renewables by 2025 and to cut the carbon footprint of its operations by 18 percent over the same period. Ten days later, Microsoft made its largest wind-power purchase agreement ever, with a deal to buy 237 megawatts of electricity from turbines in Kansas and Wyoming to run data centers in Cheyenne.

In between those announcements, Donald Trump was elected president, in part by calling climate change a hoax and vowing to gut most of Obama’s clean-energy policies and revive coal mining. If the actions of Walmart and Microsoft are any indication, a Trump administration will do little to dissuade companies from continuing to invest in renewables. “I think fears of a negative impact of Trump on renewable energy are really overblown,” says Thomas Emmons, a partner at Pegasus Capital Advisors, a private asset management firm focused on sustainable and alternative investments.

One reason is timing. The biggest economic incentives for clean energy are federal tax credits for solar and wind projects. Both were set to expire at the end of last year, prompting a surge in investments as companies raced to get in under the deadline. In December, Congress unexpectedly extended both credits (for solar until 2021 and for wind until 2019) as part of a deal to lift the 40-year-old ban on U.S. oil exports. It’s not clear that Trump will try to persuade Congress to repeal the extensions. Wind power is especially popular across the Midwest, a Republican stronghold; in many cases it’s become cheaper than other sources of grid power.

Sixty percent of Fortune 100 companies have renewable-electricity or climate change policies, and 81 companies globally have committed to get 100 percent of their energy from renewable sources, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Companies tend to invest in renewable energy in one of three ways: sourcing clean power from wind and solar projects through long-term agreements; purchasing a stake in green power projects; or using renewable-energy credits to offset the dirtier power they consume.

Since 2008, U.S. companies have signed agreements to purchase more than $10 billion worth of wind and solar power— about 10Gw, enough to run almost 2 million U.S. households for a year. BNEF expects that pace to increase over the next decade, with at least 50 U.S. companies signing long-term agreements to buy an additional 22Gw of clean energy. “A Trump presidency does not lower our expectations for the growth of the corporate renewable-energy market,” says Nathan Serota, a clean-energy analyst at BNEF. “If anything, a less ambitious stance on renewables at the federal level could encourage corporations to pick up the slack even further.” With the government providing less support, more businesses may decide the best way to ensure clean-power projects get built is to sign long-term purchase agreements. That way, renewable developers have a guaranteed customer, ensuring they can finance new projects.

These agreements are emerging as the preferred way to invest in clean energy. Locking in electricity prices for up to 15 years, the deals let companies hedge exposure to volatile natural gas and coal prices, which have historically determined wholesale power prices in the U.S. As wind and solar get cheaper, companies are able to lock in renewable power for less than the average wholesale power price, says Swami Venkataraman, senior vice president at Moody’s Investors Service.

“Companies are investing in sustainability, not because they’re making a political statement, but because they have a fiduciary duty to protect shareholders and make money,” says Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a nonprofit sustainability advocate. Even if Trump rolls back Obama’s commitment to the Paris climate accord and his signature clean-energy initiative, the Clean Power Plan (CPP), which directs states to lower carbon emissions from power plants, it’s unlikely to influence investment decisions. “Renewable developers weren’t building a business model premised on the CPP,” Serota says.

Source: Bloomberg.com

‘Extraordinarily Hot’ Arctic Temperatures Alarm Scientists

Photo-illustration: Pixabay
Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The Arctic is experiencing extraordinarily hot sea surface and air temperatures, which are stopping ice forming and could lead to record lows of sea ice at the north pole next year, according to scientists.

Danish and US researchers monitoring satellites and Arctic weather stations are surprised and alarmed by air temperatures peaking at what they say is an unheard-of 20C higher than normal for the time of year. In addition, sea temperatures averaging nearly 4C higher than usual in October and November.

“It’s been about 20C warmer than normal over most of the Arctic Ocean, along with cold anomalies of about the same magnitude over north-central Asia. This is unprecedented for November,” said research professor Jennifer Francis of Rutgers university.

Temperatures have been only a few degrees above freezing when -25C should be expected, according to Francis. “These temperatures are literally off the charts for where they should be at this time of year. It is pretty shocking. The Arctic has been breaking records all year. It is exciting but also scary,” she said.

Francis said the near-record low sea ice extent this summer had led to a warmer than usual autumn. That in turn had reduced the temperature difference between the Arctic and mid-latitudes.

“This helped make the jet stream wavier and allowed more heat and moisture to be driven into Arctic latitudes and perpetuate the warmth. It’s a vicious circle,” she added.

Sea ice, which forms and melts each year, has declined more than 30% in the past 25 years. This week it has been at the lowest extent ever recorded for late November. According to the US government’s National Snow and Ice Data Centre, (NSIDC), around 2m square kilometres less ice has formed since September than average. The level is far below the same period in 2012, when sea ice went on to record its lowest ever annual level.

Francis said she was convinced that the cause of the high temperatures and ice loss was climate change. “It’s all expected. There is nothing but climate change that can cause these trends. This is all headed in the same direction and picking up speed.”

Rasmus Tonboe, a sea ice remote sensing expert at the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen, said: “Sea surface temperatures in the Kara and Barents seas are much warmer than usual. That makes it very difficult for sea ice to freeze.

“When we have large areas of open water, it also raises air temperatures, and it has been up to 10/15C warmer. Six months ago the sea ice was breaking up unusually early. This made more open water and allowed the sunlight to be absorbed, which is why the Arctic is warmer this year,” he said.

“What we are seeing is both surprising and alarming. This is faster than the models. It is alarming because it has consequences.”

Julienne Stroeve, the professor of polar observation at University College London said ice that should be growing at this time of year was retreating. “It’s been a crazy year. There is no ice at Svalbard yet. In the last few days there has been a decline in sea ice in the Bering sea. Very warm air has flooded into the Arctic from the south, pressing the ice northwards.

“Air temperature drives the formation of the ice. It has been really delayed this year so the ice is also much thinner than it usually is. The speed at which this is happening surprises me. In the Arctic the trend has been clear for years, but the speed at which it is happening is faster than anyone thought,” said Strove.

“Ice is very sensitive to weather. There is a huge high pressure over the Kara sea, and Eurasia and Canada. We are seeing very strong winds bringing warm air north.”

The significance of the ice forming late is that this affects its growth the following year, with consequences for climate. “Extreme wind and high air temperatures [now],” she said, “could see ice extent drop next year below the record 2012 year”.

She added: “The ice could be even thinner than it was at the start of 2012. This is definitely a strange year.”

Ed Blockley, the lead scientist of the UK Met Office’s polar climate group, said: “The sea ice is extremely low. It is freezing but very slowly. Last week the Barents sea reduced its ice cover. There was less ice at the end than the start.

“These temperature anomalies are not unprecedented but this is certainly extraordinary. We are seeing a continual decline in ice. It it likely to be a hiccup but it puts us in bad starting position for next year.”

Source: theguardian.com

GM Accelerates Renewables Pledge With 50MW Texas Wind Farm Deal

Photo-illustration: Pixabay
Photo-illustration: Pixabay

General Motors has made its largest renewable energy purchase to date by signing a new power purchase agreement (PPA) with a 150MW wind farm currently under development in Texas.

Announced last week, the deal will see the car manufacturer purchase one third of the power produced by the Cactus Flats facility, providing enough power for 16 of GM’s US facilities.

Operated by global clean energy developer Renewable Energy Systems (RES), the wind farm is expected to come online during the first half of 2018 when the PPA contract commences.

GM said it would source more than 193,000MWh of electricity from wind farms annually, enough to power its Austin IT Innovation Center, a GM Financial office in Fort Worth and 13 parts warehouses.

Its GM Arlington Assembly plant, which is already 50 per cent powered by renewable energy, will also have all of its electricity needs met with green power.

The carmaker – which aims to power its entire operations across 59 countries with renewables by 2050 as part of its commitment to the RE100 initiative – said the addition of the new wind farm deal means six per cent of its global electricity use will come from renewables.

The company said that in addition to utilising an anticipated 114MW of wind power within the next two years, GM hosts 24 solar installations around the world.

Shortly before joining the RE100 campaign in September, GM also unveiled its first mass-market fully-electric car – the Chevy Bolt – which can drive for 238 miles on a fully charged battery, giving it a longer range than the Tesla Model 3 vehicle.

Rob Threlkeld, GM’s global manager of renewable energy, said the firm’s commitment to renewables would help to make the company stronger.

“These renewable energy investments drive down greenhouse gas emissions, reduce our dependence on finite resources, and help keep our air and water clean,” said Threlkeld. “Investing in Texas wind energy is an important step on a journey that will see clean, renewable sources account for 100 per cent of GM’s global energy footprint by 2050.”

The RE100 campaign, which is led by the Climate Group in partnership with CDP as part of the We Mean Business Coalition, brings together more than 70 large global corporations, such as IKEA, Apple and Coca-Cola Enterprises.

Amy Davidsen, The Climate Group’s executive director for North America, said: “It’s fantastic to see General Motors putting words into action so soon after their joining RE100. GM has already saved millions of dollars by using renewable energy – going 100 per cent renewable makes business sense.”

Source: businessgreen.com

No Problems in Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant

Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay
Photo-illustration: Pixabay

Strong earthquake yesterday struck Japan. A 1m wave hit the coastline near the Fukushima nuclear power plant, but Cabinet Chief Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a televised news conference that “there was no problem”.

All reactors were shut down in 2011, but cooling is still needed for the used nuclear fuel stored on the site. Mr Suga said the water cooling system on the third reactor had stopped working, but there were no signs of further damage or abnormalities.

Tokyo Electric Power, which operates the plant, later said it had restarted the cooling system, and reported only small temperature increases, within safety limits.

Source: bbc.com

RE100 Urges EU Energy Policy Revamp to Boost Renewables

Photo: Pixabay

The EU’s energy policy needs to deliver a series of “transformational changes” if the bloc is to help businesses meet their clean electricity goals.

That is the conclusion of a new report from think tank E3G, written on behalf of the business-led clean energy coalition RE100 – whose 83 members have all committed to 100 per cent renewable energy.

The report argues that in order to help ensure the private sector meets its increasingly ambitous renewable energy goals the bloc should adopt more ambitious renewables targets, facilitate free trade of clean energy across borders, retain priority access for renewables projects to the grid, and potentially even encourage renewables to become a default option for firms by implementing a certificate scheme for non-renewable rather than renewable energy sources.

The report pushes strongly for the continued use of priority dispatch, which currently gives clean power priority over other energy sources on European electricity grids. Priority access provides clean energy developer with a key advantage over fossil fuels and advocates argue it also helps bring down wholesale power prices by ensuring output from renewables projects that have minimal marginal costs is maximised. However, critics have argued the policy is undermining investment in essential back up power plants.

RE100 members such as BT, IKEA Group, Google, Nestlé, Royal DSM and Unilever all contributed their experiences to the report.

John Harris, renewable energy investment manager at IKEA Group, said improved legislative frameworks are needed to allow more businesses to invest in renewables. “Whether companies purchase renewable electricity or want to generate renewable power themselves, we are all looking to EU policy to support us in reaching our target of 100 per cent renewable power,” he said in a statement.

EU documents leaked earlier this month have led some businesses to fear priority dispatch could be scrapped from the EU’s renewable energy directive after 2020.

Another leak last week relating to the EU’s Winter Package, which is set to be unveiled on the 30th November, also indicated it could cut back priority dispatch while introducing capacity mechanisms which some experts fear could subsidise new coal plants.

The document also suggested the proposed 27 per cent renewables target for 2030 would have no binding national targets and no effort sharing plan.

The new RE100 report, which comes shortly before the expected release this month of an EU Commission review of the EU Renewable Energy Directive and Market Design Initiative, calls for the EU’s renewables targets to be extended after 2020 to form a minimum baseline for the contribution of Member States through to 2030.

“To scale the benefits of renewable energy we need both business action and policy evolution,” said Thomas Lingard, climate advocacy and sustainability strategy director at Unilever, in a statement. “As more and more leading businesses actively look to source 100 per cent renewable energy, we need a Renewable Energy Directive that supports, not holds back these ambitions.”

Damian Ryan, acting chief executive of The Climate Group – which leads the RE100 initiative along with CDP – said while more companies than ever before are committed to bold climate action, governments “at all levels” need to raise the ambition of long-term climate policies in order to ensure many more firms are able to secure 100 per cent renewable power.

Simon Skillings, senior associate of E3G and author of the report, said the EU “must unleash its potential before it’s too late” if it wants to retain its competitive edge. “That means making it cheap and easy to procure renewable electricity to empower its energy consumers,” he added.

Source: businessgreen.com

Giant 8MW Turbine Delivers First Power From Burbo Bank Extension Offshore Wind Farm

Photo-illustration: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

A giant 8MW offshore wind turbine in Liverpool Bay has delivered power to the grid for the first time, chalking up another important milestone for the UK’s offshore wind industry.

DONG Energy announced today that the Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm – a joint venture 50 per cent owned by the Danish energy giant with 25 per cent stakes held by PKA and KIRKBI A/S – has exported its first power for the grid.

The milestone marks the first time the next generation 8MW turbines from manufacturer MHI Vestas have been used commercially offshore.

Supporters of the new generation of 8MW+ turbines, argue the giant machines will play a key role in pushing down the cost of offshore wind power through increased output and reduced running costs.

The turbines boast more than double the output of the 3.6MW turbines, which were deployed in 2007 at the initial Burbo Bank offshore wind farm.

“First power is a key milestone for us because it proves that every part of the transmission and generation equipment is successfully working,” said Claus Bøjle Møller, Burbo Bank Extension programme director. “We’re progressing well with the construction of the wind farm thanks to a huge effort from our construction team and our contractors.

“This milestone is also significant for the offshore wind industry at a broader scale. Using these bigger turbines is a major step in reducing the cost of energy from offshore wind and we are proud to once again introduce a step-change in technology.”

The companies now expect to bring more turbines online in the coming weeks. DONG Energy said all 32 of the project’s turbines are expected to be in place in the first quarter of 2017, delivering up to 258MW of capacity – enough to meet the annual electricity demands of approximately 230,000 UK homes.

When the project is complete the two wind farms in Liverpool Bay are expected to produce enough power each year for almost third of a million homes, over one and a half times the size of The Wirral.

DONG Energy said work is also underway on a multi-million pound state of the art operations and maintenance facility at King’s Wharf, Seacombe, which will to serve the two wind farms and create around 45 long term jobs.

Source: businessgreen.com

Beijing Bans Highly Polluting Cars During Smog Alerts

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

Next year, Beijing will ban highly polluting old cars from being driven whenever air-quality alerts are issued in the city or neighbouring regions, according to its environmental protection bureau.

China has adopted various measures over the years to reduce the smog shrouding many of the country’s northern cities in winter, causing hazardous traffic conditions and disrupting daily life.

From 15 February, vehicles that don’t meet the government’s current standard on emissions (those more than 10 years old) will be banned in Beijing’s main urban area whenever orange or red alerts are issued in Beijing or neighbouring Hebei province and Tianjin city.

Vehicles breaking the restrictions will be fined 100 yuan (£11.75) every four hours they are on the road, the bureau added.

Cars at the National 1 or National 2 emissions standards, which the rules are aimed at, only account for 8% of the cars in the city, but they account for more than 30% of smog causing nitrogen oxide emissions, the bureau said.

The adjustment to regulations also said that schools would only be closed selectively during alerts, rather than the blanket approach that was used originally when Beijing issued its first ever red alert in December last year.

The government has been tweaking the new system since its introduction. It has worked to unify it across the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei provinces. In February the minimum threshold for issuing alerts was raised.

Beijing officials are also taking measures to reduce the emissions of vehicles driven in the city. Measures include using licence-plate restrictions to limit the overall number of cars and providing subsidies to electric vehicle buyers to promote fuel-replacement vehicles.

Source: theguardian.com

Tesla, SolarCity Merger Approved by Shareholders

Foto: Twitter/ElonMusk

Shareholders approved the $2.6 billion bid by Tesla Motors to buy SolarCity, paving the way for the clean energy giant to become a one-stop shop for electric vehicles, rooftop solar and energy storage.

“I think your faith will be rewarded,” Elon Musk said after the merger was approved by 85 percent of the company’s unaffiliated shareholders.

“We can’t do this well if Tesla and SolarCity are different companies, which is why we need to combine and break down the barriers inherent to being separate companies,” Musk said in August when Tesla announced it closed the deal with SolarCity. “That they are separate at all, despite similar origins and pursuit of the same overarching goal of sustainable energy, is largely an accident of history. Now that Tesla is ready to scale Powerwall and SolarCity is ready to provide highly differentiated solar, the time has come to bring them together.”

Next year, Tesla plans to begin rolling out the $35,000 Model 3 sedan and a new solar roof.

Source: ecowatch.com

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