India intends to level the playing field between solar photovoltaic (PV) power modules made from crystalline silicon and those using various thin-film technologies during the country’s next grid-connected solar PV power capacity auction due to start at the end of this month.
During the first phase of the country’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) – under which solar PV and solar thermal were each allocated 500-MW of capacity – there was a mandate that 60 per cent of equipment by value was to be locally sourced for solar PV projects and 30 percent for solar thermal projects.
China's inexorable demand for energy has seen it sign a slew of multi-billion deals in the past in the past week or so, reflecting the new complexities of the international energy market. They add to new calculations by analysts that China is set to produce enough crude oil outside its borders to rival OPEC members such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times International Energy Agency chief economist Fatih Birol said last year's USD35 billion foreign energy company buying spree by Chinese companies will produce the equivalent of Kuwait's output by 2015.
It is early days yet but the new research that shows that black carbon, more commonly known as soot, could be contributing twice as much to global warming than previously thought, and may have a future impact on climate talks. It has also been found to be affecting rainfall patterns on the Asian monsoon more than previously thought.
Particles from diesel engines, wood burners and coal fires, according to the research published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, have a total warming effect greater than methane and two thirds that of carbon dioxide. That was almost double the effect estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007.
No doubt: the Indian solar market has strong fundamentals. Irradiation is very high, power is expensive and in short supply. Solar is getting cheaper. In addition, there are now a host of new policies (NSM phase II, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, etc. – please refer to our other blog entries) promising upwards of 4-GW of new solar installations in the coming months.
On the other hand, there are only a few players that are really enjoying themselves. Tier 1 Chinese module manufacturers find price pressures too high – as do many EPCs. Project developers still face difficulties in getting their projects financed. The question is: does anyone earn any money? The answer is: no. But those who are ready to try new approaches will do so in the future.
With the completion of its long delayed and contentious acquisition of Nexen, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) will soon be in a position to deploy Canadian personnel and technology at home to help fuel China’s expanding economy and keep expensive imports in check.
With the USD15.1 billion purchase of Calgary-based Nexen – the largest overseas acquisition by a Chinese company – now approved by the Canadian government, CNOOC is that much closer to being able to draw on an estimated 14.5 billion barrels of oil-soaked tar sand
The India solar policy brief on the Tamil Nadu Solar Policy, just published by Bridge To India presents a detailed analysis on the risks and opportunities on the state’s ambitious 3-GW solar power target till 2015. With its policy announcement in October 2012, Tamil Nadu becomes the seventh Indian state out of 28 to announce an official solar target. No breakup between photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) projects has been given as part of the policy.
A slew of announcements over the past few days have done nothing to shed any light on India’s wind power market, the world’s third largest, which, to be gentle, seems to be in an endless state of flux.
In a Bloomberg report on Monday a spokesman for Mytrah Energy, the country’s third largest wind developer, warned that the rate of new wind turbine installations was in a free-fall and would continue to be so due to the government’s inability to formulate a sound policy to support the industry.
The country may install as little as 1,500-MW of capacity by the year ending March 31, about half what it did the previous year
For the past several days China’s official media has had a lot of focus – primarily for domestic consumption – on COP18, the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which began in Doha, the capital of Qatar, today.
The contrast with Western media could not be starker. Although not entirely scientific, a quick scan of the front pages on major news sites in the US and UK found not a single reference to the Doha talks.
The year 2012 will be a turning point for the Japan PV market as the share of the residential segment will decline from this point forward. Unique among major markets, growth in Japan has been sustained by the residential segment. With the kick of the national FiT, the market driver will turn to the non-residential segment called “Mega Solar” in Japan.
The Japanese government started implementing the FIT in July this year. Between July and September, nearly 1.5-GW worth of PV projects qualified for the program. This represents 60% of the total capacity the government was expecting during the period between July 2012 and March 2013.
The economic turmoil of the financial crash saw China being feted as a white knight with drawbridges being lowered to investment from Chinese companies. This has turned to bitterness, like a liberating army becoming an occupying force.
Even with struggling solar and wind sectors, China has become the dominant global power it terms of renewable energy companies. This has resulted in the US Department of Commerce increasing tariffs to between 23.75 and 250 percent on solar cells which it calls a way of offsetting subsidies provided by China through one mechanism or another.
The October 10 ruling by the US Department of Commerce against PV modules containing Chinese-produced solar cells is just the most recent development in a string of trade disputes that stretch across the globe.
Until now, much of the discussion has focused on the details of each case, the potential effect on different manufacturers, technology types, etc.
But perhaps the bigger question is how these issues collectively will affect the main issue confronting the PV industry today: the supply/demand imbalance. Supply/demand issues are not simply confined to upstream (manufacturer stock levels) and downstream (warehouse/distributor) inventory levels.
Hong Kong's seizure of nearly four tonnes of smuggled ivory, worth about USD3.4 million, highlights once again China's significant role in the global trade of endangered species.
According to Hong Kong's customs officials, they made their biggest ever haul of endangered species product following a tip-off from mainland Chinese police. While the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Crime scorecard says China is making some progress in key aspects of compliance and enforcement of rhino and tiger trade, it is flagged for failing on key aspects of compliance or enforcement for the illegal trade in elephant products, primarily ivory.
CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets recently released estimates confirm that Japan’s drive to ramp up renewable energy supplies is having a big impact. The firm reckons Japan could have 17.3-GW of installed solar power capacity by 2014 while wind power will be less than half that, at an estimated 7.6-GW of total capacity by 2016, with most coming from off-shore projects.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance, meanwhile, estimates investment in solar, wind and other forms of clean energy could double to USD17.1 billion this year from USD8.6 billion in 2011.
New research from the The Norwegian University of Science and Technology study suggests that electric cars may be worse for the environment than petrol or diesel-powered cars. This could mean China’s ambitious plans to promote plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) could make things worse rather than better.
What’s the problem? PEVs rely on mains electricity to run, and most of the world’s electricity still comes from unsustainable sources. The study found the impact – especially on greenhouse gas emissions - even worse when coal is the main source of power generation, and China relies on coal for over 80 percent of its electricity.
US President Barack Obama is to be sued by a Chinese-owned wind farm company. In another nasty twist to US/China trade relations Ralls Corp – which is part owned by Sany Group, China’s biggest machinery maker – says it plans to sue the president over the unconstitutional act of blocking a wind farm near to a US navy test site in Oregon.
In fact four sites came under Obama's edict that their operation by Ralls was considered to be a security risk based on a report by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
The South-East Asia and Pacific region is blessed with abundant sources of 'green' energy — including sun, wind, water, biomass and geothermal — but governments are still not doing enough to harness them.
The 30 countries in this part of the world are sitting just a few degrees below and above the equator, and enjoy an estimated 300 days of sunshine a year. Advances in photovoltaic (PV) technology mean that solar energy can be harnessed even on cloudy days during the rainy season.
Hong Kong is the most livable city on Earth! Really? Well, that’s the conclusion drawn by Filippo Lovato, the winner of an Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) competition that challenged participants to find innovative ways of defining what it meant to be the world’s “best city.”
After a carefree honeymoon period when we relished our new status — (take that Melbourne and Vienna!) — a suffocating dose of smog choked us back to reality.
The world's palm oil industry is going through upheavals which bodes ill for the forests of south east Asia and is likely to have impacts as far away as Africa.The markets for palm oil are shifting, refined material prices are dropping, local tariffs are changing and the sustainable land-base is shrinking. These volatile market conditions are being faced by huge conglomerates, many of which have been implicated in breaking laws, ethics and green credentials in the past.
Noting what's not said is often as revealing as what is being said. And such were two examples from South Korea this week. Its press was surprisingly quiet on the conclusion of the five-day East Asian Seas Congress 2012 that's just ended in Changwon, in the south of the country. It was almost as quiet as the South Korean government on leaked news that an internal report scrapped its plan to resume "scientific" whaling, apparently because of fierce international pressure. The man at the ministry just wouldn't say.
Tropical forests cover about 15 percent of the world’s land surface but every year around 13 million hectares of forest are cleared for crop cultivation, cattle, logging and mining (FAO 2010). Forests are both carbon guzzlers (sinks) and emitters (sources) and deforestation and forest degradation accounts for a whopping 15-17 percent of man-made GHG emissions each year.
In the context of climate change, a 50 percent reduction in GHG emissions is needed by 2030 to prevent global temperature rising above 2 degrees Celsius (IPCC 2007, AR4) but the positive news is that reducing deforestation is the “single largest opportunity for cost-effective and immediate reductions of carbon emissions.”
This report by the World Bank spells out what the world would be like if it warmed by 4 degrees Celsius, which is what scientists are nearly unanimously predicting by the end of the century, without serious policy changes.
Companies in Asia reveal expectations that regulations that could lead to rising costs for reporting and reducing GHG emissions will also be the main sources of climate-related business opportunities.
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