NewEnergyNews: QUICK NEWS, 10-25: CHINA’S NEW ENERGY BOOST; WIND IPO IN HARD WINDS; FERC OPENS DOOR FOR F-I-T; UK PICKS WIND OVER TIDES/

NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

The challenge now: To make every day Earth Day.

YESTERDAY

THINGS-TO-THINK-ABOUT WEDNESDAY, August 23:

  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And The New Energy Boom
  • TTTA Wednesday-ORIGINAL REPORTING: The IRA And the EV Revolution
  • THE DAY BEFORE

  • Weekend Video: Coming Ocean Current Collapse Could Up Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Impacts Of The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current Collapse
  • Weekend Video: More Facts On The AMOC
  • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 15-16:

  • Weekend Video: The Truth About China And The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: Florida Insurance At The Climate Crisis Storm’s Eye
  • Weekend Video: The 9-1-1 On Rooftop Solar
  • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 8-9:

  • Weekend Video: Bill Nye Science Guy On The Climate Crisis
  • Weekend Video: The Changes Causing The Crisis
  • Weekend Video: A “Massive Global Solar Boom” Now
  • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

    WEEKEND VIDEOS, July 1-2:

  • The Global New Energy Boom Accelerates
  • Ukraine Faces The Climate Crisis While Fighting To Survive
  • Texas Heat And Politics Of Denial
  • --------------------------

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    Founding Editor Herman K. Trabish

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    WEEKEND VIDEOS, June 17-18

  • Fixing The Power System
  • The Energy Storage Solution
  • New Energy Equity With Community Solar
  • Weekend Video: The Way Wind Can Help Win Wars
  • Weekend Video: New Support For Hydropower
  • Some details about NewEnergyNews and the man behind the curtain: Herman K. Trabish, Agua Dulce, CA., Doctor with my hands, Writer with my head, Student of New Energy and Human Experience with my heart

    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

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    Pay a visit to the HARRY BOYKOFF page at Basketball Reference, sponsored by NewEnergyNews and Oil In Their Blood.

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  • WEEKEND VIDEOS, August 24-26:
  • Happy One-Year Birthday, Inflation Reduction Act
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 1
  • The Virtual Power Plant Boom, Part 2

    Monday, October 25, 2010

    QUICK NEWS, 10-25: CHINA’S NEW ENERGY BOOST; WIND IPO IN HARD WINDS; FERC OPENS DOOR FOR F-I-T; UK PICKS WIND OVER TIDES

    CHINA’S NEW ENERGY BOOST
    China Low-Carbon Incentives Are Almost Triple Those in U.S., Study Finds
    Catherine Airlie and Alex Morales, October 18, 2010 (Bloomberg News)

    "China’s incentives to encourage low- carbon generation such as solar and wind power are almost triple those in the U.S…Measures to spur renewable energy, as well as taxes on dirtier forms of generation such as burning coal placed China above the U.S., Japan, Australia and South Korea in a six- country study and below only the U.K…

    "China, the biggest emitter, said last year it aims to cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40 percent to 45 percent from 2005 through 2020, when its target is to get 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources. The U.S and other countries are losing out to China in developing clean energy…"


    click thru for more info

    "China overtook the U.S. on Sept. 8 to top a quarterly index of the most attractive countries for renewable-energy projects compiled by the global accounting firm Ernst & Young. State- owned China Development Bank loaned at least $42.8 billion this year to solar manufacturers…The Asian nation had three wind turbine makers in the top 10 worldwide last year in terms of sales by megawatts…

    "…[The incentives] study said that measures to promote clean energy or tax fossil fuels, when adjusted for purchasing power in the respective countries, amount to an implicit price of carbon of $29.31 in the U.K., $14.22 in China, $5.05 in the U.S., $3.11 in Japan, $1.38 in Australia and $0.72 in South Korea…[but the] comparisons are 'imperfect' because of differing circumstances…"


    click thru for more info

    "A separate study by HSBC Holdings Plc in March found that South Korea leads the world in terms of the proportion of economic stimulus funding dedicated to measures to increase energy efficiency and slash carbon emissions, with 78 percent…

    "The figure for China was about a third, in the U.S. it was 12 percent, and in the U.K. it was 15 percent. Of $82 billion of green stimulus funds actually spent last year, China accounted for $61 billion…"



    WIND IPO IN HARD WINDS
    First Wind IPO could face turbulent debut; First Wind IPO set to raise about $300 mln
    Clare Baldwin and Scott Malone (w/Matt Daily and Gary Hill), October 22, 2010 (Reuters)

    "Wind farm owner and operator First Wind Holdings Inc…which is planning a $300 million IPO this week, may be a risky bet in the current energy climate…First Wind finances, develops and operates utility-scale wind energy projects in the Northeastern and Western United States and Hawaii. Seven projects now operating [have] the capacity to generate 504 megawatts…It expects to have capacity for another 268 megawatts in operation or under construction by year-end.

    "The Boston-based company, mostly owned by private equity firm Madison Dearborn and hedge fund operator D.E. Shaw foresees rapid growth. By 2014, First Wind plans to have 1900 megawatts in operation or under construction…But wind energy is expensive and financing is complicated. As of Sept. 30, First Wind had accumulated losses of $233 million and outstanding debt of $582.2 million. It does not have enough cash or liquid short-term investments to pay the debt and acknowledged in a filing that default was a risk…Some U.S. government financing may also be suspended at the end of the year and market prices for electricity may be too low to spur growth. First Wind has never been profitable…"


    From a First Holdings filing - click thru for complete info

    "One of the company's main turbine suppliers is Clipper Windpower Plc, which diversified U.S. manufacturer United Technologies Corp agreed to buy on Oct. 20 after the Carpinteria, California-based company ran into money trouble in the face of a slowdown in U.S. wind investment…[and a 71 percent [installation drop] through the first six months of 2010…

    "First Wind…received a $117 million Department of Energy loan guarantee in July and has netted $254 million worth of grants from the U.S. Treasury since September 2009…But some U.S. government subsidies could end. Cash grants to cover a portion of the costs of project construction, paid out under the Obama administration's stimulus bill, will only apply to projects that break ground by the end of 2010."


    From a First Holdings filing - click thru for complete info

    "Furthermore, low electricity prices make it more difficult to get contracts that are needed to secure private financing to build wind farms. First Wind's average price per megawatt hour has fallen each of the past three years and is on course to do so again in 2010…Private financing for wind projects often comes in the form of [5-to-20-year power purchase agreements…whose value is…based in part on electricity prices…

    "First Wind's PPA partners include Harvard University, Southern California Public Power Authority, and the cities of Los Angeles, Burbank and Pasadena. It has PPAs or hedges on all seven of its operating projects, and, as of Sept. 30, had hedged about 90 percent of its estimated revenue through 2011…One factor driving utilities to sign PPAs with developers of wind farms and solar installations has been the adoption of standards by some U.S. states requiring their electricity suppliers to generate a certain percentage of their energy from renewable resources…The IPO is expected to sell 12 million shares for $24 to $26 each…"



    FERC OPENS DOOR FOR F-I-T
    Federal Regulator Blasts Open Door to Differentiated Feed-in Tariffs in USA; FERC Decision Clears the Way for Multi-Tiered State FITs
    Paul Gipe, October 22, 2010 (Wind-Works)

    "In a ruling 21 October 2010, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) effectively cleared the way for multi-tiered feed-in tariffs for various renewable energy technologies…FERC's ruling "clarified" an earlier decision that had roiled proposed feed-in tariff policies at the state level…that order utilities to pay for a certain percentage of generation from a particular technology, in this specific case, the state of California's policy on Combined Heat and Power.

    "FERC's action should put to rest claims by feed-in tariff opponents, such as Vote Solar, that differentiated feed-in tariffs based on the cost of generation, as found in Germany, France, Switzerland and a host of other countries, are prohibited for much of the continental US…[It] casts doubt on the justification for the much-hyped Renewable Auction Mechanism proposed in California. The auction--or bidding system--is predicated on the necessity of complying with federal law. Bidding systems for developing renewable energy have been widely abandoned in Europe in favor of feed-in tariffs in part to better control costs and the pace of development."


    click to enlarge

    "…Opponents of feed-in tariffs [FiTs] had charged that the federal government "pre-empted" states from setting feed-in tariffs other than one rate based on the "avoided cost" of conventional generation. If true, states could not set tariffs that varied from one technology to another or from one application to another.

    "The 'pre-emption' claim arises from the 1978 National Energy Act in the Jimmy Carter-era and one of its provisions: PURPA (The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act). PURPA was extensively litigated in the 1980s and 1990s by utilities opposed to developing renewable energy and especially to opening their markets to independent power producers…PURPA, and the subsequent legal decisions, limits what state regulatory commissions can order utilities to pay for renewable energy to the "avoided cost", that is, the cost of generation the utility would have otherwise avoided but for the renewable generation…"


    click to enlarge

    "Proponents of feed-in tariffs have sometimes characterized them as "PURPA on steroids" because…[some] specify tariffs that are based on the cost of generation from each technology in each of several different sizes and sometimes in different applications…Feed-in tariff advocates had speculated that PURPA may permit states to order utilities to buy generation from specified renewable technologies and, thus, the "avoided cost" is the renewable generation that the utility would have "avoided" purchasing itself. However, until FERC's order clarifying its July 15th 2010 decision in the CPUC case, such an approach was mere conjecture.

    "The California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) had gone to FERC to clarify the earlier decision and ask FERC specifically how to meet federal requirements…Though expressed in the awkward legal language of the federal bureaucracy… the order says, in effect, is that states can order utilities to buy a certain amount of renewable energy from each of several specific technologies. Thus, [with] a feed-in tariff program under this ruling…the amount of generation will also have to be specified….[Both California’s FIT Coalition and its Solar Energy Industries Association consider the ruling a victory]…"



    UK PICKS WIND OVER TIDES
    U.K. Axes Tidal-Power Plan, Saying Wind Energy Cheaper
    Reed Landberg and Louise Downing (w/Todd White), October 18, 2010 (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

    "The U.K. government shelved plans for a tidal-power plant at the Severn estuary that could have supplied as much as 5 percent of the nation’s power using the argument that nuclear and wind energy represent better value. The project might have cost more than 30 billion pounds ($48 billion) to harness tidal energy, making it too expensive and 'very challenging' to secure financing from private companies…

    "The decision, along with separate moves to spur nuclear power, mark out the government’s strategy to replace a quarter of the nation’s electric power stations by 2020. Prime Minister David Cameron’s government is seeking to balance efforts that will limit carbon emissions with tighter limits on spending… [All areas of] spending are under review."


    click to enlarge

    "…[The government] listed eight possible sites for new nuclear plants and said the U.K. taxpayer may share certain financial risks as Electricite de France SA, Centrica Plc., E.ON AG and RWE AG plan to build reactors. EDF and Centrica’s British Energy unit are planning to build four atomic plants in the country, the first one to be ready by 2018…

    "The government today said it plans to keep the Severn tidal option open for future consideration though it won’t review the decision before 2015, when the next election is due…The five proposals for a tidal project across the Severn River where it meets the sea include three options for dams, or barrages, and two tidal-lagoon designs. They were studied for their economic and environmental impacts in a feasibility study during the past year."


    click to enlarge

    "The project might reduce bird populations in as many as 30 species and cause local extinctions and population collapses of certain fish, including Atlantic salmon, according to the study…The Cardiff-Weston barrage, the largest project considered, provided the lowest cost of energy…[but] was also found to have the greatest environmental impact. Combinations of smaller projects don’t offer cost or energy yield advantages…Two project proposals, a lagoon and a barrage option, were found to be unfeasible…

    "Industry lobby groups RenewableUK and the Renewable Energy Association said that the decision to abandon the project was “disappointing,” referring to a more conservative cost estimate in the study of 23 billion pounds…The Renewable Energy Association…said that a smaller barrage at a different location…would be a “sensible” route forward. Then, the impacts could be fully monitored and understood, and procedures to mitigate environmental damage could be developed and applied to a project across the Severn…Earlier this year industry and government officials identified nine possible proposals for tidal energy…"

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