QUICK NEWS, 12-8: THE EV BATTERY RACE IS ON; EU WILL BUILD SUPERGRID; THIN FILM CO SELLS OFF ASSETS; EMISSIONS CUTS IN A CANCUN CORNER

THE EV BATTERY RACE IS ON
US energy chief says improved car batteries 5 yrs off
Timothy Gardner (w/Sofina Mirza-Reid), December 6, 2010 (Reuters)

"Cars that run on batteries will begin to be competitive with ones that burn petroleum fuels in about five years, the U.S. energy secretary said at the annual U.N. climate talks…

"Chu's Department of Energy, or DOE, is supporting several approaches seeking to improve car batteries. A battery race has developed between U.S. companies like Massachusetts-based A123 (AONE.O) and ones in Asia, like China's BYD (1211.HK), which Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway owns 10 percent of…South Korea's LG Chem (051910.KS) is supplying General Motors GM.UL with batteries for the automaker's electric Volt car."

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"Petroleum-powered transportation emits about a third of the world's greenhouse gases. Scientists say battery-powered cars reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, even if they are powered by coal-burning power plants. As more natural gas-fired plants are built, they will become even cleaner.

"Right now electric cars do not go as far as ones powered by internal combustion engines, which could limit sales if there are no improvements…Even so, GM said last month it is stepping up production of the Volt to meet ‘huge demand,’ without giving details. GM had planned to build 10,00 Volts in 2011 and 45,000 in 2012…Chu said car battery companies have to develop units that last 15 years, improve energy storage capacity by a factor of five to seven, and cut costs by about a factor of three in order to be make electric cars comparable to cars that run on gasoline and diesel."

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"While the technology may improve, it is not certain that there will be ample materials to build the batteries…BYD is looking for new sources of lithium, an important ingredient in advanced batteries…[S]upply is expected to be tight by 2050 if drivers give up their cars and go for battery-powered cars…

"…[DOE’s] Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy is making investments in batteries and other technologies considered too risky for the private sector but that have big potential…Chu said if one out of every 10 projects in that program, which received $400 million from President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package, made it into the market they could help the world improve energy security and cut emissions."


EU WILL BUILD SUPERGRID
European nations agree on offshore North Sea electric grid
3 December 2010 (BBC News)

"Ministers from 10 European countries bordering the North Sea have agreed the construction of a new offshore electricity grid…[that] will link countries across Europe and make it much easier for member states to trade energy.

"It will also simplify the exploitation of the 140 Gigawatt[s of] offshore wind farm[s] currently being planned in the North Sea…Analysts say Europe needs offshore wind farms to meet emissions [reduction] targets…The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the governments of the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden."

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"The new grid would be used to connect European grids to…offshore wind farm[s] currently in planning for the North Sea. The project is part of a concerted effort by the European Union to live up to its emissions targets and integrate the energy infrastructure…Norway and the Netherlands [already] use so-called ‘high-voltage direct-current’ links to pump energy back and forth between the two countries…

"…Another project currently under consideration is Desertec…[L]aunched by a German consortium, it is] aimed at putting a large number of solar energy modules into North Africa…[and connecting them] to European electricity grids…The North Sea grid is a highly ambitious project but could prove an important boost to countries whose location gives them an excess of solar or wind energy."


THIN FILM CO SELLS OFF ASSETS
NextEra unit to buy First Solar Canada projects
Nicole Mordant, December 6, 2010 (Reuters)

"NextEra Energy Resources has agreed to buy four small solar photovoltaic projects located in the Canadian province of Ontario from First Solar Inc…No price was given for the purchase, which totals 40 megawatts of energy, or enough to power about 6,440 homes.

"First Solar will continue developing the Sombra and Moore solar energy centers using its thin-film solar modules…"

Many consider the Ontario FiT rates excessive and a recipe for future trouble. The renewables world is watching the experiment. (click to enlarge)

"Construction is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2011 with commercial operation expected by year-end.

"All the power will be sold to the Ontario Power Authority utility under long-term contracts…Ontario, Canada's most populous province, last year unveiled a European-style feed-in tariff scheme for producers of renewable energy, the most comprehensive and lucrative set of incentives in North America."


EMISSIONS CUTS IN A CANCUN CORNER
Europe Can Lift UN Carbon Market From Cancun Gridlock, Gazprom Says
Ewa Krukowska, December 6, 2010 (Bloomberg News)

"Europe needs to reinvigorate the world’s second-biggest emissions market as global climate talks to reduce greenhouse gases stall, the head of a carbon-trading unit of Russia’s OAO Gazprom said.

"United Nations carbon offsets for delivery in a year fell 4 percent last week amid signals that differences between 190 developing and industrial nations may preclude a binding treaty at the climate meeting that started Nov. 29 in Cancun, Mexico."

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"The $2.7 billion UN Clean Development Mechanism is an offspring of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 unless governments decide to extend it. Carbon offsets generated by the CDM may be used for compliance in the European Union’s emissions-trading system, the world’s largest cap-and-trade program, also known as the EU ETS…The EU, whose carbon market was valued at $119 billion last year, could bolster investors’ confidence in the UN market by giving more ‘certainty and clarity’ on what types of offsets it will accept in the next trading period, which runs from 2013 through 2020 [the Gazprom executive] said…

"The ETS is a cornerstone of European efforts to tackle the heat waves, storms and floods that scientists have linked to climate change. The system, started in 2005 with a three-year trading period, is now in a second phase, which ends in 2012…Demand from European emitters has helped the CDM expand to more than 2,500 registered projects that generate credits to investors for cutting greenhouse gases in developing nations. The UN program has issued 476 million credits so far and expects projects in the pipeline to generate 2.7 billion offsets by the end of 2012…Gazprom Marketing & Trading’s carbon unit is involved in more than 100 UN emission-reduction projects globally and plans to add more…"

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"The European Commission, the EU regulator, proposed last week to stop recognizing as of 2013 UN credits related to projects that cut nitrous dioxide from adipic acid production and hydrofluorocarbon-23, an industrial gas whose warming potential is 11,700 times bigger than carbon dioxide. The EU said it is concerned the projects create excessive credits and undermine the market’s integrity…While HFC-23 projects represent less than 1 percent of all registered CDM projects, their credits account for more than half offsets issued so far…

"More than 11,000 operators in the European program can swap as many as 1.6 billion UN credits with EU permits on a one-for- one basis in the phase from 2008 through 2012. The bloc has signaled it wants the CDM to continue, but said the mechanism must be overhauled to improve its effectiveness and governance…"