Most people agree that it is time to seriously reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG).  EPA is actually required by law to reduce power and industrial GHG emissions in the U.S., and they certainly deserve an “E” for effort so far.  But effort without good outcomes doesn’t really count.  Sadly, the EPA’s rule as proposed would create unintended consequences that will prevent essential long-term carbon reductions in the U.S. power sector.

Here’s why: the rule’s main approach to reducing emissions is — not renewables, not energy efficiency, not even carbon capture or nuclear, but — switching practically overnight from coal to natural gas-fired electricity.  This is like a binge diet to lose weight in two weeks (a really bad idea) by switching from donuts to bagels (an even worse one).

We all know binge diets avoid the balanced nutrition and long term program needed for healthy, sustained weight loss.  In the same manner, the EPA’s sudden shut down of coal plants will put reliability and affordable power at risk, leaving massive amounts of new gas-fired power as the only answer to keep the lights on and electric bills tolerable.  

And just like bagels are a really high carb replacement for donuts, natural gas is a high carbon replacement for coal. And what about renewables, the “vegetable” of a balanced diet?  Once our power markets are saturated with new natural gas plants, there will be no room left for new, zero carbon power, no matter how cheap it becomes. When you’re full of bagels, who has room for vegetables? 

NRG sees renewables, carbon capture, and innovative distributed energy technologies as the foundation of a clean energy economy that can thrive without risking catastrophic climate change.  We’ve already begun our own carbon reduction regime by building one of the largest renewable energy fleets in the country.  And we believe that the U.S. will benefit from rapid clean energy growth, helping stave off the worst of climate change, while demonstrating the commercial success of clean technologies.

We are concerned that the EPA’s rule, as proposed, is poised to create a new “dash to gas,” locking in decades of yet another carbon-dense fossil fuel, while locking out the increasingly economical clean energy sources the world needs.

The good news is that simple revisions to EPA’s rule can easily be addressed to result in greater overall emissions reductions at a lower cost.  To see how, we encourage you to read NRG’s recommendations to the EPA in our “Glide Paths Instead of Cliffs” white paper.  

This topic will be discussed during a mega-session at Renewable Energy World Conference, North America, which takes place in Orlando, Florida December 9-11, 2014. For more information about the mega-session, Potential Impact of Greenhouse Gas Regulation on the Future of the Electric Power Industry, click here.

Lead image: Emissions via Shutterstock

New Hampshire —

The outlook for the residential solar market in the United States remains strong, with policymakers looking to reduce the regulatory burden for new installations and major downstream players focusing on continued installed system cost reduction.

This is according to a new quarterly market update from NPD Solarbuzz. The organization said that it anticipates that the residential segment will pass the 1 GW trailing 12-month (TTM) rate in early 2015. Further, strong growth is forecast through 2016.

Residential demand in the United States continues to increase, as solar PV systems become more attractive across more states. Demand growth is being driven by falling installed system prices; as well as downstream business models, which are bringing more financing and ownership options to the end-market.

Solarbuzz released the following updates:

• Between the first quarter of 2012 and the fourth quarter of 2014, TTM residential PV demand more than doubled.
• Solar leasing, solar PPAs, and other business models, along with increasing financing options, are making solar more accessible to previously underserved customer segments.
• The residential segment is experiencing fewer negative effects from the 2014 preliminary trade decisions.
• Recent investments in U.S.-based manufacturing have largely been caused by companies anticipating strong growth in the U.S. market, particularly in the higher-ASP residential sector.

The U.S. residential solar market will be a hot topic at next weeks’ Solar Power International.  Once again, RenewableEnergyWorld.com will be powering the Solar Central booth (4920) where we will hear from solar energy executives representing all aspects of the global solar industry. Don’t miss it!

Lead image: US Residential Demand (TTM) 

As the American Wind Energy Association’s Offshore WindPower 2014 conference begins today in Atlantic City, that’s just some of the good news to report about pollution-free, offshore wind power. This news is out in a recent U.S. Department of Energy study that proves offshore wind power’s potential in the U.S. is far more than theoretical: The National Offshore Wind Energy Grid Interconnection Study.

The study itself was designed to assess technical capacity and the possibility that offshore wind power can become a major component of the U.S. energy system — “to identify and help address the market barriers to the large-scale introduction of offshore wind energy into the U.S. energy portfolio,” its authors say. Just as other experts have noted, that potential is simply waiting to be realized, with about a dozen U.S. projects in some stage of development. The right state and federal policies can help move these projects off of their drawing boards and into the water, the study authors say, and with that, help create a promising clean-energy future for all of us. 

To begin with, there isn’t just 54 gigawatts of cost-effective, accessible wind power potential within 50 miles of U.S. coastlines. There’s more than 134 gigawatts of potential at 209 sites, the NOWEGIS authors conclude. The Atlantic coast, all on its own, has enormous wind resources. And there is substantial potential in the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes, and the Pacific, too. In scouting these areas, the authors were sure to exclude important habitats and marine sanctuaries. (NRDC continues to work with both the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and with offshore wind power developers to ensure that one environmental good (pollution-free wind power) doesn’t come at the expense of another (important ocean wildlife and habitat protections.))

More good news from the study: Thanks to the popularity of offshore wind power in both Europe and Asia, the technology is evolving fast, meaning its becoming more powerful and less expensive simultaneously.

The report confirms what other researchers have discovered: Offshore wind power can be an especially important resource for densely populated coastal areas, like the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, and northern California, where energy prices are high and land available for generation and transmission is generally limited. All of this means that offshore wind power can help meet peak power needs while reducing grid congestion and fighting the risk of blackouts, especially on hot summer days and cold winter nights when energy demand is highest.

State and federal policies will be key to advancing this promising industry, the study found. State renewable energy standards and other state policies, particularly those that require that a certain percentage of a state’s electricity come from offshore wind power, are essential to making offshore wind power a reality here in the U.S. And the report praises innovations from both the DOI and the DOE — including BOEM’s “Smart from the Start” siting program that can protect vulnerable habitats while expediting permitting and leasing, and the DOE’s Offshore Wind Innovation and Demonstration Initiative, designed  to advance offshore wind power technology, remove market barriers, and demonstrate advanced technologies.

Federal tax policies will be pivotal, too. Conventional, fossil-fuel-powered electricity is highly subsidized by the federal government, NOWEGIS’s authors note. “Policy makers will need to determine whether offshore wind should likewise receive tax credit support to encourage its development….Enacting tax credit support that will extend through 2020 will help support the first generation of offshore wind projects.”

Of particular importance is extension of the now-expired Investment Tax Credit for Offshore Wind Power. It’s due for Congressional consideration as part of a package of so-called tax extenders during the post-elections lame duck session this November. It’s time this and other clean-energy provisions pass.

As an advocate, I’ve promoted many of offshore wind power’s benefits: It can provide reliable, pollution-free energy to the coastal states where a full three-quarters of America’s population lives. It can create tens of thousands of good-paying, permanent jobs. Now, the DOE’s NOWEGIS highlights the substantial amount of money offshore wind power can save all of us — if we enact policies that jumpstart this promising industry now. 

This article was originally published on NRDC and was republished with permission.

Lead image: Wind turbine via Shutterstock

Offering bonds directly to consumers shows that solar power is becoming a more widely accepted investment. It also will give the company a cheaper source of capital.

“People in 50 states can invest and make money in this sector,” Chief Executive Officer Lyndon Rive said today in an interview.

The rates are lower than SolarCity’s earlier bond offerings that were sold through traditional debt markets. The company raised $201.5 million in July, with a 2022 maturity date and a 4.03 percent interest rate. In April it sold $70.2 million of debt at 4.59 percent.

“This is a good way for SolarCity to broaden the range of investors who are able to buy solar bonds, a new asset class,” Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at Raymond James in Houston, said today in an e-mail.

SolarCity fell 3.5 percent to $47.93 at 10:30 a.m. in New York. The shares have declined 16 percent this year.

Copyright 2014 Bloomberg

Lead image: Solar panels via Shutterstock

Merkel’s government has sought to reduce the cost of expanding wind, solar and biomass after deciding to close the Germany’s atomic reactors. It reshaped the 14-year-old EEG law granting support to renewables to try to limit aid payments expected to reach 21.8 billion euros next year. Big industrial users are largely exempt from the payments.

The reduced fee “shows that we have successfully stopped the cost dynamic of the past years,” Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in a statement e-mailed by his ministry. “This will help stabilize power prices for consumers.”

‘Breathing Space’

While the reduction gives breathing space, it’s no turning point and doesn’t help companies in a significant way, according to the BDI industry federation that represents about 100,000 companies including Volkswagen AG and Siemens AG.

“It’s urgently necessary to really lower energy costs to secure the competitiveness of the German industry,” Markus Kerber, managing director of the BDI, said in an e-mailed statement. “There are already signs that consumers have to expect further costs, for example for expanding power lines or financing the shutdown of coal-fired power plants.”

Germany needs to invest 25 billion euros in power distribution networks in the next decade because of new solar and wind generators, the BDEW said in a separate statement.

The BEE, the German clean-energy lobby, expects the fee to drop again in 2016 to 6.05 euro cents and then rise again in 2017, to 6.2 euro cents, it said in a statement.

The EEG Umlage was introduced in 2000 and rose each year until now. The average household currently pays about 220 euros a year to finance the expansion of clean-energy sources, which last year provided about a quarter of the nation’s electricity.

Copyright 2014 Bloomberg

Lead image: Grass down arrow via Shutterstock

Russia’s renewables sector is set to match the Chinese share in the country’s energy market, opening the door for the Chinese to significantly shape the development of Russia’s hydro and solar sectors.

RusHydro JSC, Russia’s biggest hydropower company, announced it is considering a partnership with Power Construction Corp. of China Ltd. (PowerChina). It would gain from a new program aimed to subsidize the construction of small hydro plants eligible for renewables subsidies in Russia. RusHydro may invest as much as 65 billion rubles (US $1.7 billion) by 2020 in more than 30 projects in discussion with PowerChina.

Russian president Vladimir Putin approved a subsidy program that boosts clean energy generation in a bid to curb reliance on oil, gas and coal while cutting emissions. The country plans to expand the share of renewables to 2.5 percent of the power mix by the end of the decade from the current 0.8 percent.

In the solar sector, the second Russian renewable energy project auction last summer granted the bulk of the state-supported solar capacity to China-based Amur Sirius. The Chinese snatched 175 MW of the offered 496 MW of solar for the years of 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, while state-owned Energija Solnce was left with 165 MW and Avelar Solar Technologies, part of Renova Group — and the winner of last year’s solar auction — was allotted a mere 155 MW.

The Russian authorities’ Chinese favoratism has not gone unnoticed by some Russian political observers who speculate that Russia and China are trying to strengthen ties as much as possible both economically and politically.

Putting Russian renewables developers behind the Chinese in the auctions has been a slap in the face for local oligarchs, especially Viktor Vekselberg, Renova Group president and a staunch government supporter. Vekselberg has consistently supported Russia’s lucrative sustainable energy business, a Russian energy sector export told RenewableEnergyWorld.com on the condition of anonymity — Vekselberg’s significant support for Russian renewables has been acknowledged by other Renewableenergyworld.com sources in the past.

“The solar power sector has got off to a great start in Russia mainly thanks to the true solar energy ideologist Viktor Vekselberg…He has been actively investing in the development of thin-film solar in the Russian Federation, as well as in the construction of solar power plants,” said Vitalij Davij, president of Ukraine’s Sustainable Energy Market Participant Association. 

An Encroaching Giant

This year’s green subsidy distribution made many wonder whether Russian decision-makers are sacrificing the local pro-government oligarchs like Vekselberg, whom Putin relies on domestically, in order to gain much more powerful players on the international stage where Russia is being hurt by the EU and U.S. sanctions. 

Unlike last year, the selected projects received the Russian government’s guarantee that each will see a return on investment in 15 years with a yield of 14 percent. This legislative novelty combined with the state subsidies for renewables expansion has made the Russian sustainable energy sector highly competitive and, many insist, promising. But industry analysts hint that business and politics not only undermines Russian renewable developers’ expectations, but also break Russian renewable energy laws, which, ironically, include local content rules at new renewable energy facilities.

The local content rule set by the Russian law calls for 55 percent Russia-made content by 2015 and 70 percent starting in 2016 for new solar projects — and 55 percent and 65 percent for wind power projects, respectively. This rule is definitely a boost for local renewable developers, and should be an invincible barrier for a foreign company, including China’s Amur Sirius. 

However, the Chinese have bypassed the local content requirements with legislative loopholes and founded a Russia-based sister company, Solar Systems, an Amur Sirius subsidiary. Solar Systems is plannign to build a large solar PV production facility in Russia. 

“Our company is planning to build a solar panel production plant in Russia by 2016. We expect the output, PV capacity-wise, will be no less than 100 MW yearly,” said Mikhail Molchanov, director general of Solar Systems. The company did not return multiple RenewableEnergyWorld queries for more information on the solar projects that it has taken on already. 

To ease solar financing, Chinese companies also plan to open a Russian affiliate of its China Construction Bank to fund the Russian state-supported solar projects. 

Amur Sirius is reportedly set to build solar farms with a combined capacity of 100 MW in the Russian regions of Samara, Volgograd and Stavropol by 2016, and the Chinese are mulling the further expansion in Russia and beyond it. 

“Currently, Amur Sirius is in search of business partners in the field of financing and technological developing both in the domestic market and the EU member states,”  Molchanov said in a statement.

Amur Sirius is part of China’s Heilongjiang energy alliance, a Harbin-based Chinese energy holding tasked by the Chinese Government to specifically target Russian energy projects. 

The Chinese encroachment has been so increasingly evident to all in Russia that even some of the country’s political think-tanks, such as Russia’s International Politics and Diplomacy Institute (RIPDI) found it necessarily to address the situation.

“The impossibility of Russia’s turning to Asia stems from the fact that Russians do not understand the meanings of the Asian culture symbols. We understand the European dance, but we can only appreciate the Asian dance, being unable though to cipher the significance of the moves and gestures,” Olga Butorina, head of the Institute’s European Integration, wrote in her blog recently.

RenewableEnergyWorld.com contacted Butorina for interview but citing “the intricacy of the issue,” she declined to speak on the matter.

But The Economist’s Edward Lucas was much more blunt. “Russia knows that China is a long-term threat to Russian existence,” he said, “whereas the West is a threat only to the current regime. So Putin is trading tomorrow for today.”

Lead image: Russia and China handshake via Shutterstock

The new plant will be comparable in size to the $190 million-Bioflex 1 plant, Bernardo Gradin, GranBio’s chief executive officer, said in an interview yesterday in Bloomberg’s offices in Sao Paulo. He’s also planning a second biochemical plant.

Bioflex 1 uses sugarcane waste to produce 82 million liters (22 million gallons) of second-generation ethanol a year. Gradin expects to invest 4 billion reais ($1.7 billion) through 2020 to open at least 10 additional biofuel and biochemical facilities. Gradin didn’t provide additional details about the new projects.

“With our investments, we will make second-generation ethanol in Brazil more competitive than it is in the U.S.,” he said. Standard ethanol is made from sugar cane juice, while the second-generation version is made from stalks and other waste parts of the plant.

About 88 percent of the cars in Brazil can run on either gasoline or ethanol. Car sales in the country increased 25 percent in the last five years and gasoline won’t meet the nation’s need for transport fuel, Gradin said.

That’s going to increase demand for ethanol at a time when production is sliding. The industry produced 24 billion liters of standard cane ethanol in the 2014-2015 season, down from 27.5 billion liters in the prior season, according to the industry group Unica.

Cellulosic Fuel

The result will be more demand for cellulosic fuel.

Gradin’s goal is to produce the fuel for about 20 percent less than the cost of standard cane ethanol. “We need to make it faster and cheaper,” he said.

GranBio was formed in 2011 and has received 700 million reais in investments. About 60 percent of that was borrowed from the state development bank BNDES, Brazil’s research-financing agency Finep and Banco do Nordeste do Brasil SA.

Gradin’s family owns 85 percent of the company and BNDES, Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico Social, has 15 percent.

Big Biomass Plans

Areva SA, a French nuclear-power plant builder, won a contract to construct a 150-megawatt biomass plant for Brazilian utility BOLT Energias.

The Campo Grande biomass power plant in the northeastern state of Bahia will be the largest biomass facility in Brazil, the Paris-based company said in a statement. The facility will be fueled with woody biomass and is scheduled to start operations in 2017.

Areva has built 95 biomass plants worldwide, with a total installed capacity of more than 2,500 megawatts. Areva didn’t immediately respond to e-mail and phone requests for comment.

Copyright 2014 Bloomberg

Lead image: Bioenergy via Shutterstock