“The Site C energy project will not be built in a day and it certainly won’t be build in a year,” Clark said at the provincial capital. “But once it is built, it is going to benefit British Columbians for generations.”

The project, which faces opposition from some aboriginal groups, would generate about 1,100 megawatts of electricity, enough for 450,000 homes. Developed by provincially owned BC Hydro Power Authority, the dam would be the third on the Peace River.

Clark first disclosed a higher cost estimate for the project, above a previous C$7.9 billion assessment, in a Dec. 10 interview in New York, tagging it at about C$8.5 billion. She said the province would prioritize moving ahead with projects to process and ship liquefied natural gas should the dam’s construction threaten to cause worker shortages.

Clark’s government granted an environmental certificate for the project in October with 77 conditions, including development of a strategy to foster business opportunities for aboriginals.

The provincial government has been deliberating on whether to go ahead with the project since 2004.

Copyright 2014 Bloomberg

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Only a few companies remain with financial backing and promising projects, and more casualties are likely, said Angus McCrone, senior analyst at London-based researcher Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Already the top 20 wave and tidal-stream businesses have amassed losses of $903 million over their lifetimes, according to BNEF data.

“This is the capitalist survival-of-the-fittest process working as normal in any new market area,” McCrone said by e- mail. “It also reflects the fact that venture capital investors have become much more realistic about the difficulties involved in proving a new power technology in the harsh environment of the sea.”

As other renewables such as solar and wind have reduced cost to become commercially viable, waves and tides remain the most expensive sources of power, costing four times more than coal, BNEF estimates. The group revised down its 2020 capacity forecasts for wave power by 72 percent to just 21 megawatts in August. Tidal stream was bumped down 11 percent to 148 megawatts.

Long Wait

Installing and maintaining generators at sea is costly and difficult, with developers only able to operate during good weather and having to hire expensive vessels to get to their machines to maintain them. Moreover, the devices must withstand powerful waves and strong currents.

Oceanlinx Ltd. and Wavebob Ltd. both failed in the past 18 months, and Ocean Power Technologies Inc., one of the only listed marine energy businesses, canceled a project in Australia. Aquamarine Power Ltd., which is working with SSE Plc in the U.K., said this week it planned to cut jobs. Pelamis had been looking for a partner since 2011.

“The industry is looking at the wrong place for funding,” said Matthew Clayton, executive director of Triodos Renewables Plc, which sold a share in MCT in 2012 because it was too risky. “People are looking to the renewables sector for it, and it in many respects remains pure venture capital.”

Taxpayers Step Up

While financiers get cold feet, governments have stepped in to support the industry through grants, guaranteed power prices and research and testing facilities. They are excited by the potential scale of marine energy.

In the U.K., it’s estimated to be capable of delivering as much as one-fifth of current power needs, and the government has set a guaranteed price of 305 pounds ($478) a megawatt-hour, more than double that of offshore wind.

Ed Davey, the energy secretary, said at a conference on Nov. 26 that the government believes post-2020 marine energy will have a much bigger role to play in meeting low-carbon targets.

In Australia, marine energy could provide more than 35 percent of power, according to the Australian Clean Energy Council, a renewables industry group. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has provided about A$43 million ($36 million) in grants since 2012.

In Canada the government has provided C$25 million ($22 million) toward a testing facility in the Bay of Fundy, home to the world’s largest tidal surge. Canada seeks to have 75 megawatts of marine energy by 2016 and 250 megawatts by 2020, according to Marine Renewables Canada, an industry group.

Growing Skepticism

Some big names remain in the industry, with tidal technologies tending to be nearer to market than wave. DCNS SA, which owns most of OpenHydro Group Ltd., on Dec. 2 was chosen by the French government to test devices off the coast of Brittany with EDF Energies Nouvelles SA. Morgan Stanley backed-Atlantis Resources Ltd. raised 51 million pounds in September and Alstom SA continues to test its device after buying Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc’s tidal unit in 2012.

In wave power, Seabased AB plans to install a 10-megawatt facility with Finnish utility Fortum Oyj. Carnegie Wave Energy Ltd. raised A$9.4 million in April to test its device at sea and also won A$11 million from the Australian government.

The industry and especially wave power remains “some years” away from commercialization, and while governments are doing what they can, they can’t be expected to bear the whole cost of development, said McCrone. That means technologies are dependent on winning over venture capitalists and engineering companies that have grown “skeptical,” he said.

Copyright 2014 Bloomberg

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The violence erupted in response to faltering peace talks between Kurds and the Turkish government to end a 30-year struggle for autonomy, escalating further in October over Turkey’s perceived failure to intervene to help Syrian Kurds in Kobani against Islamic State. The halted work on the dams — part of a $35.5 billion development project — has led to hundreds of workers losing their jobs.

The two largest firms and sub-contractors involved in the construction of the Ilisu dam, Cengiz Insaat and Nurol Insaat, have laid off 1,500 workers, one of the officials involved in the project said. Mardin Cimento has stopped cement deliveries to the project since August, according to another official. Nurol and Mardin Cimento declined to comment when contacted by phone while two calls to Cengiz Holding’s press department during normal office hours went unanswered.

No Dam Peace

“Many investors in the southeast would be content to sell their projects and exit the region but they’re stuck,” Jonathan Friedman, a London-based analyst at risk management company Stroz Friedberg, said by e-mail. “If they are domestic firms, they will fear backlash from Ankara. If they are foreign firms, there are no local buyers who have the capital to take on such large projects at the moment.”

Since coming to power in 2002, Turkey’s governing AK Party has reinvigorated development projects in the largely Kurdish southeast that began in the 1970s. The Southeast Anatolia Project or GAP includes 22 dams on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and is expected to generate about 12.5 percent of Turkey’s current electricity needs upon completion.

Peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which Turkey, the European Union and the U.S. list as a terrorist organization, began in 2011.

Atomic Bombs

While many Kurds have welcomed the investment, others are suspicious that the project will yoke the region to the Turkish economy without a political settlement in place to ensure Kurdish self-governance. The dam construction has coincided with the expansion of Turkish military outposts in the region, further inflaming tensions.

A few days before the attacks on the dams in August, imprisoned Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan compared the projects to “atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” and said they must be stopped, according to Ocalan’s lawyer Mazlum Dinc.

Faysal Sariyildiz, a Kurdish lawmaker, said by phone that Kurds are not against development work in the region but want “a more sensitive approach.”

The Turkish government accused the PKK of inciting the violence, and said it will increase the powers of paramilitary and police forces in the region. The country’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party yesterday reiterated its commitment to the peace process, which was welcomed by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as a “positive step.”

‘Security Problem’

“While it was possible to record serious progress on several issues, a security problem has risen,” Davutoglu said late yesterday in Ankara.

Turkey’s $820 billion dollar economy has grown about 5 percent a year in the AK Party era. While the largely Kurdish southeast has seen gains too, unemployment in some provinces in the region hovers at more than double the national average of 9.8 percent.

In addition to layoffs at Cengiz Insaat and Nurol Insaat, another firm, Yersu, fired most of its staff. It is struggling to make payments for leased equipment. “We can’t stand more than two months,” Adem Esen, a partner at Yersu, said in Ankara on Nov. 10.

“No doubt the suspension of projects is harming companies involved,” Ilci Holding AS, a project undertaker at Silvan Dam, said Nov. 11. “More importantly, it is delaying the Silvan irrigation project which is expected to lead to agriculture development that could generate an economic value of $460 million and create jobs for 320,000 people.”

Yet to Benefit

It is not clear for how long the delay on the construction will last. “The projects are a matter of prestige for the government and the delay will increase the cost,” Tugba Evrim Maden, a hydro-politics researcher at the Ankara-based Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies, said in a Nov. 7 interview.

Although the GAP project has been under way for almost 40 years, people of the impoverished southeast have yet to benefit from it, according to Burc Baysal, head of the Industrialists and Businessmen Association in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the southeast.

“About 80 percent of GAP may have been completed in terms of energy supplies but only 12 percent of the irrigation canals are completed,” Baysal said by phone Nov. 10. “What is really needed is irrigation to improve agriculture in arid lands and people’s lives.”

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Net metering allows customers to receive credits for any electricity they generate but do not use. To qualify for net metering in Massachusetts, a customer can install any type of generating facility, including a hydro plant, as long as the facility is smaller than 60 kW. Facilities up to 2 MW, or 10 MW in cases of certain public facilities, are eligible for net metering if they generate electricity with wind, solar photovoltaics or anaerobic digestion, or if they are Agricultural New Metering Facilities.

Under current rules, hydroelectric facilities that are larger than 60 kW and are not ANMFs are not eligible for net metering.

Legislation signed in August by Gov. Deval Patrick directs the DPU, in consultation with the Bay State Hydropower Association, to study the feasibility, impacts and benefits of allowing electric distribution company customers to net meter electricity generated by small hydroelectric facilities. The agency is to report its findings to the Legislature.

As a result, the DPU issued notice (D.P.U. 14-118) Oct. 16 scheduling a technical conference at 10 a.m. Nov. 7 at DPU offices at 1 South Station in Boston. It also called for written comments to be filed by 5 p.m., Eastern time, Dec. 5 to Mark Marini, Secretary, Department of Public Utilities, 1 South Station, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02110 or by e-mail attachment to dpu.efiling@state.ma.us and to the hearing officer at mike.wallerstein@state.ma.us.

The agency requested comments on such questions as how to define «small hydroelectric»; under what conditions to allow net metering by hydro facilities; and how much hydropower capacity might be added if small facilities were eligible for net metering.

In recent years, Massachusetts government has attempted to increase hydropower as part of renewable energy initiatives. Last year, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center requested information from hydroelectric project operators in the state to help it fund energy incentives for increased hydroelectric generation.

A copy of the notice and request for comments may be obtained from the DPU Internet site here.

This article was originally published on HydroWorld.com and was republished with permission.

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Obama and Gaoli both shared the hot seat as representatives of the countries who rank at the top of the list of guiltiest greenhouse gas emitters (China is first, the U.S. is second). In consecutive speeches, both men gave indication that more work is needed to effect impactful change and slow the rate of environmental damage.

“We recognize our role in creating this problem,” Obama said. “We embrace our responsibility to combat it. We will do our part. And we will help developing nations do theirs.”

Gaoli followed Obama’s comments by reiterating China’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions some 40 to 45 percent (over 2005 levels) by the year 2020. According to Gaoli, China’s carbon intensity has already come down 28 percent (again, from 2005 levels). He also emphasized that renewables now make up 24 percent of China’s installed energy capacity.

Interestingly enough, it was a speech from a marquee icon that appears to have resonated far beyond those made by any world leaders. Speaking in his official capacity as United Nations Messenger of Peace, actor Leonardo DiCaprio addressed the gathered heads of state, stressing the importance of follow-through. “You can make history or you will be vilified for it.”

DiCaprio added, “This is not about telling people to change their light bulbs or buy a hybrid car. This is now about our industries and our governments around the world taking decisive, large scale action.”

400,000 Turn Out for People’s Climate March

Two days earlier, DiCaprio joined other celebrities and political leaders, including former Vice President Al Gore and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, for the People’s Climate March, which drew in some 400,000 demonstrators – roughly four times the number that had been expected – and officially made it the largest and most successful climate march to date.

Kicking off Sunday near Central Park, the march at one point stretched in excess of four miles and included over 1,500 different groups and organizations determined to let their voices be heard, and their signs seen.

Michael Brune, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, said in a statement, “The more than 400,000 people in New York and many, many more across the globe who marched on Sunday represent a broad, engaged, and powerful climate movement demanding jobs, justice, and a prosperous clean energy economy free of fossil fuels. We have the momentum and will use it to ensure that our leaders’ words today are matched by effective action.”

Rockefellers Announce Clean Energy Investments

Demonstrations of commitment to change were not limited to public marches, as evidenced by an announcement from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. In what may go down in history as one of the most pleasingly ironic philanthropic decisions, the heirs to the Rockefeller dynasty announced that the family organization – which amassed its fortune through investments in oil under the watch of John D. Rockefeller – will divest itself of its fortune in fossil fuel assets to pursue new investments in clean energy.

“We embrace the irony in the fact that John D. [Rockefeller] made his money through oil,” said Valerie Rockefeller Wayne, chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Wayne added that she believes the foundation’s decision to pursue investments in alternative investments is “smarter” and “more moral.”

According to Wayne, more than half of the nonprofit foundation’s $860 million charity fund is already directed toward sustainable investments. “It just made sense for us to have our endowment supporting the work that we’re doing with our grantees in sustainable development.”

The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is among a growing number of global philanthropic organizations that have pledged to purge their fossil fuel assets in favor of new energy economy reinvestment, to a current running tally of $51 billion in divestments. The Global Divest-Invest movement, which reportedly saw its start on college campuses several years back, has to date received support from approximately 180 institutions and 650 individual philanthropists. 

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Imbalances in supply to the grid threaten to cause blackouts, Kyushu Electric said. During the suspension, the utility will study in the next several months how much more renewable electricity capacity it can bear, Akihiko Shinkai, the utility’s deputy general manager, told reporters in Tokyo today.

Under Japan’s incentives to develop sources of clean energy, utility operators are required to buy clean energy at terms and prices set by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The so-called feed-in tariffs cover purchases of electricity generated from solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass.

The incentives, introduced in July 2012, have led to a boom in solar installations across Japan.

Japan had about 42,000 megawatts of installed renewable energy capacity as of the end of 2013, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. After hydro, solar is the biggest source of Japan’s clean energy, with almost 15,000 megawatts of capacity.

Kyushu Electric’s decision comes as solar developers face tighter scrutiny from the government, which is concerned some projects aren’t moving ahead as planned.

Grid Capacity

The grid’s capacity to handle new energy sources is also being tested. The power grid in Japan isn’t equipped to handle the clean energy influx, BNEF analysts wrote in an August 2013 report. Grid and market constraints will limit development, the report said.

At the end of May, Japan had approved about 71 gigawatts of new renewable energy projects since the feed-in tariff program began, according to government figures.

Hokkaido Electric Power Co.’s grid was nearing its maximum ability to accept solar power from projects that are 2 megawatts or larger, METI said in April 2013. The ministry said in December that Okinawa Electric Power Co. was also nearing its maximum ability to absorb solar power.

Hokkaido and Okinawa are both conducting experiments with storage batteries to handle extra capacity generated by solar power projects.

Copyright 2014 Bloomberg

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