A Green Degree Blog: New Angles On Sustainability

September 22nd 2012

The Wind Industry Is Booming, But Boy Do Some Bleak Futures Lay Ahead

Of all the renewable technologies open to us these days, there’s no doubt that wind is the outright winner in the capacity and cost race, and more specifically, onshore wind, those gleaming white towers some countries are lucky (and tolerant) enough to have dotting their countryside and coastal regions.

Global wind deployment was once again up last year, this time by a relatively humble 6%, equating to just shy of 42GW of energy capacity installed, when compared to the average of 23% for the five years leading up to 2010, but is nonetheless signs of rampant and continued uptake the world over. Asia takes the biggest bite, with 52.1% of the global share, most of that in China, in which a recent study undertaken by multiple parties has concluded that Chinese capacity could reach 300GW by 2020, and 400GW by 2030; they are absolutely HUGE numbers, and if achieved, mark a seriously devoted agenda from the communist-cum-capitalist nation.

Closer to home, Europe has fallen in the rankings, taking just 24.5% of new installations for 2011, with again, a large majority of that down to one country, Germany, whose brilliant FiTs and policies allow for cost-effective and quick deployment of wind turbines throughout the country to the tune of almost a 1/3 of all European cumulative additions.

However, a draft government regulation released a few weeks ago in Germany seems to be stifling this growth just as it gets some real pace, or at least in the offshore department. Offshore has unfortunately been a much less avidly followed form of wind energy, due to its high costs, difficult maintenance and installation issues and generally poor policy and regulation worldwide, but Germany has always been one of the leaders. This new announcement would slash incentives for offshore generation prices, from 1 Euro/MWh to 0.75 Euros; whilst this cuts costs slightly for consumers on the renewable section of their bills, it will ultimately put future projects off and may stunt growth of a crucial area for the industry.

On the plus side, the UK achieved a milestone for wind energy generation recently by producing 4.1GW of electricity, over 10% of the country’s needs, using those spinning blades to boil cups of tea and burn toast, beating the previous 3.8GW record set in May. Some decided to lessen this triumph by stating that 4.1GW roughly equals the output of just one single coal and biomass-fired plant, Drax, which is not only more reliable but not as expensive. Surely they can’t be serious? When Germany produced over half their energy needs via solar and wind earlier this year, I don’t remember seeing any rabid comparisons to numbers of coal or gas plants over there, so why here?

The ‘No More Solyndras’ Act - A Direct Threat To US Domestic Markets

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As I write this, the US government is mullung over claims by the GOP that the highly controversial, but equally highly successful government-backed solar loaning programme, is no longer worth anybody’s time or money, including the taxpayers of America.

The so-called ‘No More Solyndras’ Act, a cleverly named piece of legislation that aims to shut down all workings of the loan system is being hotly debated in the Houses involved, and there is no sign of Republican backing slowing. Standing on the shoulders of all those who were wronged and misguided during the entire Solyndra debacle and buoyed by the seemingly never-ending support for discontinuing further loans, it’s looking possible that the damn thing might actually get through the legal process.

Firstly, a quick recap. The US doesn’t employ feed-in-tariffs like those of the relatively successful European and Asian nations such as Germany or Japan, meaning that to raise funding and popularity in the renewable markets, other measures must be taken not involving direct payments to consumers or utilities. To this end, the US government, under the peruse of George Bush, set up the solar loaning programme in 2005, which would aim to invest taxpayer and private investor money directly into companies producing, manufacturing and selling solar cells, panels, technologies and the like. By propping up the as-yet immature industry and lending them a helping hand to wade their way into the global market, there was really no other way to go about it.

For a good time the programme was rather successful, if not very, lending money to multiple solar ventures which ultimately allowed the US domestic market to regain leadership status in the global trade, rising up to join the ranks of its eastern cousins who had been running clever programmes for years before. All in all, 33 separate companies were funded through government loans, with a total of $10bn set aside for mitigating any losses during loaning of up to $26bn, the original figure accrued for investment. Without this, it’s highly likely the US solar industry would have stagnated, or at best regained a tiny proportion of the status it has today, and in a world where Chinese and European solar is booming, that is a necessity.

Given how paranoid the US is over its domestic markets and anti-competitive trade, this is a godsend; you only have to look at the current trade war with Chinese solar companies to see this paranoia in its rawest form.

Iceland Is 100% Renewable - That Was Kept On The Lowdown?

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Well here’s a little fact I didn’t know, and how I didn’t know of this is almost shaming on my part, but I simply have to share it. That little ice-bound island sitting astride the mid-Atlantic ridge, which occasionally spews out a handful of ash big enough to shutdown our air-space, is touting a fully green energy mix; that’s right, Iceland is 100% renewable, and has been for a fair amount of time.

At this moment, Iceland generates its entire electricity needs via hydro and geothermal sources, with not a fossil fuel powered plant to speak of or point angrily at. Not only this, but their electricity prices are amongst the most competitive in Europe, with many of their price guarantees and policies locking in enticing costs for both the customer and the provider. It’s practically the perfect environment for judging how well an entirely renewable mix can work.

Not only that, it gets better and better. Iceland’s freezing climate may put many off from visiting the eclectic nation, but for power hungry energy companies, it’s the golden setting. With cold winds and temperatures abundant all year round, huge hosting and data centres can be efficiently cooled purely through the action of wall vents and the odd open window. Because of this, electricity slurping climate controls don’t need to be employed, enticing big names such as Verne Global to the little country.

Now many of the reasons for renewables dominating the Icelandic mix are down to its Goldilocks geographical location, and relatively small population of just 320,000. With abundant volcano-fuelled thermal energy year-round, with glacial meltwater streams, rivers and lakes, they simply don’t need anything else; combine this with a small population and you’re onto a winner.

The only real issue to us wannabe green-nations, is that it still doesn’t really offer us a viable look into the renewable world available that we want. Geothermal is relatively limited worldwide, especially to Europe and Asia, and a large majority of the current hydro energy is already tapped, with a strong social stigma attached to further damming. Our focus is on solar, wind and marine energies, of which Iceland employs none of, so in that respect, we can’t begin basing our own future policies on the Icelandics; but that’s a minor niggle, they’re sorted.

In coming years, Iceland desperately hopes that their intense slant towards green energy and smart low-carbon techniques will draw in an ever-growing number of multi-national companies and professionals craving renewable energies to power up it’s economy and quell the 6% unemployment rate hanging over their heads.

It looks like it’s already began, so from now on I will most certainly be keeping an eye on this silently forward-looking island of the Atlantic.

http://www.ecomagination.com/iceland-attracts-new-business-with-clean-energy

Posted at 12:02pm and tagged with: Iceland, Renewable, Energy, Hydroelectric, Geothermal, Economy, Jobs, Europe, Asia, Electricity, Unemployment,.

April 14th 2012

Japan To Burn Tsunami Debris For Energy And More

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Japan is set to make some big steps into the renewable industry from July onwards, with it’s ventures into multiple sources of clean energy production and low-carbon technology. This is a key development after the closure of every single nuclear reactor come May, once providing roughly 1/4 of the country’s energy needs.

First on the table is a brand new solar FiT (feed-in-tariff), which will hope to incentivise and fund companies and customers desperate for a bit of sunlight-energy in their lives, and will aim to work in much the same way the German and UK FiTs functioned, until the cuts obviously. A major difference however, is that this tariff will force utility companies to purchase electricity from clean sources at predetermined prices, and this will have to be passed down to the customer, in the form of a slightly fatter bill through the letterbox.

This is one of the primary hurdles which must be jumped in order to put this tariff into place, as many ministers and analysts will struggle to pin down an appropriate price which can be nationally distributed without anger and reprisal from the public. On the other hand, the Japanese are known for their obedience and rational thinking in situations like this, and so I feel that once a price is set, both utilities and customers will work together to make the FiT work efficiently.

Various projects are in the planning and finance stages, ranging from a whopping 340MW plant in Hokkaido, to a 70MW construction which will stretch out across part of Kagoshima Bay and all it’s shiny glory. Many other smaller projects round the proposed sum up at almost 0.5GW of solar energy.

US Coal Exports Rise And The Asians Keep On Consuming

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It’s astounding to chart the rise in Asian coal consumption of the last decade, with the graph in the middle of this piece no doubt shocking you as it did me. Obviously I understand there are inherently more people in the Asian states, but that rise is obscene in magnitude and actually seems to pick up in speed in the last 2 years, which I personally find very hard to swallow and rather worrying in terms of our future climate. When this is compared with the progress Europe and the US have made in reducing their consumption, it’s simply wrong.

Now the reasoning, or at least a large part of it, is due to the graph you see above, detailing US coal exports for the past 6 years, which has, as of 2011 reached a peak never before experienced, at an all time high of ~107,000 thousand short tonnes. That means that the US is effectively sending it’s generous deposits of domestically produced coal all the way to the other side of the world, for the Asians, and more than likely China to readily absorb and burn. This also accounts for the strangely large drop in consumption by the US, as they forgo burning for selling.

It’s not hard to see that there is a link between this peak-coal export and increased consumption, and of course there are other trade routes and factors adding to this problem, but the fact that the US have actively moved to coal-dominant exportation and yet still harp on about using renewables for a better world, is a sinister and dangerous happening.

With America offloading it’s fossil fuels to outside parties who welcome the chance to avoid mining their own or tarnishing their environmental reputation, they can happily progress in the knowledge that they are not burning it themselves. What use is introducing green technology if the coal that should be left in the ground is simply making its way round the world, dropping of carbon as it travels?

This is the unfortunate reality these graphs and studies demonstrate, and is no doubt a practice being carried out by many other developed nations. It is likely driven by a more gas-centered economy in the modern world, with oil and coal looked down upon as the dirty and irresponsible fuels that they are; for America to find a way to free up these abundant reserves without actually using them, at the same time making a tidy profit, it’s no surprise they snapped up the chance.

For how long this will go on for is unknown. Other nations may become wise to this trick and begin finger-pointing the Obama administration and America’s fossil fuel industries. However these fingers should also be turned on the receiving end of things, at the Asia’s. Solar and wind are booming in this part of the world, and have been the subject of many headlines, but this importation of coal must be stemmed if real climate progress is to be made. Without a carbon tax, dropping your coal off in another country and letting them deal with the consequences will end up biting all of us in the *** in the end.

http://www.solarfeeds.com/u-s-coal-exports-20-year-high/

http://grist.org/list/chart-the-mind-boggling-rise-in-asian-coal-consumption/

Posted at 11:03am and tagged with: US, china, asia, carbon, coal, exports, fossil fuel, renewable, sustainability, economy, trade,.