tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90397557980167148462024-03-13T20:16:44.794-07:00Welcome to the Future Power Generation BlogTGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-77246462770947424812011-07-11T04:47:00.000-07:002011-07-11T04:58:06.653-07:00Is Energy Pressure on Water Supply Rising?<h2><a href="http://www.worldpolicy.org/world-policy-paper-release-energy-pressure-water-supply-rising">Water risk: Energy Pressure on Water Supply is Rising</a></h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(37, 36, 80); font-family:Verdana;font-size:small;">World leaders are pondering the nation's energy fate without adequately considering the effect that such policies will have on limited water supplies. Energy production is water-intensive.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(37, 36, 80); font-family:Verdana;font-size:small;"></span></div><blockquote title="World Policy Paper Release: Energy Pressure on Water Supply is Rising"><i><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(37, 36, 80); font-family:Verdana;font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(65, 65, 66); line-height: 17px; font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size:13px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(65, 65, 66) !important; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; ">On World Water Day, a new <a href="http://www.worldpolicy.org/policy-paper/2011/03/18/water-energy-nexus" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(2, 131, 170); ">report</a> draws attention to the link between energy use and water depletion. Traditional and alternative energy technologies are consuming a rising amount of water per unit of energy, putting new demands on increasingly scarce water supplies, according to the <a href="http://www.worldpolicy.org/policy-paper/2011/03/18/water-energy-nexus" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(2, 131, 170); ">policy paper from the World Policy Institute and EBG Capital</a>. The trend has wide-ranging implications for policy, business, security, environment, justice, development, and sustainability.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(65, 65, 66) !important; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; ">Now - as new energy policies are emerging - is the window of opportunity to add water to the agenda as nations evaluate their energy options and develop policies to encourage sustainable energy production. Water needs to be part of this debate, the report contends, noting in particular the need to manage the trade-offs between water and energy at the local, national, and cross-border levels. In the United States, generating energy consumes 20% of the water not used by agriculture.<br /><br />"The competition between water and energy needs represents a critical business, security, and environmental issue, but it has not yet received the attention that it deserves," said Diana Glassman, one of the report's authors. "Energy production consumes significant amounts of water, and vice versa. In a world where water scarcity is a major and growing challenge, water deserves a place on the energy agenda alongside cost, carbon and security considerations."<br /><br />"<a href="http://www.worldpolicy.org/policy-paper/2011/03/18/water-energy-nexus" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(2, 131, 170); ">THE WATER-ENERGY NEXUS: Adding Water to the Energy Agenda</a>," by Diana Glassman, Michele Wucker, Tanushree Isaacman, and Corinne Champilou, New York: World Policy Institute and EBG Capital, March 2011, provides the context needed to evaluate key water-energy tradeoffs. The paper focuses on consumption -that is, water that is permanently removed from its source- while noting that water quality and withdrawal (water removed then returned to its source) are also important issues. It includes a comprehensive, user-friendly summary of the most credible available data about water consumption per unit of energy produced across a spectrum of traditional and alternative energy technologies. The paper provides a tool for experts and non-experts alike to frame issues, ask the right questions about our energy portfolio, and begin identifying appropriate solutions to our emerging water-energy crisis.<br /><br />Among the report's findings:</p><ul style="color: rgb(16, 26, 15); margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 2em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; list-style-type: none; "><li style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 9px; text-align: left; display: block; background-image: url(http://www.worldpolicy.org/sites/all/themes/ftdrupal004/images/PostBullets.png); list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; line-height: 1.2em; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Both emerging petroleum and alternative transportation fuels consume more water than conventional petroleum-based fuels.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 9px; text-align: left; display: block; background-image: url(http://www.worldpolicy.org/sites/all/themes/ftdrupal004/images/PostBullets.png); list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; line-height: 1.2em; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Petroleum from the Canadian oil sands extracted via surface mining techniques can consume 20 times more water than conventional oil drilling.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 9px; text-align: left; display: block; background-image: url(http://www.worldpolicy.org/sites/all/themes/ftdrupal004/images/PostBullets.png); list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; line-height: 1.2em; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Irrigated first-generation soy- and corn-based biofuels can consume thousands of times more water than traditional oil drilling, primarily through irrigation.</li></ul><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(65, 65, 66) !important; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; ">The picture on electricity generation is mixed.</p><ul style="color: rgb(16, 26, 15); margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 2em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; list-style-type: none; "><li style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 9px; text-align: left; display: block; background-image: url(http://www.worldpolicy.org/sites/all/themes/ftdrupal004/images/PostBullets.png); list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; line-height: 1.2em; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Among conventional power plants, gas-fired plants consume the least amount of water per unit of energy produced. Coal- and oil-fired plants consume roughly twice as much water as gas-fired plants. Nuclear consumes approximately three times as much.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 9px; text-align: left; display: block; background-image: url(http://www.worldpolicy.org/sites/all/themes/ftdrupal004/images/PostBullets.png); list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; line-height: 1.2em; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">One of the "cleaner" coal technologies, the integrated gasification combined cycle process, reduces a coal plant's water consumption by half, while also reducing carbon emissions and other pollutants. Emerging carbon capture technologies could increase a coal plant's water consumption by 30%-100%.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 9px; text-align: left; display: block; background-image: url(http://www.worldpolicy.org/sites/all/themes/ftdrupal004/images/PostBullets.png); list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; line-height: 1.2em; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Wind and solar photovoltaic electricity consume minimal water and are the most water-efficient forms of conventional or alternative electricity production.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 9px; text-align: left; display: block; background-image: url(http://www.worldpolicy.org/sites/all/themes/ftdrupal004/images/PostBullets.png); list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; line-height: 1.2em; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">The solar thermal form of electricity generation consumes twice as much water as coal and five times as much as gas-fired power plants.</li><li style="margin-top: 0.2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.2em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 9px; text-align: left; display: block; background-image: url(http://www.worldpolicy.org/sites/all/themes/ftdrupal004/images/PostBullets.png); list-style-type: none; list-style-image: none; line-height: 1.2em; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Natural gas produced by hydraulic fracturing is a game-changer that could alter the entire energy mix of transportation fuels and electricity generation. Current data indicate that natural gas produced this way consumes seven times more water than conventional gas extraction but roughly the same amount of water as conventional oil drilling.</li></ul><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(65, 65, 66) !important; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14px; ">The paper also identifies specific areas where information gaps hinder effective decision-making but, conversely, could pull together new alliances to break the logjam around energy policy. These include evaluating the water impact of the full range of emerging technologies; updating and filling information holes regarding hydraulic fracturing and Canadian oil sands among others; and incorporating data about water consumption by various industries.<br /><br />The paper marks the launch of a World Policy Institute <a href="http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/energy-water-nexus" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(2, 131, 170); ">program focusing on the Water-Energy Nexus</a>, including follow-up research and analysis, events, and public education efforts.</p></span></span></div></i></blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(37, 36, 80); ">The World Policy Institute emphasizes to political leaders that they must consider the nexus between energy policy and water consumption. The technologies to reduce carbon emissions are coming to the fore. But some of those ideas require high levels of water, a scarce resource that is required by all energy forms.</span>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-84967048788048655102011-03-21T04:53:00.000-07:002011-03-21T04:55:34.722-07:00Is nuclear renaissance over?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; "><h1 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 1.6em; font-weight: normal; color: rgb(0, 152, 219); letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 28px; "><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/is-the-nuclear-renaissance-over-2011-03-21?siteid=rss&rss=1" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: underline; font-weight: normal; color: rgb(0, 152, 219); ">Is Nuclear renaissance over?</a></h1>Yes, it is PETER BRIMELOW!<br /><br />But why it it sure now, that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_renaissance" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">nuclear renaissance</a> is over?<br /><br />Mother Nature want it!<br /><br />Go back to the year 1986 and study all what happened around <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">Chernobyl disaster</a>, a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine).<br /><br />It is considered the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, and it is the only one classified as a level 7 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale.<br /><br />After the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">Chernobyl disaster</a> most governments and citizens wanted to stop nuclear power plants, the Germans did it!<br /><br />An American energy trading company analyzed that the failure at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was linked to human failure and they decided to change their employment policy in recruiting only the best!<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">ENRON</a> started, together with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mckinsey" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">McKinsey & Company</a>, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_for_talent" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">War for Talent</a>, that should avoid or mitigate future disasters like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">Chernobyl disaster</a>!<br /><br />ENRON went bankrupt in 2001!<br /><br />In July 22, 2002, Malcolm Gladwell wrote an intriguing article in the New Yorker about <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2002/07/22/020722fa_fact" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">ENRON's failure</a> and why the experience of older, experienced employees is more important than the talent of newly hired college graduates!<br /><br />Onle five years after his articles, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">global financial crisis</a> started because the global banks had fired all older, experienced employees before!<br /><br />To hire only talents and to fire all older, experienced employees, wasn't the solution as well as to continue using nuclear power plants wasn't the solution either!<br /><br />In New Statesman, Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote in "<a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2010/07/debt-system-mother-black" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">Beware those Black Swans</a>" about the epistemic arrogance of our talent warriors and said: "My dream is to have a true "epistemocracy"; that is, a society robust against expert errors, forecasting errors and hubris, one that can be resistant to the incompetence of politicians, regulators, economists, central bankers, bank ers, policy wonks and epidemiologists."<br /><br />Can we rely on our talents?<br /><br />No!<br /><br />Can we believe our talents, when they assure us that nuclear power plants are save?<br /><br />No!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/opinion/19herbert.html?src=tptw" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">Is Nuclear Power Worth the Risk</a>?<br /><br />No!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/opinion/19herbert.html?src=tptw" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">Is the price too high</a>?<br /><br />Yes!<br /><br />What did us cost the War for Talent?<br /><br />It cost our economies over 120 millions older, experienced employees who were unemployed and we risk that <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/09/sp-60-countries-bankrupt-50-years/" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">60% of all our countries will go bankrupt within 50 years</a> because of our waste in human capital!<br /><br />In <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/opinion/20superhed.html?src=tptw" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(11, 34, 101); ">A Country's Lasting Aftershocks</a>, New York Times OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS SATORU IKEUCHI, GENICHIRO TAKAHASHI and MITSUYOSHI NUMANO explain us the problem we're faced with!<br /><br /><h2 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 1.3em; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 152, 219); line-height: 22px; ">Science's Arrogance</h2>And they introduce the problem as: "The physicist Torahiko Terada wrote in 1934, "The more civilization progresses, the greater the violence of nature's wrath." Nearly 67 years later, his words appear prescient.<br /><br />Humans have become increasingly arrogant, believing they have conquered nature. We build ever larger, ever more concentrated, ever more uniform structures. Scientists and engineers think that they are responding to the demands of society, but they have forgotten their larger responsibilities to society, emphasizing only the positive aspects of their endeavors."<br /><br />For the first time in the history of nuclear power plants, human failure cannot be blamed anymore!<br /><br />It's an act of god that has caused the disaster, a natural catastrophe as an answer to science's arrogance and we have to listen to mother nature and to end the game!<br /><br />We have no other choice!<br /><br /><h2 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 1.3em; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 152, 219); line-height: 22px; ">What do you think?</h2>Is nuclear renaissance over?<br /><br />Please feel free to comment!<br /><br />Have a great and prosperous time!<br /></span>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-62094508716002757122011-01-22T08:04:00.000-08:002011-01-22T08:06:29.553-08:00Greenpeace foresees a renewable future<h2><a href="http://www.rapidonline.com/latestnews.aspx?id=800352751&tier1=Industry&title=Greenpeace+foresees+a+renewable+future">Greenpeace foresees a renewable future</a> - Rapid</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><p style="float: left; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 20px; "><img src="http://pictures.directnews.co.uk/liveimages/x_909_800352751_0_0_7042427_100.jpg" /></p>The European Union has the potential to generate almost all of its energy from renewable sources by 2050, it has been claimed.<br /><br />According to the AFP news agency, environmental campaign group Greenpeace believes that if nuclear were to lose its priority access to distribution networks, then renewables could play a much larger role in meeting energy needs.<br /><br />Indeed, it argues that 99.5 per cent of electricity used by the 27-member bloc could come from sources such as solar and wind 40 years from now.<br /><br />Greenpeace claims that at present, wind farms are often "stopped in peak production periods" to give priority access to nuclear energy and energy from coal-fired <a href="http://www.rapidonline.com/Electrical-Power" style="font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; ">power</a> stations.<br /><br />Reversing this could have a dramatic impact on the EU's energy landscape, the group believes.<br /><br />The claim comes after the European Wind Energy Association issued a report stating that EU member states were on track to exceed their collective 2020 target for renewable energy generation.<br /><br />Rapid Electronics is a leading UK supplier of energy saving products, <a href="http://www.rapidonline.com/Electronic-Components" style="font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; ">electronic components</a> and<a href="http://www.rapidonline.com/Electrical-Power" style="font-family: Verdana; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; ">electrical equipment</a>.</span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-88600166742859751362011-01-22T04:34:00.000-08:002011-01-22T04:42:17.070-08:00Geothermal could supply 20% of European energy by 2050<h2><a href="http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/14563/geothermal-could-supply-20-of-european-energy-by-2050/">Geothermal could supply 20% of European energy by 2050</a> - Renewable energy focus</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><h2 class="article-intro" style="font-size: 1.3em; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(1, 64, 95); ">Geothermal could supply at least 20% of European energy demand in 2050, according to the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC).</h2><div class="article-content"><p style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; ">“Things must change if Europe is to reach its energy decarbonisation objective, and that will not be possible without a substantial contribution from geothermal energy,” says <a href="http://www.egec.org/" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: underline; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; color: rgb(1, 64, 95); ">EGEC</a> President Dr Burkhard Sanner.</p><p style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; ">“Providing a renewable base load, geothermal energy does not have external costs such as storage, grid infrastructure or waste management. Conventional geothermal power is already a most competitive energy source, but only possible in certain regions.</p><p style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; ">“<a href="http://www.google.org/egs/">EGS</a>, a breakthrough technology successfully demonstrate, will allow a geothermal development anywhere in Europe. EGS (short for ‘Enhanced Geothermal Systems’) will become competitive within a few more years.</p><p style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; "></p><iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="320" height="260" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/O6r_3AgI49Y" frameborder="0"></iframe><p></p><p style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; ">“Geothermal will be a key player in an optimal energy mix,” Sanner concludes.</p><p style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; ">EGEC calls on national governments and European institutions to:</p><ul style="list-style-type: circle; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 14px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; line-height: 1.4em; "><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Invest in R&D to deploy EGS and bring down the cost of EGS plants;</li><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Adopt a feed-in tariff suitable for EGS development; and</li><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Create a European Risk Insurance Scheme to mitigate the geological risk.</li></ul></div><p style="line-height: 1.4em; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; "><em>This article is featured in: </em><a href="http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/category/63/geothermal/" style="text-decoration: none; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; color: rgb(1, 64, 95); white-space: nowrap; ">Geothermal</a></p></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-7071202168829708422011-01-18T02:45:00.000-08:002011-01-18T02:48:14.619-08:00Proliferation of Emissions Offsets Threatens to Depress Europe's Carbon Trading<h2><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-proliferation-of-emissions-offsets-threatens-60792.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment">Proliferation of Emissions Offsets Threatens to Depress Europe's Carbon Trading</a> - New York Times</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; ">A huge influx of international greenhouse gas emission offsets looms over the carbon markets, but traders and banks don't know yet what to make of the situation.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Participants in Europe's Emissions Trading System (ETS), the main market for the credits, are normally used to worrying about an oversupply of government-allocated emissions allowances sinking carbon prices. Many of them are now wondering if they're now facing an oversupply of offsets having a similar effect.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Procedural reforms and new hires at the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), an agency established by the Kyoto Protocol and headquartered in Bonn, Germany, have led to record issuances of offset credits from that office since December. As a result, credits are getting approved and flying out the door faster than ever before.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Some experts worry that the incoming rush of new offsets could depress the total value of carbon trading globally this year.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"If it continues accelerating like it has since the end of November, it will, because obviously, this is not what is priced in today," said investment analyst Emmanuel Fages at Orbeo, the carbon market arm of Société Générale. "What was priced in even some weeks ago was very regular, average issuance level."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">But Fages and others also caution that the influx could be a temporary phenomenon not likely to last for the entire year. Indeed, most carbon market experts expect supplies of the CDM's Certified Emission Reduction (CER) credits to become much tighter into 2012, because uncertainty of whether the CDM will even exist after that year is causing the number of new projects to shrink fast.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"Our predictions for the issuance volumes are very high in the third week, but going into week four or five, that goes down significantly," said carbon market expert Milo Sjardin at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. "In the longer term, we're still having the problem that the issuance volumes in general are not as high as they could be."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="bold" style="font-weight: bold; ">For the moment, more feast than famine</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Last week, the office that runs the CDM hit a milestone when it announced that the program had hit 500 million CERs allocated to offset project developers since the system began. About 60 million more credits are pending, and up to half of these are expected to be delivered this month.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The end of 2010 saw monthly CER issuance hitting new record highs, and January is on track to again break the record, with up to 47 million CERs possibly heading to the offset projects that are requesting them.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">CERs can be sold to governments seeking to meet their Kyoto Protocol emission reduction targets or to firms facing compliance rules under the European Union's ETS. For years, supply into the carbon markets was predictably slow, as project approval and CER issuance had difficulty navigating the CDM's cumbersome bureaucracy, but reforms to the system and more manpower are speeding things up much faster than analysts had earlier predicted.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">CDM officials express confidence that the new quicker pace is now permanent, and not a temporary rush to clear up a backlog of work at the end of the year as some observers theorize.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"We'll be keeping a close eye on the number of submissions and will be working to reduce the wait times to 15 days," CDM spokesman David Abbass said. "As a result of the concerted push in December, which made use of outside experts, the secretariat now has a pool of contractors that it can draw on to help deal with peaks."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Point Carbon expects 253 million more CERs will be issued in total this year, more than half the amount of all CERs put out since 2006 and about 90 percent above the volume issued in 2010, 132 million.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Fages and his team at Orbeo only expect issuance to be about 30 percent higher this year, rising to 170 million CERs by the end of 2011. But they admit that they may have to revise this figure upward if the current trend continues.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts a 40 percent growth in CER allocations this year. Predictably, CER prices have been trending lower in recent days.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">From a high of about €14 per metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent pollution reductions, CER prices are now running in the €11 range, and some market analysts are warning that they could dip lower. Thus far, the dip has not affected prices for E.U. allowances (EUAs) traded under the continent's ETS, but that could change should the downward momentum continue.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="bold" style="font-weight: bold; ">Newly approved HFC-23 projects add to offset influx</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The spike in CER levels is attributable not only to the end-of-year push that Abbass described, but also to the release of credits requested by hydrofluorocarbon-23 (HFC-23) destruction projects that were earlier held up while the CDM Executive Board investigated accusations of fraud. HFC-23 is a potent greenhouse gas caused by manufacturing refrigerant gases in the developing world.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">A large quantity of CERs were also recently issued to projects that destroy the greenhouse gas nitrogen oxide (N2O) recently, further inflating the numbers. Together, HFC-23 and N2O destruction have historically accounted for around 75 percent of all new CER supply entering the markets.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Though some argue that the picture will return to normal once these three factors are accounted for, available data suggest that CER supply could continue to rise even without the help of HFC-23 and N20.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">For instance, numbers available on the CDM's website shows that the majority of new CERs are being issued to renewable energy projects, mainly large wind and hydroelectric operations in China. Of the more than 4 million credits issued on Wednesday last week, none went to large industrial gas projects.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Analysts at the investment bank Barclays Capital in London see a trend here. They predict that industrial gas destruction's share of the CDM will continue to slide, from about 75 percent today to 68 percent by the end of the year, and moving further lower after then.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">CER issuance volumes will continue to stay high for some time, they predict.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="bold" style="font-weight: bold; ">Longer-term trade prospects remain 'strong'</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"We do expect that heavy CER issuance in the coming weeks and we have seen some pressure on prices," said Barclays Capital analyst Trevor Sikorski in an e-mail. "Generally the supply of CERs will help moderate price gains across 2011 and this was reflected in our recent revision downwards of our price forecasts."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">But despite the inundation, most experts don't see carbon prices falling through the floor this year.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Sikorski and his research team see plenty of support to hold CER prices at an €11 to €12 per ton range. Compliance purchases by companies in Europe will help firms hedge their supplies in anticipation of future shortages, and new trading in New Zealand should keep the market buoyant, he said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">And the sudden explosion of new offsets supply shouldn't be a drag on EUA prices, either, experts say.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"The European market has a lot of other fundamental drivers that impact the carbon price there," said Sjardin at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. "And if you look at the longer term, longer-term, the prospects are still strong."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">One analyst with a major Wall Street bank, speaking on background, even argued that the faster tempo at the CDM will actually hurt the system in the longer term. The European Union's plans to ban HFC-23 and some N20-derived CERs from its system beginning in 2013 could cause some players to raise concerns about the quality of other offset projects.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The analyst worries in particular about the large hydroelectric projects being awarded CERs. A seeming push to please developing nation governments and project developers may lead some to turn away from CERs if they conclude that the CDM has given up on assuring "additionality," the industry term for verifying that a carbon abatement project would not have existed were it not for the offsets trading system.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Abbass at the CDM headquarters in Bonn says the Executive Board is well aware of this perception problem and is carefully managing it. Reforms at the CDM have been carefully tailored "to the need for changes to the way requests for registration and issuance are assessed, to make the process quicker without compromising environmental integrity," he said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">But Fages at Société Générale also expressed concern that the CDM has seem to have undergone a fundamental change in culture -- from one focused on stringency and quality assurance toward a heavier emphasis on getting projects approved quickly and feeding as many CERs into the system as possible.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"Why I'm surprised is that now they're shifting to accelerated issuances, as if they have changed their stance more than they're staff," said Fages.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"I'm a bit hesitant to change my [CER supply] forecast just now because I'm not completely sure yet that they have changed their attitude," he added. "But if they are considering the projects differently from now on, then yes, I will have to increase my supply forecast."</p></span><p></p></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-83563017047606667922011-01-18T02:39:00.000-08:002011-01-18T02:42:54.395-08:00Clean Technology in China -- a Difficult Balance Between Cooperation and Competition<h2><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment">Clean Technology in China -- a Difficult Balance Between Cooperation and Competition</a> - New York Times</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; ">Executives of ECOtality Inc. believed in 2009 that their battery charging technology would be a winner when plug-in electric vehicles began to hit the market this year. But with debts running far ahead of revenue, the San Francisco firm needed immediate financial support to stay in the game.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><p key="ThcTri" num="1" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The help came from China, through a $2 million investment that year by a Chinese company. In return, the Chinese company received the rights to make and sell ECOtality's chargers in its country and in other Asian markets. The relationship is one example of the complex linkage between American clean energy technology and Chinese capital and markets that will be a subject in this week's U.S.-China summit in Washington led by President Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao.</p><p key="TriTri" num="2" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[TriTri]" key="TriTri" title="Link to 3rd paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span>The relationship is contentious and collaborative at the same time, commented Georgetown University's Joanna Lewis, writing in the latest assessment of China's environmental activities for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.</p><p key="TUSoaA" num="3" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[TUSoaA]" key="TUSoaA" title="Link to 4th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span>The United States contends China is illegally subsidizing its wind power equipment manufacturers, effectively locking U.S. and other foreign suppliers out of key parts of its booming market. The Obama administration has taken the dispute to the World Trade Organization for adjudication. U.S. officials and American commentators noted progress, however, on the dispute over wind turbine technology during the December meeting of the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade.</p><p key="AkeWhm" num="4" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[AkeWhm]" key="AkeWhm" title="Link to 5th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span>A key emphasis at this week's meetings will be on clean energy collaboration, says David Sandalow, assistant secretary of Energy for policy and international affairs. "The United States and China are the two biggest energy producers and consumers in the world. We have many shared interests in finding climate solutions," he said.</p><p key="RKfchs" num="5" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[RKfchs]" key="RKfchs" title="Link to 6th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span>Robert Kapp, former president of the U.S.-China Business Council, said he assumes that U.S. companies have saved up announcements of new clean energy projects for this week.</p><p key="CrtCrt" num="6" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[CrtCrt]" key="CrtCrt" title="Link to 7th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span><span class="bold" style="font-weight: bold; ">Cooperative research to get another push</span></p><p key="AtgTpw" num="7" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[AtgTpw]" key="AtgTpw" title="Link to 8th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span>At the government level, in the past year, the two nations have been implementing a $150 million joint program of Cooperative Energy Research Centers, which includes research on carbon capture and storage at West Virginia University, on electric vehicles at the University of Michigan, and on building efficiency at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This program will get another push forward this week, Sandalow said.</p><p key="Wafibi" num="8" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[Wafibi]" key="Wafibi" title="Link to 9th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span>"We are focused on protecting U.S. interests, but in the course of that, there are ways we can learn from each other," he said.</p><p key="OhtOht" num="9" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[OhtOht]" key="OhtOht" title="Link to 10th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span>Other high-level technology partnerships under way include a U.S.-China Steering Committee on Clean Energy Science and Technology Cooperation, a U.S.-China Electric Vehicle Initiative, and a U.S.-China Renewable Energy Partnership, Lewis noted.</p><p key="BsaCia" num="10" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[BsaCia]" key="BsaCia" title="Link to 11th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span>But, she added, "Despite the long list of official bilateral agreements signed between the United States and China in the area of clean energy and climate change, there have been many challenges to following through on the successful implementation of agreed upon activities," beginning with inconsistent funding. "Cooperation is also hampered by the increasingly competitive relationship between the United States and China in the global economic marketplace," Lewis said in the recently published Issue 11 of the Wilson Center's <i>China Environment Series</i>.</p><p key="CtiCti" num="11" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[CtiCti]" key="CtiCti" title="Link to 12th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span>"Clearly there is a long way to go to build the trust that will be crucial to scaling up clean energy cooperation between the United States and China that the world needs," she said.</p><p key="AtfAtf" num="12" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[AtfAtf]" key="AtfAtf" title="Link to 13th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span>As the fastest-growing market for wind and nuclear power and the leader in solar power modules, and with a commitment to expand electric vehicles and carbon capture from coal plants, China is the place to be for American clean energy companies with global aspirations.</p><p key="CwsSpb" num="13" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[CwsSpb]" key="CwsSpb" title="Link to 14th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span>"Certainly we should find something in between to make it win-win," said Zou Ji, China country director for the World Resources Institute in Beijing. "Some people believe now Chinese [clean] technology has been advanced, but that depends.</p><p key="ImCTUS" num="14" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[ImCTUS]" key="ImCTUS" title="Link to 15th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span>"In manufacturing, China has made great progress, but for R&D and design, China is still very weak." The United States and China can collaborate on joint research and development and scale the technology up in China, where costs are lower, he said.</p><p key="CaCCaC" num="15" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[CaCCaC]" key="CaCCaC" title="Link to 16th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span><span class="bold" style="font-weight: bold; ">Concerns about China's 'very tough game'</span></p><p key="Biatth" num="16" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="emInfo" style="position: absolute; margin-top: -1px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: -8px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 10px; background-color: transparent !important; "><a class="emAnchor" href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2011/01/17/17climatewire-clean-technology-in-china-a-difficult-balanc-90254.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment#p[Biatth]" key="Biatth" title="Link to 17th paragraph" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: none; ">¶</a></span>But if access to China is tied to a drain of leading-edge U.S. technology, the hopes for future American leadership in clean energy development -- a top priority for Energy Secretary Steven Chu -- could be erased.</p><p key="Biatth" num="16" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"China is America's fastest-growing export market but it still maintains significant barriers to U.S. goods and services," said Nina Hachigian in an overview of U.S.-China issues on the Center for American Progress' website.</p><p key="Biatth" num="16" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">While the trade frictions between the two countries over clean energy are improving, in Kapp's view, serious issues remain, he said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"In many commercial negotiations, the Chinese play a very hard game of trying to trade market access for technology, and American companies are always faced with the question of how much they're willing to part with, in terms of crown jewels or other advanced technologies ... in return for opportunities to make money in China," Kapp said. "The Chinese are not saints, and they play ... a very tough game," he told reporters last week.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">A report last year by a U.S. National Research Council panel criticized China's recent anti-monopoly law that prohibits "abuses" of intellectual property rights by foreign multinationals in China, an element of the country's "indigenous innovation" strategy.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The policy pressures foreign companies to transfer their technologies in return for market access to state-directed markets, the report said. "China is also likely to use the standards-setting process to compel multinationals to transfer the technology that is implicated in the standards or face the legal consequences of noncompliance," the report added.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"While still clouded with suspicions and disrupted by setbacks, the broader trends in the U.S.-China relationship today are fundamentally positive," concluded the report by the council team, led by C.D. "Dan" Mote Jr., former president of the University of Maryland, and John Gannon, an executive with BAE Systems Information Technology and former chairman of the National Intelligence Council.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The challenge -- and solution -- to the issue of technology transfer lies with the protection of intellectual property, Kapp said. "And on that," he said, "the jury is still out."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="bold" style="font-weight: bold; ">Case studies suggest caution</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Every U.S.-Chinese clean technology venture seems to have its own story and unique issues. For example, First Solar, the leading U.S. solar power company, made headlines in September 2009 with its agreement with Chinese officials to build a 2,000-megawatt photovoltaic energy project in Inner Mongolia.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">More than a year later, the project has not gotten off the ground. Under pressure from Chinese energy companies, Chinese officials have not yet approved a feed-in-tariff that would subsidize the cost of the solar farm's electricity.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"Until that happens, it is not economical to make the commitments and take the risks of undertaking a project like this," said First Solar spokesman Alan Bernheimer.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">When the project was announced, a local Chinese official expressed the hope of having a local factory make the First Energy solar cells, which are based on an advanced -- and closely guarded -- technology employing thin films of cadmium telluride as the photovoltaic material.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"No question the Chinese would love to have us site manufacturing facilities there, to work with our technology and gain experience using it," Bernheimer said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"There has been no commitment to putting manufacturing facilities in China," said Bernheimer. "We've only discussed the construction ... of solar generation plants. We've left open whether that could eventually involve manufacturing ... it's an open question."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">First Solar's research and testing occur at its factory in Ohio. The solar cells for the Mongolian project would most likely to produced at First Solar factories in Malaysia or Vietnam, he added, but that would not entail technology transfer to those countries. "We have not done that to date with anybody. Our manufacturing processes are the crown jewels of our technological advantage."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="bold" style="font-weight: bold; ">Protecting the 'crown jewels'</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">ECOtality also has traced a careful line in its relationship with its Chinese partner, according to company officials and its public statements.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The company had invested in research on hydrogen-power vehicles during the George W. Bush administration, and when that initiative was cut short by the Obama administration, ECOtality turned its efforts toward electric vehicle charging, where it has a base in equipment it produces for airline use.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The $2 million investment by Shenzhen Goch Investment Ltd. came at a crucial time. A month after it was announced in July 2009, ECOtality won a $99.8 million stimulus grant from the Energy Department -- later raised to $114 million -- to supply 15,000 of its Blink chargers for the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt plug-in vehicles that form the vanguard of the U.S. electric vehicle industry.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The company got a validating $10 million investment this month from ABB, the Swiss energy technology giant, and will use ABB electronics in its charger products.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The chargers for the DOE project will be made in the United States by a leading auto parts supplier, said ECOtality Vice President Chip Read. "We're spending a lot of money to get manufacturing up to speed in the U.S. That's not something we want to abandon."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">But ECOtality sees its chargers as contenders in a worldwide market that is just beginning to take shape. Shenzhen Goch Investment is the majority partner in two joint ventures to build and market the chargers in China, and to export them to Asian markets. ECOtality has the minority position in the venture, which includes technology transfer under license agreements that the U.S. company controls, Read said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Read said that ECOtality's strongest intellectual property position -- its crown jewels -- lies not in manufacturing, but in the back-end software and electronics that will control the customer charging operations, vehicle interfaces, billing and possibly linkages to the grid. These are likely to vary to some degree country by country, he said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"We have to take into account that we have a high-quality product, not just low-cost one. That will play a big role on where we source components."</p></span><p></p></span><p></p></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-71045241104072274212011-01-11T04:01:00.000-08:002011-01-11T04:06:58.976-08:00Over 60 German companies to take part in World Future Energy Summit 2011<h2><a href="http://www.ameinfo.com/253353.html">World Future Energy Summit 2011</a></h2><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:tahoma, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:tahoma, arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><h2 class="summary" id="summary" style="margin-top: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-left: 10px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; ">German companies and high-ranking government officials, led by Mr. Jost de Jager, Economic Minister of Schleswig-Holstein state, will be playing a major part in World Future Energy Summit (WFES) 2011, with over 60 companies from Germany now confirmed to take part in the event taking place in Abu Dhabi from 17-20 January 2011. HE Jurgen Becker, State Secretary, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany, who recently participated in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP16) in Mexico, will also be speaking at a panel discussion on Day One of the summit.</h2></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana, arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;">The announcement comes just weeks after the German government affirmed its commitment to giving renewable energy a central role in future energy policy with the announcement of plans to raise the share of renewable energy sources in power generation from 16% today to 80% by 2050.<br /><br />Leading German Financial Services Provider, Deutsche Bank Group is Principal Sponsor of WFES 2011. Other companies confirmed to take part include Siemens, the global technology provider, which is Platinum Sponsor, along with the automotive company Daimler, which is the official transport partner for the event.<br /><br />H. E. Ambassador Klaus-Peter Brandes, German Ambassador to the <acronym title="United Arab Emirates" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 51, 153); cursor: help; ">UAE</acronym>, commented on Germany's participation in this year's event: "Germany has participated from the outset in the World Future Energy Summits at Abu Dhabi and is proud to be represented once more in 2011 as one of the key players and as major exhibitor in this prestigious international fair. I have noted with great satisfaction that Germany was chosen as focus country in 2011. There is no doubt: Germany is an internationally recognized pioneer for climate protection and a trailblazer in mitigating global climate change."<br /><br />In addition to Mr. Becker, there are currently ten speakers from Germany confirmed for the upcoming summit. Caio Koch-Weser, Vice Chairman, Deutsche Bank Group, UK, will be welcoming delegates to an afternoon of panel discussions on Day One in which Mr. Becker will be discussing 'Tackling the World's Future Energy Challenges' alongside other international energy ministers.<br /><br />Other speakers at the summit will include Rene Umlauft, CEO Renewable Energy Siemens alongside Tilman Krauch, President Construction Chemicals, BASF SE, who will provide expert business insights into renewable energy. Thomas Braig, Head of EcoCommercial Building at Bayer Material Science will be speaking on building sustainable green cities, Herbert Kohler, Vice President E-drive and Future Mobility at Daimler will be taking part in a discussion about e-mobility, and Bernd Holling, Vice Director, Business Development at Lind Group will be participating in a session on carbon capture and storage.<br /><br />Two exhibitions will run alongside the 2011 summit, featuring over 40 leading German energy companies as part of the German Pavilion, Organised by Germany's Federal Economic Ministry, putting it among the largest of any of the country pavilions.<br /><br />Germany also had a strong presence at the recent UN Climate Change Conference (COP16) in Cancun, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December 2010. In a speech given at the conference, Norbert Röttgen called for more support for climate protection by pointing out the potential benefits for economic growth. Speaking in Cancun, Mr. Röttgen called upon countries around the world to take concerted action by creating robust international rules , and it is expected that he will continue this sentiment at WFES in Abu Dhabi.<br /><br />Held under the Patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the <acronym title="United Arab Emirates" style="border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 51, 153); cursor: help; ">UAE</acronym> Armed forces and hosted by Masdar, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mubadala Development Company focused on advancing the development, commercialisation and deployment of renewable energy and clean technology solutions, the World Future Energy Summit themed 'enabling future energy solutions' will run from 17-20 January 2011 and comprises the four day conference, alongside two exhibitions - a World Future Energy Exhibition and World Future Environment Exhibition.</span></div></span>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-10678887743211034182011-01-03T10:51:00.000-08:002011-01-03T10:53:59.714-08:00South Korea president says to nurture solar, wind, nuclear power<h2><a href="http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFTOE70100520110103">S.Korea president says to nurture solar, wind, nuclear power</a> - Reuters</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 15px; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans;font-size:13px;"><p style=" margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-family:verdana, helvetica, sans;"><span class="articleLocation">SEOUL</span> Jan 3 (Reuters) - South Korea, heavily dependent on energy imports, will strengthen its new and renewable energy sectors, President Lee Myung-bak said on Monday.<span id="midArticle_byline"></span></p><span id="midArticle_0"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Asia's fourth-largest economy expects its new and renewable energy sectors to achieve exports of $40 billion in 2015, compared with $4.6 billion in 2009, with the government to set up four or five test beds for solar and wind power generation in 2011 with an investment of 20 billion won ($17.7 million). </p><span id="midArticle_1"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">"In the future, the solar power industry will be nurtured as the semiconductor industry was, and the wind power industry as shipbuilding was," Lee said in a New Year speech.</p><span id="midArticle_2"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">"By taking the opportunity to export to the United Arab Emirates, the government will actively nurture nuclear power as an export industry to cope with the era of climate change," he said, referring to an up to $40 billion nuclear deal awarded to a South Korean consortium in late 2009. </p><span id="midArticle_3"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">One of the world's fastest-growing carbon polluters, South Korea is seeking to shift from its dependence on fossil fuels, expanding investment in green resources.</p><span id="midArticle_4"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">In October last year, the government said it would spend 40 trillion won by 2015 in a combined push by the public and private sectors to boost renewable energy resources. (Reporting by Cho Mee-young; Editing by Chris Lewis)</p></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-49067830621956889522011-01-03T10:43:00.000-08:002011-01-03T10:50:52.889-08:00Goldman Offering Clients a Chance to Invest in Facebook<h2><a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/02/goldman-invests-in-facebook-at-50-billion-valuation/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2">Goldman Offering Clients a Chance to Invest in Facebook</a> - New York Times</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 13px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size:10px;"><div class="w348 right" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 12px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; float: right; clear: right; width: 348px; "><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/12/10/business/dbpix-mark-zuckerberg-facebook/dbpix-mark-zuckerberg-facebook-custom1.jpg" id="100000000486538" alt="Mark Zuckerberg, founder and chief executive officer of Facebook" /><span class="credit" style="display: block; margin-top: 2px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(144, 144, 144); line-height: 1.223em; text-align: right; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:1em;">Tony Avelar/Bloomberg News</span><span class="caption" style="display: block; margin-top: 3px; margin-right: 2px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 2px; line-height: 1.2727em; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:1.1em;">The deal could double the personal fortune of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder.</span></div><p size="16px" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><a href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=GS&inline=nyt-org" class="tickerized" title="More information about Goldman Sachs Group Inc" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Goldman Sachs</a> has reached out to its wealthy private clients, offering them a chance to invest in <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org" class="tickerized" title="More articles about Facebook." style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Facebook</a>, the hot social networking giant that is considering a possible public offering in 2012, according to people familiar with the matter.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">On Sunday night, a number of Goldman clients received an email from their Goldman broker, offering them the opportunity to invest in an unnamed “private company that is considering a transaction to raise additional capital.” Another person briefed on the deal said that Goldman clients would have to pony up a minimum of $2 million to invest and would be prohibited from selling their shares until 2013.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">A Goldman spokesman declined to comment.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Facebook has raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor in a transaction that values the company at $50 billion, according to people involved in the transaction. As part of its deal with Facebook, Goldman is expected to raise as much as $1.5 billion from investors for Facebook.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The email sent to Goldman clients warns that recipients who trade in secondary markets where private firms like Facebook trade may want to steer clear of participating because if they opt in they may receive material non-public information on the unnamed company that will restrict future trading.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The email said that even clients who receive the non-public information and decide not to invest would have to wait at least six months and possibly longer before they would be able to trade Facebook shares in the secondary market.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">These restrictions are lifted if Facebook goes public in the interim.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Even though Facebook is not a public company it trades on secondary markets. The sellers in these markets are typically former employees of companies like Facebook and investors looking to unload their stakes. The buyers are mostly wealthy speculators looking to snag a piece of the next <a href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=AAPL&inline=nyt-org" class="tickerized" title="More information about Apple Inc." style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Apple</a> or <a href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=GOOG&inline=nyt-org" class="tickerized" title="More information about Google Inc" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Google</a> before the rest of the investing public can.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Goldman clients who opt to receive more information will receive a private placement memorandum from Goldman in the coming days. That document will confirm the company involved is Facebook, and give other more detailed information about the investment.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; "><em>The original article is below:</em></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; "><strong>By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and EVELYN M. RUSLI<br /></strong></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Facebook, the popular social networking site, has raised $500 million from <a href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=GS&inline=nyt-org" class="tickerized" title="More information about Goldman Sachs Group Inc" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Goldman Sachs</a> and a Russian investor in a deal that values the company at $50 billion, according to people involved in the transaction.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The deal makes Facebook now worth more than companies like <a href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=EBAY&inline=nyt-org" class="tickerized" title="More information about eBay Inc" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">eBay</a>, <a href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=YHOO&inline=nyt-org" class="tickerized" title="More information about Yahoo! Inc" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Yahoo</a> and<a href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=TWX&inline=nyt-org" class="tickerized" title="More information about Time Warner Inc" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Time Warner</a>.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The stake by Goldman Sachs, considered one of Wall Street’s savviest investors, signals the increasing might of Facebook, which has already been bearing down on giants like <a href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=GOOG&inline=nyt-org" class="tickerized" title="More information about Google Inc" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Google</a>.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The new money will give Facebook more firepower to steal away valuable employees, develop new products and possibly pursue acquisitions — all without being a publicly traded company. The investment may also allow earlier shareholders, including Facebook employees, to cash out at least some of their stakes.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The new investment comes as the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/securities_and_exchange_commission/index.html?inline=nyt-org" class="tickerized" title="More articles about the U.S. Securities And Exchange Commission." style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Securities and Exchange Commission</a> <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/27/stock-trading-in-private-companies-draws-scrutiny/" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">has begun an inquiry</a> into the increasingly hot private market for shares in Internet companies, including Facebook, <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/twitter/index.html?inline=nyt-org" class="tickerized" title="More articles about Twitter." style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Twitter</a>, the gaming site Zynga and LinkedIn, an online professional networking site. Some experts suggest the inquiry is focused on whether certain companies are improperly using the private market to get around public disclosure requirements.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The deal <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/focus-on-private-shares-could-push-a-public-offering/" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">could add pressure</a> on Facebook to go public even as its executives have resisted. The popularity of shares of <a href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=MSFT&inline=nyt-org" class="tickerized" title="More information about Microsoft Corp" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Microsoft</a> and Google in the private market ultimately pressured them to pursue initial public offerings.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:10px;"></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">So far, Facebook’s chief executive, <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/z/mark_e_zuckerberg/index.html?inline=nyt-per" class="tickerized" title="More articles about Mark E. Zuckerberg." style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Mark Zuckerberg</a>, has brushed aside the possibility of an initial public offering or a sale of the company. At an industry conference in November, he said on the topic, “Don’t hold your breath.” However, people involved in the fund-raising effort suggest that Facebook’s board has indicated an intention to consider a public offering in 2012.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">There has been an explosion in user interest in social media sites. The social buying site Groupon, which recently rejected a $6 billion takeover bid from Google, is in the process of <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/groupon-attracts-new-investors-and-works-on-an-i-p-o/" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">raising as much as $950 million</a> from major institutional investors, at a valuation near $5 billion, according to people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">“When you think back to the early days of Google, they were kind of ignored by Wall Street investors, until it was time to go public,” said Chris Sacca, an angel investor in Silicon Valley who is a former Google employee and an investor in Twitter. “This time, the Street is smartening up. They realize there are true growth businesses out here. Facebook has become a real business, and investors are coming out here and saying, ‘We want a piece of it.’ ”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The Facebook investment deal is likely to stir up a debate about what the company would be worth in the public market. Though it does not disclose its financial performance, analysts estimate the company is profitable and could bring in as much as $2 billion in revenue annually.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Under the terms of the deal, Goldman has invested $450 million, and Digital Sky Technologies, a Russian investment firm that has already sunk about half a billion dollars into Facebook, invested $50 million, people involved in the talks said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Goldman has the right to sell part of its stake, up to $75 million, to the Russian firm, these people said. For Digital Sky Technologies, the deal means its original investment in Facebook, at a valuation of $10 billion, has gone up fivefold.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Representatives for Facebook, Goldman and Digital Sky Technologies all declined to comment.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Goldman’s involvement means it may be in a strong position to take Facebook public when it decides to do so in what is likely to be a lucrative and prominent deal.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">As part of the deal, Goldman is expected to raise as much as $1.5 billion from investors for Facebook at the $50 billion valuation, people involved in the discussions said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the transaction was not supposed to be made public until the fund-raising had been completed.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">In a rare move, Goldman is planning to create a “special purpose vehicle” to allow its high-net-worth clients to invest in Facebook, these people said. While the S.E.C. requires companies with more than 499 investors to disclose their financial results to the public, Goldman’s proposed special purpose vehicle may be able get around such a rule because it would be managed by Goldman and considered just one investor, even though it could conceivably be pooling investments from thousands of clients.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">It is unclear whether the S.E.C. will look favorably upon the arrangement.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Already, a thriving secondary market exists for shares of Facebook and other private Internet companies. In November, $40 million worth of Facebook shares changed hands in an auction on a private exchange called SecondMarket. According to SharesPost, Facebook’s value has roughly tripled over the last year, to $42.4 billion. Some investors appear to have bought Facebook shares at a price that implies a valuation of $56 billion. But the credibility of one of Wall Street’s largest names, Goldman, may help justify the company’s worth.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Facebook <a href="http://www.hitwise.com/us/press-center/press-releases/facebook-was-the-top-search-term-in-2010-for-sec/" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">also surpassed Google</a> as the most visited Web site in 2010, according to the Internet tracking firm Experian Hitwise.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Facebook received 8.9 percent of all Web visits in the United States between January and November 2010. Google’s main site was second with 7.2 percent, followed by Yahoo Mail service, Yahoo’s Web portal and YouTube, part of Google.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">For Mr. Zuckerberg, the deal may double his personal fortune, which Forbes estimated at $6.9 billion when Facebook was valued at $23 billion. That would put him in a league with the founders of Google, <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/p/larry_page/index.html?inline=nyt-per" class="tickerized" title="More articles about Larry Page." style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Larry Page</a> and <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/sergey_brin/index.html?inline=nyt-per" class="tickerized" title="More articles about Sergey Brin." style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Sergey Brin</a>, who are reportedly worth $15 billion apiece.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Even as Goldman takes a stake in Facebook, its employees may struggle to view what they invested in. Like those at most major Wall Street firms, Goldman’s computers automatically block access to social networking sites, including Facebook.</p></span><p></p></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-17456676440325129902011-01-01T05:57:00.000-08:002011-01-01T06:10:17.977-08:00New Capital for Groupon Sets Stage for an Offering<h2><a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/new-capital-for-groupon-sets-stage-for-an-offering/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha25">New Capital for Groupon Sets Stage for an Offering</a> - New York Times</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 13px; "><div class="w348 right" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 12px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; float: right; clear: right; width: 261px; "><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/12/31/business/dbpix-companies-groupon4-office/dbpix-companies-groupon4-office-custom1.jpg" alt="Groupon" /><span class="credit" style="display: block; font-size: 1em; margin-top: 2px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(144, 144, 144); line-height: 1.223em; text-align: right; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; ">Tim Boyle/Bloomberg News</span><span class="caption" style="display: block; margin-top: 3px; margin-right: 2px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 2px; font-size: 1.1em; line-height: 1.2727em; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; ">Groupon employees at the company’s headquarters in Chicago.</span></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The 30-year-old founder and chief executive of Groupon, Andrew Mason, could raise as much as $950 million from investors in the next few weeks, laying the groundwork for a multibillion-dollar initial public offering in 2011.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The social buying site, which offers coupons for local businesses, has so far locked up $500 million in fresh capital from Fidelity Investments,<a class="tickerized" title="More information about Morgan Stanley" href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=MS&inline=nyt-org" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Morgan Stanley</a>, <a class="tickerized" title="More information about Price, T Rowe, Group" href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=TROW&inline=nyt-org" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">T. Rowe Price</a>, and other large investors — allowing Mr. Mason and eight other directors to take a significant amount of cash off the table.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">In the coming weeks, the company could bring in another $450 million, according to<a href="http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1490281/000149028110000002/xslFormDX01/primary_doc.xml" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday</a>.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">If successful, Groupon’s latest fund-raising effort would be the largest ever for a start-up, a <a class="tickerized" title="More articles about Venture Capital." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/v/venture_capital/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">venture capital</a> record held by <a class="tickerized" title="More information about DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc" href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=DWA&inline=nyt-org" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">DreamWorks Animation SKG</a> for the last 15 years, based on <a class="tickerized" title="More information about Thomson Reuters Corp" href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=TRI&inline=nyt-org" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Thomson Reuters</a> data.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; "></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">A spokeswoman for Groupon declined to comment on the outside investments.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The fund-raising is all part of the typical life cycle for an Internet start-up. But Groupon has gone from a quirky idea to Web darling in about two years — an especially fast evolution that got a turbo charge when the Chicago-based company spurned a $6 billion takeover offer by <a class="tickerized" title="More information about Google Inc" href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=GOOG&inline=nyt-org" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Google</a> in the first week of December.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">A frenzy of activity followed the failed bid.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Within days, institutional investors started lining up, ready to provide significant capital infusions. On Dec. 20, Groupon hired its first chief financial officer, Jason Child, a former <a class="tickerized" title="More information about Amazon.com Inc" href="http://dealbook.on.nytimes.com/public/overview?symbol=AMZN&inline=nyt-org" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Amazon.com</a> executive. By Thursday, Fidelity, T. Rowe Price, Morgan Stanley and others had committed $500 million, according to two people with knowledge of the fund-raising who asked for anonymity because they said they were not authorized to speak publicly.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Meanwhile, Groupon, with revenue above $1 billion, continues to grow at a breakneck pace. In the last month, the site’s subscriber base has jumped 42.3 percent to more than more than 50 million worldwide, the company said. On private exchanges that facilitate trading in tech start-ups, Groupon has an implied valuation approaching $5 billion, up from $1.2 billion in June.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">With its giant war chest and investor excitement, Groupon is planning to hold an I.P.O. at the end of 2011, these people said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The company’s eagerness to enter the public markets stands in stark contrast to another Internet star, <a class="tickerized" title="More articles about Facebook." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Facebook</a>. The social media giant reluctantly — almost grudgingly — seems headed for an I.P.O. in the next two years. The S.E.C. is looking at private trading in Facebook shares, which may prompt the company to go public earlier than it wants.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">If either company holds a public offering, it would be the most highly anticipated since Google’s in 2004. A multibillion-dollar deal would also go a long way to reviving the moribund I.P.O. market, which has been in a slump since the financial crisis. In the last three years, only 61 tech start-ups have gone public — and none valued at more than $1 billion, according to boutique investment firm Renaissance Capital.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">“The market has been waiting a long time for that innovative young company, like a Groupon, to hit,” said Paul Bard, a vice president at Renaissance Capital. “Having one of these companies go public would validate the I.P.O. market for a lot of smaller companies waiting in the wings.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Groupon could be rushing its debut, in part, to cement its dominance in the online advertising market. While Groupon is the 800-pound gorilla, it is a highly competitive space that has spawned scores of clones that are becoming viable threats. The No. 2 player, LivingSocial, has more than 10 million subscribers and recently raised $175 million from Amazon.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">For now, Groupon has first-mover advantage. But that edge can quickly evaporate as Friendster and <a class="tickerized" title="More articles about MySpace.com." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/myspace_com/index.html?inline=nyt-org" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">MySpace</a> learned when Facebook entered the social media fray years ago.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">“If they raise all this money privately and then become the first to go public in this space, they will become the de facto winner,” said Peter Falvey, co-head of technology investment banking for Morgan Keegan. “They have a good lead, but the idea is to go for the knockout punch — an I.P.O. would be a huge branding event.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">For Groupon’s new class of investors, it is all about that eventual payday. By jumping in now, T. Rowe Price, Fidelity and Morgan Stanley get an opportunity to peer into the company’s books and more important, get in before the public offering so the potential for a windfall is greater.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">T. Rowe Price and Fidelity have participated in venture capital deals before. In 2008, the two firms teamed up on a $50 million fund-raising effort for Slide.com, a Web application developer. T. Rowe Price also has a stake in <a class="tickerized" title="More articles about Twitter." href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/twitter/index.html?inline=nyt-org" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Twitter</a>, which recently raised $200 million.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">“Institutional players are dealing with a competitive environment, and they’re looking to put capital to work in a differentiated way,” said Tige Savage, a board member at LivingSocial. “They see it as an opportunity to get involved earlier at a better price and lock themselves into larger positions at these companies.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">As institutional investors patiently wait for their payout, Groupon’s directors could soon get a windfall. The company plans to use $344.5 million from the latest fund-raising round to let Mr. Mason and the rest of the board cash out some shares.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">That would be the second time this year the company’s founder banked profits. “Historically, most private company investors don’t get meaningful liquidity from other private investors,” Mr. Falvey said. “Groupon is the exception, not the rule.”</p></span><p></p></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-55175770749695200222011-01-01T05:46:00.000-08:002011-01-01T05:52:40.864-08:00Is 2011 the Year of the Blockbuster Tech I.P.O.?<h2><a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/is-2011-the-year-of-the-blockbuster-tech-i-p-o/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha26">Is 2011 the Year of the Blockbuster Tech I.P.O.?</a> - New York Times</h2><div>Evelyn M. Rusli asks in New York Time's Deal Book if 2011 will be the Year of the Blockbuster Tech I.P.O.? A question that merits our attention!</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 13px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;font-size:10px;"><div class="w362 right" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 12px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; float: right; clear: right; "><img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/12/30/business/dbpix-zynga-farmville/dbpix-zynga-farmville-tmagSF.jpg" id="100000000508491" width="272" height="154" alt="FarmVille, Zynga’s online game." /><span class="credit" style="display: block; margin-top: 2px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(144, 144, 144); line-height: 1.223em; text-align: right; font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:1em;"></span><span class="caption" style="display: block; margin-top: 3px; margin-right: 2px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 2px; line-height: 1.2727em; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:1.1em;">FarmVille, Zynga’s online game.</span></div><p size="16px" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">For technology start-ups, the initial public offering has long lost the sheen of the dot-com era, when it seemed like anyone with an idea could go public. At the peak of the bubble, the Silicon Valley factory was in overdrive, pumping out hundreds of I.P.O.’s. a year.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">In the wake of the financial crisis, there were just 45 offerings of tech companies in 2010, according to investment firm Renaissance Capital. The year before, only 16 debuted.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Now, Silicon Valley could see a modest return to the prerecession days — and even a hot brand-name initial offering from the likes of Groupon, Facebook or Zynga analysts say.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">“If the equity markets remain stable, I expect a solid I.P.O. market,” said Peter Falvey, co-head of technology investment banking for Morgan Keegan. “We could see 20 percent more deals by value and by number.” Mr. Falvey and others also see increasing odds for a “Death Star explosion” — a blockbuster, multibillion dollar offering from a major Internet company. That theory gained credence on Thursday, when DealBook <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/2010/12/30/groupon-attracts-new-investors-and-works-on-an-i-p-o/" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">reported</a> that that social-buying site Groupon is preparing for to I.P.O. at the end of 2011.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Silicon Valley is waking from a deep slumber.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:10px;"></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The credit crisis paralyzed the technology I.P.O. market, as investors shunned unproven ventures. Only 20 companies went public from 2008 to the end of 2009, according to data from Renaissance Capital.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Meanwhile, initial offerings have become less attractive to young entrepreneurs who do not want to be burdened with the costly bureaucratic challenges of going public, including increased regulatory scrutiny, constant filings and high investment banking fees.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Instead, more founders are delaying initial offerings in favor of additional venture capital. Facebook raised more than half a billion dollars from the Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies. As DealBook noted, Groupon is negotiating with Fidelity, T. Rowe Price and Morgan Stanley for another round of financing that could be as large as $950 million.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Still, several analysts say I.P.O.’s may be regaining favor again, thanks to the improving stock market and a better economic environment.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">“We may be nearing an inflection point,” said Paul Bard, a vice president at Renaissance Capital. “Companies are feeling good about their businesses, the buy side is more interested in growth and new money is coming into the market. When you have those three things happening in concert, that creates the potential for a very vibrant market for tech I.P.O.’s.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The market may also be supported by the steady flow of Chinese companies, looking to go public on American exchanges. Eleven technology companies based in China had initial public offerings in the United States this year, including DangDang, an online retailer that experienced higher-than-expected demand in its debut, raising $272 million.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">After a sluggish start, I.P.O. performance and pricing has picked up in the second half of this year. The shares of technology companies that have recently gone public are up 50.3 percent from their initial offer price, according to Morgan Keegan.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Although there are a few well-known names in this group, including the electric-car marker Tesla, the vast majority are little known, small-cap stocks. And some have done very well.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Shares of the software maker RealPage, which began trading in August, have roughly doubled. RealD, the 3-D technology company that went public in July, is up 60 percent.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The average first-day increase in share price was 18 percent, said Mr. Bard, adding that the recent rally would encourage small and midsize tech start-ups to take the plunge next year. He says he expects 2011 I.P.O. activity for technology stocks to match the levels of the years preceding the recession. In those years, the market averaged 53 public offerings a year with a value of $9.6 billion, according to Renaissance Capital.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">There are 22 companies in the tech I.P.O. pipeline, including the Web chat service<a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/skype-said-to-eye-1-billion-i-p-o-next-year/" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">Skype</a>, which many predict will be a billion-dollar offering.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">The latest parlor game, however, is placing bets on whether Internet companies like Groupon or Facebook, which already have multibillion-dollar valuations, will join the fray. There has been significant demand for these Web darlings in the secondary markets, private exchanges that match buyers and sellers, including former employees looking to sell their stock. Facebook, at the center of the frenzy, is trading at an implied valuation of $42.4 billion, according to SharesPost.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">Although the company’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has said that he is in no rush to go public, the company may face increased pressure in the near term. As more investors pile into Facebook shares, often through special investment pools, the company could soon surpass 500 shareholders. That milestone would <a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/28/focus-on-private-shares-could-push-a-public-offering/" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">subject the company </a>to a Securities and Exchange Commission rule that would require Facebook to register with the S.E.C. and submit financial results.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">As DealBook<a href="http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/12/27/stock-trading-in-private-companies-draws-scrutiny/" style="color: rgb(52, 111, 154); text-decoration: none; ">reported</a>, the S.E.C. has started to ask for information about secondary-market trading in the shares of Facebook, Twitter, Zynga and LinkedIn.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">If Groupon or Facebook, or one of their peers, do go public in 2011, Mr. Falvey said it would be a game changer for the industry.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; font-size: 16px; ">“There’s a chance that you get that Death Star I.P.O. in the tech market that draws huge attention to I.P.O.’s,,” he said, “the kind of attention we haven’t seen since the tech bubble burst in 2000.”</p></span><p></p></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:85%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 11px; text-transform: uppercase;font-size:10px;"><br /></span></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-42245224659166925852010-12-23T06:07:00.000-08:002010-12-23T06:13:20.793-08:00Energy companies in Switzerland join forces for new nuclear plants<h2><a href="http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFLDE6BM07K20101223">Swiss nuclear firms join forces on new reactors</a> - Reuters</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(65, 65, 65); font-weight: bold; line-height: 17px; ">Axpo, Alpiq, and BKW will each take a third in a new project company</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(65, 65, 65); font-weight: bold; line-height: 17px; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(65, 65, 65); font-weight: bold; line-height: 17px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; font-weight: normal; line-height: 15px; "><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Swiss utility companies Axpo, Alpiq (ALPH.S: <a href="http://af.reuters.com/stocks/quote?symbol=ALPH.S" style="color: rgb(0, 90, 132); text-decoration: none; ">Quote</a>) and BKW (BKWN.S: <a href="http://af.reuters.com/stocks/quote?symbol=BKWN.S" style="color: rgb(0, 90, 132); text-decoration: none; ">Quote</a>) have decided to club together in their plans for two new nuclear power stations to replace existing capacity, they said on Thursday.</p><span id="midArticle_3"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Although new capacity is probably a decade away, the plans show Swiss operators are determined to keep control of some 3,200 megawatts of capacity that currently supply 40 percent of Swiss electricity usage from five generation units. [POWER/CH]</p><span id="midArticle_4"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">"This represents a milestone in the bid to ensure security of supply in Switzerland," said a statement issued by Axpo.</p><span id="midArticle_5"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">"This will speed up the political process and official procedures, enable synergies to be exploited in the evaluation process, and save on costs," it added.</p><span id="midArticle_6"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The aim is to compensate for existing plants reaching the end of their operating lives and for French import agreements that are due to expire, it said.</p><span id="midArticle_7"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Switzerland's role is pivotal in central European power markets, where prices are converging. Nuclear serves as a basis while its big hydropower sector supplies neighbours in years with high water supply but necessitates imports in dry years. </p><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans; "></span></p><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Under the latest plans, the three companies will further develop previously separate projects jointly and be given equal shareholdings each in a joint planning and project company, which might also become a joint operating company in the future.</p><span id="midArticle_0"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Decisions on sites and the prioritisation were expected to be made in mid-2012, they said.</p><span id="midArticle_1"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Sites at Niederamt, Beznau and Muehleberg have already been declared suitable for replacement plants and further feasibility studies are under way.</p><span id="midArticle_2"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The ratio of power procurement entitlements has also been laid down, with some minor adjustments. It will roughly be 59 percent for Axpo and its subsidiaries Axpo AG and CKW, 25.5 percent for Alpiq and 15.5 percent for BKW, commensurate with their existing share of current production capacity.</p><span id="midArticle_3"></span><p style="font-family: verdana, helvetica, sans; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The existing Swiss capacity is split betwen the three firms, with some participation of cities and Cantons, and Germany's E.ON (EONGn.DE:<a href="http://af.reuters.com/stocks/quote?symbol=EONGn.DE" style="color: rgb(0, 90, 132); text-decoration: none; ">Quote</a>), which has a 20 percent share in Muehleberg. (Reporting by Vera Eckert; editing by James Jukwey)</p></span><p></p></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-10764512475395735922010-12-21T06:09:00.000-08:002010-12-21T06:11:25.154-08:00Probable Carcinogen Found in Tap Water of 31 U.S. Cities<h2><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/12/20/20greenwire-probable-carcinogen-found-in-tap-water-of-31-us-4856.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment">Probable Carcinogen Found in Tap Water of 31 U.S. Cities</a> - New York Times</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; ">In 25 of 35 U.S. cities where tap water supplies were tested for hexavalent chromium -- deemed likely to cause cancer in humans in a U.S. EPA draft review this year -- levels of the chemical exceeded the minimum set by the state of California to protect public health, according to a report released today by an environmental group.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The Environmental Working Group's (EWG) new findings mark a public flare-up in the behind-the-scenes battle over estimating the carcinogenicity of oral exposure to hexavalent chromium, also referred to as chromium-6. The draft EPA assessment released in September could pave the way for a national drinking-water standard for the chemical, best known for polluting groundwater in Hinkley, Calif., where activist Erin Brockovich won a multimillion-dollar settlement for locals and became a household name.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The outcry over cancer cases in Hinkley helped push California to set a tap-water public health goal of 0.06 parts per billion (ppb) of chromium-6, an early move on the way to a binding state standard (<a href="http://www.eenews.net/public/Greenwire/2009/08/21/13" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; "><i>Greenwire</i></a>, Aug. 21, 2009). Of the 35 cities where EWG tested drinking supplies, 31 contained some level of chromium-6, and 25 -- including Washington, Los Angeles and Norman, Okla., where samples showed 12.9 ppb -- contained levels higher than the California goal.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">EWG senior scientist Rebecca Sutton, an environmental chemist who crafted today's report, said her group's data provide new ammunition for measuring and restricting chromium-6 in drinking water nationwide. The federal government made "a very poor choice" by mandating its current drinking-water tests for total chromium, a metric that blends hazardous chromium-6 with the essential nutrient trivalent chromium.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Sutton added that while "industry is doing its very best to slow the process down even further," she hopes to see California advancing its chromium-6 limits to serve as a potential model for broader action. "Sometimes the state of California can lead the way, can show, 'Hey, this is possible,'" she said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Brockovich, now an author and full-time consumer advocate, predicted in an interview that further chromium-6 water contamination issues would emerge "not only at a national but a global level."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"There is no reason why we can't address this without sounding some kind of panic alarm, which [critics] are going to accuse us of doing," Brockovich said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">A heavy metal commonly used in industrial dyes and coatings that also occurs naturally in small amounts, chromium-6 is known to be carcinogenic via inhalation. The cancer-causing effects of oral exposure through water, however, remain the subject of intense debate between environmentalists and industry.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The recent EPA draft review of chromium-6 incorporated the results of a 2008 National Toxicology Program (NTP) study that found a higher occurrence of gastrointestinal tumors in exposed rodents. The American Chemistry Council and the American Water Works Association, which represents water utilities that could bear the costs of broader chromium-6 testing, have both questioned the application of the NTP study to human exposures at lower levels.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">ACC and AWWA have called on EPA to postpone further action on its chromium-6 risk assessment until new studies, including one funded by industry, are released next year.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">A senior official at the Southern California Water Committee (SCWC), an alliance of industry and local governments active on water quality issues in the state, also asked EPA to delay the chromium-6 assessment until more studies are released.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Using the 2008 NTP data to assess the cancer-causing effects of lower exposures to chromium-6 "may not reflect the true risk and will have significant consequences for the public's confidence in the quality and safety of their drinking water," SCWC Executive Director Richard Atwater wrote to EPA in October. "Furthermore, it would prematurely trigger regulatory levels that water supply agencies simply don't have the equipment to monitor and detect."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><a href="http://ewg.org/chromium6-in-tap-water" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; "><b>Click here</b></a> to read EWG's full report on hexavalent chromium in drinking water.</p></span></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-76669558141849344102010-12-21T06:04:00.000-08:002010-12-21T06:07:57.631-08:00Wyoming Natural Gas Fracking Rules for Point the Way for Public Disclosure of Chemicals Used<h2><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/12/20/20greenwire-wyo-natural-gas-fracking-rules-for-point-the-w-18753.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment">Wyoming Natural Gas Fracking Rules for Point the Way for Public Disclosure of Chemicals Used</a> - New York Times</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; ">To coax more oil from a wildcat well named "Mad Hatter," Halliburton Co. is planning to inject water mixed with small concentrations of napthalene, ethanol, "1,2,4-Trimethylbenzene" and "hydrotreated light petroleum distillate" into a hole in the ground near Casper, Wyo.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Such detailed chemical information was once a closely guarded secret. But it is available to anyone with an Internet connection now that Wyoming is demanding that drillers disclose each chemical that they are putting in each well.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Led by Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D), state regulators decided that the best response to fears about water contamination and the prospect of federal regulation was to order the country's most detailed disclosures of the ingredients used in hydraulic fracturing.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Though companies had long argued that fracturing fluid recipes are trade secrets worth millions of dollars, there has been relatively little grumbling since the rules kicked in Sept. 15.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"I'm not hearing many complaints," said John Robitaille, vice president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming. "I think we're OK."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">And Wyoming's regulations could be the shape of things to come. The Obama administration is looking to the Cowboy State as a model for fracturing disclosure on federal lands in the West. Interior Department officials figure it would be hard to argue against an approach developed in petroleum-friendly Wyoming.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">If that led to Western state governments adopting similar rules, Eastern states such as Pennsylvania could feel pressure to demand similar information from drillers tapping into the rich Marcellus Shale.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"It will certainly become a model for disclosure," said Dave Alberswerth, a former Clinton administration Interior official now with the Wilderness Society. "It'll be more difficult for industry to argue against this."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">In fracturing, crews inject tanker-loads of water and sand underground to blow apart the rock and release gas. A small fraction of that concoction is a mixture of chemicals as mundane as ice cream thickener and as toxic as benzene.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Improvements in fracturing technology have opened the vast shale formations in Pennsylvania and other states that were previously considered too difficult and expensive to tap.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">But the rapid expansion of drilling and fracturing has intensified fears that the toxins and carcinogens in fracturing fluid might contaminate drinking water. Environmentalists and congressional Democrats have pushed not only for public disclosure of fracturing chemicals but also stricter federal regulation of the practice.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Drilling companies, though, say fracturing is safe and existing state regulation is sufficient. They stress that the fracturing fluid is injected thousands of feet below drinking water aquifers and maintain that there has never been a proven case of groundwater contamination from the fracturing process.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="bold" style="font-weight: bold; ">Hushing the debate</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">With the regulations, Wyoming has done what Washington failed to do: quiet the burgeoning debate about fracturing.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The rules accomplish much of what congressional Democrats and environmental groups were seeking in the arena of disclosure. Though they cover only one state, that state accounts for a tenth of all gas production in the United States. Neither industry nor environmentalists are completely happy with the disclosure regulations, but both have accepted them.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The oil and gas industry has arrived at this point after years of struggle. Companies have long maintained that public disclosure of fracturing fluid ingredients would unfairly cost them millions of dollars. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year, Halliburton said federal or state requirements to disclose the composition of fracturing fluid would be a regulatory burden that could decrease profits.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Halliburton spokeswoman Teresa Wong referred questions about the Wyoming regulations to trade groups such as the Petroleum Association of Wyoming.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"As for Halliburton, we will of course continue to comply with all laws and regulations," Wong said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">But as pressure grew, companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. insisted that they actually were disclosing the ingredients because they posted "material safety data sheets" (MSDS) at work sites. But those information sheets are for industrial accidents, not groundwater monitoring, and they often omit key data.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">When Colorado overhauled its regulations in 2007, it required more disclosure, but not to the public. Colorado now requires drillers to keep a detailed inventory, but they only give a copy to regulators if asked.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">But as the public profile of fracturing has risen to become the subject of independent film documentaries and network shows like "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," more companies have embraced the need for full public disclosure.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"Giving the public a greater sense of transparency is an important step forward," Anadarko Petroleum Corp. spokesman John Christiansen said. "Once the process is better understood, we think the public will be more comfortable with it."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Industry advocates say that the quiet compliance of drillers of Wyoming proves that their objections were not so much about informing the public so much as opposition to giving more power to a federal agency such as U.S. EPA.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Arkansas has approved well-by-well disclosure regulations that go into effect next year. Also, an association of state oil and gas regulators called the Ground Water Protection Council is developing a voluntary system for well-by-well disclosure that has been endorsed by drilling companies.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="bold" style="font-weight: bold; ">Interior studies Wyo. model</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Still, other Western states have even fewer requirements for disclosure. New Mexico regulations, for instance, do not address disclosure of fracturing chemicals.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">In the East, Pennsylvania currently requires public disclosure of fracturing chemicals, but only the MSDS sheets, which are available at regional offices. But amid a strengthening gas rush, the state is still determining how it will tax and regulate oil and gas production. New York has banned most high-volume fracturing while it studies the process and develops rules.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Congressional efforts to force disclosure of chemicals stalled this year and will likely disappear when Republicans take over the House next year. But at a forum on fracturing late last month, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced his department plans to develop rules on public disclosure of fracturing chemicals used on the vast public lands of the West (<a href="http://www.eenews.net/public/eenewspm/2010/11/30/3" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; "><i>E&ENews PM</i></a>, Nov. 30).</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"I'd like to see that happen," Wyoming Oil and Gas supervisor Tom Doll, who shepherded the new regulations, said in an interview. "What we're saying is have something that's working. Nothing beats success like success."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Interior officials confirmed that they are looking to Wyoming as a model for such regulations, which would primarily affect lands and minerals overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. And Salazar gave Doll a keynote role at Interior's fracturing forum. Administration officials used the forum to explore how public disclosure has worked on federal lands in Wyoming.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Still, Salazar's announcement sparked outrage from Republicans on Capitol Hill.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"I oppose adding burdensome, new red-tape that will further discourage oil and gas production on public lands in the West," Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) wrote to Salazar after the announcement.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Barrasso declined to comment about how he would react to Interior adopting Wyoming's rules, saying through a spokeswoman that he would not comment on a "hypothetical situation."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Drillers also remain wary of the idea of federal regulation, even if it is modeled on rules they have accepted at the state level.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"If they copied it verbatim, we'd have no problem with it here in Wyoming," the state petroleum association's Robitaille said. "But in my experience, that's not how it works."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">As gratified as they are to see movement toward greater disclosure, environmentalists say they still want to see stricter regulation, preferably by U.S. EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"Disclosure helps only after your water is contaminated. It doesn't prevent your water from being contaminated," said Amy Mall of the Natural Resources Defense Council.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="bold" style="font-weight: bold; ">'Trade secrets'</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">And environmentalists are also worried that Wyoming is agreeing to too many industry requests to shield compounds as "trade secrets."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"While we've been getting disclosure, it looks like that will be tightening up," said Jill Morrison, an organizer with the Powder River Basin Resource Council in Sheridan, Wyo.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">But Doll said secrecy will be the exception, not the rule. He said his staff has been careful not to shield the chemical ingredients of broadly used "plain vanilla" fracturing fluid.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"Initially, I think people thought, 'They'll say that everything is a trade secret,'" Doll said. "That hasn't been the case."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The application for the Mad Hatter well, a "<a href="http://www.eenews.net/assets/2010/12/20/document_gw_05.pdf" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; "><b>frack job</b></a> (pdf)" for Strachan Exploration Inc. of Englewood, Colo., was <a href="http://www.eenews.net/assets/2010/12/20/document_gw_04.pdf" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; "><b>denied</b></a> (pdf) last month because it failed to list the ingredients of compounds for which Halliburton had not yet received trade secret protection.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission <a href="http://wogcc.state.wy.us/ap_trade_secrets.cfm" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; "><b>website</b></a> lists 16 approvals for trade secret protection, some for single products and some for long lists of compounds.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Halliburton has gotten five fracturing products shielded. BJ Services won trade secret status for 36 products, including fracturing sand.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Their requests are public record, and their reasoning points to the importance of fracturing chemicals, even though they amount to a tiny fraction of the total volume of what is injected.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">ChemEOR Inc., a Los Angeles-based oilfield chemical company, told Wyoming regulators it spent more than $400,000 directly on research and development of a product called InFlo 250 W. Halliburton said it spent "tens of millions of dollars" researching new fracturing fluids during the past five years. The company said that public disclosure of its proprietary formulas could cost it $375 million.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Halliburton also argues that public disclosure of the chemicals in the compound would discourage research into fracturing fluids that reduce damage to the environment.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Wyoming regulators gave trade secret protection to many products that are toxic, which could keep raising questions about the value of secrecy. An <a href="http://www.ohiodnr.com/Portals/11/oil/pdf/bj/InFlo_250W.pdf" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; "><b>MSDS sheet</b></a> (pdf) on file with Ohio regulators, shows that ChemEOR's Inflo 250 W contains toxic methanol and 2-Butoxyethanol, a fracturing ingredient cited in several contamination allegations, and other hazardous components.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">In several cases, Wyoming regulators granted trade secret status to compounds used by Halliburton and BJ Services but stated that they "are not approved for use in groundwater." That generally means they include some form of hydrocarbon, such as a petroleum distillate.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"The thing about trade secret protection," NRDC's Mall said, "is that it's only going to work if the public thinks its credible."</p></span><p></p></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-84016572131776357432010-12-18T10:40:00.000-08:002010-12-18T10:41:54.046-08:00Industry Group, BLM Spar Over Decline of Oil and Gas Leases<h2><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/12/17/17greenwire-industry-group-blm-spar-over-decline-of-oil-an-11927.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment">Industry Group, BLM Spar Over Decline of Oil and Gas Leases</a> - New York Times</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; ">An industry report last week showing a 79 percent decrease in oil and gas leases issued on public lands has ignited a debate over whether the Obama administration's leasing policies are stifling job creation and energy production.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The Western Energy Alliance -- representing more than 400 oil and gas companies in the Rocky Mountain states -- said its <b><a href="http://westernenergyalliance.org/resources/dashboard" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; ">data</a></b> show a dramatic decline in the use of public lands for oil and gas development and a corresponding dip in government revenue.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"This trend, if continued, will result in a decline in energy development with a resulting loss of jobs, and less revenue for federal and state treasuries at a time when Americans are very concerned about out of control deficits and spending," said Spencer Kimball, the group's manager of government affairs.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The Bureau of Land Management in fiscal 2010 issued 79 percent fewer leases in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming than in fiscal 2005, the Denver-based group found.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The alliance also found leasing revenue on public lands dropped 46 percent over the same period, and overall onshore royalties slid 33 percent over the past two years. Both revenue streams are roughly split between states and the federal government.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">BLM responded by saying oil and gas leasing is market-driven and linked to price and energy consumption, rejecting industry claims that its leasing program had led to the decline.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"In response to falling oil and natural gas prices, oil and natural gas development companies have scaled back energy development and leasing activities," the agency said in a posting on its website, "a downward trend that is reflected in decreased leasing nationally, not just on federally-managed lands."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">BLM presented a <b><a href="http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/extras/WEA_response.html" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; ">graph</a></b> suggesting leasing and permits have generally followed the price of oil and natural gas over two decades.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Dave Alberswerth, the Wilderness Society's senior policy adviser on energy issues, said agency data show that although BLM issued 4,487 permits to drill in fiscal 2009, the permit recipients drilled 3,267 new wells, leaving 1,220 permits unused for the year.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"Though the industry complains about administration policies restricting 'access' to federal lands for oil and gas development, they didn't use anywhere near the number of drilling permits issued by the BLM in the last fiscal year," Alberswerth said. "It's a classic price-demand sort of relationship."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">He added that the alliance "is selecting the facts that fit their arguments."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="bold" style="font-weight: bold; ">Declining demand for leases</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The recent decline in natural gas prices, in fact, has caused a corresponding decline in the number of acres that industry asked BLM to offer for lease, according to a <i>Greenwire</i> analysis of government data last spring (<i><a href="http://www.eenews.net/public/Greenwire/2010/04/01/2" style="color: rgb(0, 66, 118); text-decoration: underline; ">Greenwire</a></i>, April 1).</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"Regardless of decreased commodity prices and reduced industry activity, the BLM continues to offer industry-nominated parcels for auction, and has even seen an increase in generated revenues for American taxpayers," BLM said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The agency held 29 onshore lease sales in 2010 covering 3.2 million acres in the West and Alaska that netted more than $213 million -- a 57-percent increase over 2009, according to BLM, which has scheduled 36 lease sales in 2011.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">To hammer home its point, BLM quoted a <i>Greenwire</i> article that quotes Kathleen Sgamma, the alliance's government affairs director, stating, "Drilling is down because of the economy. I don't think anyone denies that."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">But Jon Haubert, spokesman for the alliance, said this week that BLM had failed to include the second half of Sgamma's statement: "As the economy recovers, these [BLM] policies will affect companies two or three years out and slow the recovery of the West."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"I have to admit, we are a little surprised they came out swinging directly at us," Haubert said in an e-mail, "I guess it's pretty apparent we struck a nerve."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">While the alliance's energy "dashboard" stops short of blaming Interior Department policies for the leasing decline, the group has criticized the agency for reforms it says have sent a chilling message to oil and gas firms.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The group earlier this year blasted Interior's oil and gas leasing reforms, as well as decisions to analyze the greenhouse gas impacts of leasing and withdraw several dozen oil and gas leases sold in Utah a year ago.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The group also has two pending lawsuits in the U.S. District Court in Wyoming challenging BLM's failure to issue leases within 60 days of their sale, as required by law, and the agency's restricted use of categorical exclusions used to bypass environmental reviews.</p></span></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-36701710071765073622010-12-18T09:45:00.000-08:002010-12-18T10:36:24.055-08:00Departing Sen. Dorgan Brings Earmark Deluge to N.D.<h2><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/12/17/17greenwire-departing-sen-dorgan-brings-earmark-deluge-to-78153.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment">Departing Sen. Dorgan Brings Earmark Deluge to N.D.</a> - New York Times</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; ">Despite ranking 47th among the states in population size, North Dakota may land some of the biggest earmarks in the nation for water projects: $14.3 million for infrastructure, $13.4 million for rural water supplies and a provision -- its price unspecified -- to require the federal government to pay for all future flood control work at Devil's Lake.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Those earmarks carry among the largest price tags in the water and energy section of the spending bill Senate Democrats hope to pass before year's end.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">For the potential local tax dollars saved and jobs created, North Dakotans can thank outgoing Sen. Byron Dorgan. The Democratic chairman of the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee has wielded his influence expertly, echoing the calls across Capitol Hill for greater investment in the nation's crumbling water infrastructure while using his powerful seat to ensure that an outsized portion of that investment flows to North Dakota, observers say.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"We have very serious needs for investments in water infrastructure," Dorgan said in July at a subcommittee markup of a bill that proposed spending nearly half a billion dollars more on water projects than President Obama proposed in his budget.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">In an analysis of earmarks lawmakers requested this spring, North Dakota ranked first in the nation in dollars per capita requested, about $3,911 per person, or almost twice as much as Mississippi's $2,262, according to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. That group's analysis of the latest spending measures is not yet complete.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The group also found that Dorgan ranked 12th in the Senate for total earmark money requested, not far behind the Senate's top three earmark-requesters, by dollar amount: Louisiana's Mary Landrieu (D), Mississippi's Roger Wicker (R) and Kansas' Sam Brownback (R).</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"He's proven pretty adept at getting them," said Steve Ellis, spokesman for Taxpayers for Common Sense. "Senator Dorgan's no slouch."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">A Dorgan spokesman dismissed the comparison. "We'd be high, per capita, for anything," said spokesman Barry Piatt.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Earmarks are generally defined as specific federal spending requests made by individual lawmakers for projects in their home district. The practice, often associated with "pork barrel" or "pay to play" politics, once again has come under intense scrutiny, since Senate Democrats unveiled a 2011 spending proposal this week that includes thousands of them, requested by both Republicans and Democrats, including some members who have criticized the practice.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Dorgan is not one of those. He defends earmark spending as the logical way for Congress to target federal dollars to region-specific needs and a relatively insignificant portion of federal spending. The 6,700 earmarks included in the proposed $1.1 trillion spending plan total $8.1 billion.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"You would think members of the House and Senate know best about the priorities of the states and the regions," Dorgan said. "The way to reduce the federal budget deficit is not to change the issue of earmarks."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Asked about the water projects he earmarked, Dorgan described a separate issue: a state-federal agreement struck decades ago that promised irrigation projects in return for flooding a large swath of North Dakota farmland.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"This is the result of finishing an agreement with the federal government," Dorgan said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The deal dates back to a 1944 act of Congress in which North Dakota allowed for six dams to be constructed along the Missouri River. In exchange for the 300,000 acres of farmland that would be flooded, Washington, D.C., promised the state more than 1 million acres of irrigation by moving water to the eastern part of the state.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Over the ensuing decades, progress has started and stopped amid concerns over environmental effects, costs, land acquisition and Canadians' fears that water might be pushed north into their country from the Missouri River.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"That's the rationale for a lot of what he does: Promises were made. A flood was delivered. We still need to get what we were supposed to get in exchange," said David Conrad, senior water resources specialist for the National Wildlife Federation.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Conrad said Dorgan's water earmarks raise complex questions about the federal government's role in protection against flooding and providing for irrigation and infrastructure.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">In the case of Devil's Lake, Dorgan's earmark would assume all costs for maintenance and rehabilitation of a levee designed to hold back waters of a lake that has no natural release valve and has, as a result, tripled in size since 1993 thanks to a string of wet years.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Environmentalists admit it is a "crisis situation" for the nearby town of Devil's Lake, population 7,200, but add that for the federal government to assume the cost of all future levee maintenance sets an unsustainable precedent, because hundreds of levees around the nation have been deemed to be at risk of failing. Since 1993, already more than $800 million has been spent relocating utilities, raising roadbeds, and buying and moving homes in the way of the waters, Conrad said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"That's quite an impressive rider to put into such a bill, with obviously substantial future costs and possibly, setting a precedent that could ultimately open the floodgates to call upon the government to assume levee costs elsewhere," Conrad said. Normally, the federal government would split such costs, were it not for the $65 billion backlog in the Army Corps of Engineers' construction budget and the vast maintenance needs of the nation's levees.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"There's not enough money in the world for the federal government to pay all the local costs associated with levees in the country right now," Conrad said.</p></span></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-82186127379029196082010-12-15T09:47:00.000-08:002010-12-15T09:50:09.434-08:00Generous Tariff Lures British Farmers Into Raising Solar Power Arrays<h2><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2010/12/15/15climatewire-generous-tariff-lures-british-farmers-into-r-33186.html?src=twt&twt=nytenvironment">Generous Tariff Lures British Farmers Into Raising Solar Power Arrays</a> - New York Times</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; ">GLASTONBURY, England -- Michael Eavis is not your average farmer, but this year he is following the herd. Spurred on by a new tariff that pays individuals to produce their own electricity and sell it to the nation's grid, Eavis has installed 1,100 solar photovoltaic panels on the roof of his dairy barn. He calls it his "Mootel."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px; font-size: 10px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"I have wanted to do this ever since I built the barn about 10 years ago. The feed-in tariffs just made it much easier and more profitable. Everyone is thrilled to bits with the array. It is working really well," he told<i>ClimateWire</i>.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"The panels will earn about £50,000 [$79,053] a year, so in 10 years we will have paid off the £500,000 [$790,398] we borrowed from the bank to build the array. Solar power is really clean -- even more so than wind -- and it is free. There is enough energy from the sun to power the whole world during the day," he added.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Eavis is just one among a throng of people, including many farmers, who have leaped at the chance the tariff scheme offers both to make money and to get "greener." In contrast to many other such schemes across Europe, the U.K. feed-in tariffs pay for all power produced, not just that exported to the grid. They also have the added attraction of being guaranteed for 25 years.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Of course, not every farmer can do this on the scale Eavis has. He is the sponsor of the 40-year-old Glastonbury Festival, a three-day music and performing arts event that draws 150,000 rock fans to his Worthy Farm, which is about 130 miles west of London.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">But a lot of them are trying. Meanwhile, the new, austerity-prone British government, which inherited the scheme, is trying to maintain a stiff upper lip. Well aware of the retrospective changes being discussed in Spain to slash the cost of its runaway solar power sector, the government has pledged that, while new, lower rates could be implemented in 2013, there will be no backsliding.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"There will never be any changes made retrospectively to the feed-in tariffs," a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="bold" style="font-weight: bold; ">Rate of applicants accelerates</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Government figures show a phenomenal rate of uptake since the April 1 start of the scheme in the United Kingdom, with solar photovoltaic far and away the favorite technology. As of the middle of last month, 11,370 individual projects had been registered since the scheme started, representing a total of just under 44 megawatts of power capacity, and according to Ofgem -- the government's energy watchdog -- the rate of applications is accelerating rapidly.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Of these, 10,552 were photovoltaic, which also accounted for 60 percent of rated power capacity; 699 were wind; 114 were hydro; and five were micro combined heat and power. Close to three-quarters of the total was domestic, with most of the rest commercial.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The government didn't divulge how many of the applicants are households and how many are farmers. But Farming Futures, part of an agricultural think tank, has done a poll that found that 80 percent of farmers in the United Kingdom want to put solar photovoltaic panels on their roofs within the next three years -- before any changes can be implemented in the tariff's payout.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"We have seen a real appetite for investing in solar this year, and it is great to see so many farmers recognizing this opportunity to create an income and diversify, as well as contribute to developing a low-carbon economy in the U.K.," said Madeline Lewis of Farming Futures.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Under the scheme a solar photovoltaic array with a capacity of 4 to 10 kilowatts will earn the owner 36.1 pence (55 cents) per kilowatt-hour of power produced and consumed on-site. The rate falls to 31.4 pence (49 cents) for installations of 10 to 100 kW and 29.3 pence (46 cents) for those from 100 to 5,000 kW -- the range into which Eavis' 200 kW array fits.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); "><span class="bold" style="font-weight: bold; ">Worries about melting cables</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">All power exported to the grid earns 3 pence (4 cents) per kilowatt-hour, and in all cases, the tariff is guaranteed for a quarter of a century.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"Traditionally, farming revenue is quite seasonal. But now we are making money by creating clean energy, we have the peace of mind of another income, and we are doing our bit reducing our carbon footprint," said farmer Michael Frankel, who installed a solar power array on his barn roof earlier this year.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">There is one possible hitch. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government that inherited the scheme -- and a £180 billion ($238 billion) budget deficit from Labour when it took power in May -- has said it will not review the scheme before 2012 unless there is a higher-than-expected uptake.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">It has not said what that would be, but a DECC spokeswoman said she expected the early review trigger level to be announced very soon "to give absolute clarity" -- although she insisted that any review would only be of future rates.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">The newly formed British Photovoltaic Association industry lobby group calculates that the U.K. solar market, with the feed-in tariff scheme securely under its arm, could reach 60 MW by the end of this year and climb to 1,000 MW by 2015 and 5,000 MW by 2020.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">Eavis certainly has plans to expand his array, possibly before he has even paid off the bank loan to build the original, because the future income is already known and the duration of the income stream likewise.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.467em; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">"Most of the electricity will go to the farm, although some will also go to the grid. Ideally, I would like to get a second batch the same size as the first one, so we would have 2,200 solar panels in total," he said. "But we have to make sure we have the right cables. Put too much down them, and they start to melt."</p></span></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-3859644968109813892010-12-15T09:37:00.000-08:002010-12-15T09:42:00.872-08:00Energy - Nuclear prospects - Nuclear Option Unclear<h2><a href="http://www.fm.co.za/Article.aspx?id=129524">Nuclear Option Unclear</a> - FM.co.za</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif, 'Arial Narrow'; font-size: 15px; ">Costing doubts and technical controversy bedevil SA’s nuclear future</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif, 'Arial Narrow'; font-size: 15px; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif, 'Arial Narrow'; font-size: 15px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 22px; "><p>Nuclear energy could contribute 13,4% of SA’s electricity generation needs by 2030, according to the department of energy’s draft integrated resource plan (IRP). The proposal has drawn both criticism and praise during this month’s public hearings.</p><p>SA’s total electrical generation capacity is projected to reach 85241MW by 2030, of which 9600MW will be from nuclear power (on top of Koeberg’s current 1840MW capacity) as envisaged in the department’s revised balanced scenario. The types of nuclear power plants being looked at range from 1000MW to 1600MW in size, which means six to 10 reactors could be constructed.</p><p>Energy minister Dipuo Peters told the media recently that nuclear was becoming a preferred solution to SA’s energy needs. “The acute need to secure reliable energy supplies and the urgent requirement to reduce carbon emissions has put nuclear energy firmly on the agenda as a viable choice to be pursued in order to achieve a suitable energy mix for our country,” she said.</p><p>But the technology is controversial, to say the least. Debates cluster around four main issues.</p><p>The first is cost. The capital expenditure required to build a nuclear plant is high. Using a reference price of R26575/kW, the 9600MW fleet would cost R342bn, and would be built between 2016 to 2030. But while the initial investment is high, nuclear plants have low operating and fuel costs .</p><p>SA Nuclear Energy Corp CEO Rob Adam says examples in the US and France show that once a nuclear power plant is amortised (in 15-20 years), with low operating costs, it can generate large returns. “With the new generation of plants having an initial licensed life of 60 years, the return can be substantial,” says Adam.</p><p>But criticisms focus more on the uncertainty of costs. Looking at the fleet as a whole and not the life of the individual plant, costs may actually increase over time as the technology develops — firstly because it’s a seller’s market globally (at least for now) and secondly because of design changes and increased safety mechanisms.</p><p>“The IRP numbers based on the nuclear industry are proven to be underestimates,” says Rianne Teule of Greenpeace. Teule argues that global examples show a downward-sloping learning curve, and says the capital costs of France’s 58 reactors have increased with each new addition.</p><p>The size and capital costs of nuclear plants introduce a second concern cited by critics — their inflexibility, and the likelihood of excess capacity.</p><p>Given the fact that demand projections are estimates at best, such large centralised plants do not allow the industry to flexibly respond to changes in demand or technology, unlike renewable options, says Ruth Rabinowitz, chair of MamaEarth and a former IFP MP. The lead time of a nuclear plant, including commissioning and construction, is a minimum of 10 years, and they are seldom built on time or within budget. Then there is the commitment to a plant lifetime of 30-60 years (depending on the plant). If available renewables are given priority on the grid in the future, as is the case in Germany today, excess capacity from the nuclear plant could remain unsold. “That’s one of the concerns for investors,” says Teule, “what is the chance you can sell excess capacity in the future?”</p><p>Adam argues that this is not a concern, and that the same can be said of the coal- fired power stations Medupi or Kusile. The concerns underpin Greenpeace’s argument of an inherently uncertain net present value of nuclear plants.</p><p>The third danger of nuclear power, say critics, is the legacy of its waste. The spent fuel is highly radioactive. Simply put, uranium is transmuted into other elements that are radioactive, some of which take seconds to decay and others which take millions of years. It would take about 100000 years for the waste to reach natural levels of radioactivity. The waste also needs to be stored in deep underground containers to remain stable for this amount of time. “Nowhere in the world has the issue of storage been solved,” says Rabinowitz.</p><p>SA’s waste is temporarily stored under water at Koeberg.</p><p>“While there is no doubt that this waste is dangerous, it is compact and manageable,” says Peet du Plooy, sustainable growth programme manager at Trade & Industrial Policy Strategies, an economic research institution. For comparison purposes, a 1000MW coal- powered plant would require around 3Mt/year of coal and produce around 1Mt /year of ash; a nuclear power plant of the same size would use 17t/year of nuclear fuel and produce 17t of spent fuel, with a volume of less than 20m³ for long-term storage, according to Adam.</p><p>There’s also the option of reprocessing the spent fuel by extracting the uranium and plutonium to be (re)used , leaving smaller quantities for long-term storage. France, England and Russia are already reprocessing waste, but aren’t using the fuel because it’s more expensive.</p><p>Adam says the technology exists to take this one step further by breaking down the waste into shorter-lived products that would remain radioactive for only a couple of hundred years, but that the costs of these technologies are the problem. “It doesn’t reflect well on [the industry] to not have a complete business plan,” he says. “It’s an R&D challenge, but it’s a question of engineering and economics — the science is there.”</p><p>Opponents also raise a concern — the fourth — about safety. While an accident like the 1986 Chernobyl disaster (which caused an estimated 4000 deaths after technical mishaps brought about a series of explosions) is unlikely to happen today, given current safety standards, incidences in France are increasing, according to Teule. “They are not all serious, but they are showing that things can and do go wrong.”</p><p>But modern science allows us to rely on passive safety, says Tony Stott, nuclear assurance manager at Eskom. The physics of generation 3 plants make them inherently safe, but more expensive to build. Generation2 plants like Koeberg still rely on engineered safety and backup systems, but with added modifications they are deemed as safe as the newer technologies. Around R1bn has been spent over the past 20 years on modifications to ensure Koeberg’s safety. This has improved its safety by a factor of 10 (the probability of the fuel melting should be less than one in 10000/year; now it is one in 100000). Future plants would likely be either modified generation 2 or generation 3 plants.</p><p>Du Plooy argues that the only real safety issue is ensuring that enriched uranium doesn’t reach the hands of rogue regimes. Connotations with Hiroshima and Nagasaki illustrate the potential destructive power of the technology, though nuclear weapons require uranium to be enriched to a higher level than for power generation. SA dismantled its nuclear weaponry programme in the 1990s.</p><p>There is a need to ask what the best trade-off is between costs, megawatts of electricity produced, and the reduction of carbon emissions .</p><p>Both WWF and Greenpeace argue that an energy mix that excludes nuclear, and introduces renewables while phasing out coal, is both optimal and possible.</p><p>The prevailing view is, however, that given the high cost of renewable energy (which may decrease as the technology develops), a plan that excludes nuclear would be too costly, and that renewable energy doesn’t make for a sufficiently reliable supply.</p><p>But with dual challenges of climate change and energy security, the solution lies in finding the most efficient way to meet future energy demands in a way that is sustainable and clean — and a balanced mix of technologies may be the best way to do this.</p></span></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-69614358397411062622010-12-11T09:39:00.000-08:002010-12-11T09:43:28.159-08:00Is Natural Gas A Viable Partner In the Low-Carbon Future?<h2><a href="http://domesticfuel.com/2010/12/10/is-natural-gas-a-viable-partner-in-the-low-carbon-future/">Is Natural Gas A Viable Partner In the Low-Carbon Future?</a> - Domestic Fuel</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(24, 24, 24); line-height: 16px; font-family:Helvetica;font-size:13px;"><div class="postMeta" style="margin-top: 9px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 102, 153); ">Posted by <a href="http://domesticfuel.com/author/joanna/" title="Posts by Joanna Schroeder" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 153); outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none; font-weight: 700; ">Joanna Schroeder</a></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><a href="http://domesticfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/NGWorldWatchReportDec2010.jpg" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 153); outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none; "><img class="border right size-full wp-image-32357" title="NGWorldWatchReportDec2010" src="http://domesticfuel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/NGWorldWatchReportDec2010.jpg" alt="" width="189" height="250" style="border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; float: right; margin-top: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-right-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-bottom-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); border-left-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); " /></a>Is, and should, natural gas be a viable partner in the movement to a low-carbon future? This was the question asked and answered in a new report published by the Worldwatch Institute and authored by Worldwatch Sustainable Energy Fellow Saya Kitasei. “<a href="http://www.worldwatch.org/report/184" style="color: rgb(0, 102, 153); outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none; "><em style="font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; ">Powering the Low-Carbon Economy: The Once and Future Roles of Renewable Energy and Natural Gas</em></a>,” concludes that natural gas and renewable energy such as wind and solar, could form a powerful partnership to move the world toward low carbon energies.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The report notes that “natural gas offers a cleaner alternative to coal” and sets up the stage for natural gas to play a starring role in the future of energy for its “flexibility, scalability, and cost-competitiveness to complement the variable distributed nature of wind and solar power generation.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">“If the world is to truly move away from coal as its primary means of electricity production, then natural gas must realize its full potential as a partner to the renewable energy industry,” said Kitasei. “Natural gas is undergoing a renaissance. Our research indicates that the environmental community should pay attention to the opportunities that this resource brings. When deployed as part of an integrated approach, renewable energy and natural gas can reduce coal dependence, deliver emissions reductions, and catalyze the transition to a low-carbon economy.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">According to the report, there are four key mechanisms that can enable the combination of renewable energy and natural gas to displace coal and provide needed reductions in power-sector emissions:</p><ul style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-left: 1.5em; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-type: disc; "><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; ">• First, air pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, and mercury must be tightly regulated.</li><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; ">• Second, a cost must be attached to emitting carbon dioxide.</li><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; ">• Third, electricity system operators should allow wind and solar plants to balance their own output with on-site resources.</li><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; list-style-type: none; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; ">• Fourth, the markets on which system operators purchase electricity must be highly responsive, allowing them to react to fluctuations in electricity supply and demand as rapidly as possible.</li></ul><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The report is part of a larger look that the Worldwatch Institute is taking into the role of natural gas in the future global economy.</p></span></div><center><a href="http://spn.tw/r20wv"><img src="https://app.sponsoredtweets.com/images/blogger_signup.gif" alt="SponsoredTweets referral badge" style="border: 0;" width="404" height="50" /></a></center>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-58815282499956091452010-12-11T09:24:00.000-08:002010-12-11T09:35:52.220-08:00In Germany, New Power Generation in 2009 Came Mostly From Solar, Wind<h2><a href="http://solarhbj.com/news/in-germany-new-power-generation-in-2009-came-mostly-from-solar-wind-01197">In Germany, New Power Generation in 2009 Came Mostly From Solar, Wind</a> - The Solar Home & Business Journal</h2><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 20px; font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size:14px;"><p class="fltlft" style="margin-top: 8px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; float: left; line-height: 14px; "><img alt="Made in Germany sign" src="http://solarhbj.com/sites/default/files/images/countries/germany/Germany2%20crop.jpg" style="border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); border-right-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); border-bottom-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); border-left-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); width: 270px; height: 313px; " /><br /><span class="cutlineCredit" style=" font-weight: normal; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family:Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;font-size:10px;">PHOTO CREDIT: ERIN MILNES / SOLAR<br />HOME & BUSINESS JOURNAL</span><br /><span class="cutline" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-weight: bold; font-size:13px;">A sign denotes a German exhibit at a solar<br />industry conference in San Francisco.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; "><i><br /></i></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">About 80 percent of total growth in electrical generating capacity in 2009 in Germany’s electricity market was based on an increase in solar and wind power systems, according to the Monitoring Report 2009 issued by the Bundesnetzagentur, the country’s electricity regulatory agency.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">"This rapid growth provided solar power operators in 2009 with total earnings almost comparable with those for wind energy operators, although feed-in from wind power systems was almost six times that of solar power feed-in,” said Matthias Kurth, president of the agency. “And we can expect this rapid growth in solar generating capacity to continue, with the attendant consequences for the renewables surcharge and the electricity networks.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">The renewables surcharge will rise in 2011 to 3.53 euro cents per kilowatt-hour, 1.5 euro cents more than the 2010 surcharge, the Bundesnetzagentur reported. But Mr. Kurth said higher returns for electricity network operators are not justified.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">“The Bundesnetzagentur is supporting the network operators in upgrading and expanding their infrastructure, for instance by approving their investment budgets. Yet in the consumers' interest, we must resist new calls for higher returns. Current data do not justify these. On the contrary, the current yield established by the Bundesbank, an important determinant of the return on equity, has even fallen," Mr. Kurth said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">Average electricity prices for domestic customers rose by around 3 percent, the agency reported. The reasons include a large increase in the renewables surcharge at the beginning of 2010 and the prevalent long-term procurement strategies of the energy suppliers.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">"Consumers themselves can cut their bills considerably by changing to different pricing plans. Standard, or default, supply continues to be the most expensive form of electricity supply. It is cheaper if consumers change pricing plan with their default supplier, or change their supplier. So far, however, not more than half of all domestic customers have done so, although they have a choice of some 120 suppliers on average and can save up to 160 euros a year," Mr. Kurth said.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">The Bundesnetzagentur report said electricity networks proved highly reliable in 2009 for suppliers and for domestic, business and industrial customers.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">“Although the integration of renewables is a huge technical challenge for the network operators, the electricity infrastructure itself is reliable and stable,” the news release said. According to the current report from the agency on supply interruptions in 2009, the average interruption in the Federal Republic of Germany was 14.6 minutes per final consumer. This figure, called the System Average Interruption Duration Index, has fallen for the third consecutive year and represents a top performance internationally, the agency reported.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">“Guaranteeing a high degree of grid reliability is a tremendous challenge in light of the rapid growth of renewables, and one that can only be met if there is huge investment at all network levels,” the Bundesnetzagentur said. Germany’s Power Grid Expansion Act, or EnLAG, promotes realization of the necessary expansion measures, and names 24 projects for priority treatment. Some of the projects have been delayed, however, and planned start dates may be several years late in some cases.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">The reports from the transmission system operators on grid extension planning likewise show delays in 37 of the 139 projects, the agency said. The investment data in the Bundesnetzagentur's Monitoring Report document a considerable time lag in the construction and expansion projects for the transmission networks.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">The issue is one not unknown in the United States.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">"The real problems," Mr. Kurth said, "lie not in companies' lack of willingness to invest. Most people, when asked, are definitely in favor of sustainable generation for the future. But when it comes to a mast being set up near their homes, their agreement is often retracted. The desire for an open landscape for themselves often outweighs theoretical support for global protection of the environment. Much work will have to be done here to persuade people otherwise. The Bundesnetzagentur is aware of its responsibility in helping to win acceptance. Cross-sectoral approaches might be one way of going forward. If a high-voltage mast can bring high-speed Internet to the countryside, resistance may be averted."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">The agency said the European internal market for electricity is growing “bit by bit.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">“A market coupling initiative was launched on 9 November 2010 between Germany, France and the Benelux countries,” the agency said in its news release. “On the very same day, this coupling was linked with the Nordic region market coupling, which also includes Germany. The Bundesnetzagentur played a crucial role in creating the coordination mechanisms for this ‘super integration’ to come about. For electricity trading, it means a market that now spans half of Europe.”</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 15px; ">The report also discussed electricity trading in 2009 on spot energy exchanges. A clear increase in volumes traded on the exchanges could be observed in the first half of 2010, along with a moderate rise in price levels, it said, mentioning the “growing significance of exchange trading for the integration of renewables.”</p></span></div><center><a href="http://spn.tw/r20wv"><img src="https://app.sponsoredtweets.com/images/tweeter_signup_125_1.gif" alt="SponsoredTweets referral badge" style="border: 0;" width="125" height="125" /></a></center>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-58178106523845201562010-12-07T11:01:00.000-08:002010-12-07T11:04:11.553-08:00An End To Coal Fired Power Stations In South Australia?<h2><a href="http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=1216">An End To Coal Fired Power Stations In South Australia?</a> - Energy Matters</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(96, 96, 96); "><img src="http://www.energymatters.com.au/images/news/images_med/south-australia-wind-power.jpg" alt="Goodbye coal, hello wind power" title=" Goodbye coal, hello wind power " width="150" height="169" align="right" class="articleImage" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 10px; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; " /><br />South Australian Premier Mike Rann has announced plans to set carbon emissions limits for new electricity production in South Australia so strict, it would effectively prevent the future construction of new coal-fired power plants in the State.<br /><br />Presently, 34% of South Australia's electricity is generated by coal-fired power. Gas accounts for almost half, with 18% of the State's electricity coming from <a href="http://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-energy/wind-energy/" style="color: rgb(52, 183, 196); text-decoration: none; ">wind power</a> generation. South Australia is aiming for 33% of its electricity to come from renewable energy sources by 2020<br /><br />"South Australia is host to half of Australia's wind power and last month we passed through the threshold of 1,000 MW of installed wind energy capacity", said Mr. Rann. "This outcome has been driven by South Australia aggressively capitalising on the Commonwealth Government’s expanded 20 per cent by 2020 <a href="http://www.energymatters.com.au/renewable-energy/" style="color: rgb(52, 183, 196); text-decoration: none; ">Renewable Energy Target</a>."<br /><br />South Australia has only two coal fired power stations, both of which use brown coal - one of the most carbon emissions intensive fuels. Both plants source their fuel from dwindling resources at Leigh Creek, meaning that the plants may need to convert to natural gas in the future.<br /><br />Mr. Rann has planned consultations next year with industry and interest groups relating to setting a maximum carbon content for electricity generated from any new plant in South Australia, with the starting point for discussions being a limit of 0.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per megawatt hour<br /><br />"The limit will be introduced as a transitional measure pending the introduction of a national carbon policy", said Mr. Rann; who also flagged the approach may have implications for initiatives such as off-grid diesel and syngas projects where power generation can form part of a larger process. The Government intends to provide sufficient flexibility in its legislation to be able to address unintended outcomes.</span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-12543114493083385262010-12-07T10:21:00.000-08:002010-12-07T10:56:12.790-08:00Titan Energy Worldwide Service Revenues Reach All Time High in November<h2><a href="http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Titan-Energy-Worldwide-Service-Revenues-Reach-All-Time-High-November-Record-Year-35-1364411.htm">Titan Energy Worldwide Service Revenues Reach All Time High in November; Record Year of $3.5 Million for Service Sales Projected for 2010</a> - Marketwire</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 14px; "><div id="releaseHeadline" style="padding-top: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; clear: none; width: 580px; min-width: 580px; max-width: 580px; "><h2 style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; line-height: 20px; "><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left; ">Titan Sets New Standards for Service and Maintenance in the Multibillion Dollar Onsite Power Generation Industry</p></h2></div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left; ">MINNEAPOLIS, MN--(Marketwire - December 6, 2010) - Titan Energy Worldwide, Inc. (<exchange name="OTCBB">OTCBB</exchange>:<a href="http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/stock.jsp?Ticker=TEWI" style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; text-align: left; ">TEWI</a>), a leader in distributed power generation products and intelligent energy management services, announced today that service revenues of $350,000 for the month of November were the highest ever recorded in the company's history, and that service revenues for the year are projected to exceed $3 million for the first time.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left; ">"With November gross sales topping all but one month in our company's history, it is certain that we will end the year on a strong note. In particular, I am very proud of our service team for achieving record revenues for the month of November and for the year. We will achieve more than $3 million in service sales for the first time in the Company's history. Service sales represent multi-year contracts with our customers for service and maintenance of their onsite power generators," stated Jeffrey Flannery, Chief Executive Officer of Titan Energy Worldwide.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left; ">"Our superior service benefits nearly 1,000 customers, and has allowed us to establish national accounts with several major companies, demonstrating our ability to operate effectively throughout the United States. We also manage generators enrolled in demand response and other utility programs which played a significant role this past summer in managing the power load on the nation's electrical utility grid. </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left; ">"Our growing reputation for offering the finest service programs for onsite power just got better. With the acquisition of Stanza Systems, we have established new capabilities and goals for our service offerings. In addition to the superior service provided by our fleet and trained technicians, we will soon be providing the most advanced technology for the remote monitoring and control of onside generation. </p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left; ">"There is an estimated 170 gigawatts of onsite power generation residing in as many as 500,000 industrial generators around the nation, enough power to light up several major states. Many of these power systems are poorly or inadequately maintained. Titan's services will provide automation, control, and reporting capabilities never before seen in this industry. The result will be a powerful new way to manage onsite power generation, further establishing Titan as a leader in energy management," added Mr. Flannery.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left; ">About Titan Energy Worldwide, Inc.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left; ">Titan Energy Worldwide is a provider of onsite power generation, energy management and energy efficiency products and services that help support and improve the performance of our nation's electrical utility grid. We operate in an area of the overall electrical utility infrastructure called Distributed Generation, whereby we specialize in the deployment of power generation equipment at the consumer's facility and the integration of that equipment through monitoring and communication systems with the needs of the utility's electrical grid. These onsite power generation systems support a customer's critical operations during times of power failure and serve as demand response systems that work to reduce energy usage and decrease demand on the electrical grid during peak periods. When managed with the proper intelligent monitoring systems and controls, Distributed Generation offers a vital and significant contribution to the development of the nation's Smart Grid. We contribute the tools and resources to produce immediate and long term improvements in the performance and stability in the energy production and transmission segments of the electrical grid and reduce the need for new power plants. From emergency and back-up power technologies, to demand response programs and Smart Grid applications, Titan Energy is setting a path for the future in energy management. For more information, please visit the company's website at: <a href="http://www.titanenergy.com/" style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0); text-decoration: none; text-align: left; ">www.titanenergy.com</a>.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left; ">Forward-Looking Statements</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 0px; clear: both; text-align: left; ">Investors are cautioned that certain statements contained in this document as well as some statements in periodic press releases and some oral statements of TEWI officials are "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). Forward-looking statements include statements which are predictive in nature, which depend upon or refer to future events or conditions, which include words such as "believes," "anticipates," "intends," "plans," "expects," and similar expressions. In addition, any statements concerning future financial performance (including future revenues, earnings or growth rates), ongoing business strategies or prospects, and possible future TEWI actions, which may be provided by management, are also forward-looking statements as defined by the Act. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to materially differ from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and to vary significantly from reporting period to reporting period. Although management believes that the assumptions made and expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, there is no assurance that the underlying assumptions will, in fact, prove to be correct or that actual future results will not be different from the expectations expressed in this report. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and TEWI has no specific intention to update these statements.</p></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-44953711285981990732010-12-04T07:16:00.000-08:002010-12-04T07:19:00.534-08:00China to invest billions in solar power infrastructure<h2><a href="http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90778/90860/7220375.html">China to invest billions in solar power infrastructure</a> - People's Daily Online</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(54, 54, 54); line-height: 25px; ">On Dec. 2 in Beijing the Chinese government declared a strategy of promoting solar photovoltaic power generation across the country through various demonstration projects, which coincides with the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico. <br /><br />The initiative is sponsored by four departments: the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the National Energy Administration. <br /><br />Thirteen development zones around the country have been recognized as the first demonstration projects for the solar power generation. Zhang Shaochun, vice minister of finance, said that the effect of the existing demonstration projects, which was put into operation in 2009 and 2010, would be further exploited so that the application would reach at least 1,000 megawatts annually since 2012. A stable solar power market will be in place and expand as a result. <br /><br />Reuters reported on Friday that China's central government is considering allocating 1.5 trillion yuan to support seven strategic industries, including alternative energy. <br /><br />One of the 13 new projects for solar power generation will be located in Yizhuang, Beijing. With an investment of 460 million yuan, it will boast 20-megawatt installed capacity and be deployed on the roofs of buildings. <br /><br />Statistics show that more than 700,000 square meters of roof in industrial zones for auto, equipment manufacturing, mobile communication, electronics and digital TVs in Yizhuang are available for the deployment. <br /><br />It is estimated that the power generation can reach 22.72 million kilowatt-hours annually once in operation. That will amount to 568 million kilowatt-hours for 25 years. The pressure of the grid at peak hours for industrial production can be eased effectively as a result. <br /><br />More importantly, it is significant in terms of environmental protection. The use of solar power can save 8,200 tons of coal equivalent and reduce emission of industrial dust, CO2 and sulfur dioxide by 123 tons, 21,430 tons and 180 tons, respectively. <br /><br />China's solar power has been developing rapidly in recent years. With the progress in technology, industrial system, market potential and policy framework, the industry is ready for the launch of a full-fledged application. In addition, the industry has entered into a new stage of scale economy globally. <br /><br />The Chinese government will give more support to the demonstration projects. A 50 percent subsidy will be granted to suppliers of key equipment who win the bidding. An additional subsidy of 4 yuan per watt and 6 yuan per watt will be given depending on different projects. <br /><br />The next step is to connect those areas with demonstration projects. It is necessary to explore an effective business model for the industry. More demonstration projects are in line with development or industrial parks as the main focus. The aim is to install the solar power system at all the plants in those parks. <br /><br />The State Grid will streamline the power connection process and improve its tech standards and management. <br /><br />A new mechanism integrating the fiscal support and R&D (research and development) efforts will be in launched soon. It is expected to encourage the application of new products and technologies by enterprises to bring costs down so that the promotion of the Solar-PV power generation could be made easier and faster in the future.<br /><br /><i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">By Li Jia, People’s Daily Online </i></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-21739401923416281452010-12-04T06:53:00.000-08:002010-12-04T07:00:20.260-08:00The future will be distributed<h2><a href="http://sustainableindustries.com/blogs/sustainable-industries-blog/2010/12/future-will-be-distributed">The future will be distributed</a> - Sustainable Industries</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;font-size:12px;">Decentralized renewable energy production is taking off but challenges remain.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; line-height: 16px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; "><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Bigger may be better in some cases, but when it comes to the future of renewable power generation, small may be best. </p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">That’s according to <a href="http://www.pikeresearch.com/research/renewable-distributed-energy-generation" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(14, 118, 188); text-decoration: none; ">a new report from Pike Research</a> and a panel of analysts and industry experts who convened in San Francisco this week to talk about distributed generation and microgrids as part of the Berkeley-Stanford Cleantech conference series.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; "></p><center><a href="http://sustainableindustries.com/blogs/sustainable-industries-blog/2010/12/future-will-be-distributed"><img src="http://sustainableindustries.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/master-image/images_for_cdn/small_wind_photo_m._gifford.jpg" /></a><br /><i>Distributed resources include solar and small wind. Photo: M.Gifford.</i><br /></center><p></p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">“The wave of the future is dealing with energy supply problems as close to the load as possible,” Peter Asmus, a Pike Research senior analyst, told the audience at Pacific Gas and Electric’s headquarters.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">That’s because, in addition to providing low-carbon power, distributed resources can also skirt complicated transmission and permitting issues that can plague large projects. Decentralized power generation can also offer increased reliability, especially if combined with energy storage, demand response and grid management technologies, panelists said. </p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">“Central power plants cost too much and have too much risk to be good investments,” said <a href="http://sustainableindustries.com/articles/2009/09/reinventing-fire" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(14, 118, 188); text-decoration: none; ">Amory Lovins</a>, co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute. “A diversified portfolio of renewables is more reliable.”</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">While photovoltaic panels comprise the bulk of renewable distributed generation, such resources include a wide range of technologies and scales and can be defined as any situation in which a customer is self-generating electricity, said Helen Priest, PG&E director of emerging markets.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Today, renewable distributed generation makes up about 2 percent of the global power supply. But the Pike report predicts that the worldwide system revenues from renewable distributed generation will reach almost $155 billion by 2015, up from about $51 billion in 2009. Driving those new installations will be renewable energy requirements and financial incentives such as net metering and feed-in tariffs. Leasing programs, power purchase agreements, community ownership and price drops in solar modules could also fuel a shift towards distributed generation. </p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">Despite the bright outlook for distributed renewables, figuring out how to manage diverse power sources will likely pose a challenge for utilities, but could offer big opportunities for startups. </p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">“The potential lack of standards and control will create a barrier to distributed generation,” said Eric Dresselhuys, chief marketing officer of smart grid startup <a href="http://www.silverspringnet.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(14, 118, 188); text-decoration: none; ">Silver Spring Networks.</a></p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">For utilities, concerns range from how to make sure distributed sources are reliable to how to charge customers for electricity.</p><p style="margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; ">“A hell of a lot of this comes down to billing,” Priest said. “Tracking financial flows is very complex -- that’s where I’d like to see innovation.”</p></span></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9039755798016714846.post-39413833146579389182010-12-02T07:07:00.000-08:002010-12-02T07:13:33.875-08:00XZERES Wind Introduces Micro-Generation Utility Model<h2><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/xzeres-wind-introduces-micro-generation-utility-model-2010-12-01?reflink=MW_news_stmp">XZERES Wind Introduces Micro-Generation Utility Model</a> - Market Watch</h2><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 17px; font-family:Arial;font-size:12px;"><h2 style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.17em; font-family: inherit; ">Company Launches Disruptive Business Model Selling Wind Energy Directly to End-Users Globally</h2><div><br /></div><div><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; font-family:inherit;font-size:1.167em;color:initial;">XZERES Wind Corporation<span id="quote1670350239" class="quotepeekbase bgQuote " style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; position: relative; display: inline-block; font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;color:initial;">(<span class="symbol" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family:inherit;font-size:0.92em;color:initial;"><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/XWND" title="XZERES Wind Corp" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13px; font-family: inherit; color: rgb(0, 65, 118); text-decoration: none; ">XWND</a></span> <b><span class="data bgLast symbol" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family:inherit;font-size:0.92em;color:initial;">1.19</span></b>, <span class="data bgChange symbol" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family:inherit;font-size:0.92em;color:initial;">0.00</span>, <span class="data bgPercentChange symbol" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-family:inherit;font-size:0.92em;color:initial;">0.00%</span>)</span>, designer, developer and producer of distributed generation, wind power systems for the small wind market (2.5kW-100kW), today launched its Micro-Generation Utility model. This innovative business model offers residential and commercial customers all the benefits of owning small wind power systems while providing the company with a high margin, recurring, revenue stream. Utilizing this platform, XZERES will sell the energy generated by its wind power systems, onsite at a discounted price below the local utility rates via power purchase agreements (PPAs). Designed to eliminate upfront capital costs and other operational barriers, the Micro-Generation Utility model provides customers with clean, renewable energy while serving as a hedge against volatile electricity rates for 20+ years.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; ">"Essentially, XZERES has entered the retail energy business serving as the energy provider to its customers, much like a utility. We are very excited to launch this novel business model, which represents the accumulation of months of work by our team. XZERES is the first small wind power systems company to adopt a 'wind-as-a-service' business model, taking advantage of a similar, but uniquely different, PPA financing mechanism that has accelerated commercial solar installations over the past few years," said Frank Greco, XZERES' CEO. "The Micro-Generation Utility model allows customers to reap significant long-term cost savings with their energy bills without the long-term risk of rising electricity rates, and XZERES maintains a high margin, recurring revenue stream for the duration of the contract. It promises the best-case scenario for all parties."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; ">The Micro-Generation Utility model is available for the XZERES 442 10kW small wind power system, equivalent marine unit and our future, to-be-released larger devices. Typical installations can vary from approximately 1-50 turbines, depending upon site characteristics. Under the terms of the agreement, XZERES will conduct site-assessment, permitting, installation and grid connection as well as the management and support of the wind power systems. At the end of the contract term, the end user customer then owns the wind power systems for a significant portion of its remaining useful life and continues to enjoy the ongoing benefits of onsite energy production from the systems with no further costs.</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; ">"The creation and launch of what we believe to be the small wind industry's first Micro-Generation Utility offering demonstrates XZERES' commitment to introducing new business models, products and services that will further our growth objectives, provide cost-effective renewable energy solutions for our customers, and has the potential to create significant shareholder value" added Greco. "Thanks to the creativity of our team in developing this unprecedented program, we are now able to provide customers in the United States and globally with the opportunity to benefit from wind energy without the upfront costs associated with system purchase. We've received very positive feedback from potential customers regarding this new program, and we expect to announce our first customers in the near future."</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; ">For more information on the XZERES' Micro-Generation Utility model, XZERES Wind Corp. or any of its products, please visit <a href="http://www.xzeres.com/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-family: inherit; color: rgb(0, 65, 118); text-decoration: none; ">www.xzeres.com</a></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; ">About XZERES Wind Corp.:</p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 14px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 6px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 6px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 1.167em; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.354em; ">XZERES Wind Corp designs, develops, manufactures and markets distributed generation, wind power systems for the small wind (2.5kW-100kW) market. Our grid connected and off grid wind turbine systems, which consist of our 2.5kW and 10 kW devices and related equipment, are utilized for electrical power generation for applications and markets such as residential, micro-grid based rural electrification, agricultural, small business, rural electric utility systems, as well as other private, corporate infrastructure and government applications. Our wind power systems are focused on distributed energy, where a specific machine's energy output is largely or entirely used on-site where the equipment is installed, as well as grid connected applications. While many of our customers take advantage of their local net-metering rules within the United States and Feed In Tariffs that are often available in Europe and Internationally (to sell power back to the grid), our wind power systems are not dependent on transmission needs to carry the energy produced to another location. For more information please see the Company's web site at <a href="http://www.xzeres.com/" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 14px; font-family: inherit; color: rgb(0, 65, 118); text-decoration: none; ">www.xzeres.com</a></p></div></span></div>TGC-Consultantshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01155482546394984676noreply@blogger.com0