RE100 Urges EU Energy Policy Revamp to Boost Renewables

22.11.2016

The EU’s energy policy needs to deliver a series of “transformational changes” if the bloc is to help businesses meet their clean electricity goals.

That is the conclusion of a new report from think tank E3G, written on behalf of the business-led clean energy coalition RE100 – whose 83 members have all committed to 100 per cent renewable energy.

The report argues that in order to help ensure the private sector meets its increasingly ambitous renewable energy goals the bloc should adopt more ambitious renewables targets, facilitate free trade of clean energy across borders, retain priority access for renewables projects to the grid, and potentially even encourage renewables to become a default option for firms by implementing a certificate scheme for non-renewable rather than renewable energy sources.

The report pushes strongly for the continued use of priority dispatch, which currently gives clean power priority over other energy sources on European electricity grids. Priority access provides clean energy developer with a key advantage over fossil fuels and advocates argue it also helps bring down wholesale power prices by ensuring output from renewables projects that have minimal marginal costs is maximised. However, critics have argued the policy is undermining investment in essential back up power plants.

RE100 members such as BT, IKEA Group, Google, Nestlé, Royal DSM and Unilever all contributed their experiences to the report.

John Harris, renewable energy investment manager at IKEA Group, said improved legislative frameworks are needed to allow more businesses to invest in renewables. “Whether companies purchase renewable electricity or want to generate renewable power themselves, we are all looking to EU policy to support us in reaching our target of 100 per cent renewable power,” he said in a statement.

EU documents leaked earlier this month have led some businesses to fear priority dispatch could be scrapped from the EU’s renewable energy directive after 2020.

Another leak last week relating to the EU’s Winter Package, which is set to be unveiled on the 30th November, also indicated it could cut back priority dispatch while introducing capacity mechanisms which some experts fear could subsidise new coal plants.

The document also suggested the proposed 27 per cent renewables target for 2030 would have no binding national targets and no effort sharing plan.

The new RE100 report, which comes shortly before the expected release this month of an EU Commission review of the EU Renewable Energy Directive and Market Design Initiative, calls for the EU’s renewables targets to be extended after 2020 to form a minimum baseline for the contribution of Member States through to 2030.

“To scale the benefits of renewable energy we need both business action and policy evolution,” said Thomas Lingard, climate advocacy and sustainability strategy director at Unilever, in a statement. “As more and more leading businesses actively look to source 100 per cent renewable energy, we need a Renewable Energy Directive that supports, not holds back these ambitions.”

Damian Ryan, acting chief executive of The Climate Group – which leads the RE100 initiative along with CDP – said while more companies than ever before are committed to bold climate action, governments “at all levels” need to raise the ambition of long-term climate policies in order to ensure many more firms are able to secure 100 per cent renewable power.

Simon Skillings, senior associate of E3G and author of the report, said the EU “must unleash its potential before it’s too late” if it wants to retain its competitive edge. “That means making it cheap and easy to procure renewable electricity to empower its energy consumers,” he added.

Source: businessgreen.com

Giant 8MW Turbine Delivers First Power From Burbo Bank Extension Offshore Wind Farm

21.11.2016

vetroturbina — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

A giant 8MW offshore wind turbine in Liverpool Bay has delivered power to the grid for the first time, chalking up another important milestone for the UK’s offshore wind industry.

DONG Energy announced today that the Burbo Bank Extension offshore wind farm – a joint venture 50 per cent owned by the Danish energy giant with 25 per cent stakes held by PKA and KIRKBI A/S – has exported its first power for the grid.

The milestone marks the first time the next generation 8MW turbines from manufacturer MHI Vestas have been used commercially offshore.

Supporters of the new generation of 8MW+ turbines, argue the giant machines will play a key role in pushing down the cost of offshore wind power through increased output and reduced running costs.

The turbines boast more than double the output of the 3.6MW turbines, which were deployed in 2007 at the initial Burbo Bank offshore wind farm.

“First power is a key milestone for us because it proves that every part of the transmission and generation equipment is successfully working,” said Claus Bøjle Møller, Burbo Bank Extension programme director. “We’re progressing well with the construction of the wind farm thanks to a huge effort from our construction team and our contractors.

“This milestone is also significant for the offshore wind industry at a broader scale. Using these bigger turbines is a major step in reducing the cost of energy from offshore wind and we are proud to once again introduce a step-change in technology.”

The companies now expect to bring more turbines online in the coming weeks. DONG Energy said all 32 of the project’s turbines are expected to be in place in the first quarter of 2017, delivering up to 258MW of capacity – enough to meet the annual electricity demands of approximately 230,000 UK homes.

When the project is complete the two wind farms in Liverpool Bay are expected to produce enough power each year for almost third of a million homes, over one and a half times the size of The Wirral.

DONG Energy said work is also underway on a multi-million pound state of the art operations and maintenance facility at King’s Wharf, Seacombe, which will to serve the two wind farms and create around 45 long term jobs.

Source: businessgreen.com

Beijing Bans Highly Polluting Cars During Smog Alerts

21.11.2016

Next year, Beijing will ban highly polluting old cars from being driven whenever air-quality alerts are issued in the city or neighbouring regions, according to its environmental protection bureau.

China has adopted various measures over the years to reduce the smog shrouding many of the country’s northern cities in winter, causing hazardous traffic conditions and disrupting daily life.

From 15 February, vehicles that don’t meet the government’s current standard on emissions (those more than 10 years old) will be banned in Beijing’s main urban area whenever orange or red alerts are issued in Beijing or neighbouring Hebei province and Tianjin city.

Vehicles breaking the restrictions will be fined 100 yuan (£11.75) every four hours they are on the road, the bureau added.

Cars at the National 1 or National 2 emissions standards, which the rules are aimed at, only account for 8% of the cars in the city, but they account for more than 30% of smog causing nitrogen oxide emissions, the bureau said.

The adjustment to regulations also said that schools would only be closed selectively during alerts, rather than the blanket approach that was used originally when Beijing issued its first ever red alert in December last year.

The government has been tweaking the new system since its introduction. It has worked to unify it across the Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei provinces. In February the minimum threshold for issuing alerts was raised.

Beijing officials are also taking measures to reduce the emissions of vehicles driven in the city. Measures include using licence-plate restrictions to limit the overall number of cars and providing subsidies to electric vehicle buyers to promote fuel-replacement vehicles.

Source: theguardian.com

Tesla, SolarCity Merger Approved by Shareholders

21.11.2016

Shareholders approved the $2.6 billion bid by Tesla Motors to buy SolarCity, paving the way for the clean energy giant to become a one-stop shop for electric vehicles, rooftop solar and energy storage.

“I think your faith will be rewarded,” Elon Musk said after the merger was approved by 85 percent of the company’s unaffiliated shareholders.

“We can’t do this well if Tesla and SolarCity are different companies, which is why we need to combine and break down the barriers inherent to being separate companies,” Musk said in August when Tesla announced it closed the deal with SolarCity. “That they are separate at all, despite similar origins and pursuit of the same overarching goal of sustainable energy, is largely an accident of history. Now that Tesla is ready to scale Powerwall and SolarCity is ready to provide highly differentiated solar, the time has come to bring them together.”

Next year, Tesla plans to begin rolling out the $35,000 Model 3 sedan and a new solar roof.

Source: ecowatch.com

China’s Grid-Connected Wind Power Capacity Increases

21.11.2016

China’s grid-connected wind power capacity continued to pick up, but the utilization rate was waning after years of capacity expansion, the latest data from the National Energy Administration (NEA) showed.

China’s total installed capacity of wind power generation facilities connected to the power grid reached 139 million kilowatts by the end of September, up 28 percent from a year earlier, according to the NEA.

The growth rate outpaced that of the nation’s total power use, a key barometer of economic activity, which totaled 4.5 percent year on year for the first nine months, official data showed.

The first nine months also saw newly added grid-connected wind power generation capacity of 10 million kilowatts, said the NEA.

However, those power generation facilities had average utilization hours of 1,251 in the first nine months, declining by 66 hours from a year earlier.

Of all provincial areas, Southwest China’s Yunnan province registered the largest gain in grid-connected wind power capacity of 2.26 million kilowatts in the first nine months.

China, the world’s second largest economy, has been trying to develop a clean energy network and pursue green growth in recent years.

Source: chinadaily.com.cn

Solar Power: Best Alternative to Light Up Rural Africa

21.11.2016

Solar energy has always been an alternative power source in areas not connected to the electricity grid. And this is what Bernard, a Kenyan chicken breeder, living in a small village about sixty kilometers from Nairobi believes.

With a solar panel installed on the roof of his house, it now illuminates his nights and feeds power to his radio and television.

Bernard believes the answer to the electrical demand for millions of African homes can come from solar power, which still represents less than 5% of the energy sources of the African electricity networks. This number however continues to grow.

Several African countries have embarked on increasingly ambitious projects for renewable energy.

These solutions have mainly flourished in the eastern part of the continent, as in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, but are also expected to spread in West Africa, where the problems are comparable.

Senegal has commissioned two photovoltaic power plants of 22 and 20 MW, the first of a series, with a stated target of 20% renewable energies in 2017 and 30% in 2018.

More than a choice, these cheaper solutions are in any case a necessity in relation to an ever-increasing demand for electricity, in a rapidly changing continent.

Source: africanews.com

World Bank Steps Up Climate Funding in Arab World

18.11.2016

world-2081907_960_720 — Photo illustration: Pixabay

The World Bank Group announced few days ago a new plan to ramp up support for countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region to confront the multiple threats of climate change. Over the next four years, the MENA Climate Action Plan aims to nearly double the portion of Bank financing dedicated to climate action, taking it to around US$1.5 billion per year by 2020. Speaking at a press conference at the COP 22 global climate summit in Marrakech, World Bank MENA Vice President Hafez Ghanem said the plan would focus on the four priorities of food and water security, sustainable cities adapted to new climate conditions, the transition to low-carbon energy, and the protection of the poorest who are most exposed to the impacts of climate change.

“Climate change will make a difficult situation much worse, and will affect millions of people in the Middle East and North Africa region” said Ghanem, “this is especially true of the impact on scarce water resources, already the lowest in the world, which will become even scarcer, threatening critical industries such as agriculture, on which millions in poorer, rural areas depend for their livelihoods.” You can see the plan here.

Source: worldbank.org

France Announces Coal Power Phase Out Date

18.11.2016

France this week became the latest country to vow to phase out unabated coal power from its energy mix, pledging that its last coal plant will shut by 2023 at the latest.

French President Francois Hollande announced the target at the COP22 Climate Summit in Marrakesh earlier this week, providing further momentum to the campaign to get governments to set target dates for phasing out the most carbon intensive fuels from their energy mix.

France sources around three quarters of its power from its fleet of nuclear power plants, and like several other European countries is looking to reduce its reliance on coal power as it seeks to cut greenhouse gas emissions and comply with EU air quality rules.

However, the clear target date provides a boost to the country’s wider decarbonisation efforts and follows a similar UK commitment to phase out unabated coal power by 2025. The UK last week launched an official consultation on its plan to phase out coal power, acknowledging that its last coal plant could close earlier than the 2025 cut off date.

Hollande also used his speech to the Marrakesh Summit to pointedly praise President Barack Obama and stress that the Paris Agreement and action on climate change was “irreversible”, despite President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to “cancel” the international treaty.

His comments were echoed over the course of the week by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry, and other world leaders, who all predicted Trump would not be able to derail the global effort to keep temperature increases below 2C.

The news also comes amidst speculation the UK is set to become the 111th country to ratify the Paris Agreement, either later today or tomorrow.

Parliamentary scrutiny of the ratification process was completed yesterday, leaving the government free to submit the official documents to the UN.

Source: businessgreen.com

Australia Ranked Among Worst Developed Countries for Climate Change Action

18.11.2016

Australia has been singled out again as a climate laggard, being ranked fifth-worst for emissions and policies among developed countries and among the six worst countries in the G20 when it comes to climate action.

In the climate change performance index, released overnight at the UN climate talks in Marrakech, Australia comes ahead of only Kazakhstan, South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

The 58 countries assessed by Climate Action Network Europe and Germanwatch are responsible for 90% of global energy-related carbon pollution. They are then ranked according to their emissions level, the trend in emissions, the deployment of renewable energy, the energy intensity of the economy and climate policies.

Australia is near the bottom of the countries, labelled as having “very poor performance”.

Australia’s hostile relationship between federal and state climate policies was noted in the report, which said: “While the former were rather unambitious and uninspired, the latter managed to some extent to take independent action.”

The finding came following comments from the prime minister and federal ministers, criticising state-based renewable energy and emissions targets.

Since previous rankings, Australia improved slightly with its emissions trend but dropped in energy efficiency.

The Australian Conservation Foundation’s chief executive, Kelly O’Shanassy, said: “The government spruiks its climate credentials but Australia remains a laggard on cutting climate pollution.

“The world is watching as our pollution rises and governments support new mega-polluting coalmines.”

O’Shanassy said Australia must not proceed with Adani’s Carmichael coalmine.

Meanwhile, the federal minister for energy and the environment, Josh Frydenberg, used his time in Marrakech to lobby the US in favour of Adani’s Carmichael coalmine, complaining about US activists funding a campaign to stop the huge project from proceeding.

In a separate study from the London School of Economics, researchers examined the consistency of actions of G20 countries, compared with the goals of the Paris agreement.

It found Australia – as well as Argentina, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the US – were “falling behind with their national climate mitigation action”.

“These countries lack overall framework legislation or regulation on climate change, need to move from sectoral to economy-wide targets and extend the timeframe of their targets to 2030,” the report said.

Source: theguardian.com

EIB confirms plans to strengthen support for North African renewable energy and energy efficiency

18.11.2016

The European Investment Bank today confirmed plans to strengthen support for the Green for Growth Fund to enable new investment in small scale energy efficiency and renewable energy projects across North Africa, in Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia, as well as Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories. Expanded geographic engagement of the specialist climate fund to the southern Mediterranean region will focus investment on projects that can generate high energy savings and significant CO2 reduction in countries that have high levels of fossil fuel use, limited renewable energy and restricted implementation of energy efficiency schemes.

“Unlocking new investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency is a global challenge and the Green for Growth Fund has an impressive track record that has already enabled more sustainable energy use in Southeast Europe and the European eastern neighbourhood. The European Investment Bank is committed to strengthening the local impact of climate related investment and the planned expansion of the Green for Growth Fund to North Africa and the Middle East can help to reduce emissions and provide a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels use across the region.” said Jonathan Taylor, European Investment Bank Vice President.

The Green for Growth Fund provides dedicated credit lines to local financial and non-financial intermediaries, including commercial banks and microfinance institutions, for investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency schemes by local partners, such as businesses, households, municipalities and energy companies. Targeted technical assistance is also used to strengthen environmental and social impact assessment, energy audits and roll out energy efficiency focused credit lines.

At COP 22 currently taking place in Marrakech, Morocco, representatives of the European Investment Bank and the Green for Growth Fund yesterday highlighted how the initiative had already unlocked investment for projects that the EIB could not directly support and confirmed their shared commitment to support new energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.

“The EIB has played a key role in the creation of the Green for Growth Fund and remains one of the fund’s leading partners. We are very pleased about the EIB’s increased commitment, which will help the Green for Growth Fund to attract additional private investors and enable the fund to further expand and build on its proven support for energy efficiency and renewable energy.” said Elvira Lefting, advisor to the Green for Growth Fund.

The EUR 410 million Green for Growth Fund has been backed since 2009 by the EIB and co-initiator KfW, along with partners including EBRD, IFC, FMO, the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and the European Commission and supported investment by final beneficiaries that saves an estimated 1,300,000 MWh and 329,000 tonnes of CO2 each year.

Source: eib.org

Bicycle Friendly Amsterdam Aims for Clean Transport, Smarter Buildings, and a Circular Economy

18.11.2016

Cycling is a big part of Amsterdam’s clean transport story. The city has more bikes than people and is increasing the number of green bikeways, separated from roads.

“More and more, we’re biking,” said Peter Paul Ekker, spokesman for Amsterdam Alderman Abdeluheb Choho, vice mayor for sustainability. As described in an earlier article in this series, “Strong Support in Amsterdam for City’s Climate and Sustainability Efforts,” the city intends public transport to be totally electric by 2025, at which point all taxis also will need to be electric.

It also plans to completely bar older, dirtier fossil-fueled vehicles from entering the city. Some restrictions on conventional commercial vehicles are already in place.

A Clean and Circular Economy

Once Amsterdam officials realized that the city could replace a third of the building materials it uses annually by recovering and reusing them, the city became a strong proponent of the “circular economy.”

“You need to build smart,” Ekker said, constructing buildings so raw materials can be more easily recovered once the building has reached the end of its useful lifespan.

All concrete that the city uses in the future will be recycled—“a huge CO2 reduction,” according to Ekker. In contracting with developers for buildings in Amsterdam, 30 percent of a prospective project’s rating is based on its sustainability score.

Amsterdam is not just focusing on its “tear downs.” The city is keen on retrofitting buildings to make them more energy efficient. Nowhere is this concern more evident than when it comes to school buildings.

Green Schools, Clean Energy

Amsterdammers are solicitous of their next generation.

“All schools will have green roofs, solar panels, good insulation,” Ekker said. Green roofs insulate the building, reducing the need for heating and cooling. They thereby improve air quality along with occupants’ comfort. “It’s a win-win situation,” he noted.

The city plans to increase the number of households with rooftop solar generators from 5,000 to 80,000 by 2020 while it expands the city’s wind power generating capacity from 67 MW to 85 MW. But whereas many residents are interested in solar, relatively few have suitable roofs.

To meet this challenge, the city has been working with owners of large factory and commercial roofs since 2015 to arrange for them to lease their roofs to residents for solar generation.

Waste-to-Energy

In adhering to its ideals of a circular economy, Amsterdam is reusing municipal waste to co-generate heat and power for residents in northern and western Amsterdam. The waste is collected and delivered to a central incinerator with advanced pollution controls. Heat generated by the plant is distributed to households in large insulated pipes, replacing individual gas furnaces.

In addition, excess heat from a gas-fired power plant on the east side of Amsterdam in Diemen currently serves residents in the city’s southern and eastern quadrants, and the city is planning to create a region-wide heat network.

All told, Amsterdam plans to have 102,000 homes on district heating by 2020 and 240,000 by 2040. Geothermal heat sources and surplus heat from urban greenhouses, where flowers and vegetables are grown, will provide heat to the regional heat-network.

Amsterdam’s leaders understand that clean air and clean water are essential if the city is to be habitable, sustainable, and attractive to residents and businesses in the future. They know that a clean environment is intrinsically more attractive than a polluted one and that it is not only compatible with economic prosperity, but conducive to it.

By emphasizing the health and economic benefits of their climate and energy programs, they’ve built a strong public consensus in its favor.

Source: renewableenergyworld.com

Program of metrological support for Gazprom’s operations approved for 2017–2021

18.11.2016

The Gazprom Management Committee approved the Comprehensive Targeted Program of metrological support for the Company’s operations between 2017 and 2021.

The Program is aimed at further improving the quality of metering Gazprom’s gas deliveries to domestic and foreign consumers. Particularly, the document stipulates measures for upgrading, reconstructing and retrofitting gas metering stations.

The Program will contribute to better operation of the Unified Gas Supply System, more efficient use of energy resources, including associated petroleum gas, and fewer air emissions.

Gazprom’s specialized structural units were instructed to use the Program as a basis for the Company’s annual and medium-term investment programs covering the construction, reconstruction and retrofitting of Gazprom’s metrological support facilities.

Source: Gazprom.com

‘We need everyone,’ Ban says

18.11.2016

Ban_Ki-moon_February_2016 — Photo: en.wikipedia.org

Rallying stakeholders gathered in Marrakech, Morocco, for the United Nations Climate Conference, known as ‘COP 22,’ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday urged everyone – “from the local to the global” – including the private sector, cities and civil society, to get involved in the implementation of the Paris Agreement.

“We need everyone. And we need action from the local to the global. Partnerships should focus on results today – and make progress for the long-term. We have no time to waste, and much to gain, by acting now,” Mr. Ban told a High-Level event on Accelerating Climate Action.

The President of COP 22, Salaheddine Mezouar, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Morocco, noted that “without minimizing the eminent responsibility of States,” the contribution of non-State actors serves as a “structuring supplement” to multilateral action against the impacts of climate change.

Last December at the previous Conference, known as COP 21, 196 Parties to the UNFCCC adopted the Paris Agreement, so-named after the French capital where it was approved. It aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016, in time for COP 22, which has been under way since 7 November.

The Global Climate Action Agenda, launched formally in 2014 at COP 20, in Lima, Peru, aims to mobilize non-State actors in addressing climate change.

In Paris the next year, two Climate Champions, Laurence Tubiana, French Ambassador for climate change negotiations, and Hakima El Haité, Moroccan Minister for the Environment, were appointed to accelerate joint action on the Agenda.

Source: un.org

UK Ratifies Paris Climate Agreement

18.11.2016

The UK has become the 111th country to ratify the Paris climate agreement, which aims to avoid the most devastating effects of climate change by cutting carbon emissions.

The foreign minister, Boris Johnson, who has flirted with climate scepticism, signed the pact in London on Thursday after a parliamentary deadline passed on Wednesday night, with no objections raised.

Speaking at the UN climate summit in Marrakech, Nick Hurd, the industry and climate minister, said: “The UK is ratifying the historic Paris agreement so that we can help to accelerate global action on climate change and deliver on our commitments to create a safer, more prosperous future for us all.

“I hope this will send a very strong message of continued international commitment to implement Paris because it is obviously very important to send that signal out.”

Salaheddine Mezouar, the Moroccan foreign minister and president of the COP22 summit, told the Guardian: “It is excellent news that the UK has ratified, and it comes at the right moment. It is a good response to all those people who are sceptical about climate change.”

The US election of Donald Trump, who has renounced climate science and promised to withdraw from the Paris agreement, has fed anxiety about future efforts to contain climate change.

But while the UK’s Brexit vote may be moving the country closer to the US geopolitically – and has literally shifted its climate summit pavilion from the EU to the US tent – its endorsement of the Paris deal was widely welcomed as a boost to the Paris treaty.

Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist, Doug Parr said that having set a target for curbing carbon emissions, the UK now needed to find the quickest and cheapest route to get there.

“A mix of renewables, battery storage and efficiency measures is the way to go,” he said. “If Theresa May wants to have an industrial strategy that can cut emissions, create jobs, and help keep down bills, she should put low-carbon infrastructure at its heart.”

The UK’s negotiating partners may also look to May to keep in check climate-sceptic impulses among some of her own ministers. Johnson has irreverently described the global leaders who drafted the Paris treaty as driven by “a primitive fear” that warmer weather was caused by humanity – a fear that he described as “without foundation”.

Hurd said such talk should be taken with a pinch of salt: “Words count for one thing. You look for proof points. I think the fact that within days of this administration taking over, one of its first acts was to put into law the fifth carbon budget is an important proof point.”

The shadow climate minister, Barry Gardiner, said: “The UK government must now show their commitment through climate action on the ground. We face a 47% shortfall to meet our 2030 climate target. Pursuing fracking and a six-fold tax hike on solar business rates only take us in the wrong direction.”

To meet its climate commitments, the UK will have to decarbonise the lion’s share of its electricity by 2030 according to the government’s official advisers, the committee on climate change (CCC).

The government’s strategy currently favours an expansion in nuclear power and fracking for shale gas, the latter of which could ramp up carbon emissions if it is not displacing coal. Controversially, it has also rowed back support for solar and onshore wind power.

Clean energy business groups, though, welcomed today’s announcement as a sign that the UK would continue to play a progressive role in the international climate process.

Stephanie Pfeifer, the CEO of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, which represents investors with over €14tn (£12tn) of assets in clean energies, said: “This encouraging announcement can only help sustain the ‘spirit of Paris’ and the momentum behind the international consensus to drive substantial action on climate change.”

Jill Duggan, the director of The Prince of Wales’s Corporate Leaders Group(CLG), said: “The UK government’s ratification of the agreement today sends an important signal to international allies, businesses and investors about the inevitable transition towards a zero carbon economy.”

Sir Crispin Tickell, former British ambassador to the United Nations, said: “Britain’s ratification of the historic Paris agreement is an important moment, not least because our country has for a long time led global efforts to cope with the effects of climate change.”

Source: theguardian.com

Morocco Lights the Way for Africa on Renewable Energy

18.11.2016

As the host of this year’s COP22 climate change conference in Marrakech, Morocco has been keen to demonstrate its green credentials and make this COP the “African COP”.

In the past year, Morocco has banned the use of plastic bags, launched new plans for extending the urban tram networks in Casablanca and Rabat, started the process of replacing its dirty old fleet of buses and taxis, launched Africa’s first city bicycle hire scheme, and launched a new initiative – the “Adaptation of African Agriculture” – to help the continent’s farmers adjust to climate change.

But by far the most attention has been on the development of “mega” infrastructure projects in an ambitious plan to transform the country’s energy mix.

Morocco has no fossil fuel reserves so is almost entirely reliant on imports. In 2015 King Mohammed VI committed the country to increasing its share of renewable electricity generation to 52% by 2030, aiming for the installation of around 10 gigawatts (GW). Of that, 14% is expected to come from solar, with plans to install 2GW of new capacity by 2020, as well as increases in wind power and hydraulic dams. Morocco has even opened the door to exchanging electricity produced from renewable sources with Europe.

Morocco’s INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contribution) plan submitted to the UNFCCC is equally ambitious and commits the country to cutting greenhouse gas emissions – particularly in agriculture – by 32% by 2030, compared to business as usual. Morocco has also committed to planting 200,000 hectares of forest (pdf) and greatly increasing in irrigation. The commitment is dependent on accessing climate financing, but translates to a cumulative reduction of 401 megatonnes of C02 over the period 2020-30. In 2015 Morocco completely removed subsidies on petroleum products.

The first phase of the giant Noor solar complex near Morocco’s southern desert town of Ouarzazate is the 160MW Noor One plant, which was opened by the king in February. Instead of PV (photovoltaic) solar panels, Noor uses CSP (concentrated solar power) technology – giant mirrors to reflect the sun’s rays on to tubes containing liquid which is super-heated to drive turbines. CSP offers storage of electricity for up to three hours after the sun has set, which covers peak demand times.

Close to the site of Noor One, Noor two, currently under construction, will use the same CSP technology, but on a bigger scale with the hope of storing electricity for seven hours. Noor Three however will use a new variant on CSP technology – the solar tower, where the mirrors are directed at a central point.

Between them they will add another 350MW to the national grid, and are expected to be completed by 2017/18. Noor Four will be constructed near the High Atlas town of Midelt and Morocco’s renewables agency, Masen, announced this week at COP22 that it would open the bidding for two 400MW combined PV and CSP plants in early 2017.

Morocco is also investing in wind. A consortium of Enel Green Power, Nareva (owned by King Mohammed VI’s investment company) and Siemens won a bid in March to build five new wind farms at different sites across Morocco – Midelt, Tangier, Jbel Lahdid, and Tiskrid and Boujdour in the disputed Western Sahara territory. Their combined capacity will be 850MW, a huge increase taking Morocco closer to its aim of producing 14% of electricity from wind by 2020. The unit cost in the tender documents was one of the lowest in the world, at just $0.03 per kWh.

But while developing renewable power sounds good on paper, cost will be a big factor. The launch of the Noor CSP project has helped the price of electricity produced by CSP to come down to around $0.16 per kWh, but that looks expensive compared to solar PV which has fallen as low as $0.03 per kWh.

It remains to be seen whether the costs of CSP will fall low enough to be globally commercially competitive, and deliver cost-effective renewable power for Moroccan consumers. CSP also uses large amounts of water to keep the mirrors clean – a real problem in water-stressed Morocco. At the same time, Morocco has not totally kicked the fossil fuel habit – coal still makes up the biggest part of energy production today (35%) and is set to be expanded over the next five years. The new energy mix will include at least 3,900MW of energy from natural gas, and the search for hydrocarbon deposits on Moroccan soil continues.

Source: theguardian.com

1...372373374...415 Page 373 of 415

Newsletter

Calendar of events

2025 October

Events for 31 October

Events for 1 November

Events for 2 November

Events for 3 November

Events for 4 November

Events for 5 November

Events for 6 November

Events for 7 November

Events for 8 November

Events for 9 November

Events for 10 November

Events for 11 November

Events for 12 November

Events for 13 November

Events for 14 November

Events for 15 November

Events for 16 November

Events for 17 November

Events for 18 November

Events for 19 November

Events for 20 November

Events for 21 November

Events for 22 November

Events for 23 November

Events for 24 November

Events for 25 November

Events for 26 November

Events for 27 November

Events for 28 November

Events for 29 November

WRITE US