Industry headlines

The European Union could obtain 92% of its energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2050 while cutting carbon emissions by 95% compared with 1990, according to a report. An extra €2tn (£1.7tn) worth of investment would be needed by the middle of this century but that could easily be outweighed by €2.65tn of fuel cost savings, argues Greenpeace International and the European Renewable Energy Council.   Click here for full story

Germany could derive all of its electricity from renewable energy sources by 2050 and become the world's first major industrial nation to kick the fossil fuel habit, the Federal Environment Agency said on Wednesday.
Germany is already a global leader in renewable energy and exports green technology around the world.
It gets 16 percent of its electricity from wind, solar and other renewable sources -- triple the five percent level it had 15 years ago.
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(Reuters) - Britain's plan to switch from the market-based renewable obligation subsidy scheme to a flat-fee feed-in tariff could deter investors and delay clean energy projects, investor and banking group Investec said on Wednesday.
In its June budget, the government suggested it may introduce feed-in tariffs for large-scale renewable projects, such as offshore wind farms and marine energy, and could keep the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) for existing projects only.
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(Source: Datamonitor)trackingThe Committee on Climate Change has warned that unless "urgent action" is taken the UK will miss its emissions target after the recession created the illusion of a significant decrease in carbon production. Furthermore, the proportion of Britain's electricity supplied from renewable sources fell 7.5% in the first quarter of 2010, placing the nation's green energy revolution in peril.
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Renewable energy sources accounted for 62% of new electricity generation capacity installed in the EU27 in 2009, a 5% rise on 2008 levels, according to a report published by the European Commission. The findings, compiled by the Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) and published yesterday (July 5), also show that for the second year running, wind energy contributed the largest share of the new capacity. Click here for full story

Renewable energy sources accounted for 62 per cent (17GW) of the new electricity generation capacity installed across the 27 member states of the European Union in 2009, an increase from 57 per cent in 2008, according to a European Commission report.According to the "Renewable Energy Snapshots" report, published on July 5 2010 by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), for the second year running, wind energy accounted for the largest share of the new capacity: 10.2 GW out of the 27.5 GW built, representing 38 per cent of the total. Click here for full story

Spain’s wind power and thermal solar sectors have agreed a reduction in subsidies with the government. According to the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade and sector associations, wind subsidies foreseen in the Royal Decree 661/2007 will be reduced by 35% until 1 January 2013. In addition to the cut in wind subsidies, concentrating solar power (CSP) plants will not be allowed to take advantage of the market price plus premium option during a year of operation, and will only be allowed to accede to the regulated tariff option foreseen in RD 661. Click here for full story

President Barack Obama, in his weekly address, announced nearly $2bn in loan guarantees for Abengoa Solar’s 250MW concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in Arizona and Abound Solar, a cadmium telluride thin-film PV manufacturer planning to expand manufacturing in two states.The conditional commitments from the Department of Energy’s Loan Guarantee Program – expanded through Obama’s economic stimulus bill – could create up to 3,600 construction jobs and some 1,600 permanent jobs. Click here for full story

The UK’s first inner-city green technology research centre has been officially opened by London mayor Boris Johnson.The Centre for Efficient & Renewable Energy in Buildings (CEREB) at London South Bank University is a multi-million-pound new facility, built in partnership with Kingston and City universities.Located on the roof of Grimshaw’s brand new K2 building at Elephant & Castle, it is a teaching, research and demonstration facility for low-carbon technologies in the built environment. Click here for full story

The University of Warwick has formally opened a new high-tech facility marking a £10.6 million investment in energy efficient technology which local businesses can share in.The Science City Cleanroom for Energy Efficient Semiconductors is part of project funded by Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the Birmingham Science City Energy Efficiency & Demand project. Click here for full story

Article 24 of the Directive on renewable energy requires the Commission to establish a platform for the publication of a range of documents about renewable energy. Click here for full story

Article 4 of the renewable energy Directive (2009/28/EC) requires Member States to submit national renewable energy action plans by 30 June 2010. These plans, to be prepared in accordance with the template published by the Commission, provide detailed roadmaps of how each Member State expects to reach its legally binding 2020 target for the share of renewable energy in their final energy consumption. Click here for full story

The UK can meet its 15% renewable energy target for 2020 with domestic action and financial support for technologies, according to the UK's National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP).
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) submitted the UK's report to the European Commission yesterday (July 1), in accordance with a requirement in the Renewable Energy Directive for all EU Member States to send detailed plans of how they will meet their legally binding 2020 renewable energy targets.
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The IEA has just launched a new edition of Energy Technology Perspectives (ETP). The study presents updated scenarios from the present to 2050 that show which new technologies will be most important in key sectors and in different regions of the world for achieving the goal of halving global CO2 emissions by 2050. Click here for full story

Europe's 20/20/20 policy will cost billions of pounds, but yield only tiny results, writes Bjorn Lomborg.European leaders have a lot to deal with. The financial crisis has prompted several national stimulus packages and a joint effort to keep Greece afloat, while the EU is in danger of being outstripped by other economies that are growing faster, producing more efficiently and at lower costs. Click here for full story

The vast majority of EU member states will deliver their national renewable energy action plans (NREAPs) late as only two had landed on the European Commission's desk by midday yesterday (30 June), the day of the deadline. "So far we've only had track of two," said Philip Lowe, director-general for energy at the European Commission. He was speaking at an event in Brussels on the day by which EU member states had to submit by midnight their action plans outlining the specific actions they intend to take to meet their targets. Click here for full story

The number of new wind farms being built in the UK needs to be dramatically stepped up in order to meet climate targets, a key report has warned. The Committee on Climate Change's annual progress report for the government has revealed that in the past year just 0.7 gigawatts of new wind capacity was built. This compares to the 3 gigawatts a year needed to meet targets, or the equivalent of about 1,000 new turbines. Click here for full story

Responding to today’s announcement that the Infrastructure Planning Commission will be abolished, the Renewable Energy Association’s Chief Executive, Gaynor Hartnell, said:
“We welcome the commitment to approve major projects within the current fast-track timeframes. There is a pressing need for new energy infrastructure and the National Policy Statements are key to delivering this. Click here for full story



BERLIN Germany has set up a $500 million climate fund to micro-finance projects such as new supermarket freezers or biomass heating in developing countries to help cut greenhouse gases, Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen said Tuesday.

Roettgen said the purpose of the fund, inspired by December's Copenhagen climate conference, is to drum up funds from public and private investors while hedging their financial risk. Click here for full story



Britain needs to build twice as many wind farms every year, put more than a million electric cars on the road and insulate every home in the country in order to meet ambitious legally-binding climate change targets, Government advisers have warned.

Under new laws brought in by the previous Labour Government, the UK is committed to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 34 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020. Click here for full story

The Scottish government has unveiled plans to set up a central loan fund to support sustainable cheap energy projects across the region.
Environment secretary Richard Lochhead has completed a consultation and launched a study into how energy-saving renewable projects north of the border can be funded and launched. funded and launched. Click here for full story

An international team of energy and climate experts has recently come to an encouraging conclusion: all of Europe and North Africa could realistically be powered by renewable energy by 2050, pending the development of two green ‘Super Grids.’ The study – a collaboration between PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the European Climate Forum (ECF)–forms the first comprehensive policy road map towards the 2050 goal. Click here for full story