By HDK / Published on Thu, 2009-06-25 08:14
The revision of the EU ETS was negotiated by the Union's heads of state and government in Brussels on 11 December 2008, and the European Parliament approved the new regime at first reading on 17 December. One of the main elements of the new system, which will enter into force in 2013 and run until 2020, are the enlargement of the scheme to new sectors, such as the petrochemical, ammonia and aluminium sectors, to two new gases (nitrous oxide and perfluorocarbons), and to aviation as of 2012, so that around 50% of all EU emissions would be covered.
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By HDK / Published on Thu, 2009-06-25 08:00
Growing concern about greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change are profoundly altering the way utilities, businesses and governments plan for the future. Beside direct policy and stimulation, one of the mechanisms to enable change towards a lower climate impact is by trading carbon credits in a capped emissions trading scheme. Because of a (planned) shortage of credits, the credits become scarce in an economic sense, and a price for the credits is created. In this way, the idea is that the emission reductions will be made there where the cost is lowest.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-06-23 05:30
Should the case of Spain cause worries?
Two recent decisions by the Spanish government regarding wind energy have highlighted concerns about the affordability of this sector.
The first decision was to create a special fund for the €10 billion government deficit originating from wind energy incentives. The second decision was to end the complete autonomy of the regions in licensing wind projects. These decisions were taken to avoid exceeding the target capacity of 20,155 MW under the government incentives currently in force. Via agreements with the regions, the wind industry was already projecting 41,000 MW. Such a figure would be unaffordable for the government if the current regimen of incentives is left in place. The new national registration of wind projects will also force wind developers to give priority to the most profitable wind sites nationwide, instead of considering projects only on a regional basis.
The Spanish government’s measures provoked a lively discussion on Power Globe and other Internet forums. Can Spain still be regarded as a textbook example of renewable energy promotion, or is the country on the edge of a bankruptcy due to excessive investments in wind?
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Mon, 2009-06-22 12:57
Energy is one of the most important commodities of modern society. It must be used in the most economical way, being as sustainable as possible and causing minimal harm to society.
Prevented use of energy is energy that does not require fossil or renewable input. This makes it the most important of the three main energy goals as set in Europe: Energy saving, more renewables and less greenhouse gases.
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By HDK / Published on Mon, 2009-06-22 07:10
The Vienna-based Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) announced on May 8, 2009 the winners of its 7th project funding cycle. In a highly competitive process, 49 projects in 25 countries were selected for funding out of a total of 694 project concepts received from around the world.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2009-06-18 05:30
Incremental changes can result in substantial cost reductions
The technologies for producing electricity from solar thermal energy can be divided into three main categories:
- Parabolic trough and Fresnel systems
- Central receiver systems, including the solar updraft tower
- Parabolic dish systems, usually combined with a Stirling heat engine
The first commercial CSP plant, which was built in California in the 1980s, used the parabolic trough concept. It has a total capacity of 354 MW. For many years, this was the only large scale CSP plant in the world. Elsewhere, only small demonstration plants were built, as the high investment cost hampered further deployment.
In 2006, a new commercial 1 MW parabolic trough CSP plant was built in Tucson, Arizona. Since then, the development of CSP as a commercial electricity generating technology has taken off. Many CSP projects are currently being built, the majority of which are in Spain and the USA. It is very likely that because of this market boom, investment costs for CSP will go down. The question is how much and how quickly.
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By Isabelle Heriakian / Published on Tue, 2009-06-16 13:04
When the limit values of unbalance factor, specified in standards are exceeded, the use of symmetrizatin systems is required. A symmetrizator should not cause significant active power losses during operation, it implies that the symmetrization process shall be carried out by means of reactive elements (LC) or using active methods (power electronic systems). In this step by step guide, you will learn how to solve unbalance issues.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-06-16 05:30
Diversification complicates price predictions
In regards to PV energy, we will focus on grid connected systems only, since they represent the large majority of the market. The cost of a grid connected PV system is composed of the PV module cost and the 'BOS' cost (Balance of System). The BOS consists of the structures for mounting the PV modules and of the power-conditioning equipment that converts the DC power of the modules into the AC grid power.
Prediction not straightforward
Three difficulties arise when trying to predict the future cost development of PV energy starting from existing experience curves.
- The cost decrease over the past four decades was not at all linear. It alternated periods of sharp decline with periods in which it stayed more or less constant. As a result, experience cost curves that do not represent large time spans can result in a distorted perspective.
- Various PV technologies exist and are difficult to represent with a single experience curve. New types of PV systems may break through in the near future that completely change the average cost of PV modules.
- Even if the future cost of individual PV modules can be predicted, this does not mean the cost of electricity generated by those PV systems can be easily determined. Factors such as geographical location, local support mechanisms, and the size of systems will have a major influence on the average PV electricity cost.
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By Glycon Garcia / Published on Fri, 2009-06-12 08:35
In late 2006, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the International Copper Association, and AES Eletropaulo, an electricity distribution company, embarked as partners on an ambitious project in São Paulo, Brazil to test their integrated approach to slum electrification and loss reduction.
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By HDK / Published on Fri, 2009-06-12 07:57
A new study, which was conducted on behalf of the European Commission’s Directorate-General Energy and Transport, is the first study to assess the economic effects of supporting renewable energy sources (RES) in detail, looking not only at jobs in the RES sector itself, but taking into account its impact on all sectors of the economy. It found that policies that support RES give a significant boost to the economy and the number of jobs in the EU.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Thu, 2009-06-11 13:14
Our partner EUREC, the European Renewable Energy Research Centres Agency, has launched this 45-page publication as the result of a very broad consultation of the European scientific community in renewable energy research.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Thu, 2009-06-11 11:08
Our partner REEGLE has highlighted an interesting story. REEGLE is a one-stop shop and search engine for all renewable energy and energy efficiency-related information including jurisdiction and laws, policies and measures, finance and investment opportunities, reports and analyses and latest news.
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-06-10 11:07
From the RETScreen team, we learn that an updated version of the RETScreen Clean Energy Project Analysis Software was released on May 26, 2009. The improvements include:
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Wed, 2009-06-10 08:52
It is stated in Directive 2006/32/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 5 April 2006 that strong need exists in the community for improved energy end-use efficiency, managed demand for energy and promotion of the production of renewable energy. In defining, for example, energy efficiency improvement measures, cost-effective technological innovations should be used. One of these innovations may be the smart meter.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Wed, 2009-06-10 05:30
Design improvements provide the main potential - material costs the main barrier
When predicting the learning curve of wind energy, a distinction should be made between on-shore and off-shore wind. While the former started to develop in the mid 1970s, the latter only took off around the year 2000 and is consequently still lacking extensive historical data. As the figures of the NEEDS study show, today’s off-shore wind and on-shore wind electricity prices are of the same order of magnitude.
Cost of system drops faster than cost of turbine
Historical cost development curves of on-shore wind show large differences that depend mainly on the timeframe, the system boundaries, and the geographical area. As a general rule one can say that the experience ratio is higher for the complete system than for the turbine alone. This is confirmed by the bottom-up study of NEEDS, which shows that the relative share of the turbine cost in the complete wind energy cost increased in the past decades.
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-06-09 12:58
All users of an electrical power system expect that the frequency and voltages are maintained within acceptable boundaries at all times. Some participants, mainly generating units, provide the necessary frequency and voltage control services, called ancillary services. Since these participants are entitled to receive a payment for the services provided, markets for ancillary services have been developed along with the liberalisation of electricity markets. However, current arrangements vary widely from a power system to another.
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2009-06-09 12:18
In partnership with the Smart-A project.
Smart Domestic Appliances in Sustainable Energy Systems (Smart-A)” develops strategies for an intelligent operation of domestic appliances, which contributes to load management in future energy systems. Therefore, the project assesses the options for load shifting by a variety of appliances across Europe and evaluates them against the Demand Side Management requirements of future energy systems, which will feature large shares of variable wind and solar power production.
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