By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-10-27 06:30
California stimulating middle-scale renewable energy projects
California regulators have designed a new market system for stimulating middle-scale renewable energy projects in a competitive way. The main idea is to create a reverse auction market where renewable energy companies can offer their services for green energy projects. The company that offers to sell electricity at the lowest rate wins a particular purchase agreement. Subsequently, the state will pay the developers the feed-in tariff that is sufficient to bring that particular project online.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-10-20 05:30
Avoiding a high administrative burden
The Australian government’s Department of Climate Change has created a new system of Renewable Energy Credits (REC) for systems up to 1.5 kW. Those small systems are mainly comprised of PV systems, along with small wind and hydroelectric installations. The problem with the former Renewable Energy Certificates system was that the resulting administrative burden for such small systems was too high and the resulting income too low to result in a successful incentive.
In the new RECs system, the energy production is not measured but estimated. The certificates are paid for in advance, at the time the system is purchased, for a lifetime of fifteen years. The production estimation is based on standard figures of mean solar irradiation in the local region. To provide an extra incentive for small systems, this figure is multiplied by 5 for systems installed between June 2009 and June 2012. This multiplier will decrease gradually after 2012 and be set at 1 from June 2015 onwards.
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By Angelo Baggini / Published on Thu, 2008-09-04 16:12
Year: 2007
Policy Status: In force
Portugal has taken a number of steps to transpose the EU Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD) into domestic law. This includes the passing of legislation in 2006 to establish the National System for Energy and Indoor Air Quality Certification of Buildings (SCE). The SCE, which entered into force on 1st July 2007, aims to save energy and protect the environment.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Tue, 2008-02-19 18:20
This page is a live document to support the discussion webinar on the above topic before and after the event. We look forward to reading your comments on this page.
This webinar will discuss the European Commission's Proposal for a Directive on the Promotion of the Use of Energy from Renewable Sources. The webinar starts with a briefing on the proposal, followed by a discussion on its strong and weak points.
Indicative list of discussion points (other points may arise depending on participants):
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2008-02-14 09:00
Based on a Discussion Webinar, Friday 26 January 2008
In the industrialized countries, the transport sector is responsible for about one quarter of all energy consumption, so a low carbon solution is imperative.
Biofuel has been promoted as being green, but lately it received more opposition from green NGOs than any other transport fuel.
Is biofuel the long-awaited sustainable solution for the transport sector? Or are the drawbacks bigger than the advantages and should we put our efforts in other solutions?
Leonardo Energy addressed this subject on a Discussion Webinar on 26 January 2008. The following are a few of the major points arising from that discussion.
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By Hans De Keulenaer / Published on Fri, 2006-03-17 10:34
Difficult to integrate, as shows the example of Belgium To meet the challenge of the Kyoto Protocol, the European Commission has set ambitious growth targets for Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and Combined Heat and Power (CHP). The support measures to reach these goals were left to the member states. The idea was to evaluate these national experiences later on, and then possibly integrate them. The following paper explains why such a harmonization will not follow easily.
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By Anne Rialhe / Published on Sun, 2005-10-30 00:00
This paper presents three different types of certificates ('white' for energy savings, 'green' for renewable electricity, and 'black' for greenhouse gas reductions in the European Emission Trading Scheme). The current limited experiences with these instruments already allow to define some of the success factors for these new instruments. A synthesis of their current application presents how much energy is saved today due to these certificates, and how much green electricity is produced. A discussion on the methods for setting the targets, measuring the impacts on the market and the interaction between these different instruments concludes this paper, followed by a reminder of the proposal to create an international agency on global stewardship for climate change issues.
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By HDK / Published on Tue, 2005-10-11 11:33
This paper presents three different types of certificates ('white' for energy savings, 'green' for renewable electricity, and 'black' for greenhouse gas reductions in the European Emission Trading Scheme). The current limited experiences with these instruments already allow to define some of the success factors for these new instruments. A synthesis of their current application presents how much energy is saved today due to these certificates, and how much green electricity is produced.
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