By Angelo Baggini / Published on Sun, 2008-08-03 09:00
Year: 2006
Policy Status: In force
In a report presented to the Finnish Parliament in Spring 2006, Finland's Ministry of Trade and Industry recommended the extension of federal subsidies for energy audits and analyses. Industries and installations participating in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme will continue to enjoy access to such subsidies, as will installations refraining from participation.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2008-07-17 05:30
Revenues for US Treasury calculated
Wind energy is often criticised by competing forms of energy generation for some of its perceived aspects. It is said to cause dispatching problems, to be more expensive than fossil fuel, to have a limited global potential, and to represent a high cost to society. This last critique has now been contradicted by GE Energy Financial Services. Their study ‘Impact of 2007 Wind Farms on US Treasury’ concludes that the financial incentive for wind energy by the US federal government has a positive Internal Rate of Return (IRR).
This incentive consists of a Production Tax Credit (PTC), currently rated at 2.1 US cents/kWh, which is granted for the first 10 years of a wind farm’s production. The PTC has been a key element in the expansion of wind energy in the US.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2007-09-27 13:09
The mixed blessings of Distributed Generation (DG)
There are two probable paths that can lead to favouring distributed generation (DG):
- When DG is seen as an ideal in itself which we should aim at for technical and/or socio-economical reasons. The fact that many DG systems make use of renewable energy is seen as just one of the overall advantages.
- Or when the reduction of CO2 emissions is the ultimate goal. Renewable energy and cogeneration systems that reduce CO2 emissions are typically small scale, which leads automatically to a more distributed generation.
That last argument is becoming far less convincing as renewable energy farms continue to grow in size and output. The largest renewable energy plants are reaching the size of fossil fuel power plants. Texas hosts a wind farm with a capacity of 735 MW. A PV plant of 11 MW is operating in Portugal, one of 40 MW is being built in Germany, and one of 300 MW is planned in New Mexico. So to what degree generation should be distributed or centralized is a choice we have to make, even for renewables. And both concepts seem to present mixed blessings.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Fri, 2007-01-19 08:30
Subsidies under discussion in the Netherlands, the UK, and Spain
On one hand, subsidies for renewable energy are meant to be a temporary measure to stimulate market integration. On the other however, such regulations require a minimum of predictability to win over investor confidence. It is no wonder then that any discussion of subsidy reforms provokes lively discussions on timing, the way it should be carried out, and what should come in its place.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Wed, 2006-12-06 08:30
More than one Giga Watt installed in 2005
This past summer, the International Energy Agency (IEA) published its Trends in Photovoltaic Applications report. It is the result of a survey conducted in 18 selected countries for the period between 1992 and 2005, within the framework of the Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (PVSP).
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2006-11-30 03:00
Conference offers different points of view
As we reported earlier in another post on this blog, the photovoltaic industry is booming. An interesting question is to what degree this boom could withstand a cut in the subsidies that are currently being injected into this industry.
The US solar power industry seems to be divided on this question. At the Solar Power 2006 conference in San José, California in October, solar industry representatives voiced a variety of opinions. Some predicted that within four years, solar power systems will be competitive with fossil fuels and will no longer need subsidies. Others spoke about a span of five to eight years to achieve that point. Some were predicting significant cost reductions for solar powered systems, but did not dare to predict when they will be able to compete without subsidies. The latter also depends largely on how fossil fuel prices are going to evolve.
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