http___blogs.worldwatch.org_revolt_bg_tag_transatlantic-power-series__1.xml
http___blogs.worldwatch.org_revolt_tag_china__2.xml
1.1 1.2 2.1 2.2 3.1 3.2 3.3 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 5.1
След чества като най-добрият инструмент на политиката за ограничаване на вредните емисии на парникови газове, за търговия с емисии изглежда се привличане на нови критици всяка седмица. ограничаване и търговия схема на Европа , системата за търговия с емисии на ЕС (EU ETS), е подложена на специално разглеждане. С цените на въглеродните падат от около 30 EUR през 2008 г. до застой на под 3 евро през април 2013 г., гласове от вътре и извън Европа са предизвикателство не само избор на региона на инструмент, но също така готовността си да предприеме амбициозни действия за климата. Оправдана ли е всички критики от европейската флотилия от политика? И са за ограничаване и търговия схеми все още зелена към политиката за климата, че ние трябва да се насърчаване в глобален мащаб? Критиците са прави да се произнесе смъртта на СТЕ на ЕС, но политиците трябва да надхвърлят малки мерки за регулиране, като например решението за временно попречил на продажбата на квоти, за да се определи нейната цена на въглеродните емисии. В международен план, важността на търговията с емисии се разраства с нови схеми се появяват. Обсъждане на ползите от търговията с емисии трябва да направи своя начин за усилията за осигуряване на оптимално проектиране на нови системи, които в крайна сметка могат да бъдат свързани помежду си. Критиците трябва да запомнят, че най-важната задача на ОСП и търговия схеми е да се гарантира намаляването на емисиите на парникови газове. Целта на ЕС за емисии се прилага чрез задължително капачка на емисиите, система строго контролирана мониторинг, и тежки глоби за неспазване . Капачката е понижение от 1.74% година по година за секторите, обхванати от схемата. Други политически инициативи, като например преференциални тарифи, задължение за възобновяема квота, както и за енергийна ефективност закони-също допринасят за намаляване на емисиите, но само на СТЕ на ЕС може да гарантира, че действителната цел на околната среда е изпълнено. Схемата служи като инструмент на политиката на гръбнака да се гарантира, че ЕС остава на предварително определена траектория на decarbonization.When определянето на временни цели, намаляване на емисиите от допълнителни мерки следва да се отразят в капачката. Прочетете останалата част на този пост
1.1 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 4.1 5.1 6.1 6.2 7.1 8.1 8.2 9.1 9.2 9.3 10.1 11.1 12.1 12.2 12.3 13.1 13.2 14.1 14.2 14.3 15.1 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 17.1 18.1 19.1 19.2 19.3 20.1 20.2 21.1 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4 24.1 25.1 26.1 26.2 27.1 27.2 27.3 28.1 28.2 29.1 30.1 31.1 32.1 32.2 33.1 33.2 33.3 34.1 34.2 34.3 34.4 35.1 35.2 36.1 37.1 38.1 38.2 38.3 39.1 40.1 40.2 41.1 41.2 41.3 42.1 43.1 44.1 44.2 44.3 45.1 46.1 46.2 47.1 47.2 48.1 48.2 49.1 49.2 49.3 49.4 50.1 51.1 52.1 52.2 52.3 53.1 53.2 54.1 54.2 54.3 54.4 55.1 55.2 56.1 57.1 58.1 58.2 58.3 58.4 59.1 60.1 61.1 61.2 61.3 62.1 62.2 62.3 62.4 63.1 64.1
Significant price differences between regional natural gas markets have driven many European countries to increase coal consumption while decreasing use of natural gas (Source: BP). Coal, natural gas, and oil accounted for 87 percent of global primary energy consumption in 2012 as the growth of worldwide energy use continued to slow due to the economic downturn. The relative weight of these energy sources keeps shifting, although the change was ever so slight. Natural gas increased its share of global primary energy consumption from 23.8 to 23.9 percent during 2012, coal rose from 29.7 to 29.9 percent, and oil fell from 33.4 to 33.1 percent. The International Energy Agency predicts that by 2017 coal will replace oil as the dominant primary energy source worldwide. The shale revolution in the United States is reshaping global oil and gas markets. The United States produced oil at record levels in 2012 and is expected to overtake Russia as the world’s largest producer of oil and natural gas combined in 2013. Consequently, the country is importing decreasing amounts of these two fossil fuels, while using rising levels of its natural gas for power generation. This has led to price discrepancies between the American and European natural gas markets that in turn have prompted Europeans to increase their use of coal for power generation. Coal consumption, however, was dominated by China, which in 2012 for the first time accounted for more than half of the world’s coal use. China, coal, Europe, India, natural gas, oil, Russia, shale gas, United States Read the rest of this entry In early April, leading French nuclear company AREVA signed a series of strategic agreements with the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) to foster a strategic civil nuclear partnership between France and China. With presidents Francois Hollande and Xi Jinping in attendance, the two governments finalized a letter of intent to build a facility for treating and recycling spent nuclear fuel in China. Citizens protest nuclear energy in China. Just three months after the agreement, China cancelled a planned China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) nuclear fuel processing project in Heshan, Guangdong province, in the wake of opposition from local residents. Although China has both official support and the technological capacity for nuclear energy development, emerging public resistance to nuclear projects is an increasing challenge. In 2011, nuclear power provided 13 percent of the world’s electricity, but less than 2 percent in China. The country still relies heavily on coal—accounting for 68.5 percent of electricity generation in 2012—because of its lower cost and greater accessibility. Meanwhile, China’s carbon emissions have grown at an average annual rate of 7 percent since 2000, reaching 7.57 billion tons in 2011, according to the International Energy Agency. China, Climate Policy, greenhouse gas emissions, nuclear power, wind power Read the rest of this entry Once celebrated as the best policy instrument for curbing harmful greenhouse gas emissions, emissions trading seems to be attracting new critics every week. Europe’s cap-and-trade scheme, the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), has come under particular scrutiny. With carbon prices falling from around EUR 30 in 2008 to lows of under EUR 3 in April 2013, voices from within and outside of Europe are challenging not only the region’s choice of instrument, but also its willingness to take ambitious climate action. Is all the criticism of Europe’s flagship policy justified? And are cap-and-trade schemes still the go-to climate policy that we should be promoting globally? Critics are wrong to pronounce the demise of the EU ETS, but policymakers should go beyond small adjustment measures, such as the decision to temporarily hold back the sale of allowances, to fix its carbon price. Internationally, the importance of emissions trading is growing as new schemes emerge. Discussions of the benefits of emissions trading should make way for efforts to ensure the optimal design of new systems that can ultimately be interlinked. Source: Environmental Defense Fund Critics should remember that the most important job of cap-and-trade schemes is to ensure the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The EU emissions target is enforced through a mandatory emissions cap, a tightly controlled monitoring system, and heavy fines for non-compliance. The cap is declining by 1.74 percent year by year for the sectors covered under the scheme. Other policy initiatives—such as feed-in tariffs, renewable quota obligation, and energy efficiency laws—also contribute to emission reductions, but only the EU ETS can guarantee that the actual environmental target is met. The scheme serves as the backbone policy instrument to ensure that the EU remains on a predefined path of decarbonization. When setting interim targets, emission reductions from additional measures should be factored into the cap. California, China, Climate Policy, EU 20/20/20 policy, EU-ETS, European Union, GHG emissions, transatlantic power series Read the rest of this entry Solar and wind continue to dominate investment in new renewable capacity. Global use of solar and wind energy grew significantly in 2012. Solar power consumption increased by 58 percent, to 93 terrawatt-hours (TWh), while wind power increased by 18.1 percent, to 521.3 TWh. Global investment in solar energy in 2012 was $140.4 billion, an 11 percent decline from 2011, and wind investment was down 10.1 percent, to $80.3 billion. Due to lower costs for both technologies, however, total installed capacities still grew sharply. Solar and wind energy investments were down slightly in 2012, though installed capacities still grew sharply (Source: BNEF). Solar photovoltaic (PV) installed capacity grew by 41 percent in 2012, reaching 100 gigawatts (GW). Installed PV capacity has grown by 900 percent since 2007. The countries with the most installed PV capacity today are Germany (32.4 GW), Italy (16.4 GW), the United States (7.2 GW), and China (7.0 GW). Concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) capacity reached 2.55 GW, with 970 megawatts (MW) alone added in 2012. Europe remains dominant in solar, accounting for 76 percent of global solar power use in 2012. Germany alone accounted for 30 percent of the world’s solar power consumption, and Italy added the third most capacity of any country in 2012 (3.4 GW). Spain added the most CSP capacity (950 MW) in 2012 as well. However, Italy reached the subsidy cap for its feed-in tariff (FIT) program in June 2013, while Spain recently made a retroactive change in its FIT policies, meaning that growth in solar energy will likely slow in these countries in the near future. China, feed-in tariff, Germany, Italy, japan, renewable energy, renewable energy investment, renewable energy policy, solar power, Spain, United States, wind power Read the rest of this entry New electric buses and a charging station in Chengdu City. (Source: http://scnews.newssc.org/system/2012/07/31/013588311.shtml) Over the past 30 years, China’s rapid economic growth and industry development have been driven in large part by specific national plans that set very ambitious targets for certain industries. The electric vehicle (EV) industry is no exception. Yet even with prioritization by the central government, the EV industry does not seem to be on track to meet its targets. According to the Ministry of Science and Technology’s (MOST) 12th Five-Year Plan for Electric Vehicles and the State Council’s Energy-saving and New Energy Automotive Industry Development Plan released in 2012, 500,000 EVs and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) are to be deployed by 2015, along with 400,000 charging piles and 2,000 charging or battery-switching stations. The nation is targeting 5 million EVs and PHEVs on the road by 2020. In addition, MOST and other governmental entities, such as the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and National Development and Reform Commission, initiated the “10 Cities and 1,000 Vehicles” program in 2009 to support EV development in 25 cities by providing subsidies. 12th Five-Year Plan, China, electric vehicles, energy policy, green transportation Read the rest of this entry China is putting effort into developing its electric vehicle industry, but industry reports say it is falling behind other countries in terms of "EV readiness." (Source: Treehugger.com) In 2010, A123 Systems, a leading advanced lithium-ion battery manufacturer, opened the first and largest U.S. manufacturing facility to produce batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). The project was supported by a $249 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. But when President Barack Obama called to congratulate A123 Systems on the milestone, which he said foreshadowed “the birth of an entire new industry in America,” he never would have imagined the subsequent bankruptcy of this rising star and its acquisition by China’s Wanxiang Group in 2012. Although this overseas acquisition is one of Wanxiang Group’s highest profile actions, the company has long been quietly acquiring and investing in dozens of auto parts manufacturers. Wanxiang has expressed interest in supporting the struggling Fisker Automotive, a manufacturer of luxury plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) and a previous client of A123 Systems. Wanxiang chairman Guanqiu Lu’s strategic ambitions to be an electric vehicle manufacturer are becoming closer to reality than ever before. According to the global consulting firm McKinsey, in 2010 China ranked third (together with Germany) in financial support for clean-vehicle technology development, just behind the United States and France. As early as 2001, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) had included electric vehicle technologies as a key project in the National High Technology Research and Development Program (863 Program). In order to reduce dependence on oil, compete with more developed foreign automobile industries, and reduce air pollutants, MOST proposed focusing on three types of vehicles: hybrid-electric vehicles (HEV), electric vehicles, and fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), as well as three key components: battery/fuel cells, electric motors, and power controls, with an investment of 880 million RMB (US$106 million) within five years. automobiles, China, electric vehicles, Green Technology, hybrid vehicles, low-carbon, transportation Read the rest of this entry Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city (SSTEC), China’s latest and largest eco-city project, saw its first residents earlier this year. The city is built on a blend of non-arable saline and alkaline land that was virtually uninhabitable five years ago. While this is an accomplishment in and of itself, SSTEC is trying to go even greener in terms of the energy efficiency of its buildings. Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city in 2012 (Source: http://www.tianjinecocity.gov.sg/) SSTEC aims to offer green building certification based on more stringent standards than anywhere else in the country, including the national standards. It has already set up a Green Building Evaluation Committee (GBEC) to supervise building quality. But in terms of energy efficiency, SSTEC’s GBEC still lacks the clearly defined requirements found in comprehensive international standards like the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. According to a World Bank report, the GBEC provides standards only for the building envelope and central heating, unlike LEED, which covers a broad range of energy systems including lighting, air conditioning, water heating, and appliances. While the ambition in this eco-city project is commendable, the oversights in SSTEC’s efficiency standards reflect a lack of comprehensiveness in green building standards across China, as the GBEC is already the country’s most advanced and comprehensive building standard. 12th Five-Year Plan, China, emissions trading, energy efficiency, energy policy, Green Buildings, greenhouse gas emissions, LEED Read the rest of this entry In March 2013, the National Energy Administration (NEA) of China issued a Notice to urge development of wind-to-heat projects in northern China. This practice aims to reduce the waste of wind power and cut emissions from the coal-fired central heating system. Experiments have been carried out and the approach is going to be scaled up, but further innovations are needed to really shake the dominance of coal. The niche for large-scale wind-to-heat Figure 1. China’s installed wind power generation capacity, and average operation hours of the turbines from different sources (click image to enlarge graph). According to the Chinese Wind Energy Association (CWEA), China’s total installed capacity of wind power jumped to 75.3 gigawatt (GW) by the end of 2012, while the annual installed capacity was 13 GW, nearly 27percent lower than that of 2011 (See Figure 1). This may reflect bottlenecks, such as growing wind curtailment, faced by the industry. Since 2010, the operating hours of wind turbines have been decreasing (See Figure 1). Combined with growing generation capacity, wind curtailment in 2012 reached 20,000 gigawatt hours(GWh), nearly doubled the curtailed production of 2011. Jilin Province is a region with one of the highest curtailment rates. Winter nights see high wind speed but low electricity demand, and the local grid’s flexibility for peak electricity management is limited. As a result, wind farms in Jilin Province, which have a total generation capacity of 3.3 GW, were generating for only 1,420 hours in 2012. This was much lower than the industry-adopted economic minimum of 1,900 hours. China, coal, curtailed wind, heating, renewable energy, wind power, wind-to-heat Read the rest of this entry In the first two months of 2013, there were only 58 requests (according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC) to register Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects in the world, compared to 280 requests in January and February 2012. CDM is one of the three flexible mechanisms defined in the Kyoto Protocol that provides for emissions reduction projects with Certified Emission Reduction (CER) units, essentially credits that can be traded in emissions trading schemes. Developed countries can fulfill their commitments to reduce emissions by buying CERs from developing countries, which, in turn, achieve sustainable development by building emissions reduction projects. The CDM provides a solution for financing low carbon projects in developing countries, as CDM projects can derive revenue from two sources: operational revenue, such as selling electricity or decomposition product, and selling the CERs from the project to Annex I (industrialized) countries under the Kyoto Protocol. For example, a wind power plant can sell its generated electricity to domestic grid companies while gaining extra income from selling CERs after achieving a certain amount of CO2 emission reductions. However, as shown by the lack of new CDM projects, the mechanism is failing. Due to oversupply of CERs, the price for each unit is falling rapidly. Two years ago, the CER price was above €12/ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) (US$15.46/tCO2e). At present, it is less than €0.5/tCO2e (US$0.64/tCO2e) (See Figure 1). China is especially hard hit as it dominates the CDM market with the largest investment of CDM projects in the world ($220 billion, or 61.8 percent of total registered CDM projects globally). These Chinese CDM projects have supplied 738 million CERs, or 61.2 percent of all 1,200 million CERs issued from 2005 to present. Carbon Markets, China, Climate Change, emissions reductions, emissions trading, green economy, low-carbon, sustainable development Read the rest of this entry On March 15, Suntech Power Holdings Co., one of China’s largest solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers, failed to pay its US$541 million convertible debt, causing its stock price to bottom out. (See Figure 1.) Three days later, eight Chinese banks filed a petition asking for the company’s main operating subsidiary, Wuxi Suntech, to be declared insolvent and proceed to restructuring. With Wuxi Suntech owing the banks 7.1 billion RMB (US$1.14 billion), the company was forced to declare bankruptcy on March 20. Figure 1: Stock price of Suntech Power Holdings Co. (Unit: USD) (Source: Google Finance) There was discussion about whether the Chinese central government would rescue the former star of China’s solar sector, but the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), abiding with its new policies for renewable energy, said the government “wouldn’t and shouldn’t intervene.” This put the municipal government of Wuxi, in China’s Jiangsu Province, in a dilemma. On the one hand, Suntech had become a model enterprise showcasing Wuxi’s sustainable development success; it would be extremely difficult for the local government to let it go. In 2012, a proposal from Suntech Power to shut down Wuxi Suntech had distressed the local government so much that the municipality made an effort to save the company, securing an additional 200 million RMB ($32.2 million) loan from the Bank of China. But this time around, having lost the creditworthiness to receive strong support from state banks, government bailout options were limited. Wuxi Guolian Development Group, a financial company controlled by the municipal government, was expected to take over Wuxi Suntech. On March 20, a former senior executive of Guolian was assigned to be the new president of Suntech Power. This marked the official entry of local government into the restructuring process for the suffering Chinese solar company. China, finance, green economy, manufacturing, photovoltaics, renewable energy, solar industry, solar power, Suntech Read the rest of this entry