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През 2010 г. A123 Systems, водещ производител напреднали литиево-йонна батерия, откриха първото и най-голямата американска компания, както и за производството на батерии за електрически превозни средства (ЕПС). Проектът бе подкрепен от безвъзмездна помощ 249 000 000 щатски долара от Министерството на енергетиката на САЩ. Но когато президентът Барак Обама нарече да поздравя A123 Systems за крайъгълен камък, който той каза, предвещава " раждането на една цяла нова индустрия в Америка ", той никога нямаше да си представи последваща несъстоятелност на тази изгряваща звезда и нейното придобиване от Китай Wanxiang Group в 2012. Въпреки това в чужбина придобиване е една от най-високите в профила действия Wanxiang Group, компанията отдавна е тихо придобиване и инвестиране в десетки производители на авточасти. Wanxiang е изразила интерес в подкрепа на борещия се Fisker Automotive , производител на луксозни Plug-в хибридни електрически превозни средства (PHEV) и предишен клиент на A123 Systems. Стратегическите амбиции Wanxiang председател Guanqiu Лу да бъде производител на електрически превозни средства са все по-близо до реалността, отколкото някога преди. Според глобалната консултантска фирма McKinsey, през 2010 г. Китай заема трето място (заедно с Германия) през финансова подкрепа за развитието на технологиите за чиста превозно средство, точно зад Съединените щати и Франция. Още през 2001 г. китайското министерство на науката и технологиите (повечето) бяха включени електрически автомобилни технологии като ключов проект в Националната програма за научни изследвания и развитие на високите технологии (863 Program). С цел да се намали зависимостта от петрола, да се конкурира с по-развитите чуждестранни автомобилни индустрии, както и намаляване на замърсителите на въздуха, НАЙ предложен фокусира върху три вида превозни средства: хибридни електрически превозни средства (HEV), електрически превозни средства и превозни средства с горивни клетки (FCVs), като както и три ключови компонента: батерия / горивни клетки, електрически двигатели, както и за управление на мощността, с инвестиция от 880 милиона RMB (106 милиона щатски долара) в срок от пет години. Прочетете останалата част на този пост
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By Wenna Wang and Haibing Ma Source: EIA | Distribution of China's shale gas basins. On June 27th, 5 shares of shale gas reached their daily limits at Shanghai Composite Index, the largest stock market in China, lifting the whole Oil & Gas sector above the otherwise decreasing Chinese stock market. This was stimulated by a signal from the nation’s Ministry of Land and Resources: the second round of shale gas exploration rights is expected to open for bidding in September, and this time it will be open to private investors. Shale gas, which is natural gas found in hydrocarbon rich shale formations, is one of the most important unconventional sources of natural gas and represents a rapidly expanding trend in onshore gas exploration and production today. The deposits are mainly extracted through hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. Though it is not an ideal alternative to conventional energy sources, shale gas can be a key to energy independence and a lower carbon footprint, since it produces 43 percent and 30 percent less carbon dioxide emissions than coal and oil per thermal unit produced, respectively. However, not everything about shale gas is an improvement, as its extraction process may contaminate ground water and release volatile compounds into the soil, while the use of shale gas will still lead to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The main mining techniques used for extraction, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, have been linked to various problems like water shortages, groundwater contamination, methane gas seeps, micro-earthquakes and coal fires. Sample surveys show that methane concentrations were 17-times higher on average (19.2 mg/L) in shallow wells located in active drilling and extraction areas than in wells located in non-active areas (1.1 mg/L on average). In addition, there are studies showing properties with shale gas wells were valued down due to the fracturing. 12th Five-Year Plan, China, Climate Change, energy demand, green house gases, low-carbon, renewable energy, shale gas, sustainable development Read the rest of this entry As I discussed in a previous blog, renewable energy trade disputes are becoming a particularly contentious issue between many nations. The United States and China are facing off in one of the most publicized of these disagreements. Further action was taken last week as the U.S. Department of Commerce made its second ruling of the year on this issue, placing tariffs on solar photovoltaic (PV) imports from China. A Suntech Power Holdings employee at a Chinese solar PV manufacturing facility. The Commerce Department ruling placed a 31.22% tariff on Suntech products. (source: China Daily) The previous Department of Commerce ruling from March 2012 placed countervailing duties on solar PV imports in order to balance what the department determined to be illegal subsidies to solar PV manufacturers from the Chinese government. The initial tariff rates, which were set between 2.9 and 4.73 percent, came in much lower than what was expected by most experts. The new preliminary ruling comes in response to the second set of claims by the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM) that Chinese solar companies have been dumping their products in the U.S. market at below market value. The coalition, led by SolarWorld USA, looks to level the playing field for U.S. solar manufacturers against what they see as artificially cheap imports coming from China. China, energy, energy policy, green economy, green jobs, Green Technology, Innovation, renewable energy, solar power, United States Read the rest of this entry By Haibing Ma Guangdong is releasing a series of policies to ensure a green future. ©nfdaily.cn According to media reports, Guangdong province has taken the lead in becoming the pioneer of low-carbon practices in China. Guangdong is one of 13 pilot regions—including five provinces and eight municipalities—that the Chinese government has selected to explore low-carbon development. So far, it is the only pilot region that has issued a comprehensive plan for this development and had it approved by the central government. In January 2012, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) reviewed and then “approved with positive comments” Guandong’s “Implementation Plan for Low-Carbon Pilot Programs.” Although this plan has not been made public, it reportedly lays out eight “key actions”: 12th Five-Year Plan, cap and trade, carbon emission, carbon intensity, China, emission trading, energy intensity, green development, Guangdong province, low-carbon, MRV, NDRC, pilot program, statistics Read the rest of this entry With the continued advancements in the development of renewable energy technologies and their ever-increasing cost competitiveness, there is more and more money at stake for countries and companies alike. A number of countries have recently found themselves at odds with one another over the international impact of certain domestic financial support policies for promoting renewables. The United States, China, Japan, Canada, and the European Union, discussed here, along with many others, currently find themselves on varying sides of major international trade disputes on this topic. High-end manufacturing of renewable energy technology components, and the money and jobs this brings with it, is becoming an increasingly important component for policymakers and an increasingly contentious issue at the international level. A worker assembling solar PV panels in a Suntech Power Holdings Co. factory in Jiangsu Province, China. (Source: Bloomberg) The dispute between the United States and China over solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing is probably today’s most high-profile renewable energy trade dispute. The Chinese share of global solar PV manufacturing has grown at an incredibly fast pace since the country entered the market, as Chinese manufacturers have rapidly expanded from a 15 percent market share in 2006 to provide nearly half of the world’s total solar PV manufacturing output today. As of 2008 China produced 2,500 megawatts (MW) of solar cells, up from just 4 MW a decade earlier, as reported in the Worldwatch-REEEP report Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in China. With an existing installed capacity of 900 MW at the end of 2010, much of this production is being slated for export. China, energy policy, European Union, feed-in tariffs, green jobs, renewable energy, subsidies, United States Read the rest of this entry By Haibing Ma Provinces and municipalities had been competing to establish emissions trading systems (Source: nddaily). In an article co-authored with my colleague Alexander Ochs in September 2010, we discussed China’s interest in setting up a scheme for carbon-emissions trading in the next five years. Now, the deal is set: The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) recently issued an official notice to initiate pilot carbon-trading programs in seven regions. By embracing market-based approaches to mitigating climate change, China is seeking to facilitate a smooth and efficient transition to sustainable development. The seven pilot regions are the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Shenzhen, as well as Guangdong and Hubei provinces. It’s no surprise that some of these regions overlap with China’s “Five Provinces, Eight Cities” pilot program on low-carbon development, initiated in 2010. Although details of the emissions trading programs have not been elaborated, designation of the pilot regions indicates that the central government has finally made up its mind to issue clearer guidance on exploring carbon markets, in order to better coordinate existing municipal and provincial interest in emissions trading. 12th Five-Year Plan, absolute cap, carbon emission, carbon intensity, carbon tax, China, emission trading, energy intensity, environmental equities, Grand Western Development Program, NDRC, pilot, preferential policies, Special Economic Zone, voluntary Read the rest of this entry At the opening ceremony of the 5th World Future Energy Summit, held in Abu Dhabi on January 16, 2012, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao assured the world that China will stick to a green and sustainable development path. As the highest-ranking Chinese official ever to present at the summit, Wen’s speech delivered a clear message to the world about what China plans to do to secure its future development. Premier Wen Jiabao gives his speech in Abu Dhabi. But sustainable actions already being pursued in China provide an even more convincing picture than the premier’s words. In its 12th Five-Year Plan—an overarching guidance framework used in Chinese policymaking—China includes a fairly comprehensive collection of sustainable development goals, among them energy intensity and carbon-emission intensity targets. Because the Five-Year Plan lays out only very general goals and measures, it is up to individual ministries or the State Council, China’s cabinet to sketch out and pursue implementation. 12th Five-Year Plan, carbon intensity, carbon market, China, clean industry, emerging strategic sectors, emission trading, energy conservation, energy intensity, NDRC, renewable energy, sectoral structure, sustainable development, sustainable transition Read the rest of this entry This coming weekend (January 14–15), Peace Boat and five other international non-governmental organizations will host the Global Conference for a Nuclear Power Free World in Yokohoma, Japan. The event was organized in the aftermath of the March 11, 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the resulting disasters at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. An image of the Biblis nuclear power, one of the nuclear power plants permanently shutdown in Germany shortly after the events at Fukushima (Source: The Open University). The overarching goal of the conference is to facilitate discussion of a nuclear power free world. Regional and international experts, activists, and people affected by radiation exposure from nuclear power plants will come together to generate a roadmap promoting the decommissioning of these facilities worldwide. Participants will discuss policies that support renewable energy over nuclear energy and create action plans for implementing these policies in Japan and other countries that depend heavily on nuclear. The Worldwatch Institute recently published an article, “Global Nuclear Generation Capacity Falls,” discussing the current status of the nuclear industry. Last year saw a decline in global nuclear generating capacity, stemming largely from the events at Fukushima and several countries’ reactions. Germany, for example, decommissioned more than 8 gigawatts of nuclear capacity immediately following Fukushima. China, a country that still plans ambitious nuclear capacity growth in the future, suspended its nuclear power plant permitting process pending further review. Japan, which has relied heavily on nuclear energy for decades, took many of its reactors offline, leaving only 10 of its 54 nuclear reactors connected to the grid following the earthquake. China, Climate Change, European Union, Germany, japan, nuclear power, renewable energy Read the rest of this entry - The 5th World Future Energy Summit will take place in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, later this month. The conference, held January 16 to 19, is one of the leading global forums on clean energy for advancing business, technology, policy, and finance toward ever more sustainable models of development. This illustration depicts an aerial view of Masdar City, UAE. The 6km2 clean-tech city is already operational, but full completion is not expected until 2025. The summit is primarily a business platform for companies, investors, project developers, and buyers, but there is also significant and growing participation from the public sector and international NGOs. The prince of Abu Dhabi has hosted the summit in its last four incarnations, which is why there is traditionally a large regional focus on the Middle East and North Africa. Last year’s summit had around 26,000 participants from 137 countries, and more than 600 companies held exhibitions. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon attended in 2011, along with an array of national leaders, including the prime ministers of Portugal and Bangladesh and the presidents of Pakistan and Iceland. China, IRENA, renewable energy The president of COP 17, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, speaks at the final plenary session of the climate change meetings in Durban, South Africa (Source: Worldwatch). As the new year begins, climate negotiators have begun to move on from their engagement at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa. After two weeks of intense negotiations on the future of the international regime to combat climate change, they bring home pieces of an ambiguous mandate—but also some critical steps forward. Below, we discuss some of the outcomes of those exhilarating talks in early December. Symbolic survival of the Kyoto Protocol Under European Union leadership, signatories of the Kyoto Protocol agreed to enter a second commitment period for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, extending the treaty terms through 2017 or 2020. This symbolically salvaged the agreement—the only existing climate treaty with internationally binding reduction targets. However, the 27 EU countries, together with Australia, New Zealand, Norway, and Switzerland, are the only countries to take on these targets, and they agreed to do so only under the condition that all major countries agree to a new, truly global and comprehensive climate treaty, if necessary outside the Kyoto structure. China, Climate Change, developing countries, emissions reductions, European Union, Green Climate Fund, India, negotiations, UNFCCC, United States Read the rest of this entry In Part 1 of this blog, we analyzed the global CO2 emission trends published recently by the International Energy Agency (IEA), as well as the high divergence of emission trends among countries. In this follow-up, we discuss how these trends can inform negotiations at the UN climate summit that began this week in Durban, South Africa. Industrialized countries as a group have achieved significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Although national efforts vary greatly and a rebound in emissions is expected with economic recovery, the IEA estimates that “developed countries” (as defined in Annex I of the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) are on track to reach their target of reducing emissions 5.2 percent below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012, as agreed to under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The numbers look somewhat different at the country level, however. The United States, the only major developed country that did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol, has seen a 6.7 percent increase in CO₂ emissions since 1990, according to the IEA. The U.S. is the world’s second highest CO2emitter after China, which has more than three times as many inhabitants. Certain signatories of the Kyoto Protocol, including Canada and Japan, have not stuck with their reduction commitments, clearly a sign of weakness of the treaty. But the agreement is functioning well for those who strive to abide by it. There is no doubt that Kyoto has prompted regional, national, and sub-federal action on climate protection and sustainable agriculture, energy, and transportation in many parts of the world. China, Climate Change, coal, developing countries, emissions reductions, India, negotiations, UNFCCC, United States Read the rest of this entry