Companies from France and United States announced plans to build a solar-panel plant to support the French government's goal of using solar-powered electricity to increase sustainable energy technology.
In 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy established Grenelle Environnement, a program promoting renewable energy sources, including hydraulic, wind, biomass, geothermal, photovoltaic cells and solar energy.
To the solar energy segment of that charge, EDF Energies Nouvelles, which is half owned by the French government, and First Solar Inc., which has headquarters in Tempe, Ariz., said they would build a facility in France to manufacture solar panels.
A news release from the companies said the plant would have an initial annual capacity of more than 100 Megawatt Peak. Full production is expected by the second half of 2011 with a staff of more than 300.
EDF EN Chairman Paris Mouratoglou, in the release, said the agreement supports the utility's goal of installing a capacity of 500Mwp by 2012. EDF EN has raised more than $710 million to finance expansion of the photovoltaic sector.
The companies said a site location would be determined in the next few months. It will be built in France at an investment of more than $128 million. EDF EN will finance half the capital expense and receive the plant's entire output for at least 10 years.
First Solar's manufacturing site will include a facility for recycling solar panels, Europe's only solar panel recycling plant outside of Germany.
The announcement marks First Solar's first move into France. In addition to its U.S. operations, the company has concerns in Malaysia and Germany, where company facilities generate 192 megawatts of power.
"The decision to invest in France reflects our firm belief in the French market and its great potential," First Solar Chief Executive Officer Mike Ahearn said in the release. "It represents a vote of confidence in the policies being developed by the French government since the Grenelle de l'Environnement to promote renewable energies and allow solar electricity to compete economically with other forms of energy."
He added that long-term commitments by French officials regarding policy and regulatory issues and of EDF EN to invest in developing and expanding the French market were key factors in First Solar's decision to invest in France.
"This agreement represents a key milestone in the strategy of our group, which has the ambition to be a global leader in solar energy," Mouratoglou said. "Securing a competitive supply is essential for us to participate in the development of a large French solar market."
French Sustainable Development Minister Jean-Louis Borloo was on hand for the companies' announcement and stated: "I salute the decision of EDF Energies Nouvelles and First Solar to invest and create jobs in France's solar sector, which has begun to take off since the Grenelle de l'Environnement. This investment represents a veritable turning point for the photovoltaic industry and confirms that France is more than ever in a position to play a leading role globally."
Source - Solardaily
Friday, 31 July 2009
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
The cost of green energy efficiency
No one ever said concern for the environment was going to be cheap.
The Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, announced last week that Britain becoming a low carbon-economy will cause the average annual energy bill to rise by as much as £92 a year by 2020. Figures from the UK Energy Research Centre show the increase could be closer to £230. However, making your home more energy efficient can cut your bills although, in most cases, upfront costs are unavoidable.
Compared to countries on the continent, the housing stock in the UK is old. A large proportion of properties have been around more than 60 years and are leaking heat all over the place. However, improvements can be made.
A high-efficiency boiler coupled with solar thermal panels can reduce heating bills. Solar thermal panels installed facing south will produce as much as 30-40 per cent of the power needed to heat your water annually. However, according to the Energy Saving Trust, a standard system will cost from £4,000 to £6,000 to install, meaning it will take between seven and 14 years to recoup the investment.
As fuel prices rise, investing in a more energy efficient property will be more rewarding. “Over and above the environmental concerns, we need to think about fuel supply,”. “If you want to secure against increased heating and electricity costs, then being more efficient in your home is the way to go.”
Source - The Independent
The Energy Secretary, Ed Miliband, announced last week that Britain becoming a low carbon-economy will cause the average annual energy bill to rise by as much as £92 a year by 2020. Figures from the UK Energy Research Centre show the increase could be closer to £230. However, making your home more energy efficient can cut your bills although, in most cases, upfront costs are unavoidable.
Compared to countries on the continent, the housing stock in the UK is old. A large proportion of properties have been around more than 60 years and are leaking heat all over the place. However, improvements can be made.
A high-efficiency boiler coupled with solar thermal panels can reduce heating bills. Solar thermal panels installed facing south will produce as much as 30-40 per cent of the power needed to heat your water annually. However, according to the Energy Saving Trust, a standard system will cost from £4,000 to £6,000 to install, meaning it will take between seven and 14 years to recoup the investment.
As fuel prices rise, investing in a more energy efficient property will be more rewarding. “Over and above the environmental concerns, we need to think about fuel supply,”. “If you want to secure against increased heating and electricity costs, then being more efficient in your home is the way to go.”
Source - The Independent
Saturday, 25 July 2009
Watch Solar Eclipse 2009 In America
Watch Solar Eclipse 2009 In America, Total solar eclipses have struck awe or fear into hearts for millennia, but scientists are more interested in the unusual mathematics behind the gold-and-indigo lightshow.
Superstition has always haunted the moment when Earth, Moon and Sun are perfectly aligned. The daytime extinction of the Sun, the source of all life, is associated with war, famine, flood and the death or birth of rulers.
People living outside totality, from Japan in the north to parts of Indonesia in the south, will be in the penumbra, or partial shadow, which means a “bite” seems to have been taken out of the Sun.
Source - A Pakistannews
Watch Solar Eclipse 2009, Solar Eclipses, Scientists, Sun,
Superstition has always haunted the moment when Earth, Moon and Sun are perfectly aligned. The daytime extinction of the Sun, the source of all life, is associated with war, famine, flood and the death or birth of rulers.
People living outside totality, from Japan in the north to parts of Indonesia in the south, will be in the penumbra, or partial shadow, which means a “bite” seems to have been taken out of the Sun.
Source - A Pakistannews
Watch Solar Eclipse 2009, Solar Eclipses, Scientists, Sun,
Industry's First Solar-Assisted Heat Pump
A new solar-assisted heat pump allows homeowners to lower carbon dioxide production by an impressive 370 pounds a year, the equivalent of planting seven mature trees or carpooling to work one day each week.
By drawing energy from a solar panel during peak daylight hours and using it to help power the outdoor fan, the new Lennox SunSource heat pump can save homeowners up to 8 percent on their electric bills. Homeowners may also save with federal tax credits of up to $1,500 for new energy-efficient systems.
"We're pleased and excited to offer customers this innovative new product," said Todd Lindsey, general manager at Absolute Zero, the local distributor for the new solar product.
"Our company is always looking for ways to serve our clients better, and this is a great opportunity to provide them with green, cutting-edge technology that helps them save money and helps the environment at the same time."
The new solar-assisted heat pump is part of an extensive high-efficiency product line offered by Absolute Zero. In addition to residential and business installations, the leading-edge air conditioning, heating and electrical company sells, services, maintains and repairs all types of HVAC systems.
Absolute Zero has been providing HVAC services in the valley for over 18 years. Their uniformed NATE-certified technicians are GPS-dispatched 24/7 for rapid service. The APS-qualified business has a complaint-free record with the Arizona ROC and an excellent rating with the Better Business Bureau.
"We do every job the right way," Lindsey said. The contractor partners with an energy auditing company to help customers discover more ways to save, and offers a financing option for buying a new system.
Absolute Zero provides a range of services to improve energy efficiency, including custom sheet metal fabrication, indoor air quality systems and a variety of products and services for commercial customers.
"Our company is unique because we have our own metal fabrication shop with the latest plasma cutting machines," Lindsey explained. "This reduces material waste and makes our HVAC systems more efficient."
Source - Solar Daily
By drawing energy from a solar panel during peak daylight hours and using it to help power the outdoor fan, the new Lennox SunSource heat pump can save homeowners up to 8 percent on their electric bills. Homeowners may also save with federal tax credits of up to $1,500 for new energy-efficient systems.
"We're pleased and excited to offer customers this innovative new product," said Todd Lindsey, general manager at Absolute Zero, the local distributor for the new solar product.
"Our company is always looking for ways to serve our clients better, and this is a great opportunity to provide them with green, cutting-edge technology that helps them save money and helps the environment at the same time."
The new solar-assisted heat pump is part of an extensive high-efficiency product line offered by Absolute Zero. In addition to residential and business installations, the leading-edge air conditioning, heating and electrical company sells, services, maintains and repairs all types of HVAC systems.
Absolute Zero has been providing HVAC services in the valley for over 18 years. Their uniformed NATE-certified technicians are GPS-dispatched 24/7 for rapid service. The APS-qualified business has a complaint-free record with the Arizona ROC and an excellent rating with the Better Business Bureau.
"We do every job the right way," Lindsey said. The contractor partners with an energy auditing company to help customers discover more ways to save, and offers a financing option for buying a new system.
Absolute Zero provides a range of services to improve energy efficiency, including custom sheet metal fabrication, indoor air quality systems and a variety of products and services for commercial customers.
"Our company is unique because we have our own metal fabrication shop with the latest plasma cutting machines," Lindsey explained. "This reduces material waste and makes our HVAC systems more efficient."
Source - Solar Daily
Chartering the green revolution
Ed Miliband’s 1,000-page opus is big on aspiration but short on detail, say industry chiefs, and Labour’s low-carbon dreams will remain just that without investment.
Ed Miliband, the former Cabinet Office minister and confidant of Gordon Brown, was given one of the hardest jobs in government. Chosen to head the new Department for Energy and Climate Change, he was tasked with charting a path to revolution.
New Labour has long spoken of a future in which Britain would be ringed by thousands of windmills, turning in the breeze to create pure, pollution-free power.
Dirty old coal-fired power stations would bury their harmful exhaust deep underground; underwater turbines would draw energy from the tides. Our homes would be kitted out with smart meters to give us by-the-minute updates on our energy use and carbon footprint.
The vision was there. What was missing was the detail, and it was up to Miliband and his team at the cutting-edge energy department to provide it.
Last week, he revealed the fruits of that labour. The documents comprising the latest iteration of the government’s plan for a green future weighed in at more than 1,000 pages.
They contained a few firsts. The government finally admitted in stark terms that energy bills will have to rise – by 17% for business and 8% for households – to decarbonise the economy.
It broadly laid out how the £150 billion investment required over the next 20 years will be distributed (offshore wind looks like the biggest winner).
Every government department was given a carbon budget. More than 400,000 “green jobs” are expected to be created and no fewer than half a dozen quangos will be set up to oversee the transition to deliver an 18% cut in carbon emissions from present levels by 2020.
Industry, however, was sceptical. It has seen targets come and go before. This is Labour’s fourth energy white paper since Creating a Low Carbon Economy was published in 2003. It is by far the most comprehensive but many of the hardest questions remain unanswered.
Solar at micro level, payments to homeowners to feed power into the grid could stimulate investment in solar photovoltaic (PV) The current scheme is not nearly generous enough. “It might stimulate the market but it’s not going to push it toward the explosive growth rates seen in countries like Germany,” said Leggett.
With solar PV, the UK could be generating 5% of its electricity needs by 2020. The EU intends to generate 12% of all its electricity from PV by 2020. The government’s Renewable Energy Strategy, by contrast, assumes that solar PV will contribute only about 2% of the UK’s renewable electricity by that date.
Recognising the size of the task, the government has relaxed a previously recommended timeline for achieving the transformation. The independent advisory Committee on Climate Change said this year that the power sector should remove virtually all emissions by 2030. This has now been pushed to 2050.
What is certain is that it is all going to be very expensive – and we will be footing a big chunk of the bill, either through public subsidies or higher energy bills. The government predicts an 8% rise in household energy bills, and 17% for industry.
Source - The Telegraph
Ed Miliband, the former Cabinet Office minister and confidant of Gordon Brown, was given one of the hardest jobs in government. Chosen to head the new Department for Energy and Climate Change, he was tasked with charting a path to revolution.
New Labour has long spoken of a future in which Britain would be ringed by thousands of windmills, turning in the breeze to create pure, pollution-free power.
Dirty old coal-fired power stations would bury their harmful exhaust deep underground; underwater turbines would draw energy from the tides. Our homes would be kitted out with smart meters to give us by-the-minute updates on our energy use and carbon footprint.
The vision was there. What was missing was the detail, and it was up to Miliband and his team at the cutting-edge energy department to provide it.
Last week, he revealed the fruits of that labour. The documents comprising the latest iteration of the government’s plan for a green future weighed in at more than 1,000 pages.
They contained a few firsts. The government finally admitted in stark terms that energy bills will have to rise – by 17% for business and 8% for households – to decarbonise the economy.
It broadly laid out how the £150 billion investment required over the next 20 years will be distributed (offshore wind looks like the biggest winner).
Every government department was given a carbon budget. More than 400,000 “green jobs” are expected to be created and no fewer than half a dozen quangos will be set up to oversee the transition to deliver an 18% cut in carbon emissions from present levels by 2020.
Industry, however, was sceptical. It has seen targets come and go before. This is Labour’s fourth energy white paper since Creating a Low Carbon Economy was published in 2003. It is by far the most comprehensive but many of the hardest questions remain unanswered.
Solar at micro level, payments to homeowners to feed power into the grid could stimulate investment in solar photovoltaic (PV) The current scheme is not nearly generous enough. “It might stimulate the market but it’s not going to push it toward the explosive growth rates seen in countries like Germany,” said Leggett.
With solar PV, the UK could be generating 5% of its electricity needs by 2020. The EU intends to generate 12% of all its electricity from PV by 2020. The government’s Renewable Energy Strategy, by contrast, assumes that solar PV will contribute only about 2% of the UK’s renewable electricity by that date.
Recognising the size of the task, the government has relaxed a previously recommended timeline for achieving the transformation. The independent advisory Committee on Climate Change said this year that the power sector should remove virtually all emissions by 2030. This has now been pushed to 2050.
What is certain is that it is all going to be very expensive – and we will be footing a big chunk of the bill, either through public subsidies or higher energy bills. The government predicts an 8% rise in household energy bills, and 17% for industry.
Source - The Telegraph
Friday, 17 July 2009
George Monbiot – Paying for green energy interview
The ink isn’t dry on the government’s low carbon transition plan, and already the whingeing has begun. The talkshows are buzzing with complaints about the impact on energy prices. Some punters suggest that this will be the end of life as we know it: the government’s plans will wreck the economy and bankrupt struggling families.
There’s no doubt that fuel poverty remains an important issue in this country. It still accelerates the deaths of elderly people every winter. Being able to maintain your home at a habitable temperature is a basic human right. But the new plans will make no appreciable difference.
According to the government, the impact of all its climate change policies – old and new – will be to add an average of £92 (or 8%) to household bills between now and 2020. Does that sound like the end of life as we know it? If so, you have a short memory.
Between November 2004 and November 2005, the average wholesale price of electricity rose from 2.1 pence to 3.6 pence – by 71%. In the 12 months to February 2006, the wholesale price of natural gas in the United Kingdom rose by 75%. In the three years to that date, it rose from under 20p a therm to 70p – an increase of 350%.
Wholesale prices don’t translate directly into retail prices – the hit for householders wasn’t quite as great as that – but you get the general idea. The rate by which the wholesale price of gas rose between 2003 and 2006 was 160 times greater than the rate of increase in retail fuel prices likely to be caused by the government’s climate change programmes. Compared to the wild fluctuations in energy prices caused by geopolitics and resource constraints, this increase will be scarcely detectable. The signal generating such angst today will be lost in the noise.
Did the price rise of 2003-2006 cause the economy to collapse? No. That was achieved by other means. It made life harder for some people. The government sought to address this with its winter fuel allowance, and today it proposes to create “mandated social price support”, mostly focused on older pensioners on the lowest incomes. I don’t know whether this is sufficient to eliminate fuel poverty. We should keep pressing the government to ensure that it is.
But let’s get this straight: fuel poverty and the climate change programme have very little to do with each other, except inasmuch as government intends to help us insulate our homes, which means we’ll need less fuel to heat them. As the secretary of state Ed Miliband pointed out on the Today programme this morning, failing to replace our energy supplies will also raise prices: fossil fuels will become more expensive as a result of rising demand in China and India.
There is, however, a government policy, or absence of policy, which does threaten both to exacerbate fuel poverty and accelerate economic collapse: its flat refusal to make contingency plans for the possibility that global supplies of oil (and, presumably, gas) will one day peak. Peak oil and gas will wreck more than the government’s plans for eliminating hypothermia: it will make all current economic and environmental planning redundant. Yet, in the 228 pages of today’s white paper about our future energy supplies, you won’t find a word about it.
Source - The Guardian
There’s no doubt that fuel poverty remains an important issue in this country. It still accelerates the deaths of elderly people every winter. Being able to maintain your home at a habitable temperature is a basic human right. But the new plans will make no appreciable difference.
According to the government, the impact of all its climate change policies – old and new – will be to add an average of £92 (or 8%) to household bills between now and 2020. Does that sound like the end of life as we know it? If so, you have a short memory.
Between November 2004 and November 2005, the average wholesale price of electricity rose from 2.1 pence to 3.6 pence – by 71%. In the 12 months to February 2006, the wholesale price of natural gas in the United Kingdom rose by 75%. In the three years to that date, it rose from under 20p a therm to 70p – an increase of 350%.
Wholesale prices don’t translate directly into retail prices – the hit for householders wasn’t quite as great as that – but you get the general idea. The rate by which the wholesale price of gas rose between 2003 and 2006 was 160 times greater than the rate of increase in retail fuel prices likely to be caused by the government’s climate change programmes. Compared to the wild fluctuations in energy prices caused by geopolitics and resource constraints, this increase will be scarcely detectable. The signal generating such angst today will be lost in the noise.
Did the price rise of 2003-2006 cause the economy to collapse? No. That was achieved by other means. It made life harder for some people. The government sought to address this with its winter fuel allowance, and today it proposes to create “mandated social price support”, mostly focused on older pensioners on the lowest incomes. I don’t know whether this is sufficient to eliminate fuel poverty. We should keep pressing the government to ensure that it is.
But let’s get this straight: fuel poverty and the climate change programme have very little to do with each other, except inasmuch as government intends to help us insulate our homes, which means we’ll need less fuel to heat them. As the secretary of state Ed Miliband pointed out on the Today programme this morning, failing to replace our energy supplies will also raise prices: fossil fuels will become more expensive as a result of rising demand in China and India.
There is, however, a government policy, or absence of policy, which does threaten both to exacerbate fuel poverty and accelerate economic collapse: its flat refusal to make contingency plans for the possibility that global supplies of oil (and, presumably, gas) will one day peak. Peak oil and gas will wreck more than the government’s plans for eliminating hypothermia: it will make all current economic and environmental planning redundant. Yet, in the 228 pages of today’s white paper about our future energy supplies, you won’t find a word about it.
Source - The Guardian
Ready to pay £200 a year extra for green energy?
The stark admission by Ed Miliband, the UK energy secretary, that UK energy bills will rise by an average of £200 a year as the UK looks to bring in more renewable energy is sure to catch the eye of many. Claiming that “no matter which route we go down” Mr Miliband has warned UK consumers and businesses that energy costs are certain to rise in the short to medium term.
The UK government has already signed up to a carbon reduction programme which will see an 80% reduction in carbon emissions between 1990 and 2050 with up to £100 billion spent on renewable energy by 2020. At a time when many in the UK are struggling to make ends meet the government is set to introduce a 20% tariff on the average energy bill to cover the £100 billion investment programme.
It seems that the UK government has acted on behalf of UK consumers in signing up to a program which will increase energy costs by 20% a year for the foreseeable future. History has shown us that even in periods of short-term fundraising it is highly unlikely that energy bills will fall after the initial fundraising period is over. So the UK consumer and UK businesses need to get themselves ready for a significant increase in energy bills, aside from any future increase in the price of oil or other commodities.
Source - New Energy Focus
The UK government has already signed up to a carbon reduction programme which will see an 80% reduction in carbon emissions between 1990 and 2050 with up to £100 billion spent on renewable energy by 2020. At a time when many in the UK are struggling to make ends meet the government is set to introduce a 20% tariff on the average energy bill to cover the £100 billion investment programme.
It seems that the UK government has acted on behalf of UK consumers in signing up to a program which will increase energy costs by 20% a year for the foreseeable future. History has shown us that even in periods of short-term fundraising it is highly unlikely that energy bills will fall after the initial fundraising period is over. So the UK consumer and UK businesses need to get themselves ready for a significant increase in energy bills, aside from any future increase in the price of oil or other commodities.
Source - New Energy Focus
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