In the current financial context , securing finances is absolutely critical as investments need to be made now in order to increase competitiveness. Bringing down the costs, increasing both the efficiency and the lifetime of PV systems and upscaling towards mass production are essential elements to reduce the cost of PV-generated electricity and bring PV technology to full competitiveness with conventional energy sources.

Thin Film manufacturers recalled their readiness to reach the Paradigm Shift Scenario confirming that fundamentals remain excellent. “The PV industry has proved today that the technology and the capacity for mass production are ready to make PV a mainstream energy source, however we need to ensure that the market and legal conditions are appropriate to guarantee a sustainable market in the next years”, concluded Bernhard Dimmler, CEO of Würth Solar and Chairman of the conference.

Thin Film technologies offer many advantages such as low cost per m2 (important in the development of building integrated applications), vast availability of materials, high flexibility and an environmental footprint. Already some Thin Film technologies present energy pay-back1 times below one year (down to six months in best locations) still decreasing as manufacturing processes optimise and material usage improves. Thin Film technologies, present a huge potential for cost reduction and bring an excellent solution to accelerate the achievement of a sustainable energy production in Europe.

More information on the conference is available here: http://www.thinfilmconference.org/

Commissioner Piebalgs: “By joining IRENA the European Union has shown that the promotion of renewable energy sources worldwide is a key element of our external energy policy. With less then a month before Copenhagen, this again underlines that the EU collectively supports a shift away from fossil fuels and towards renewable technologies. Making this shift today rather then later benefits us in terms of the climate, security of supply and also the economy. ”

IRENA is intended to become a global agency dealing exclusively with renewable energies such as solar, wind or biomass. The objective is to create a centre of excellence for renewable energy, advising governments on drawing up national programmes for the introduction of these sources, dissemination of information about renewable technologies and implement training activities and advice on best practice and financing options.

IRENA was established on 26 January this year and has picked up momentum in a rapid pace. Today, the EU has joined the 137 member countries, including the US, India and almost all European and African countries.

Source: Europa Rapid

Working closely with Yorkshire Forward, the Regional Development Agency for Yorkshire and Humber and UK Trade & Investment, this new joint venture emphasises the region’s and the UK’s ability to attract crucial research and development operations. Twenty-seven jobs will be created in the region.

Lord Mandelson said: “This will place the UK at the forefront of next generation biofuel development. New industries such as low-carbon and renewable technologies have huge potential for driving growth. This is precisely the type of investment project we need attract in order for these industries to thrive in the UK. I’m delighted that Hull and East Riding are at the cutting edge of R&D to realise that greener, brighter future.”

Kingston Research Limited General Manager, Luc Van Den Hemel: “Biobutanol is a new lower-carbon fuel and we are excited about demonstrating this technology in the Humberside region. Biobutanol is a biofuel that can be made from all the same crops as bioethanol and can be blended into petrol at higher levels, which means that we’ll be able to introduce biofuels more quickly. In the future, it will be possible to convert bioethanol refineries to produce biobutanol, allowing this industry to make an even larger contribution to meeting the world’s energy needs.”

Tom Riordan, Chief Executive of Yorkshire Forward commented: “This is great news for Yorkshire and Humber and demonstrates the region’s ability to attract significant inward investments that will play a vital role towards tackling climate change, in this case advanced biofuels. Yorkshire Forward recognises and supports the environmental technologies sector, and has committed extra resource to support the development of new technology.”

UK Trade and Investment, with the assistance of British Ambassador Sir Nigel Sheinwald in the United States, worked with Yorkshire Forward to bring this plant to the region.

Sir Nigel Sheinwald said: “This is an excellent example of the close relationship between British and American business, and the confidence investors have in the UK workforce. I congratulate all involved and look forward to BP and DuPont leading the way with the next generation of biofuels.”

The BP site at Hull is also home to Vivergo Fuels, a joint venture between BP, British Sugar and DuPont. Vivergo is constructing a world-scale bioethanol facility that will begin producing bioethanol in 2010 and will play a major role in meeting the UK’s requirements for biofuels. Vivergo will employ approximately seventy people when operational.

Source: www.bp.com

Since 2005, when Oettinger became President of Baden-Württemberg, the Land has raised its targets for renewable energy. In 2007, the Land’s target for renewables was raised to 20% of electricity by 2020, up from 11.8% in 2006. Nonetheless, there is still very little wind energy production in the region; wind currently provides less than 0.5% of electricity – a level well below the EU average.

“The renewable energy targets have improved under Oettinger’s presidency, but the level of wind energy is still low,” Christian Kjaer, Chief Executive of the European Wind Energy Association, said. “Wind has a huge potential for CO2-free electricity generation.”

“Given the challenges lying ahead in meeting the EU’s 20% by 2020 target for renewable energy, I am absolutely confident we will build a very constructive working relationship with Oettinger. I have no doubt he appreciates the vast contribution that wind power can make to the security of Europe’s energy supply, job creation and combating global warming.”

Barroso also nominated Danish Minister for Climate and Energy, Connie Hedegaard to the new ‘climate action’ portfolio. Hedegaard will host the COP15 talks in Copenhagen this December. “She will be in her element in the new role,” Kjaer said. “Hedegaard will need no convincing on the power of wind energy to fight climate change,” Kjaer said. Over 20% of Denmark’s electricity demand is met by wind power.

The new Commission must win approval from the European Parliament before it takes its seats for a term of office running until 31 October 2014. Hearings at the European Parliament will take place from 11-19 January. The final vote on the new Commission is on 26 January.

Source: www.ewea.org

“The findings of the World Energy Outlook 2009 confirm that the EU energy and climate change policies are steering Europe firmly in the right direction. The transition toward a low carbon economy is urgently needed, not only in Europe but also globally. The findings of the report are a welcome contribution as we prepare to push for an ambitious global climate agreement in Copenhagen and as we continue to develop and implement our energy policy,’ said Commissioner Piebalgs.

“Over the past year, there has been a dramatic drop in global energy use, carbon dioxide emissions and energy investments,” Mr Tanaka reported. “The EU and the IEA agree that in such an environment the role of governments is crucial in supporting investment and designing appropriate policies to tackle the triple challenges of the economic downturn, energy security and climate change.”

The WEO 2009 sets out a timetable of actions needed to limit the long-term concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to 450 parts per million of carbon-dioxide equivalent and to keep the global temperature rise to around 2 ° Celsius. Alongside its sombre warning that every year of delay in implementing these measures adds $500 billion to the energy sector’s mitigation costs, the IEA highlights there are cost-effective solutions to avoid severe climate change, while also enhancing energy security. The biggest contribution should come from energy efficiency, while the role of low carbon technologies such as renewables will also be critical.

Although global energy use is expected to fall this year, it is set to increase by 40% between now and 2030, according to the reference scenario, reflecting both the impact of the economic crisis and of new government policies introduced over the last year.

The report urges governments to make use of this narrow window of opportunity before energy demand starts to rise again to concentrate investment on low-carbon technology and to meet the ambitious pathway advocated by the IEA.

The two plants, already fully authorizations, will be constructed in the Municipalities of Maida, Cortale (56 MW) and San Floro (8 MW) in the Province of Catanzaro – both of which are high wind power output areas – and will become operational in 2010.

Once into service, the two plants will generate around 150 million kWh, sufficient to meet the power needs of around 60,000 households, avoiding the annual emission of more than 110,000 tons CO2.

The deal was signed with Micropower, a company with a successful track record in the wind, solar, biomass and biogas industries in Italy. The company operates 14 MW wind power and has a pipeline of over 200 MW at an advanced stage of development.

Source: www.enel.com

“We are very glad that the EC explicitly acknowledges the strong potential of solar photovoltaic technology. By 2020, provided that the appropriate framework conditions are met, PV could contribute as much as 12% of EU electricity demand” said Adel El Gammal, Secretary General of EPIA. “However we regret that the communication does not properly reflect the current state of development of PV technology” added El Gammal. The technology is evolving extremely fast: with an EU market of 4.5 GW in 2008, PV represented 19 % of new installed power capacity in Europe. Already next year, PV will be competitive with retail electricity prices in some regions of Europe.

The Solar Europe Industry Initiative will require significant co-financing from the Industry, the EU and Member States. But a lot of uncertainty remains on their respective contribution and the level of funds which will be made available from the public sector. In the current context of economical crisis and risk aversion, it is essential to stimulate private investment and the sharing risk with large public funding and ensuring an appropriate European industrial policy framework.

The EC is putting too much emphasis on long-term research and should better recognise the need for accelerating the development of existing commercial and pre-commercial PV technologies. Of course, long-term research should be carried out in parallel through other instruments.

In addition the integration of PV in the grid as well as into the urban and building environment is essential. The new initiative on Smart Cities is highly welcomed although it should not only promote energy efficiency measures but also consider the key role of renewable energies in reducing the carbon footprint of cities. Solar photovoltaic will play a key role in boosting the development of green buildings and electrical cars.

In the recent study SET For 2020, EPIA concluded that boosting PV deployment to cover up to 12% of EU electricity demand by 2020, in addition to contributing to meet EU sustainability goals, would provide huge macro-economical benefits to the EU society including the creation of an estimated 1.4 million jobs in Europe and saving hundreds millions of tons of CO2 emissions.

Source: EPIA

The workshop, organised by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) in cooperation with the Bulgarian Association of Producers of Ecological Energy (APEE), pooled industry, government representatives, and national electricity companies together to discuss the potential for wind power development in the country.

“With installed capacity increasing more than fivefold in less than two years, Bulgaria is one of the fastest growing markets for wind energy in the world. Moreover, it has another 8,000 MW of wind projects in the pipeline. If current planning and grid access barriers are streamlined, Bulgaria will soon be one of Europe’s wind energy front-runners, reaping the economic benefits in the form of new jobs, reduced fuel import dependency and technology development,” said Christian Kjaer, EWEA’s Chief Executive.

The EU directive establishing mandatory targets for renewable energy for all EU Member States requires Bulgaria to increase the amount of renewables in its energy mix to 16% by 2020, up from the current level of 9.4%. Bulgaria must submit its national action plan – outlining the measures it will take to boost renewable energy – by June 2010.

Kostadinka Todorova, Director for Energy Efficiency and Environmental Protection at the Bulgarian Ministry of Energy, said that the administration is well on track to submit the first forecast document to the European Commission, due by 5th December this year. “We are working on a new renewable energy law. Once in place, it will attract even more investment to the sector in Bulgaria”, she said.

“Bulgaria is well placed to exceed its target which would allow it to create revenues by selling excess Bulgarian renewable energy production to Member States struggling to meet their targets. This could create revenues of 15-20 billion Leva by 2020 (€7.5-10bn),” said Velizar Kiriakov, APEE’s President.

“Investors and developers have already shown strong interest – demonstrated by the fact that wind energy capacity will have doubled by the end of 2009 compared to the previous year”, added Kiriakov. “Wind energy offers highly workable solutions to the current triple-layered crisis – climate, financial and energy. Bulgaria must not miss the chance to create a new industry which will bring investments and create thousands of new jobs, curb CO2 emissions, and ease the dependency of the country from neighbouring fuel exporting nations” he concluded.

In 2008, 36% of all new electricity generating capacity built in the EU was wind power, ahead of coal, gas and nuclear. On average, 20 wind turbines were installed for every working day of 2008. By the end of 2008, a total of 160,000 workers were employed directly and indirectly in the sector, which saw investments of about €11 billion in the EU.

Source: EWEA

What is ‘waste’? Waste is the result of production and consumption of material goods. Only a short while ago, waste was simply thrown away or burned. In most economic theories, the absorption capacity of ‘the environment’ is deemed to be infinite. With 6.5 billion people on the planet earth, we are confronted by the fact that this assumption is blatantly incorrect. As a result, we have no other choice than to rethink ‘waste’ and treat it as a new type of resource. However, can everything be re-used? Is it possible to just treat waste as a resource? What do we need to do, to do so effectively? If it were simple, wouldn’t we have done so long before? During this event, some examples of effective and promising approaches to waste-management are presented.
- Cradle to Cradle, what to do with it?
- Second Generation Biofuels
- Bitumen End of Life Solutions
- Plastic to Oil

More info at www.clubofamsterdam.com

The planned wind farm will have an output of presumbly 300 megawatts and will be built around 75 kilometres off the coast at Callantsoog in northern Holland. The wind farm will consist of 59 wind turbines, which will be installed in sea on gravity foundations and will have a height of 150 metres. This gravity construction is needed to ensure the stability and safety of the offshore wind farm. According to the current state of planning start of construction of the wind farm shall be from 2013/2014 on.

Additional RWE Innogy received permission for the installation of a meteo mast. The mast will be located 85 kilometres off the coast of Ijmuiden, which is 500 to 1,000 metres southwest from the planned wind farm Tromp. This meteo mast will deliver important information with regard to wind speed and patterns for the realisation of the offshore wind farm Tromp.

RWE Innogy is already involved in the Thornton Bank offshore wind farm in Belgium. A 300 megawatts wind power station is being built around 30 kilometres from Ostend in 28 metres of water. Six turbines with an output of 30 megawatts have already been installed. RWE Innogy is planning the construction of the around 280 megawatt wind power station Nordsee Ost located in the German North Sea around 30 km to the north of Helgoland and approximately 45 km to the west of the North Frisian island of Amrum as well as the wind power station Innogy Nordsee 1 with around 960 MW, which is planned to be located 40 kilometres from the East Frisian island of Juist. Furthermore, the company is very well represented in the offshore wind farm business, particularly in Great Britain. Apart from the existing 60 MW wind farm North Hoyle of the coast of Wales, RWE Innogy will be putting its second wind power station Rhyl Flats into operation this year with 90 MW of installed power. The Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm that is also being planned for Wales will be one of the biggest of its kind with an installed output of several hundred megawatts. RWE Innogy also holds a 50% stake in the Greater Gabbard offshore wind farm off the east coast of England. Following its completion in 2011 this wind power station will provide a total of 500 MW.

Source: www.rwe.com