News-in-Brief 26/07/06

- Nature’s Accent of New Mexico will sell green power to state residents at a guaranteed price of 4.8¢/kWh. The wholesale generator of g=renewable energy has proposed the price to the New Mexico PRC, with the price fixed for 30 years. The price equates to 2.2¢/kWh over the term of the contract with inflation estimated at 2.5%. It will guarantee price matching of any green power supplier over term of the contract and is offered to all state and federal government entities, wholesale buyers, public utilities, co-op electric utilities and, if legislated, to all buyers of electricity statewide.

- Organizers of the 2012 Olympic games in London have published a sustainability policy, promising that they will minimize environmental impacts. Olympics minister Tessa Jowell says the policy has been drafted by various authorities organizing the games, and promises to reduce GHG emissions. The policy does not promise that the games will be carbon neutral, unlike the last Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Organizers will use energy efficient building designs and use low carbon and renewable energy sources, the two-page policy says.

- Greenpeace held simultaneous protests in the Philippines and Thailand to demand that energy officials urge their counterparts at the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) meeting of energy ministers in Laos to take urgent and concerted action against climate change. The environmental group says that, unless steps are taken to combat climate change through “aggressive investments in renewable energy,” the two countries face rises in the sea level, floods, storms and prolonged droughts. “Instead of advancing renewable energy to thwart climate change and address real energy security, our energy policies are retrogressing towards addiction to coal,” said campaigners in the Philippines. Greenpeace says regional scientists say Thailand suffered 70 billion baht (US$1.8 billion) in economic losses between 1989 and 2002, while the Philippines lost an annual average of 4.5 billion pesos (US$83 million) from 1975 to 2002, due to an increase in extreme weather events. The only way to mitigate the situation is for countries to “urgently combine disaster-preparedness programs with GHG emission reduction measures such as displacing fossil energy with renewables and energy efficiency.”

- The energy ministry in Namibia will spend an average of N$9 million a year over the next 15 years to accelerate its use of renewable energy sources. Officials met recently to discuss implementation of a new strategic action plan for renewable energy policies, based on the White Paper on Energy of 1998. The strategy will involve provision of access to alternative power for 96,560 homes without electricity. The government says $5 million will be spent on the Off-Grid Master Plan each year until 2020, while $2.5 million a year will go to a revolving fund from which citizens can borrow money to acquire solar home systems and solar water heaters.

- Energy companies in the U.S. plan to build 150 coal-fired power plants across the country, according to Florida PIRG, which would increase national GHG emissions by 10% and increase demand for coal by 30%. “Investing the $137 billion slated for new coal-fired power plants into cleaner alternatives would yield economic and energy security benefits for the U.S.” and, if invested in wind energy, could develop 110 GW of turbines.

- The Transport Museum in London will become the first historic-listed building in the UK to install a large-scale solar panel system which will generate 16% of the building’s electricity. PV panels will be installed on the roof as part of a current redevelopment project and, when the Museum's Victorian Flower Market building re-opens next summer, the solar panels will generate 2.1 million kWh of green power and reduce CO2 emissions by up to 2,075 tonnes over the lifetime. The initiative is funded by Transport for London and a grant under the Department for Trade & Industry's Major Photovoltaic Demonstration Programme.

- Alpha Technologies has commissioned the first phase of a 267 kW solar power plant for the city of Loma Linda, California. When fully operational, the facility will generate 430 MWh of green power each year from solar panels mounted on the roofs of four city buildings and on shade structures covering parking spaces in the Civic Center complex.

- Fluitecnik of Spain will invest Euro 23 million in the Dominican Republic for a plant to assemble solar PV panels. The initiative will provide 35 direct jobs and 250 indirect jobs, according to media reports.

- PowerLight has generated a cumulative total of 100 million kWh of green power from its solar PV panels, more than any single system provider. Last year, it completed the largest solar PV power system in the world, a 10 MW solar tracking system in Bavaria, Germany, and the 11 MW Serpa solar facility in Portugal will be completed early next year.

- The first windfarm on the Hawaiian island of Maui is fully operational and generating electricity for 11,000 homes. The Kaheawa facility has 20 turbines on the slopes of the West Maui Mountains, and now generate 9% of Maui Electric's power and eliminate the need to import 244,000 barrels of oil. A second windfarm is being constructed to produce power for 15,000 homes and, combined, the facilities will provide 20% of the cooperative's power at half the cost of imported oil.

- Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority will provide a grant of US$193,000 to Southwest Windpower of Arizona to provide 15 small wind turbines in visible locations across Pennsylvania. Fifty-four municipalities applied for a 1.8 kW turbine, worth $10,000 each.

- Acciona Energy will install a 200 MW windfarm in the Australian state of Victoria, with a total investment of Euro 238 million (Aus$400 million), half of which will be financed by the ANZ Investment Bank. The Waubra windfarm will be the second wind facility installed by Acciona in Australia, with construction to begin in September.

- Wisconsin Power & Light has purchased development rights to the Cedar Ridge windfarm project, previously owned by Midwest Wind Energy of Chicago since 2004. The proposed 80- to 100-MW facility located in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, will involve 40 turbines across 12.2 square miles of land. When complete, Cedar Ridge will generate electricity for 20,500 homes. It will be WP&L's first owned windfarm in its generation portfolio. It has has been under development since 2004 and preliminary permits, including zoning, land use agreements and environmental studies, were completed by MWE during that time. WP&L will assume responsibility of the remaining activities, including permitting, engineering, construction and operation of the windfarm.

- ACCIONA of Spain has inaugurated the largest wind turbine plant in China and the first with Spanish technology. The Euro 24.6 million facility is the result of agreements reached last year with the Chinese public group CASC and the INCEISA marketing firm, and the plant will produce up to 400 units (600 MW of turbine capacity) each year from the 1.5 MW turbine designed by ACCIONA Windpower. An agreement has been signed to supply 100 MW to a windfarm in the province of Jiangsu, as well as a memorandum of understanding for wind developments in Inner Mongolia.

- London-based private equity fund Impax New Energy Investors will invest Euro 20 million in Airtricity Holdings of Dublin, which is developing and operating windfarms in Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales and the United States. The company has a total development pipeline of 6,500 MW, has 177 MW in operation and 600 MW permitted, financed or under construction. Airtricity recently announced a Euro 250 million equity fundraising for wind projects, and recently signed a deal for Euro 400 million for 300 turbines for the company’s 2008 windfarm program in the U.S.

- The ACT Conservation Council in Australia says the shelving of plans for two windfarms on the New South Wales southern tablelands is a blow for the renewable energy industry. Acciona Energy says it will postpone work on its Woodlawn windfarm near Tarago, as well as another development planned for Molonglo Ridge near Queanbeyan, until renewable energy targets are increased. The current quotas are already being met.

- Jan Blittersdorf, the CEO of NRG Systems in Vermont, received the 2006 ‘Wind Woman of the Year’ award for her contributions to the wind energy industry from the Women of Wind Energy organization. She received the award at the recent conference of the American Wind Energy Association in Pittsburgh, and it is the first time that the Women of Wind Energy group has made such an award. Blittersdorf joined NRG Systems in 1987 as chief financial officer and became CEO/president in 2004.

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