Renewable Energy World Magazine - December 2010

NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2010 VOLUME 13 NUMBER 6

GET INTO AFRICARealise opportunities to develop large-

scale sustainable local African markets for

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AUSTRALIA: RENEWABLE UPDATEA new era of renewables sector growth

is set to emerge with the revised political

landscape of this vast continent.

QATAR’S SOLAR SHOWCASE

Blazing a Trail for Solar Thermal Cooling

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Previous Page | Contents | Zoom in | Zoom out | Front Cover | Search Issue | Next PageRENEWABLE

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RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLD NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2010 3

CONTENTS

66 62


REGULARSFrom the Editor ............................................. 6

News analysis ............................................... 9Featuring a review of E&Y’s latest renewable energy attractiveness index, which saw China shrug off the US from the joint top spot; the role of patents technology transfer; the disparities between government subsidies for fossil fuels and renewable energy; and a look at the blossoming renewable energy relationship between the EU and Africa.

Diary ............................................................ 79

Advertisers’ index ....................................... 80

THE BIG QUESTIONConsidering the short term of one to three years, what technology advances may be ex-pected in the CPV sector? What conversion efficiencies might be achieved and costs/kW installed reached? And what, if any, are the technical and investment barriers which must be overcome in order to achieve these fore-casts? ......................................................... 23Renewable Energy World asks leading players in the industry to give their verdict on a key issue of the moment.

THE LAST WORDCould utilities find that smart grid technology offers a useful tool in cutting carbon emissions? ......................................76Moves are afoot to adopt smart grids and smart meters in Europe, the Middle East and Africa but are the potential benefits they can bring to the renewable energy industry yet fully understood ?By Bastian Fischer


GET INTO AFRICARealise opportunities to develop large-

scale sustainable local African markets for

solar products.

AUSTRALIA: RENEWABLE UPDATEA new era of renewables sector growth

is set to emerge with the revised political

landscape of this vast continent.

QATAR’S SOLAR SHOWCASE

Blazing a Trail for Solar Thermal Cooling

23


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4 RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLD NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2010

CONTENTS

71

62

FEATURESCountry profile: Australia ........................... 26The issue of coal, carbon emissions and climate change is a divi-sive one in Australia, but on the back of a new political landscape a major shift in emphasis is forecast, and with it the changing fortunes for renewable energy development.By Jackie Jones

Wind in the Balkans: Players, policy and opportunity ................................31The former Yugoslav republics have rebuilt themselves and moved on from the wars that ravaged their lands in the 1990s. Now through the implementation of new renewable energy policies we examine how wind power is being factored into their development plans.By Jeff Potter

Africa’s solar strategy: A new model for sustainable market growth .................. 39It is time to think seriously about kick-starting real solar markets in Africa, markets with both scale and sustainability. Previous efforts supporting solar projects are to be welcomed, but more ambition could engender a seachange for Africa’s solar sector.By Mark Hankins

Key players: Wind ...................................... 47Last year was a record-breaker for the global wind industry with installations at an all-time high, but with the global economic crisis continuing to bite and the time lags between project planning and realisation widening in some key wind markets, we look at how the majors are responding.By David Beattie

PV set to ride out the downturn ................. 55Public budget restraint and the weakening of the euro, while presenting some difficulties, will not be sufficient to kill off growth in the global PV market. Instead, new analysis suggests that it will continue its expansion into next year with over 19 GW of installations planned before softening only slightly in 2012.By Henning Wicht, Stefan de Haan, and Greg Sheppard

China and the US – friends or foes in the green revolution? ....................................... 62Two schools of thought appear to dominate the relationships being established between the two global renewable energy giants of the US and China – one sees threats, the other opportunities. Can these traditional adversaries see past their differences to become an unstoppable combined force for the greater, greener good?By Elisa Wood

Qatar’s Solar Showcase: Blazing a trail for thermal cooling ........................................... 66A newly built sports stadium near Doha in Qatar is showcasing solar thermal cooling technology for a far larger scheme that has been proposed. This will not only raise the profile of the technol-ogy it will perhaps also finally level the playing field for this long-overlooked solar option.By David Appleyard

Biomass: Scotland moves forward with largest biomass anaerobic digestor .......... 70As the emphasis in Europe on recycling and recovery grows, the opportunities for small and medium-sized contractors to generate energy from bio-waste have never been greater. Here we look at the latest and largest AD scheme to be given the green light by Scottish authorities.By Daniel Leaver

Company Results ........................................ 72A roundup of some of the latest financial results from leading renewable energy companies from around the world.By Chris Webb and David Beattie

36


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Group Publisher Ralph Boon

Chief Editor David Appleyard

Associate Editor David Beattie

Consulting Editor Jackie Jones

Production Editor Piers Evans

Design/Production Shyam Gosai

Production Manager Kimberlee Smith

Production Controller Rebecca Crews

Sales Managers Peter Andersen, Natasha Cole, Dan Harper, Kate Hart, Ekow Monney, Sandra Spencer

Digital Sales Manager Leo Wolfert

Marketing Manager Dorothee Petereit

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Is the renewable energy sector finally heading for a downturn after years of unprecedented growth? It would of course be quite wrong to call time on an industry that is by any standard a major force in the global power generation

sector and has enjoyed robust expansion year-on-year for perhaps a decade or more. But it would also be unrealistic to expect such growth to continue indefinitely. And it cannot be denied that a number of indicators have emerged in recent weeks which suggest that , for example, the European wind sector is facing a period of demand volatility and oversupply.Vestas – whose latest financial results we cover in a new section beginning on page 72 – says that while at the beginning of 2010, it resolved to retain substantial excess capacity in Europe in expectation of an increased demand in 2010 and 2011, it now believes that in 2011 European market growth will not live up to expectations. As a result, the company says, it has been compelled to adjust its capacity in Europe, closing down of a number of factories, primarily in Denmark where costs are highest. In total, around 3000 jobs will be lost.There is also evidence that the impact of a slowing market is being felt further up the supply chain. For instance, gearbox manufacturer Hansen Transmissions International NV recently announced that it will focus its future business strategy on wind energy. However, as part of a restructuring move it will reduce its current wind turbine gearbox manufacturing capacity by 1100 MW from a total capacity of 8700 MW. This reduction will help reduce the level of over-capacity and is ‘reflective of the continued volatility and uncertainty in the global wind energy market,’ the company said in a statement.It may be that alongside the worst global economic recession in decades, the traditional markets for renewable energy technology are set for a downturn as the best sites are exploited, saturation levels are reached and the glory days which followed the introduction of feed-in tariffs are long gone. If anything, European governments are expected to cut tariff rates in a bid to balance the books. However, while these traditionally strong markets may not be expected to grow as vigorously as in previous years there is perhaps cause for optimism in the sector, with the growing strength of emerging markets.Indeed, according to the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) president, Dr. Anil Kane: ‘The Asian markets and especially China with its impressive growth continue to be the main drivers of the world wind energy markets. Companies in the Asian countries are now about to start exporting wind turbines and equipment on a larger scale. Such new manufacturing capacities will further speed up the wind energy deployment worldwide, mainly for new markets in the developing world.’This is a key observation and in this edition we look at several sectors that are expected to witness significant growth, albeit starting from a platform of relative underdevelopment.In our feature on page 31 we consider wind development in the Balkan states and review the prospects for the future. We also have an in-depth profile of the renewable energy sector in Australia, starting on page 26, where we consider recent policy developments and the growing impact of carbon markets. In addition, we include a number of articles looking at renewable energy development in Africa, for example presenting a series of considerations for policymakers on page 39.Given the evidence presented here, it seems that the traditionally strongest renewable energy markets of the US and Europe may be a long way from the boom times of a year or two ago. But that said, as a global industry developing markets mean that it is certainly far from bust.

David Appleyard Chief Editor

FROM THE EDITOR

Member, BPA Worldwide


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NEWS ANALYSIS

CHINA TOP FOR INVESTMENT

E&Y RENEWABLE ENERGY COUNTRY ATTRACTIVENESS INDEX

Global consultancy group Ernst & Young’s (E&Y) recently published report

on renewable energy investment attractiveness has seen China push the US from the joint top spot after the failure of the US Senate’s proposed energy bill to include a Federal Renewable Energy Standard Portfolio provision.

By not setting out a successor to its treasury grant programme after 2010, the Senate has left the country with no real incentive mechanism for renewable energy projects in the country, says E&Y.

The report’s wind index saw the US drop two points after reported difficulties faced by wind developers in obtaining credit on the back of low natural gas prices and slack demand for electricity, which had impacted the offtake of wind power.

Spain also saw its score drop by one point as a result of current deliberations regarding retroactive change to photovoltaics tariffs, said E&Y in the latest in its series of reports on national investment climates.

If the Spanish plans are implemented, these changes would likely have a significantly detrimental effect on the county’s relative rating across the entire renewable sector, said the report.

Germany also dropped a point, after – said E&Y – finally announcing cuts to solar PV tariffs. This decision, believes the analysis authors, will stunt future installations ‘given the frantic rush to install in the first half year to obtain the higher rates.’

Also dropping one point was India, following the government’s mandate for a local PV manufacturers’ contribution as part of the recently announced 22 GW National Solar Mission for 2020.

According to E&Y, Indian PV module makers’ production capacity may not be able to keep up with the surging domestic demand, which in turn could impair the country’s ability to meet its highly ambitious solar target.

Gaining a point in the second quarter of the year was Australia. The upturn followed an amendement to the country’s renewable energy legislation which has set a target of 20% of energy from renewable energy while at the same time pledging A$625.5 million (€458 million) to set up a renewable energy future fund. For more on Australia’s renewable energy prospects, see page 26.

Japan also picked up a point in the report following a 2.6-fold growth in its solar cell market, which according to E&Y, is a product of the country’s aggressive climate change policies.

Meanwhile, New Zealand – having launched an emissions trading scheme – also picked up a point in the report.

‘Accepting there is a wide degree of consensus in most developed countries that they need to take carbon out of their economies on a relatively aggressive basis over the next 20 years, it is reasonably expected that, post recession, the long-term prospects for the renewables industry are buoyant, notwithstanding pressures on the public purse and sluggish growth,’ said the report.

However, E&Y warns that the renewables industry cannot afford to be complacent and that there are considerable challenges in both the short and medium term, particularly it says, if the sector is to ‘take a major if not dominant share of the energy mix as economies transition to a low carbon environment.’

Continuing, it notes that detractors of the renewable energy sector, particularly those in the US, have said that the cost of renewable energy places a burden on general industry, making it less competitive.

‘Certainly this is currently making the cap-and-trade [incentive scheme] difficult to implement. The voluntary carbon offset market is in widely reported difficulty, with the COP16 global summit in Cancun in November regarded as challenging,’ the authors note, adding: ‘The latter particularly affects projects in the


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NEWS ANALYSIS

developing world which are often dependent on joint implementation/clean development and voluntary offsets.’

Credit lines are also still tight, found E&Y, with some economies taking ‘faltering steps’ to the restoration of growth.

‘It is evident that a relatively high proportion of recent European projects have been reliant on European Investment Bank participation and in the US those projects that go ahead, more often than not, are those which benefit from US Treasury buyouts of the Production tax Credit/Investment Tax Credit.’

Also key to the development of the sector is government involvement in financing. This, according to E&Y, has been exemplified by the UK’s new coalition government plan to set up a green investment bank.

The impact of tightening government finances on support for renewable energy will be a recurring theme in many jurisdictions over the coming months, it added.

China, as the new stand-alone leader of the E&Y All Renewables Index, is a good contrast, said the report, with its planned economy where capacity growth is increasingly rapid, both in terms of generation and manufacturing. According to E&Y, it is ‘small wonder that China has reached the sole number one position in the Country Attractiveness All Renewables Index for the first time, while the position of the US shows signs of slipping further if more action does not occur.’

The report continued: ‘For market-based economies in the developed world, the opportunity for renewables is greater than many perceive – as not only does fossil

fuel capacity have to be replaced but also there is the requirement for a huge increase in electricity generation capacity overall as the energy market moves toward a greater use of electricity in relation to transport and the provision of heat.’

‘The implications for this are only just being thought through,’ it continued.

‘This may lead to a doubling of electricity generation in the UK by 2050 notwithstanding radical measures to increase energy efficiency.’

The report continued: ‘For governments, the challenge may well be the extent to which market-based solutions are able to provide the speed of change and scale of investment required to achieve carbon targets or indeed match the level of investment in China.’

For corporates, the challenge is

likely to be whether they are able to provide the levels of capital required for unprecedented growth or whether more players will enter the market.

Concluding, the E&Y report said: ‘For some of those engaged in the more emerging renewable technologies, fiscal pressure in the West may cause difficulties. Without early support, there may a misplaced assumption by policy-makers, that room will still be available for newer technologies in the marketplace even if commercial deployment is delayed – either due to fiscal pressures or intolerance of the inevitable early stage setbacks. It will require considerable resolution on the part of policy-makers to create an environment to ensure that new technologies get the support they need when they need it.’

David Beattie

Rank Previous rank

Country All renewables Wind Onshore Offshore Solar index

Solar PV

Solar CSP

Biomass/others

Geothernal Infrastructure

1 1 China 69 75 78 67 59 66 40 57 51 74

2 1 US 67 68 72 56 72 71 74 62 67 61

3 3 Germany 63 65 63 71 55 66 22 63 54 62

4 4 India 62 63 71 42 65 66 62 58 44 63

5 5 Italy 61 62 65 53 65 67 59 56 66 67

5 5 UK 61 67 64 77 38 51 0 59 38 70

7 7 France 58 60 62 56 53 64 24 58 30 62

8 8 Spain 56 57 62 42 64 63 68 50 33 55

9 9 Canada 53 60 65 46 32 44 0 49 34 62

10 10 Portugal 51 54 58 42 48 57 22 45 32 56

10 10 Ireland 51 58 58 57 26 36 0 48 28 61

12 12 Greece 50 52 56 41 55 60 41 41 32 52

12 12 Australia 50 50 54 41 54 57 46 45 59 53

14 14 Sweden 49 52 52 53 32 43 0 55 34 51

15 15 Netherlands 47 53 51 57 34 47 0 40 21 43

16 16 Poland 46 51 54 42 32 43 0 42 23 47

16 16 Belgium 46 52 50 57 31 42 0 39 28 52

16 16 Brazil 46 47 51 35 41 46 30 48 22 46

19 19 Japan 45 45 48 39 51 61 25 35 40 49

20 19 Denmark 44 47 44 56 29 40 0 45 32 51

21 21 Norway 43 48 49 45 22 30 0 44 30 49

22 22 New Zealand 42 47 51 36 24 32 0 34 50 45

23 22 Turkey 41 43 46 35 39 43 28 36 43 44

24 24 South Africa 40 43 46 34 37 34 44 34 31 41

25 25 Austria 37 34 46 0 40 54 0 49 34 52

26 26 Czech Republic

35 33 45 0 40 55 0 38 30 41

27 26 Finland 34 35 34 37 19 26 0 49 23 37

ERNST AND YOUNG ALL RENEWABLES INVESTMENT INDEX

ERNST AND YOUNG RANKINGS OUT OF 100


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NEWS ANALYSIS

ENERGY TECHNOLOGY PATENTS

MORE TRANSPARENCY REQUIRED ON CLEAN TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

It is accepted that clean energy technology development will be pivotal in mitigating climate

change and that transferring this technology to developing economies will be equally important in making these economies more socially responsible while supporting economic growth.

Last year’s UN Copenhagen climate summit may have been considered a failure in terms of absolute emission reduction agreements, but it did call for the establishment of a mechanism to accelerate technology development

and transfer and this process will have to be further developed in Cancun, Mexico, in UNFCCC meetings in December, due as REW goes to press.

But for all the perceived value in developing and transferring clean energy technologies (CETs) there has been little empirical data on the relationship between technology development and transfer, that is until now.

A new study: ‘Patents and clean energy: bridging the gap between evidence and policy’ sets out to provide facts where previously

there has been little data. The empirical study, jointly

undertaken by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the European Patent Office (EPO) and the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), assessed the role of patents in the transfer of CETs and concludes that: policy processes and signals do matter; accurate and publicly available information is urgently needed on existing and emerging CETs; and, options to facilitate licensing of CETs to developing countries

should be considered.Commenting on the study, EPO

president, Benoît Battistelli, said: ‘The joint study is both exemplary and ground-breaking in its cross-sector collaboration to deliver results that have a direct benefit to society. Patents play a key role in providing information about existing technologies, the level of their development and geographic spread. This information facilitates an informed debate on climate change.’

Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary and executive director

The European Patent Office in Berlin


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NEWS ANALYSIS

of UNEP, said: ‘Far from being a drag on economies and innovation, international efforts to combat climate change have sparked technological creativity on low carbon, resource efficient green economy solutions. The challenge now is to find ways in which these advances can be diffused, spread and transferred everywhere so that the benefits to both economies and the climate are shared by the many rather than the few.’

And ICTSD chief executive Ricardo Meléndez-Ortiz added: ‘A massive scale-up of use and diffusion of Clean Energy

Technologies globally, and in particular to developing countries, is imperative for effective climate change mitigation and adaptation. This study provides evidence and key insights towards a better understanding of the challenges facing this objective.’

The project comprised three parts: a technology-mapping study of key CETs, a survey of licensing practices, and a patent landscape based on the identified CETs.

For the purposes of the study CETs are defined as energy generation technologies with the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the study, patenting rates (i.e. patent applications and granted patents) in the selected CETs have increased at roughly 20% annually since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 with patenting in CETs outpacing ‘traditional’ energy technologies. The report argues that the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol ‘provides a strong signal that political decisions setting adequate frameworks are important for stimulating the development of CETs,’ and notes that the most intensive patent growth has been seen in solar photovoltaic, wind, carbon capture, hydro/marine and biofuels.

Not surprisingly the study found that patenting in the selected CET fields is dominated by OECD countries, although it notes that a number of emerging economies are showing specialisation in individual sectors and are thus providing further competition to the OECD dominance and potentially, it says, changing the future of the CET patent landscape.

Six countries – Japan, US, Germany, South Korea, UK and France – are the main clean technology innovators, with the report finding that the concentration of patenting activity in these countries reflects patenting trends in other technology sectors. Accordingly, these six countries account for almost 80% of all patent applications in the CETs reviewed, with each showing leadership in different technology sectors.

But when CET patent data is benchmarked against total patenting activity (i.e. across all technology sectors) in a given

country, other nations feature strongly in the patent league. For example, India features within the top five countries for solar photovoltaic and Brazil and Mexico share the top two positions in hydro/marine.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of activity in terms of patent filing trends between countries takes place in the patent offices of the top six patenting countries with China being the next most important patent filing destination for the top six countries.

The second part of the study, the licensing survey, was structured in three parts and addressed different

elements of the respondents’ licensing practices and activities, participation in collaborative intellectual property (IP) mechanisms and R&D activities, and finally it looked at licensing practices in CETs in relation to developing countries. A total of 160 key organisations responded to the survey, which was 30% of the sample size.

Overall the survey found there is little CET out-licensing activity towards developing countries among the survey participants, but that this level of activity is no lower than in other industries. Indeed, if the lessons of other industries are to be followed by CETs then there will be a number of hurdles to overcome in out-licensing – due to factors such as the transaction

costs involved, identifying a suitable partner and the right licensing conditions. As the survey notes, the willingness to out-license is often much higher than the actual level of licensing and the findings suggest this trend will be even greater for clean energy technologies.

The report notes: ‘This overall difficulty with markets for licensing may create particular challenges in the case of CETs, where rapid diffusion is needed. Thus there is a need for improving market conditions and encouraging licensing in the context of efforts to enhance technology transfer to

developing countries. For the time being, where licensing agreements have been entered into, the main beneficiaries are actors in China, India, Brazil and Russia.’

On out-licensing activity the survey found that intellectual property (IP) protection in the country of the licensee was an important consideration when determining whether to enter into a licensing agreement, but that IP protection in the recipient country was not the only significant factor for licensing agreements in developing countries. Overall, the survey found that respondents attach slightly more weight

to factors such as scientific infrastructure, human capital, favourable market conditions and investment climates, while licensing-intensive respondents attach much greater importance to IP protection.

Interestingly, 70% of respondents are prepared to offer more flexible terms when licensing to developing countries with limited financial capacity, with academic institutions and public bodies being more willing than private enterprises to provide accommodating licensing terms to developing-country recipients. And in terms of size, small and medium-sized enterprises are more likely than multinationals to offer more flexible terms. Additionally, most organisations favour collaborative

R&D activities, patent out-licensing and joint ventures over patent pooling and cross-licensing.

Looking to the future, and the development of a clean technology patent landscape, the EPO has developed and launched a new classification scheme for patents in climate change mitigation technologies, starting with CETs. According to the EPO, this scheme will ‘provide continuous, accurate and user-friendly patent information and thus help to improve the transparency of the patent system in this critical technology sector.’

While this report has provided a clearer picture of the CET development and transfer market it nonetheless has, as with previous studies, focused primarily on the supply-side perspective. Clearly more information is needed on the demand side of the debate and the study also further notes that a survey capturing the views of entities in the developing world seeking access to CETs is essential for a broader understanding of the issues at stake.

The study also recommends that future work and refinements are required to identify patented inventions that have been commercialised in the marketplace, reasoning that this would give a better idea of which technologies are working and inducing technological change. And, it adds that a study of patenting by publicly-funded institutions and

universities would be important in helping to understand the source of new technologies and the role of government funding in their development.

Although this study has not provided all the answers, it was never intended to. What it has provided is a greater understanding on the geographic/demographic development of CETs and the limitations on transferring these technologies to the areas of greatest demand – the developing economies. Further work is required on CET transfer and further progress is required in this area at Cancun if tangible progress on climate change mitigation is to be achieved.

Jeremy Wilcox

Far from being a drag on economies and innovation, international effortsto combat climate change have sparked technological creativity on lowcarbon, resource efficient green economy solutions

The majority of activity in terms of patent filing trends between countriestakes place in the patent offices of the top six patenting countries withChina being the next most important destination


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NEWS ANALYSIS

OIL AND RENEWABLES SLICING THE SUBSIDY PIE

ACTION ON SUBSIDY SPLIT

Even though governments throughout the world are vowing to expand green

energy, they continue to give far more subsidies to fossil fuels than renewable – 10 to 12 times more, according to recent reports.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance identified US$43–$46 billion last year allotted by governments for renewable energy. Meanwhile, oil, coal and gas received $557 billion in subsidies from the 37 countries that represent 95% of global subsidisation of fossil fuels in 2008, says the International Energy Agency (IEA). In its latest World Energy Outlook the IEA says that government support for both electricity from renewables and biofuels was $57 billion in 2009, of which $37 billion was allocated to the former.

With such a gap in government

support, does the oil industry have any reason to worry?

It appears so. Several nations have begun analysing the disparity with an eye toward rolling back at least some of the subsidies. G20 leaders, in particular, have expressed consternation about the inequity, and are discussing a phase-out of the subsidies. Their concern is that fossil fuel subsidies distort markets, encourage fuel gluttony and undercut efforts to expand clean energy.

Consumers in the 37 countries analysed by IEA on average paid only 71% of the market price for oil. Middle Eastern nations, in particular, are known for large subsidies to fossil fuels. For example, in 2008, Iranian consumers paid 38 US cents per gallon for gasoline and Saudi Arabians about 61 US cents, says the US Energy Information

Administration (EIA).‘Removing subsidies is usually

very unpopular with consumers, and that makes it a challenge to exact such changes, particularly in countries with difficult sociopolitical circumstances’, said EIA in its International Energy Outlook 2010.

While the US was not included among the 37 countries analyzed by IEA, it too has traditionally given more incentives to fossil fuels than renewable energy. The US allotted $72 billion to fossil fuels from 2002–2008, but only $29 billion to renewable energy over the same period, according to the Environmental Law Institute.

The wide discrepancy is expected to narrow in 2009–2010 as governments disperse stimulus funds. The US, alone, directed $16.8 billion of stimulus dollars into green energy, and an additional

$4 billion into loan guarantees for renewable energy.

But still, stimulus money is not expected to eliminate the problem. To that end, IEA has undertaken further analysis of fossil fuel subsidies published in the World Energy Outlook 2010.

The IEA argues that phasing out the fossil fuel subsidies could have a profound impact, reducing global energy demand 5.8% by 2020, the amount of energy used in Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand combined. It would cut global oil demand by 6.5 mb/d in 2020, which is about one third the amount used by the US. The phase-out also would reduce carbon dioxide emissions 6.9% by 2020, equivalent to the current emissions of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK combined.

‘The analysis we have carried

Fossil fuel subsidies are encouraging energy waste, the IEA believes BP


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NEWS ANALYSIS

out in collaboration with other international organisations at the request of G20 leaders, and which is set out in this outlook, shows that removing fossil fuel consumption subsidies, which totaled $312 billion in 2009, could make a big contribution to meeting energy security and environmental goals, including mitigating carbon dioxide and other emissions,’ said Tanaka.

He added: ‘The commitment made by G20 leaders meeting in the US city of Pittsburgh in September 2009 to ‘rationalise and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption’ has the potential to, at least partly, balance the disappointment of Copenhagen. This commitment was made in recognition that subsidies can distort markets, can impede investment in clean energy sources and can thereby undermine efforts to deal with climate change.’

However, the effectiveness of the G-20 agreement remains to be seen, since it calls for elimination only of ‘inefficient’ subsidies. It is unknown how nations will define ‘inefficient.’ When they met in Toronto, just 11 of the G20 countries produced plans to phase out fossil fuel subsidies. They were Argentina, Canada, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Turkey and the United States. At the same time

eight countries – Australia, France, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the UK – said they have no inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.

Nonetheless, commenting on the World Energy Outlook, WWF director of Global Energy Policy, Stephan Singer, said the NGO is highly gratified with the IEA’s growing emphasis on energy efficiency and renewable energy to enhance effective carbon abatement regimes. ‘We are pleased that they highlight the need to overcome the approximate annual $700 billion in fossil fuel subsidies. This money, about 1% of global GDP, needs to go to support renewable and energy conservation and help the poor.’

Indeed, one issue under debate is the role some fossil fuel subsidies play in preventing energy poverty. While industrialised countries tend to subsidise production of fossil fuels, poor nations are apt to underwrite costs to guarantee heat and power to the citizenry.

‘In this background, some countries may consider it necessary to continue subsidising the access of their poorest communities to energy’, said Harsha Singh, deputy director general of the World Trade Organization at the 14 October meeting in Geneva of the Global Subsidies Initiative (GSI), a project of the International Institute for

Sustainable Development (IISD).And even if the energy poverty

issue is resolved don’t expect the reversal of fossil fuel subsidies to be easy, warned conference speakers. Oil companies are well organised and their subsidies are not always highly visible, said GSI’s Kerryn Lang, who pegged US oil and gas industry spending on political lobbying at $175 million in 2009.

OIL VERSUS RENEWABLESIndeed, oil’s lobbying might became apparent in the US this year as carbon dioxide cap-and-trade proposals languished before Congress. While cap-and-trade is not classed as a subsidy per se, it is viewed by supporters as a way to create a more level financial playing field between clean energy and fossil fuels.

The battle also made its way down to the states. In New York, protesters chanted ‘cap-and-tax’ outside the headquarters of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in September. Meanwhile, in California, similar bombs were being launched in an attempt to overthrow the state’s Global Warming Solutions Act through a ballot initiative.

According to green energy advocates who study the money flow of anti-cap-and-trade initiatives one name keeps emerging as

a prime funding source: Koch Industries. According to a March 2010 report from Greenpeace: ‘Koch Industries: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine’ the company has outspent even oil major ExxonMobil in lobbying against climate change policies. The report pegs Koch efforts at $24.9 million from 2005 to 2008 and ExxonMobil’s at a relatively modest $8.9 million.

‘Koch Industries has become a financial kingpin of climate science denial and clean energy opposition’, says the Greenpeace study.

Such clout creates unease among renewable energy developers, who worry that it will be neither quick nor easy to do away with fossil fuel subsidies.

John Kourtoff, President and Chief Executive Officer of Toronto-based Trillium Power Wind, recently lamented that the tangle of fossil fuel subsidies is so complex, even the US Department of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission admit to finding it difficult to unweave. ‘So how is the average person gong to figure it out?’ said the offshore wind developer. ‘I’d be happy to beat anyone as long as everything is on the table’.

Elisa Wood

RE GROWTH FORECAST IN IEA’S 2010 OUTLOOK

Fossil fuels’ share of the overall energy mix falls in favour of renewable energy sources – and nuclear – over the outlook period as forecast in the International Energy Agency’s new World Energy outlook reports (WEO-2010) to 2035, the latest in its series.

However, oil nonetheless remains the leading fuel in the energy mix by 2035, followed by coal, the IEA states. This is despite the IEA’s conclusion that the oil price is set to rise. The central scenario in this year’s Outlook – the New Policies Scenario – forecasts the average IEA crude oil price to rise from just over $60 in 2009 to $113 per barrel (in year-2009 dollars) in 2035. The New Policies Scenario takes account of the broad policy commitments and plans that have been announced by countries around the world.

In that central scenario, world primary energy demand increases by 36% between 2008 and 2035, or 1.2% per year on average. Releasing the document, Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency, commented: ‘The energy world is facing unprecedented uncertainty. The strength of the economic recovery holds the

key to how energy markets will evolve over the next few years. But WEO-2010 demonstrates that it is what governments do, and how that action affects technology, the price of energy services and end-user behaviour, that will shape the future of energy in the longer term. We need to use energy more efficiently and we need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels by adopting technologies that leave a much smaller carbon footprint.’

Tanaka added: ‘It is hard to overstate the growing importance of China in global energy. How the country responds to the threats to global energy security and climate posed by rising fossil-fuel use will have far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. China is at the forefront of efforts to increase the share of new low-carbon energy technologies, including alternative vehicles, which will help to drive down their costs through faster rates of technology learning and economies of scale, and boost their deployment worldwide.’

He continued: ‘Renewable energy can play a central role in reducing carbon-dioxide emissions and diversifying energy supplies, but only if strong and sustained support is

made available. In the New Policies Scenario, government intervention in support of renewables (electricity from renewables and biofuels) increases from $57 billion in 2009 to $205 billion (in 2009 dollars) by 2035. The share of modern renewable energy sources, including hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, modern biomass and marine energy, in global primary energy use triples between 2008 and 2035 and their combined share in total primary energy demand increases from 7% to 14%.

However, the energy trends envisioned in the New Policies Scenario imply that national commitments to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, while expected to have some impact, are collectively inadequate to meet the Copenhagen Accord’s overall goal of holding the global temperature increase to below 2°C.

‘A lack of ambition in the Copenhagen Accord pledges has increased our estimated cost of reaching the 2°C goal by $1 trillion and undoubtedly made it less likely that the goal will actually be achieved. The technology exists today to enable such a change, but the required rate of technological transformation would be unprecedented,’ said Tanaka.


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NEWS ANALYSIS

EU BOOST FOR AFRICA’S NEW RENEWABLE DEVELOPMENT

Travellers to Cape Verde will soon spot visible evidence of the tiny African island nation’s

big ambitions in renewable energy set against its beautiful volcanic landscape.

By 2012, the 28 MW Cabeolica wind facility should be helping Cape Verde achieve its target of meeting a quarter of its needs from renewable sources.

The technology to power Cabeolica will come from wind turbine manufacturer Vestas of Denmark. The cash needed to make it happen will come from €45 million of loans from the European Investment Bank – the financing arm of the European Union – and the local African Development Bank.

For Cape Verde, this is a triumph of Euro-African co-operation. With their first-rate natural wind resource, the technology is clearly the perfect fit for the islands. However, replicating it with other renewables projects large and small across Africa, and especially the sub-Saharan region of the

continent, is a far more daunting challenge.

There are a host of good reasons for the EU to drive renewables development in Africa. These range from an ethical imperative to bring clean energy to some of the world’s poorest people to hard-headed commercial considerations. China sees Africa as a major source of trade in renewable energy technology and is already a major backer of projects on the continent, a fact that EU-based companies are all too aware of.

Brussels’ latest initiative to build strong links with the Africa’s nascent renewables infrastructure was unveiled in the autumn in the form of the Renewable Energy Co-operation Programme (RECP).

The programme is a joint initiative with the African Union under the umbrella of the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP), a wider strategic energy pact between the two bodies that has been operational since 2007.

RECP brings to African renewables a flavour of the target-

driven approach the EU has adopted within its own borders. Its goals include building at least 5 GW of wind power, 500 MW of solar capacity and 10 GW of new hydropower facilities.

Along with general measures to boost energy efficiency, the partner agencies hope this renewable capacity will contribute to the overall AEEP goal of bringing ‘modern and sustainable energy services to at least an additional 100 million Africans by 2020’.

RECP hopes that renewables development in Africa will benefit from a high-level cementing of ties with Europe, one of the world’s regional powerhouses of clean energy policy and innovation.

Among the methods proposed to help it achieve its goals are stronger links between Africa and the EU’s formidable R&D base; clearer routes for technology transfer; improved data on renewable options on the continent; and promoting better access to finance and ‘renewables-friendly’ policy frameworks.

While its ambitions are

significant, RECP will begin with a relatively modest €5 million (US$7 million) of EU funding to support the programme’s three-year start-up phase, which will lay the groundwork for its activities.

In light of the scale of the challenge in Africa, it is fair to ask what RECP hopes to add to the many initiatives already underway involving Europe, both at EU and individual member state level, especially as the African Union (AU) lacks the legislative clout with its national members enjoyed by its colleagues in Brussels. The answer seems to be that RECP is intended to focus the two continents’ collective minds on the job in hand.

Launching the programme, Europe’s commissioner for development, Andris Piebalgs, said that RECP is not itself a new financing instrument for investments but is instead intended to add value to other programmes that involve the EU and its members. Piebalgs made it clear that for the objectives set out in RECP to be met, ‘political will’ is a prerequisite in Europe and Africa alike.

Amanda Luxande, manager of the Southern Africa secretariat of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), believes pan-continental level co-operation pacts such as RECP can have a positive effect in this regard.

REEEP works in developing nations to help governments to create favourable policy frameworks for renewables, and to promote innovative finance and commercial models that can help kick-start the sector. That means that it is working on the ground to achieve many of the same objectives set out by RECP.

‘High level agreements are critical in securing the political will of governments to accelerate the uptake of RE systems,’ said Luxande. ‘However, such

EU-AFRICA ENERGY PACT

European and African Union commissioners meet in Addis Ababa AFRICA AND EUROPE IN PARTNERSHIP


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NEWS ANALYSIS

ONE WORLD. ONE SOURCE.

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agreements ought to stipulate how they will be implemented on the ground, with what resources, and also define the roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders.’

Technology transfer is one area where Luxande believes European input could make a significant difference, given the current limitations of specific renewable expertise in Africa.

However, she warned that ‘this can only be an interim intervention. Africa’s long-term vision should be looking to create green jobs, establishing its own manufacturing capacity for RE technologies that are designed to work within this particular climate.’

According to Luxande, the application of inappropriate systems that lack local technical support and maintenance resources has sometimes contributed to a negative perception of renewable energy sources on the continent. ‘Any technological transfer should be accompanied by a transfer of skills in their operations and maintenance,’ Luxande said.

Luxande’s support in principle for RECP was echoed by the Alliance for Rural Electrification

(ARE), which also emphasised the need to get the right technologies in place for specific regional needs and to make sure technical support mechanisms are embedded locally.

According to ARE, rural and off-grid renewable projects are currently poorly served by existing arrangements. ‘We need deeper understanding on how to embed renewable energy systems into local communities, safeguarding sustainable operations and management.’

ARE believes there is a mismatch between these actual research needs on the ground and the funding programmes currently available under the EU’s framework, claiming that previous programmes have tended to ignore the off-grid or distributed sector.

It will recommend to RECP that it takes steps to improve this situation, and called on the EU to launch a specialist energy research co-operation programme with developing nations.

ARE said if RECP can help the development of technologies that could be especially useful in an African context – for example energy storage or metering devices for mini-grids – then it could still

make a significant contribution, despite its modest beginnings.

‘RECP is a programme with very limited financial resources and manpower. However, ARE believes that it has the potential to become a substantial catalyst with real impact,’ the organisation said.

The cautiously positive reaction of bodies such as REEEP and ARE suggests that those involved in renewables development on the ground are sympathetic to RECP’s aims, if it can more sharply focus the EU’s various other programmes and initiatives on delivering the right technology for the right conditions in the right part of Africa.

Technology is by no means the only issue facing RE implementation in Africa, however, and many industry observers say construction of the right policies and incentives will be key that unlocks the door to growth.

As is often the case in sub-Saharan Africa, many are looking to South Africa to take the lead role in developing a renewable energy infrastructure. The country is currently working through the various legal and regulatory steps needed to complete its REFIT programme of feed-in tariffs.

Scott Brodsky, a partner at law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf in Johannesburg and a specialist in energy project financing, said that while not quite over the finishing line, REFIT has the potential to finally unleash South Africa’s renewables potential.

‘While there are a number of key steps still to be taken, I believe South Africa is well on its way to a successful programme that will see the first projects selected in 2011 and that is set to continue for the next 20 years and beyond,’ said Brodsky.

As well as providing clean energy and jobs, Brodsky said the ‘huge prize’ is on offer of a manufacturing, knowledge and skills base that can benefit South Africa and be exported across the region.

Some African nations such as Kenya have already embraced this approach. According to Brodsky, if the EU and AU under RECP can help the process of putting programmes and incentives in place across the continent to make renewables-based projects viable, it would be making a valuable and lasting contribution.

Andrew Lee


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THE BIG QUESTION THE BIG QUESTION

In the next three years lowering manufacturing costs will be crucial to the CPV industry. As well as the gains from adopting best practises and economies of scale, part of the cost reductions will come from advances in cell manufacturing techniques to lower the amount of material required in each cell. Exploiting increasingly optimised bandgap combinations, either by metamorphic growth or by layer transfer techniques, will produce cells with higher fundamental efficiency limits.

We expect the current trend of 1% annual increases in research cell efficiency, from the 2010 level of 42%, to continue, although advances in cells with more optimum bandgap combinations could deliver more significant increases. Production cell efficiencies meanwhile will most likely continue to lag behind world record research cell efficiencies by 2%–3%. Overall system efficiencies are expected to rise to around 32% by 2013. This will be driven not just by cell efficiency increases,

but also by the combination of high efficiency optics, optimal concentration factor, innovative thermal management, high accuracy solar tracking and through automated precision assembly too.

Commercially, the emphasis will increasingly be placed on levelised cost of electricity (LCOE), rather than just system efficiency and system price/ watt, since LCOE is the key determining factor in commercial payback and return on investment.

The key barrier to investment is 'bankability' - the requirement to guarantee to financiers the kWh energy yield from CPV systems over 25 years for a given investment in the plant. Without this, either the cost of finance will be very high, or there will be no finance. Publicly funded projects are one of the best/only ways to demonstrate bankability and well thought out incentives, such as feed-in tariffs, will be an important enabler for the industry to reach the economies of scale necessary to reduce system costs.

JEROEN HABERLAND, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, CIRCADIAN SOLAR


What does the future hold for the concentrating PV sector?Each issue, Renewable Energy World asks leading players in the industry to give their verdict on a key issue of the moment. Considering the short term of one to three years, what technology advances may be expected in the CPV sector? What conversion efficiencies might be achieved and costs/kW installed reached? And what, if any, are the technical and investment barriers which must be overcome in order to achieve these forecasts?

THE BIG QUESTION

CONCENTRIX SOLAR

SOLFOCUS


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THE BIG QUESTION


The most important technology advances in CPV solar over the next three years will be performance improvements to III-V multi-junction cells and how they are integrated into CPV.

Amonix incorporated III-V multi-junction cells into our systems in 2007 leading to dramatic improvements in efficiency – currently 39% at the cell level, which translates into 31% at the module level and 27% at the system level. At these levels of efficiency, CPV

has by far the greatest efficiency of any solar technology. In addition, as we have done in the past, Amonix will deploy performance improvements over the next year that will lessen the gap between cell and system efficiency. In the years to come, we expect multi-junction production cell efficiencies will reach 42% or higher using current or new high-efficiency cell designs.

On the question of cost, we believe that CPV offers greater

potential for cost reduction than conventional PV technologies such as single-crystal silicon and thin-film PV, which are nearing performance limitations that will make it difficult for them to drop below their current installed system costs. In contrast, the CPV performance advantage has plenty of headroom and can achieve continual reductions in the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE).

Achieving the cell and system efficiencies is not without

its challenges – cell performance must be effectively transferred to production environments, for example. But we believe these challenges can be managed. Bottom line, efficiency improvements combined with the future cost advantages of CPV over PV, the greater deployment flexibility – and the advantage of using no water compared with CSP systems – make CPV the best choice for utility-scale solar deployments in sunny and dry climates.

In 2010 industry-leading CPV companies have become commercial, demonstrating scalable deployment, bankable products, and volume manufacturing. So what does lie ahead for CPV?

One way to describe CPV’s path over the next one to three years is that it will have a steep trajectory. CPV conversion efficiencies are on a steep upward path. System efficiencies of 26%+ today will continue to increase as CPV cell efficiencies move from 39% upwards to 45%.

Manufacturing costs for CPV systems are also on a steep trajectory, but going downward, as factories are ramped from manufacturing hundreds of kW to hundreds of MW per year. The upward efficiency trajectory combined with the rapidly declining manufacturing cost trajectory provides a very steep reduction in terms of the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) for CPV in the upcoming three years.

In 2010 CPV won competitive bids around the world against other PV technologies because of its

high energy yield resulting in a very strong value proposition, which will become even more commanding in the future. Bankability of the technology remains perhaps the biggest hurdle, however, this is rapidly changing through thorough due diligence on the technology and creative approaches to reduce the risk for developers.

Certification to industry standards for CPV combined with multiple years of on-sun performance and reliability data also contributes to the increasing adoption of CPV into large distributed and utility-scale projects around the globe.

With 150 MW forecast to be deployed in 2011, CPV has finally turned the corner on commercialisation and is moving forward into a market where its high energy yield with the largest energy output/MW installed has the potential to dramatically change the opportunity for the PV market. Add in the need for environmentally friendly technology and it provides an extremely low carbon footprint, along with low cost of energy, It becomes easy to forecast a major impact by CPV solar.

Concentrating PV and specifically HCPV technology is now ready to enter the market. I am aware this has already been said, but the difference is that there are now serious companies in the market.

They have set up production capacities which are in the two-digit MW range, and collectively the production capacity today is more than 150 MW. Two years ago it was less than 10 MW. This achievement is an important milestone for CPV and the first step to overcome their infancy.

In respect to technology advances, due to steady and continuous improvement for cells, optics and tracking CPV-system AC operating efficiency will eventually be 25% on an average. System efficiencies as high as 30 % are possible, but it will take more than three years to achieve this goal. These high efficiencies, in combination with advancing along a steep learning curve, will lead to energy costs in the range of €0.10/kWh at

sites with solar radiation of more than 2400 kWh/m²/year.

One has to take into consideration that for the moment the cost per installed kW is not an appropriate measure for CPV technology.

This is simply because the corresponding rating standards for CPV are not yet established. Indeed, missing standards can be seen as one hurdle for CPV and a barrier for investors. Consequently, the financial side must learn more about CPV technology and the industry must teach and demonstrate reliability – a major obstacle today for bankability.

At present CPV struggles not so much with technology, but with funding. However, this barrier will soon be overcome, for example if guarantees can be provided by the CPV companies.

It is then that the growth and the technology development speeds up, leading to still lower CPV costs.

CARLA PIHOWICH, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF MARKETING, AMONIX

NANCY HARTSOCH, VICE PRESIDENT SALES AND MARKETING, SOLFOCUS

ANDREAS W. BETT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FRAUNHOFER ISE

The CPV industry must teach anddemonstrate reliability – a major obstacle today for bankability


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THE BIG QUESTION

Leading players in the CPV sector continue to surpass record module and system efficiencies, leveraging optical and electrical expertise to optimise output from the world’s highest efficiency III-V cells.

CPV systems are typically twice as efficient as conventional PV systems, with current module efficiencies at 27% and expecting to break the remarkable 30% barrier in the near future.

At Soitec Concentrix we are currently working on the next generation of smart cell technology which is targeting cell efficiency of 50% – in turn leading to a system efficiency of more than 35%. Soitec’s patented Smart Cut™ technology, used for over a decade in the semiconductor industry, will provide crucial layer transfer expertise for the optimisation of the cell design.

The first results of the smart cell development programme

will be available within the mentioned time period. In the long term, it will be integrated exclusively into Concentrix' systems.

Prices for a full turnkey CPV power plant are today already below $4/watt and will go down to $3/watt in the coming

years. Specific prices very much depend on size, the site of the power plant and timing. At the same time, it is well established that CPV technology provides some 40% to 50% more energy output than conventional PV and due to its use of dual-axis tracking, maintains a consistent, high output during periods of peak demand when energy prices are highest.

Given that we have already

achieved a 27% module efficiency in production and that we have commercial plants of hundreds of kilowatts, we foresee no major roadblocks on performance reliability and cost for the CPV industry for driving down the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) produced

to reach grid parity levels.Key issues from an

investment point of view are a relatively quick return on investment and bankability. The scalability of CPV helps to address this – due to the modularity of the technology, the project size can be adjusted to the financial capabilities of the investors/banks and also energy is produced as soon as the first tracker is installed, helping to

reduce the time delay normally associated with utility-scale solar power plants.

In terms of bankability, Soitec Concentrix have partnered with energy efficiency and sustainability company Johnson Controls, which will build, operate, maintain

and provide lifecycle support for solar installations using Concentrix CPV technology.

The combination of the respective strengths of both companies will provide advantages, allowing the partners to accelerate and widen the successful installation of solar renewable energy utility-scale plants in high direct normal irradiation regions across the globe.

Short-term advances in CPV systems will be mostly technical and focused on improving the cost/performance ratio. However, longer-term advances in market development may produce even greater economic value for the sector.

In the short term, high concentration PV (HCPV) systems will continue to see technology advancements in the

efficiency of III-V multi-junction cells. Multi-junction cells are at the heart of high concentrating PV systems and are a key driver

to reducing costs and increasing overall system efficiency. As a rule of thumb, for every percentage increase in multi-junction cell efficiency there is a 0.75%–0.8% increase in system efficiency.

Today, most HCPV systems use 38%–39% efficient multi-junction cells and have a system efficiency of between 24% and 35%. In 2011, multi-junction cell

efficiencies are expected to rise to more than 40% and on to some 42% in 2012.

The increase in the

number of multi-junction cell manufacturers and number of new cell technologies under development will help the CPV industry make steep efficiency improvements in the coming years.

Like any new technology, the CPV industry still faces the challenge of justifying financing from risk-averse financers in terms of ‘bankability’. In response, SolFocus – see page 24 – for example, has recently announced that Munich RE will offer an insurance policy to backstop SolFocus’s warranty. Meanwhile, Morgan Solar self-financed an initial 200 kW test project to demonstrate its technology. Certification standards – particularly IEC

62108 – are also helping to provide investors with assurance. As more and larger CPV projects come online and manufacturers take direct steps to address the issue, bankability should therefore become less of a problem.

In the long term, it is the distinctive character of concentrating PV that will lead to greater commercial uptake. With sites in very sunny regions that make use of tracking, pedestal mounting and other distinctive features of CPV installations, the industry will lower costs through volume and more effectively create economic value by focusing on customers that prize or require particular features.

HANSJÖRG LERCHENMÜLLER, CEO AND FOUNDER, CONCENTRIX SOLAR

ERIC J. PAIL, ANALYST, ALTATERRA RESEARCH

It is well established that CPV technology provides 40% to 50%more energy output than conventional PV and due to its use ofdual-axis tracking, maintains a consistent, high output duringperiods of peak demand, when energy prices are highest

In 2011, multi-junction cell efficienciesare expected to rise to more than 40%and on to some 42% in 2012.


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AUSTRALIA SETS ITS SIGHTS ON RENEWABLES

COUNTRY PROFILE: AUSTRALIA

The mountains that form Australia’s Great Dividing Range are one of the country’s best-known geographical features. But there’s another Great Divide in Australia – the issue of coal, carbon emissions and climate change. Jackie Jones investigates.

YET CARBON LEGISLATION HOLDSTHE KEY, AND THE GREEN PARTY MAY HOLD THE CARDS

The 2 GW Liddell coal/solar hybrid station in the Hunter Valley, New South WalesAUSRA


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The subject of climate change has had a low profile in many recent national elections – its urgency being displaced by issues such

as employment and the global recession. But this year in Australia it played a keen role. And it is carbon policy that will be ultimately be mapping out the future for ongoing renewables development, not least by shifting the economic viability of Australia’s power-generating status quo – coal and natural gas – and by rendering renewables more competitive.

The vast landmass of Australia has a population of just over 22 million. That’s the same as the city of Beijing, or two-thirds of the population of California. Rich in natural reserves of minerals and fossil fuels, Australia is the world’s leading exporter of coal – much of which now goes to China.

But coal is much used at home as well. Australia relies heavily on it for its electric power, with black coal accounting for about 55% of power generation, and brown coal about 25%. Australia’s small population has a high per capita energy consumption, and some of the world’s highest per capita emissions of greenhouse gases, half of which come from the power sector.

As population and energy consumption rise, more coal-powered plants could be on their way. Greenpeace’s John Hepburn is reported as saying that a planned pipeline of 12 new coal plants, if they go ahead, would ‘increase the country’s emissions by 7%’. And a recent report claims that over the past five years, Australia’s four leading banks have invested over A$5 billion (US$4.9 billion) in coal mining, coal-fired power generation and coal export projects. While much of the rest of the world is facing up to an economic downturn, Australia’s economy is freeing itself of debt and, according to reports, could soon be growing at a rate of 10% thanks to its income from coal and iron ore exports. Kieran Davies, the chief economist at RBS Australia, was reported in the UK’s Guardian as saying the two exports now account for 7.5% of gross domestic product.

Hardly surprising then, that half the nation views coal as fundamental to the economic wellbeing of Australia, while the other half wants passionately both to cut emissions at home and to avoid becoming ‘a coal mine for China’.

Former Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd – deposed in June 2010 – came under attack from both sides: on one hand when he attempted to introduce a ‘supertax’ on mining profits in order to finance infrastructure developments, and on the other when he backed away from the introduction of a carbon trading scheme, fearing lack of Senate support. This had been a key policy on which he had sought election three years earlier.

Rudd’s successor Julia Gillard, the country’s first female Prime Minister, called an August election to seek a popular mandate. The result was a hung parliament, and almost three weeks of negotiations until she was able to form a government with the support of several independents and a single Green MP. Some commentators have since said the Labor party was being punished for its failure to introduce climate change legislation.

Meanwhile, the Green party’s share of the vote in the recent election doubled to 12%. In return for their support to form a government, the Greens demanded a cluster of concessions from Labor on carbon and renewable energy, the most significant of which is a commitment to creating a cross-party committee on climate change.

This new multi-party Climate Change Committee has now been formed and had its first meeting on 7 October, chaired by the new Prime Minister. Its task is to explore the best way to put a price on carbon, with options including an emissions trading scheme (ETS), a carbon tax, or perhaps a mixture of both.

The introduction of carbon pricing – whatever the mechanism may be – potentially makes a big difference to Australia’s entire energy future. Some mining and metal companies have called on the government to introduce a carbon tax rather than an ETS. As Australia works towards setting its long-term policy, and in doing so giving the market some certainty, investors remain unsure of which projects to back. Clarity ‘is what the investment community is looking for,’ according to Mark Twidell, executive director of the Australian Solar Institute.

‘At the moment it’s hard to roll over debt finance. And it’s quite hard to invest whatever your technology is – clean or dirty – when there’s this uncertainty about what the policy settings will be,’ said Twidell.

In September, Australia’s Clean Energy Council wrote an open letter of support for a price on carbon, signed by member companies including AGL, TRUenergy, Pacific Hydro, Conergy, Siemens, Suzlon, Vestas, Infigen, GE and RPG Australia. It read, in part: ‘Australians voted for a price on carbon at the election three years ago, and they are still waiting. Business accepts the need to act on climate change and wants certainty to invest in clean energy and create jobs.’

‘A price on carbon will drive the process of decarbonising Australia’s energy market and is the most prudent way for Australia to manage the risk of dangerous climate change,’ it continued.

The introduction of carbon pricing – whatever the mechanism may be – potentially makes a big difference toAustralia’s entire energy future

Interestingly, in the days between the August election and the formation of a new federal government, the government of one of Australia’s states, or territories – the Australian Capital Territory, which is home to the country’s capital, Canberra, and could be thought of as Australia’s ‘DC’ – said it would introduce a climate change and greenhouse reduction bill that would set its own target of cutting its carbon emissions by 40% by 2020 from 1990 levels. The cut would rise to 80% by 2050, with the aim of the territory of nearly 400,000 people becoming carbon neutral by 2060.

‘Looking forward, the introduction of any form of carbon pricing, whether it is in the form of a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade scheme, is going to change the relative pricing of electricity... That means the cost of renewables versus the cost of conventional fossil fuel power is fundamentally going to flip in the next 5–10 years,’ David Scaysbrook of Capital Dynamics, told Reuters Global Climate and Alternative Energy summit in October.

While all this goes on, Australia has a fabulous solar resource, some excellent wind locations, and a history of off-grid and on-site renewable energy. And Australia’s renewables sector is already on the move, thanks to funding packages introduced by the Rudd administration and federal legislation introduced in 2009 and updated mid-2010. At state level, small-scale renewables are also being encouraged by a number of feed-in tariff structures.

RENEWABLE ENERGY TARGET GETS ON TRACKAustralia’s first nationwide mechanism to support renewable energy was introduced by the Howard administration back in 1997, and implemented under legislation in 2000–2001. The Mandatory Renewable Energy Target, or MRET, set out to create a market for renewable electricity by obliging wholesale purchasers of electricity and large users to purchase a certain amount per year. The mechanism


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included use of Renewable Energy Certificates, which could also be traded. The obligation grew yearly, by increments, with the end target of 9500 GWh of renewable electricity by 2010 – a modest figure, equal to only an additional 2% of electricity from renewable sources.

What’s more, the 9500 GWh target was achieved four years ahead of schedule, but by this time and following a review, the government had decided to cap the MRET, and resisted attempts to push through extensions to the scheme. To avoid a complete stalling of renewable development, a number of state governments, including South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia and New South Wales set renewable energy targets of their own.

So the introduction of the RET, or Renewable Energy Target, in August 2009 was a significant step forward. Like its precursor, it had targets rising by increments over a 10-year period. This time it was a much more significant 45,000 GWh to be delivered by renewables by 2020 – expected to be 20% of Australia’s electricity supply (up from a current level of about 5%).

Unfortunately, instead of coming on line, a pipeline of projects stalled, but what was the problem? Speaking in a recent interview, Damian Moyse of Australia’s Alternative Alternative Technology Association explained how this came about. The RET market works by having a fixed target each year – as with the MRET, electricity suppliers are obliged to buy a certain amount of renewables each year. Under the RET, all technologies, and all scales, qualified to create tradable certificates – large wind, wood waste, biogas, small PV, hot water – the whole range.

Achieving the target will mean the additionof around 10 GW of new renewable energy capacity in the coming decade

The problem that emerged during the second half of 2009 and first part of 2010 was that the uptake of certain technologies was, at the same time, being encouraged by other government funding measures – in particular solar hot water and small PV (and many states have some kind of feed-in tariff). The response was good, so the small solar sector experienced accelerated growth. The upshot was that some 80% of the RET target for 2009 was taken up by solar hot water, and a further 10% or so by PV.

This meant that the market was saturated with certificates, and the system offered slower-moving large scale wind or biogas projects the capacity only to supply the final 10%. With this oversupply of RECs, the price tumbled to well below A$30. This was well below the estimated A$50 needed for wind projects to obtain finance and to operate effectively, and consequently larger projects were not moving. A rapid review was needed, and in March the RET was reconfigured, with legislation passed in June. The revised system creates separate zones for large and small-scale renewables.

Now the Small Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) and Large Renewable Energy Target (LRET) work in parallel. The large-scale market works much as the RET functioned before, with a target of 10,400 GWh by 2011, increasing gradually each year to 18,000 GWh by 2015 and 41,000 GWh by 2020 (total generation in Australia 2007–2008 was 228,600 GWh). Achieving the target will mean the addition of around 10 GW of new renewable energy capacity in the coming decade, with wind power likely to play a leading role.

The small-scale market is uncapped – any quantity of its certificates can be bought and sold alongside the large-scale ones. The certificates for small-scale are to be fixed at A$40, but the government has the power to adjust that price in the future. It is expected that small-scale will at very least make up the 4000 GWh gap between the original RET 2020 target and the current one for large-scale projects, and many anticipate that by 2020 a level of 22% is likely to be achieved, rather than the 20% target.

Early signs are that the new structure is working. ‘We are starting to see a pipeline of projects in the multi-megawatt range developing in solar, and renewed interest in investment in large-scale wind, and a buoyant residential sector for small-scale distributed generation – generally the market participants are all quite busy at the moment,’ said Twidell.

In a radio interview Moyse said: ‘One good thing about the RET is it allows government to control the end point – the target will be met. And if we get the target increased over coming years that will be met too.’

While the RET has its advantages, there are nonetheless calls for introduction of a feed-in tariff (FIT). Several states, or territories, have already introduced a FIT in some form. Those in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland are net FITs, which pay only for surplus electricity that is exported to the grid, rather than paying a gross FIT for the total produced. That makes revenue harder to anticipate and lengthens payback periods, but can encourage installation of larger systems.

In November 2009, Australia’s largest state, New South Wales, announced a gross FIT of A$0.60/kWh over seven years for systems up to 10 kWp. This tariff is approximately four times the rate that residential customers pay for electricity. Initially proposed was a net FIT that would have run for 20 years. In May, Western Australia introduced a residential net FIT for new and existing solar, small wind and small hydro systems, set at A$0.40/kWh, in addition to income from an existing scheme, the Renewable Energy Buyback Scheme. And at the moment, all these FITs work hand-in-hand with renewable energy certificates under the federal scheme.

But other groups, such as the Clean Energy Council, are pushing hard for a federal feed-in tariff. Green party senator and deputy leader Christine Milne put forward a bill in 2008 to introduce a federal, gross FIT for all renewables. It was supported in principle by a senate committee but failed to progress to fruition. Milne and others insist that the planned rate of growth for renewables in Australia is too slow, and remain adamant that only with a FIT will Australia be able to upscale at the right pace.

WIND POWERAustralia’s total operational wind capacity at the end of 2009 was 1.712 GW, of which 406 MW was installed that year – a record year for new installations. By the middle of 2010 just one new wind farm had been commissioned – making for a total of 52 wind farms generating almost 2% of the country’s electricity consumption (5 TWh), though others are coming through the system now the RET is restructured. Currently over 7 GW of large-scale wind farm energy projects are proposed around the country, many of them having already received planning permission.

About 45% of the nation’s installed capacity, about 740 MW, is in South Australia, while Victoria has just over 200 MW installed. In


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early August, Western Australia announced the building of the state’s largest wind farm, the 206 MW Collgar Wind Farm, scheduled to operate by August 2011. It is estimated that this 111-turbine wind farm will prevent 1 million tonnes/year of greenhouse gas emissions.

PHOTOVOLTAICSAustralia is no newcomer to PV – by the end of 2008 some 100 MW was installed and in 2009 the sector grew by over 350%. More than 56 MW of new grid-connected solar went on line in 2009 but the really important development is in off-grid installations at remote farms and off-grid homes, often supported by the Renewable Remote Power Generation programme.

It is estimated that 70% of Australia’s solar PV is still off-grid, even though the figure dropped significantly after support schemes for grid-connected systems started to take effect.

There have been some notable additions this year, such as Horizon Power’s 505 kW PV installation, based at two remote sites in Western Australia, which is now the largest tracker system in Australia and part of a hybrid solar–diesel power station completed at the beginning of August.

And in September, Verve Energy of Perth announced it would be partnering with BP Solar Pty Ltd on the construction of a 10 MW PV plant near Ellendale, also in Western Australia. Verve Energy will own the project and BP Solar will supply the technology and operate the plant. Verve says construction on the A$58 million plant may begin in March 2011, with completion expected by the end of the year. A Verve spokesman said the solar farm would be ‘the first step towards expanding Western Australia’s renewable energy away from the high reliance on wind farms’.

SOLAR HOT WATEROften heated by electricity, water heating accounts for a quarter of the energy used in the average Australian home and is responsible for 23% of total household greenhouse gas emissions, according to the country’s Clean Energy Council. Installing a solar water heating system can cut a typical home’s greenhouse gas emissions from water heating by between 60% and 90%. In 2008 about 600,000, or 7%, of Australian homes used solar, and this number has been growing rapidly thanks to the RET and other incentives. Australia has several well established solar thermal system manufacturers.

CONCENTRATING SOLAR THERMAL POWEROne of the big names in solar thermal power, Ausra, has its origins in Australia. Founded by Dr David Mills, formerly of the University of New South Wales, Ausra was recently acquired by Areva. In spite of its technological innovation, Australia has only a very small number of working solar thermal power systems, the largest being the Liddell Power station. Liddell is operated by Australia’s largest energy utility company, Macquarie Generation, and is the world’s first solar-augmented coal fired power station or ‘booster’ power energy facility, initially as a demonstration plant of 1.5 MW.

Many companies, such as Acciona Energy Oceania, Transfield, Parsons Brinckerhoff, WorleyParsons and Wind Prospect CWP are believed to be evaluating much larger systems (150–250 MW) in Australia, and the commercial deployment of large-scale solar power generation could play a significant role in the nation’s renewable energy mix.

GEOTHERMALThough only one plant is currently in operation, nearly 50 firms are working on geothermal exploration in Australia and several of these expect hot rock geothermal generators to be producing power within the next two to five years. According to the Clean Energy Council, about A$1.5 billion worth of exploration work is in progress in four main areas of Australia: the Cooper/Eromanga Basin in South Australia; the Hunter Valley near Newcastle; Otway Basin in Victoria; and Tasmania.

HYDROAustralia has well-developed hydro schemes (and 100 hydro stations) in several regions – particularly Tasmania and New South Wales’ Snowy Mountains Scheme – with a combined capacity of 8.3 GW. The small hydro sector still has opportunity for development however, and the Clean Energy Council wants to see a market mechanism to ensure its further roll out.

BIOENERGY There is resistance to the use of large-scale forest bioenergy, due to the need to protect Australia’s indigenous forests. But its sugar-cane industry has been producing heat and power from bagasse for over 100 years. The installed capacity for the bioenergy sector in Australia amounts to around 767 MW, according to the Clean Energy Council. There are also some biogas plants in operation on pig, chicken and dairy farms, and for anaerobic digestion of wastewater sludge.

Jackie Jones is consulting editor to Renewable Energy World


This article is available on line. To comment on it or forward it to a colleague, visit: www.RenewableEnergyWorld.com

THE AUSTRALIANSOLAR INSTITUTEAND RENEWABLEAUSTRALIARenewable Australia and the Australian Solar Institute (ASI) are government-funded initiatives set up as part of the government’s Clean Energy Initiative to foster the development and commercialisation of Australian technologies.

ASI investment money, which comes from the Federal government, is to be used to leverage industrial investment – whether it be international or local – and research investment – international or local – into Australia-based research activity.

Mark Twidell describes the focus as being on research that can be applied commercially – technologies need to show cost reduction and increased efficiency in generation. They should also help tackle some of the barriers that are currently preventing solar technologies from being deployed without specific incentives. Australian universities and their commercial offshoots are well regarded outside Australia. The group run by Professor Martin Green at the University of New South Wales is a notable example.


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WIND: THE BALKANS

Jeff Porter takes a look at the market, forecasts and the key issues in developing wind power projects in the region

FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLICSWAKING WIND IN THE BALKANSTaking a look at the market, forecasts and the key issues in developing wind power projects in the Balkan region, Jeff Potter explores the former Yugoslav republics.

REGION OFFERING NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN WIND

The 42 MW Senj windfarm in CroatiaWALLENBORN GRUPPE


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WIND: THE BALKANS

The Former Republics of Yugoslavia (FRYs) are in a nascent stage with respect to developing their wind energy industries,

but they promise some interesting opportunities in the coming three to five years.

The regional conflicts of the 1990s which focused around Kosovo took a heavy toll on human life, infrastructure and social structures. Yet the region has proven very resilient. Slovenia has since joined both the EU and eurozone, Croatia is soon to follow and others are queuing up to be the next. Along with this comes adoption of EU principles, and this has been a driving force for the region’s energy sectors.

The Italians and the French have been particularly supportive in providing funding and input for regulatory studies and guidelines, as well as far-reaching bilateral cooperation. Progress has been made in replacing or upgrading the power infrastructure that was damaged or destroyed during the wars, but much remains to be done, with funding still a major constraint.

In October 2005, the EU and nine countries of southeast Europe (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo and Romania) signed the Energy Community Treaty (ECT). The purpose was to expand the EU energy market into the Balkans, thereby promoting a legal and regulatory framework for an integrated power and gas market.

A timetable was established with five milestones to be met between 2007 and 2017. For renewables, implementation plans had to be submitted in 2007, with regular updates thereafter, ensuring that each country is keeping pace with the implementation schedule.

The ECT is designed to open regional markets, provide investment guarantees and set a regulatory road map for the national energy sectors. It was the first legally binding agreement signed by the Balkan states after the Balkan conflict.

The four former Yugoslav republics that have emerged as best potential targets for the exploitation of wind resources are Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. All of their governments have responded to the call for action on climate change and each state has made great strides in formulating and adapting the regulatory structure to meet EU and Kyoto challenges.

On the ground, however, things sometimes turn out differently, and the day-to-day activities of the domestic power markets often favour local state power companies. This is due partly to a response mechanism so that urgent needs can be met, but also reflects a cronyism that dates back many generations and still exists to this day.

International and local developers have already shown considerable interest in the region and projects have begun to take shape. The effort of these pioneers have resulted in the identification of promising and suitable sites for wind facilities and even wind measurement campaigns at the state level. It has also resulted in guidance for local authorities on appropriate planning requirements for windfarm construction. The process is far from finished, but inroads have been made into establishing coherent guidelines for serious investors.

CROATIAWind power has the potential to become a key element in the expansion of Croatia’s power generation system over the next decade but currently the country has only 27 MW of installed wind capacity. As it moves towards EU membership in 2012, Croatia will need to adopt additional EU energy legislation, and adjust to more stringent requirements, which should support its fledgling renewable energy industry. Strong economic growth and the availability of investment funds should also provide additional stimulus for renewables.

In 1991 the country’s first energy legislation was passed as Croatia moved towards a free market economy. Over the next 10 years, various laws were enacted, but the Bosnian conflict and the break-up of Yugoslavia hindered progress in all sectors. In 1997, Croatia launched its National Energy Program, ENWIND. But it was not until 2001 that the wind energy market began to develop a viable regulatory shape with the passing of an energy act.

In order to achieve its 20% target from renewable, excluding large hydro, by 2020, Croatia will need to cut down on red tape and extend its guaranteed feed-in tariff scheme beyond the current 12 years.

MARKET OVERVIEWCroatia’s net electricity consumption in 2007 was 17.6 TWh, up from 15.57 TWh in 2006, while its total generating capacity was 4054 MW. This can be broken down into 29% from imports, 31% from thermal power plants, 24% from hydro, and 15% from the nuclear power plant at Krsko in Slovenia. Renewable energy accounted for just over 1%.

In order to meet EU requirements for membership, Croatia must reach a number of milestones regarding energy supply. A target of 5.8% of all consumption to come from renewables, excluding large hydro, in 2010 will probably not be met.

The Croatian national power operator Hrvatska Elektroprivreda (HEP) is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the country’s national grid.

During the Bosnian conflict many substations were damaged, leaving the grid in a state of disrepair. Since then, HEP has made great strides in upgrading the transmission network. But problems, such as the grid’s penetration limit, still exist. This is particularly evident on the many islands where the grid remains weak.

On the positive side, legislation was enacted for cost sharing when an renewable energy site is connected to the grid. HEP has also been split into separate agencies instead of a larger, combined body, and this should improve efficiency and competitiveness.

CROATIA’S WIND RESOURCEThe wind resource in Croatia is among the best in southeast Europe. Optimal wind energy sites are along and near to the coast, with average wind speeds up to 8 metres/second at 50 metres. There are also good inland locations at higher altitudes that would be attractive to developers.

The main area for potential development is along the Adriatic coast, but legislation now restricts development on the islands and within 1 km of the sea. There is currently no reliable wind atlas available for Croatia, but HEP has proposed a number of sites with good development potential. Also of importance is avoiding areas where the local Bora wind system, which can reach hurricane strengths, is strongest.

A forecast of 400 MW to be built by 2010was overly optimistic and, with 28 licencesyet to be granted planning permission, thepipeline is seeing a significant bottleneck

The country’s first wind farm was completed in 2004 on the island of Pag with a capacity of 5.95 MW and was developed by local company Adria Wind Power. A second was constructed in 2006 by WPD-Enersys at Sibenik with a nameplate capacity of 11.2 MW. By the start of 2009, Croatia had 17 MW of operational wind power,


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WIND: THE BALKANS


and a further 10 MW were under construction at Orlice (also WPD-Enersys). HEP is said to be developing its largest wind project to date, in the region of 60 MW. A further 90 MW project is slated for development in 2011. A forecast of 400 MW to be built by 2010 was overly optimistic and, with 28 licences yet to be granted planning permission, the pipeline is seeing a significant bottleneck, along with grid connection constraints.

HEP has identified a number of sites deemed suitable for windfarm development, while at the same time slowing grid connections. Looking to the future, independent estimates see the country’s capacity reaching 1.3 GW by 2020. This provides plenty of scope for project development over the next 5 to 10 years, and as these estimates are often conservative, more potential could emerge. Active developers include Enersys, Wallenborn, Adria Wind Power, Jura energija, EHN, RP Global and Electra.

BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINAThis country has a rather complex legal structure due to the legacy of ethnic tension and therefore consists of two separate administrative entities: the Federation of Bosnia & Herzegovina (FB & H) and the Republic of Srpska (RS). Renewable energy legislation can be enacted on the national or a sub-national level. The war in Bosnia resulted in about 60% of B & H’s grid suffering damage, although most was repaired by 2003.

On sub-levels legislation has been slow to emerge and this may continue to cause severe bottlenecks for renewable energy project developers. A draft of a much needed strategic plan was published in 2008 and provided recommendations on legislation and incentives for renewable energy but, to date, it has yet to pass into law.

In June FB & H adopted a renewable energy and cogeneration law which established a 12-year feed-in tariff. For 2010 the tariff equates to some €61.3/MWh and ensures the priority delivery of renewable energy into the grid.

The B & H government recently approved a €71 million loan from German bank KfW to state power utility Elektroprivreda for its 44 MW Mesihovina wind project, which is due to be built in 2013. The government is set to provide €6 million to the scheme. Elsewhere, the utility plans to build a 30 MW windfarm in Mostar, and projects are planned for Borova Glava, Velika Vlajna and Poklecani, for which, to date, a total of 117 MW from 532 MW has been approved. Elektroprivreda has become a driving force in the country’s wind sector but it remains to be seen to what extent Bosnia & Herzegovina is willing to allow foreign investors develop projects in its territory.

A draft of a much need strategic plan was published in 2008 and provided recommendations on legislation andincentives for renewable energy but,to date, it has yet to pass into law

A recently produced wind map showed its wind potential is currently estimated at 2 GW, with wind speeds in the west of the country capable of reaching 9 metres/second.

However, much needs to be done before the country can be considered a serious contender for foreign investment. The lack of progress can be chalked up, in part, to tensions and the lack of cooperation between the governing administrations.

MONTENEGROThe energy framework devised by the Montenegrin government is impressive but remains incomplete. Its original road map amounted to a state-directed and rigid policy which largely failed to spark enthusiasm from investors, domestic or foreign, and so it was revised, with the government formulating a more flexible approach and opening the door to private enterprise.

Ratification of the Kyoto protocol in 2007 was just one step in the process of opening up the Montenegrin market and providing an acceptable degree of regulatory authority and transparency. The country’s ‘Energy Development Strategy by 2025’ was a major policy document which outlined road maps and required measures for meeting strategic targets.

Its baseline goals were fairly broad and included, among others, secure power supply, infrastructure improvements, creation of regulatory frameworks, higher utilisation of renewables, and the privatisation of the Montenegrin state utility. Its implementation was left to the ‘Action Plan 2008–12’.

As a follow-on measure, the Montenegrin parliament passed a new energy law in April that introduced more flexible guidelines, especially for private sector participation. Other changes were made to the responsibilities of the regulatory bodies and planning procedures.

There is certainly potential. However, on itsown, the country may struggle to attractinvestments from abroad unless they arecombined with projects in neighbouringcountries

For renewable energy it meant new financial incentives which, it is hoped, will lead to a new renewables programme. Although the specific benefits of it have yet to be seen, one concrete measure is the use of a new licence, the energy permit, which succeeds the various licences of the previous energy law.

It will have a term of 15 years which is extendable. Another provision is the concept of the ‘qualified energy producer’, which will be given to renewable energy generators and guarantee them a fixed tariff as well as preferential grid access for 12 years.

Energy production in the country totals some 25 PJ (hydro 33.5%, lignite 56.5%, and wood 10%) but total consumption lies at some 46 PJ, with the shortfall being made up from imports (oil 32%, coal 30%, hydro 20% and wood 5%).

The state-owned utility, Elektroprivreda Crne Gore (EPCG), is responsible for generation, transmission and distribution. Montenegro’s total installed capacity is 868 MW, of which 649 MW is from two large hydro plants and 210 MW from a coal-fired plant. Electricity demand has grown significantly from 505 GWh in 1994 to 2077 GWh in 2005.

A recent wind atlas for the country showed average wind speeds of between 5.5–6.5 metres/second at 50 metres.

The biggest hurdle for investors considering developing renewable energy projects in Montenegro is the difficulty in attaining any economies of scale.

There is certainly potential. However, on its own, the country may struggle to attract investments from abroad unless they are combined with projects in neighbouring countries.


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WIND: THE BALKANS


SERBIAThe Serbian parliament adopted its energy law in July 2004. One of its many objectives was to encourage the increased use of renewable energy in the country.

Since then, other laws have bolstered Serbia’s energy regulatory environment, including ones for renewables. In July 2005 two public companies came into being. Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) which is in charge of electricity generation and distribution and is the largest power utility in the country with 8359 MW of generation (5171 MW lignite, 2835 MW of hydro, and 353 MW of gas and liquid CHP plants). The second was Elektromreza Srbije (EMS), an independent transmission system and market operator.

In January a feed-in tariff of €95/MWh for wind power was introduced, but with a cap of 450 MW. The form of FIT is a guaranteed 12-year power purchase agreement with EPS. Additionally, investments in excess of €6.8 million, accompanied by the creation of 100 new jobs, will be exempt from corporation tax for up to a maximum of 10 years.

The combination of the feed-in tariff and good wind speeds, along with investmentin grid improvements, should allow Serbiato eventually reach a target of 4 GW

Like Montenegro, Serbia has reached out to international sources for guidance on their renewable policy as well as for initial site selection.

Two wind separate 185 MW farms projects have been announced in Vojvodina province. A local company is developing the Bela Crkva project, and construction must begin by the end of 2010 to comply with the project’s energy permit time condition. Wellbury, an Austrian company, is developing a project in Bavaniste.

The company is thought to have formed a joint venture with US-based Green Star to develop a 120 MW project in Pancevo. MK Fintel and Vingtim, both foreign companies, are developing the 130 MW (Grabenac, Parta & Izbiste) and 60 MW (Zagajicka Brda) projects, respectively.

Extensive wind measurement studies have been carried out, and the best locations for wind development have been identified accordingly, albeit with low measurement heights.

An average wind speed of 6.5–8 metres/second has been estimated on the basis of 40-metre masts. Capacity factors estimates came in at about 30%.

Two areas for improvement in the medium-term are environmental guidelines and grid upgrades. Typically, developing countries realise in retrospect that legislation has neglected environmental provisions, and basic legislation is added later.

The country’s grid is another issue in light of the destruction of much of the country’s infrastructure in the conflict at the end of the 1990s. Investment monies have been limited and much needs to be done to make basic upgrades, not to speak of specific new builds to accommodate renewable energy projects.

The combination of the feed-in tariff and good wind speeds, along with investment in grid improvements, should allow Serbia to eventually reach a target of 4 GW. Progress continues to be made in various areas and developers may consider Serbia as one of the better prospects in the region over the next decade.

CONCLUSIONSSo far, the FRYs have made progress in promoting renewables, especially on regulatory and permitting issues. However, there are also failings in some of the work that has been accomplished. Above all, investors will want to see more transparency and clarity as well as an even playing field in terms of local utilities and developers.

Have investors who have already entered these markets peaked too early? Probably not, but the key is to keep overheads to a minimum and prepare for long delays in some cases. As long as site selection has been optimised, then the downside risk should be fairly minimal, but returns may not be forthcoming for another two to four years. There will certainly be high hurdles when it comes to financing, but local, regional and development banks may be inclined to step in and assume the country risk in the medium term.

What can one expect for wind development in the region in the coming years? Above all, there will have to be more investment in infrastructure, in particular the grid. A specific strategic grid policy for renewables, as seen in Portugal, would be a big help to a smooth transition to a renewables driven energy policy. Environmental issues will also have to be tackled in the form of new laws and implementation. Freer competition would also provide international investors with greater comfort.

Initially, the region is more likely to become a niche players’ domain, but by 2015 it should have reached a level where larger players – utilities, funds and infrastructure companies alike – will still see plenty of opportunities for growth.

Jeff Potter is chief executive officer of Renewable Energy International Ltd.


This article is available on-line. To comment on it or forward it to a colleague, visit: www.RenewableEnergyWorld.com

Substation at the 42 MW Senj windfarm WALLENBORN GRUPPE


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PHOTOVOLTAICS: DEVELOPING NEW MARKETS

Utilities in the northwest US and California are scrambling in order to meet requirements set out in state Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) legislation in the face of rising prices and shrinking availability of wind turbines. Lisa Cohn reports.

THIS IS THE INTRO SUB HEADING FEATURE ARTICLES

A SOLARSTRATEGYFOR AFRICA

Now that real progress has been made in growing global demand and production – and in getting prices down in developed countries, it is time to think seriously about kick-starting real solar markets in Africa. Mark Hankins suggests a series of issues that need consideration if such a goal is to be achieved.

INTERNATIONALPLAYERS SET TOEXPAND KEY MARKETS

A solar roof installation in Senegal KAITO PROJEKT GMBH


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There is a need for a shift in focus on solar markets in Africa away from donor and rural electrification projects to commercial and

productive investments. There is also a need for the international PV industry to aggressively invest in the development of solar markets and not to leave it up to aid and relief organisations. This must be based on the need to move – today – towards grid-connected and urban markets. As part of this process there is a need to engage and educate African governments about the current global status of the solar sector and help them build frameworks for industry growth.

Markets for small off-grid systems, those below 100 Wp, are important to kickstart solar industries, but they will be less important in the long term as demand for them begins to fall.

It is also useful to have an idea of where marketing and development efforts will lead in the long term. ‘Off-grid rural solar development’ in Africa has dominated discussion for so long that we seem to have lost the bigger picture. Where does the solar industry want to be in Africa in 10 years? Leaving aside the ‘rural electrification’ impact, which is more attractive for a solar company: 20,000 solar home systems at 50 Wp or 500 systems of 2 kW each? Both will result in 1 MW of sales.

Kenya’s so-called ‘solar PV success story’ is a good example of this. Its focus on small systems – to the exclusion of larger commercial or grid-connected systems – and has resulted in an annual PV market of 1.5 MW that is low-tech, over-the-counter and dominated by small products. But the market is stagnating.

Continued efforts by aid groups to build sales in ‘poverty markets’ will likely increase the depth and accessibility of small scale lighting systems. However, this will not build a market with a 20 MW/year solar demand of a scale that is interesting to larger PV supply companies. No matter their importance to the rural poor, LED lanterns with 1 W modules fall into the realm of the fast moving goods providers from Asia, not solar PV companies.

If healthy markets that are multi-dimensional and sustainable are to develop, solar advocates must prepare the ground for the variety of viable niches that will be part of a healthy long-term solar market. In addition to village electrification, this includes off-grid markets such as telecoms, tourism, business and pumping as well as grid-tied and utility-scale markets.

Africa is not solely a poverty market and, in the long term, middle class and commercial groups will do far more to develop solar markets than procurement-driven public sector projects or the efforts of humanitarian groups.

Every car salesperson knows that, when a customer enters a showroom looking for a luxury car there is probably no need to show the second-hand hatchbacks. But, in Africa, the solar sales approach shows high-end customers bicycles, not limousines. Africa’s most important buyers go for generator sets because they see generators as being ‘classy’ and practical solutions – and generator dealers latch on to this. Solar agents do not recognise this market.

THE FLAWED ‘AID’ APPROACH TO AFRICAN DEVELOPMENTThe aid-dominated approach to PV in Africa has led many decision-makers in Africa to believe that solar is about helping poor people. Without detracting from the hard work of solar NGOs, village solar electrification is relief work and should not be confused as being the foundations of a developing market. If building real markets for solar in Africa, and in doing so reducing carbon emissions, is

the objective, NGO contracts to supply a thousand lanterns or government procurements for 100 schools are, at best, stepping stones, but they are not the long-term answer to stimulating wider demand and building solar futures.

Solar advocates must prepare the groundfor the variety of viable niches that will bepart of a healthy long-term solar market

Too many people think of Africa in terms of desperate unempowered off-grid rural poor people with no cash. Aside from a lot of sunshine, the continent’s agricultural sector is growing as are its mineral exports. In some areas, Africa is also seeing massive building projects, along with more frequent traffic jams as automobile sales increase rapidly, and more and more power shortages as electricity companies struggle to meet spiralling demand. Where there is money – and power shortages – there is a market for solar power.

The multi-megawatt PV project market is coming to Africa, but not yet. To deliver large-scale projects, a focus on intermediate-sized 50 kW to 200 kW installation market segments is required.

Developers, financiers, solar companies and governments want to push the envelope and open up new markets in Africa. But most are thinking big, and perhaps a bit too big, for the present

A small-scale focus will see Africa’s PV sector stagnate KAITO PROJEKT


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undeveloped state of the market. For example, a finance house developing PV project portfolios for African countries, while eager to hear ideas for innovations in Africa, was unwilling to discuss projects below 1 MW.

On a continent where the largest installed system is 250 kW (Kigali, Rwanda) a 1 MW minimum requirement is unreasonable as a starting target. Even though grid parity is close in a number of countries, outside of South Africa the type of feed-in tariffs and incentives necessary for megawatt-scale projects are simply not feasible. Resistance from utility sectors can make agreements problematic and risky for investors whereas smaller-sized projects may be able to fly under the radar and build up experience as solar is assimilated into power sector planning. When experience is gained on one or two 50 kW projects in a country, these can be bundled by developers into financially attractive packages. But the first step is to gain experience.

There is a need for developers, perhaps with donor agency help, to think bigger than village scale, but a bit smaller than utility scale. Just 10 years ago 50 kW PV projects made industry headlines in Europe.

GRID-CONNECTED MARKETSGrid connection is coming in Africa, perhaps faster than expected and definitely in different ways than expected. In the near future, urban PV markets will be as important as rural markets.

In the mid-1990s, when the annual world production of PV was well below 100 MW, many ridiculed the idea of grid-connected solar anywhere in the world. Off-grid rural solar electricity made much more sense. How could grid-connected solar prosper when off-grid markets were screaming to be satisfied in developing countries all over the globe?

In every country in Africa the electricity sectors plan to eventually connect all economically active areas to a national grid system. Arguments and concerns can be raised about how fast this will occur – or even whether it makes sense – but the fact is that politicians, planners and consumers are united in their desire for grid electricity. Because virtually all solar in Africa today is off-grid, ministry planners often view solar as a second class option for remote locations where it is likely to be too expensive to establish a grid connection and where there is little economic activity. It is time for those planning national strategies to look to solar – and those developing solar marketing plans – to embrace on-grid solar and stop pretending that solar is exclusively for off-grid communities in Africa.

There is a need to engage and educateAfrican governments about the currentglobal status of the solar sector

Some say that fragile African grids, with fluctuating voltages and frequent shutdowns, cannot accept PV power but the same thing was said about wind a few years ago. Now there are multi-megawatt wind projects all over the continent. Surely, the opposite is true – grid connect solar systems can help stabilise grids and, with small battery banks, can also help consumers weather power outages.

While there are definitely technical, financial and regulatory hurdles to be overcome there are also huge opportunities. From Lagos to Nairobi and from Addis to Dakar, businesses,

hotels, offices and households today buy and install hundreds of thousands of generator sets and battery-inverter systems to hedge against brownouts. Because electricity can be unreliable in African cities people who require continuous power are willing to pay extra to ensure their supply and therefore surely it makes sense to use this willingness to pay as a wedge to open new grid-connected PV markets.

Given the choice, a substantial proportion of the middle classes, NGOs and business consumers in Africa would purchase grid-connected systems. Educated Africans will install solar for the same reasons that people in the North do – because it is clean and silent, reduces carbon footprints, is modern and aesthetically pleasing.

Net-metering, not feed-in tariffs, will initially be key to developing grid-connected markets, just as they were in Germany and the US.

For medium to large-scale renewables such as wind, hydro and biomass, specialised feed-in tariffs are important policy tools to stimulate investment. Even in Africa (RSA, Kenya) feed-in tariffs are helping to get renewable power projects off the ground.

However, feed-in tariffs are less suited to PV than other renewable technologies for several reasons. First, there is much less economy of scale in PV; it does not matter whether a PV installation is 10 kW or 1 MW – the costs are broadly the same. Secondly, because of this scale issue, thousands of dispersed PV installations make as much sense as a single large plant. But right now PV is still more expensive than wind, hydro or biomass, so it is hard for governments to justify PV as part of their ‘least cost power plan’.However, there is no need to block private consumers who want to invest in Africa’s nascent solar market.

Net metering is a low-cost policy tool that allows electric utilities to incentivise on-grid PV investment by private consumers. With it, consumers invest in a PV system. Instead of storing their PV power in a battery during the day, they store it on the grid by running their meter backwards and selling their output at a retail rate. In the evenings they draw back the electricity that was generated during daylight hours, with the result that at the end of a month consumers could potentially have a zero-value bill.

Unlike feed-in tariffs, net metering does not require massive grant support or additional levies on electricity consumers by cash-strapped African governments. Net metering cannot be unscrupulously ‘rigged’ because there is no incentive – electricity bills are offset, and no cash changes hands. Net metering also allows demand to develop naturally. Those who want solar PV and are willing to pay a premium for it will be rewarded. In short, those that want to buy and sell PV power should be encouraged, not discouraged.

THE BENEFITS OF SOLARIn Africa the versatility and practicality of solar energy solutions is as important as the cost/kWh.

Too often, electricity is judged on extremely narrow price grounds. Policy-makers, from both government and donor sides, look at the cost/kWh of solar and automatically disqualify it from discussions in national planning. African energy departments, and the donor agencies that support them, apparently dismiss solar out of hand because of its high costs. The mentality, it seems, is that Europe should busy itself with developing the PV as Africa cannot afford to do so.


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But at the same time, in countries as divergent as Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal and Burkina Faso, petroleum-based generation is sacrosanct when it comes to investments in power supply. Thermal generation units are purchased to meet ‘emergency’ peak demands because petroleum flexibly supplies power when it is needed.

Even though solar PV is an expensive investment it can be an extremely reliable and predictable component source of an overall electricity profile during periods when electricity is needed.

It is especially valuable during cloudless periods when dams dry up and grid managers must scramble to get thermal units on line, and nothing seems surer than the fact that as petrol prices will invariably rise the costs of developing and installing relevant and efficient PV solutions will fall.

PV can be deployed in a decentralised manner where it is needed and where space is available. Financing can also be decentralised. The same customers who buy their own generator and battery back-up sets may consider investing in solar as an alternative to brownouts.

But perhaps most importantly it is necessary to pay the high up-front prices of solar today to build the experiences and capacities that will be needed tomorrow.

Solar did not happen in Germany and California overnight; it took decades of work to get the skills, supply lines, finance and consumer awareness in place.

Governments cannot wave magic wands and make these things happen, at which point solar suddenly becomes ‘cost-effective’.

Before achieving 200 MW of installed capacity, a first target of 1 MW has to be reached.

THE ROLE OF INDUSTRYOver the past two decades, as solar markets have grown at double digit rates in the North, the job of building up solar markets in Africa has been left to NGOs and aid agencies such as the UN, the World Bank and the Global Environment Facility.

Few African governments have championed PV, and most of the companies that did have offices in Africa have left. This needs to change. As stand alone generator and petroleum-based power suppliers already know, Africa is a steadily growing market – and a profitable one at that.

Donor agencies have relegated PV to off-grid markets and, moreover, they have left the administration of PV projects to slow-moving government agencies.

Few major solar players want to bid on World Bank-supported government tenders that can take years to develop and which can be expensive.

Thomas Edison and Henry Ford had it right. When they developed their electrical lighting and automobile products, they aggressively took them to the moneyed classes in large American cities and their companies were successful. With more solar resources than anywhere else in the world, with steadily growing economies, and with massive shortages of power, the markets in Africa are ripe. But Africa needs solar entrepreneurs that can convince the buyers and it needs the type of aggressive green investment that took place in the 1990s in Europe.

Solar industries need to work together to build viable markets in Africa and should instead leave the World Bank and the UN to focus on the off-grid poor.

Aid efforts should focus on helping to steer solar policy in the right direction, and tying grant and subsidy support to the achievement of targets. This will require the active long-term engagement of governments, the private sector, civil society, and the international solar industry.

The global boom in solar – and the accompanying fall in PV prices – has occurred because a handful of countries realised that it would take strong policy initiatives to get PV markets to a size that would bring solar prices to back down to earth. Bold politicians bet on solar and we are now beginning to see the fruits of those measures.

Because of a lack of disposable income and difficulties, perceived or real, in doing business, Africa has been largely side-stepped in solar energy development discussions.

Slapping donated modules onto the roofs of rural clinics is an easy way to leave the impression that something is being done in Africa. Of course it is easier to target support for schools, clinics and village electrification, but until policy frameworks are in place to build sustainable solar energy industries, much international solar aid support is being wasted on projects in remote locations with no infrastructure and little cash. Sustainable local solar businesses are simply not being created.

Aid efforts should focus on helping to steersolar policy in the right direction, and tyinggrant and subsidy support to theachievement of targets

As is the case with coal and nuclear industries in the North, there are entrenched interests in many African countries that do not necessarily embrace solar.

Numerous ruling elites manage profitable petroleum and large power project cartels and they could be expected to block decentralised solar and grid-connected projects. International solar industries and development aid networks that are seeking to build solar markets need to be aware of these interests and find ways to help civil society empower itself with solar.

As power prices in Africa rise, grid expansion stalls and as grid power availability is constrained, consumers and communities increasingly have to take electricity production into their own hands. In the long term, this is a good thing, and having a portion of electricity coming from decentralised solar sources is healthy for any grid.

Just as political systems in Africa have evolved to reflect the needs of educated voters, power sectors must change too to allow new segments of the population to profit from and participate in electricity production. This is the promising future of solar in Africa.

Mark Hankins has worked in the African solar energy sector for 25 years. He manages Africa Solar Designs, a Nairobi-based solar solutions provider that is currently developing on- and off-grid PV projects. He recently authored Stand Alone Solar Electric Systems published by Earthscan Publishers.




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WIND: KEY PLAYERS

Key Players...Wind energy: Pausing for thoughtThe wind industry has been a renewable energy star pupil since its widespread adoption but its teenage years are throwing up new and unfamiliar issues. David Beattie looks at how it is facing up to them.

Spanish-headquartered Gamesa designs, manu-factures, installs and maintains wind turbines. It has installed more than 19 GW with a further 3 GW in various stages of development in more than 20 countries and four continents.

It manages the entire turbine process from design, manufacture and installation through to and including operation and maintenance. The company also designs and manufactures its own blades, blade roots and moulds for blade and tower manufacture.

The company has manufacturing facilities across Europe, the United States, China and India. Its workforce of more than

6000 staff is capable of manufacturing 4.4 GW of turbines each year.

The firm is currently developing two offshore models, with capacities of 5 MW and of 6–7 MW, in anticipation of further development in the North Sea over the coming years.

In early November the company was ranked global leader in the renewable

energy equipment industry, according to a sustainability ranking produced by the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.

October saw Gamesa sign supply contracts for 251 MW of turbines to China, a month after it reached strategic agreements to supply 1.31 GW of capacity to the country between 2010 and 2013.

In addition it set a 15% annual growth rate which it hopes will see it achieve 4 GW/year in sales by 2013.

The company plans to base its offshore wind energy business in the UK, backed by an investment of €150 million between 2011 and 2011.

A global headquarters for its offshore division will be established in London.

GAMESA

According to the latest BTM ‘World Market Update’ report, approximately 23,000 turbines, capable of generating more

than 38 GW of wind energy, were installed worldwide in 2009, pushing the global total to a figure in excess of 160 GW – a record year for the industry.

The strength of the sector, it said, came despite the ongoing financial crisis, which continues to shake many of the world’s major economies and ravage their industries.

Over the course of the year, Europe lost its title as the largest wind power continent, installing 28.2% of 2009’s global capacity, down from a figure of 51% three years previous. The Americas picked up some of the slack coming in with 30% of the year’s total,

up from 11.3% the previous year. But far in the lead was Asia, which saw a growth rate of 59% on year, and accounted for 41% of global installations during the year.

On the supply side, 2009 was also a strong year for Asia with three Chinese companies making in into the list of the world’s top 10 suppliers, which, said the report, resulted in significant losses of market share for some of the more established majors.

Despite a strong appetite for wind in the long term, 2010 to date has proved to be something of a challenge, with demand in Europe falling and manufacturing capacity being cut. Licensing uncertainties and significant time lags between planning and implementation are going some way to fuelling fears of a temporary downturn in wind.

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WIND: KEY PLAYERS

Denmark’s Vestas is a long-term player in the wind industry and its roots can be traced back as far as 1898.

In 1987 the company opted to concentrate exclusively on wind energy and by the end of June 2010 it had installed 41,417 turbines giving it an installed capacity of just under 40 GW, the vast majority of which is onshore. Its current offshore installed

capacity falls just short of 1 GW, of which the UK accounts for 484 MW from 182 turbines.

Its turbines’ ratings range from 850 kW through to its latest 3.0 MW V112 model, which is designed for both on and offshore use. In September a manually produced prototype of the V112 suffered a blade detachment at its test site in

Lem, Denmark, causing its shares to slide temporarily. But plans to supply 140 commercially produced V112s to Australia’s Macarthur Wind Farm remain firmly in place.

Nonetheless, Vestas has been unable to avoid the effects of the global economic downturn and in late October the company announced that it plans to close a number of its manufacturing units, principally in Denmark.

Along with back office functions, the resulting job losses will total about 3000 people. The decision, said the company, was largely based on weaker-than-expected demand in Europe.

However, despite the staffing cull, Vestas at the same time reiterated its expectations for 2010. But the company has sliced planned investment which will now not exceed €900 million.

For next year the company expects firm and unconditional orders of 7–8 GW.

Activity in terms of produced and shipped megawatts is expected to come in at 6 GW during the year, generating a positive free cash flow of €650 million, said the company.

Over the course of the year Vestas has taken receipt of its largest order to date from Portugal’s EDPR for 1.5 GW and up to 2.1 GW.

The agreement covers supply, installation and commissioning of wind turbines for delivery to North America, South America and Europe in 2011 and 2012, with the possibility of a 600 MW extension through to 2011.

The company say it is also continuing to work on its plans for development of a 6 MW offshore turbine.

VESTAS

E.ON IBERDROLA RENOVABLESGermany’s E.On is one of the top 10 wind power operators in the world and aspires to rise further up the global rankings. In Europe and the US it has more than 70 onshore wind farms with a combined capacity in excess of 2. 8 GW.

The company says it is committed to further large-scale investments and to expanding its on and offshore installed capacity to about 10 GW by 2015.

E.On operates the 782 MW Roscoe wind farm in Texas, US, the world’s largest onshore wind farm. It is also very active in offshore wind energy and is currently developing a portfolio of projects in UK, Scandinavian and German waters.

The company developed the 120 MW Scroby Sands offshore windfarm off the Norfolk coast in England. Its 30 turbines, each rated at 2 MW. E.On’s latest offshore windfarm is the 60-turbine Robin Rigg project in Scotland, which is one of the country’s largest. Construction began in 2007 and was completed this year.

E.On is also one of the partner companies developing the London Array project along the English coast in cooperation with DONG Energy and Masdar.

When complete the London Array will be the largest offshore windfarm in the world with a capacity of 1 GW. Located more than 20 km from the Kent and Essex coasts in the outer Thames Estuary, one of the three strategic areas the UK government has identified for offshore wind farm development, construction began in July 2009 and the first stage is set to be completed by 2012.

Spain’s Iberdola Renovables already claims to be the top wind energy company in the world in terms of installed capacity, output and project portfolio. And, in addition, the company’s plans to invest €9 billion over the 2010–2012 period to bolster its position.

Growth in the period to 2012 is expected to come mainly from the United States, where it will plan to invest €4.9 billion, 55% of its total capex budget. In the UK, meanwhile, the firm plans to invest 21% of its budget, or €1.9 billion, while in its home market of Spain it plans to invest 11%, or €1 billion. The rest of the world will receive 13% of the capex budget, or €1.2 billion.

The goal, says the company, is to accumulate more than 16 GW of installed capacity by 2012. Iberdrola also expects its operating earnings to rise by 15%–20% a year in the period.

Iberdrola Renovables is a member of the group of companies headed by its sole shareholder Iberdrola SA, which owns 80% of the capital. Iberdrola Renovables, in turn, is the parent for a group of companies in Spain and elsewhere.

Iberdrola Renovables operates in more than 20 countries including Brazil, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Spain, the UK and the United States.

In the UK the parent company owns one of the country’s major utility groups, Scottish Power, and by extension ScottishPower Renewables which operates Europe’s largest onshore windfarm, the 322 MW Whitelees windfarm in Scotland.

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WIND: KEY PLAYERS


Siemens Wind Power started life as Danregn Vindkraft in 1980, before being renamed Bonus Energy in 1983.

In December 2004 it was acquired by Siemens and remains a wholly-owned subsidiary of the German engineering giant.

The company has developed a wide range of on and offshore wind turbines with current machines offering power ratings in the 2.3–3.6 MW range and with some 8735 turbines installed.

Siemens in 2009 had a 5.9% share of the 38 GW global wind energy market, according to the most recent BTM report.

In recent months the company has announced that it is on track to build a new wind turbine factory in the UK that should be operational by 2014 and create 700 jobs.

In October Siemens said it plans to produce a new 6 MW direct-drive offshore wind turbine at the facility.

At present more than 40% of UK-generated wind power is derived from Siemens machinery and technology.

Siemens turbines account for 77% of the UK’s installed

and under development offshore wind farms.

The company says it has also played a key role in the development of the UK’s first modern apprenticeship scheme for the renewable energy sector.

Speaking at the launch of the scheme in Glasgow in early November, Christopher Ehlers, head of Siemens Wind Power UK, said: ‘As the leading supplier of offshore and onshore wind turbines, grid connections and service and maintenance in the UK, our support of the apprenticeship scheme is critical.’

Notable projects using Siemens turbines include the Windy Flats and Tuolumne wind farms in the United States with a total capacity of 358 MW, Wolfe Island in Canada with 197.8 MW installed, Whitelee in Scotland, UK, with 322 MW installed, Smola in Norway with 150.4 MW, West Wind in New Zealand with a capacity of 142.6 MW and Xinjiang in China – Asia’s first wind farm, which was developed in 1989 with a total rated capacity of 2 MW.

SIEMENS

GE has installed more than 13,500 wind turbines worldwide and has manufacturing and assembly facilities in Germany, Norway, China, Canada and the United States. The company’s current product portfolio includes turbines with rated capacities from 1.5 MW to 4 MW.

In May GE and US-based Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation announced a long-term partnership covering the development of the first fresh-water offshore wind farm in the US and a broad range of other initiatives. Under the partnership, GE is set to provide direct-drive wind turbines to LEEDCo’s 20 MW offshore wind project in the Ohio waters of Lake Erie.

GE also plans to install up to five offshore demonstration turbines through two separate partnerships, with both set to use the company’s largest wind turbine – a 4 MW-rated machine.

The company recently said it will invest €340 million to develop and expand its European wind turbine manufacturing, engineering and service facilities in the UK, Norway, Sweden and Germany.

US-based NextEra, formerly FPL, provides more than 25% of the total wind energy generation energy in the United States. The company entered the wind generation sector in 1989 with the acquisition of several existing wind projects in Southern California and built its first wind farm in Oregon in 1998. The next 10 years, said the company, were marked by significant growth and the acquisition of two wind projects in Canada.

NextEra is the largest generator of wind-powered electricity in North America, with 76 facilities across 17 US states and Canada. It operates about 9000 turbines which collectively have a nameplate generating capacity of some 7500 MW.

In 2009 the company invested about $11 billion in its wind interests. It also operates solar and nuclear sites and reported 2009 revenues of more than $15 billion from nearly 43 GW of generating capacity. It employs more than 15,000 people across 28 US states and Canada.

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WIND: KEY PLAYERS


India’s Suzlon, launched in 1995 with a staff of just 20, has evolved into a leading wind power company with 16,000 employees in 25 countries and with operations across the Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe.

The company has a fully integrated supply chain with manufacturing facilities in three continents as well as R&D facilities in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, India and the Netherlands.

Suzlon’s global market share last year, combined with that of its 2009-acquired German wind turbine manufacturer REpower, rose to 9.8%, making the group the third largest wind turbine manufacturing company in the world.

The company has over 40 sites across eight states in India, and had installed in excess of 5 GW by September.

With a global project portfolio across Asia, Australia, Europe and North and South America, Suzlon recently announced plans to set up a new office in South Africa, where the country’s wind energy association believes could derive 25% of its energy from wind by 2025. The firm is in the tendering process for more than 800 MW in South Africa, where wind potential is estimated at about 184 TWh.

In late October Suzlon reported a group order book worth $5.4 billion and Q2 revenues of $847 million.

China-based Sinovel Wind Group is an independent designer, developer and manufacturer of large-scale on and offshore series wind turbines.

By 2008, only three years after the company was founded, Sinovel Wind Group had installed 1.4 GW of wind turbines, ranking it first in China and seventh in the world. In 2009, it installed a further 3.51 GW of turbines, holding its position as China’s

leading producer, and propelling it into third place in the global rankings. In 2009 it launched a 5 MW offshore wind turbine.

The Beijing-headquartered company also regards itself as a leading innovator in China’s wind power equipment manufacturing. The company provided all 34 of the 3 MW-rated wind turbines for the new Shanghai Donghai Bridge offshore wind farm.

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WIND: KEY PLAYERS

RWE has operated onshore wind farms for more than 10 years in Europe. In Spain and the UK, the company says it has built a solid foundation for its growing business with its existing wind farms. In Germany and the Netherlands, RWE Innogy significantly increased its capacity when it acquired the wind farms of Dutch energy supplier Essent. It currently has some 2.2 GW of installed capacity and 1.1 GW under construction.

RWE’s existing wind farms include those in North Hoyle and Rhyl Flats, at 60 MW and 90 MW respectively, off the

UK’s Welsh coast. Nearby, the company is also planning a 576 MW offshore farm at Gwynt y Mor.

Off the English coast RWE is involved with the 504 MW Greater Gabbard project. The firm has secured development licences for two other UK offshore projects, the 1.5 GW Atlantic Array in the Bristol Channel and the massive Dogger Bank scheme off Yorkshire, which is expected to have an installed capacity of 9 GW. Off the German coast the company is building the 295 MW Nordsee Ost, for which the European Union is providing some €50 millon of funding.

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David Beattie is associate editor of

Renewable Energy World magazine


This article is available on-line. To

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visit: www.RenewableEnergyWorld.com

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Germany’s Nordex was launched in 1985 and in 1995 introduced the first megawatt system in the world, the N54. Today more than 4000 Nordex wind turbines with a total rated output of more than 5720 MW are operating in 34 countries.

Represented with offices and subsidiaries in 18 countries, in the third quarter of 2010, business fell short of the company’s expectations, chiefly due to weak market conditions. Thus, Nordex has launched a cost-cutting programme as well as an initiative to boost the efficiency of its turbines. Furthermore, and contrary to previous forecasts, it no longer expects a small increase in sales for 2010.

In October Nordex USA announced the official opening of its flagship wind turbine manufacturing plant in the US, representing a $40 million investment, which will manufacture nacelles for its 2.5 MW Gamma series machines.

The latest order announced by the firm was obtained by its Turkish subsidiary and is for the supply of 18 machines for the ‘Susurluk’ wind farm. The farm is owned by Iltek Iletisim, the energy subsidiary of the Eksim Group. Nordex also announced an order for the turnkey installation of a the ‘Akres’ project in Turkey, with 18 N90/2500 machines. This development is for Karesi Enerji, a subsidiary of the Turkish transformer manufacturer Best.


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PV SET TO RIDEOUT DOWNTURN


PHOTOVOLTAICS: MARKET OUTLOOK

New analysis suggests that the surging PV market will withstand public budget restraints and the weakening of the euro in currency markets to continue its expansion into 2011, with over 19 GW of installations, before softening only slightly in 2012. Henning Wicht, Stefan de Haan and Greg Sheppard explain.

INSTALLATIONS SET TO TOP 15 GWIN 2010 AND TO RISE AGAIN IN 2011

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Consensus is now growing that at least 15 GW of PV systems will be installed globally in 2010, up from

7.2 GW in 2009. Transparent project pipelines, emerging clarity

on feed-in tariff (FIT) clarity, and overflowing advance order books for suppliers are conspiring to make this a reasonable possibility, iSuppli for example is forecasting a 15.7 GW market this year.

However, debate over how 2011 will shape up for the industry is rife, with questions raging over possible market dips in Germany and Italy as FIT cuts take effect. But analysis suggests this will not be the case, with aggressive growth in both set to continue.

A notable drop-out during 2011 is likely to be the Czech Republic, where new installations are set to plunge from the gigawatt level to just one fifth of that. After introducing a moratorium on grid connections in 2010, the government in September said it would reduce FITs for ground installations and restrict funding to systems of 500 kW or less from March 2011.

PRICE CUTS SET TO KEEP PROJECTS ATTRACTIVEConcerns over the PV market next year reflect several considerations. Public budget problems seen in Greece could also affect Spain and Italy, and potentially dull the appetite for higher FITs, while the weakening of the euro against the Chinese yuan, which is itself linked to the US dollar, could also push up the prices of modules and other system components.

But these risks could be mitigated by a further drop in system installation prices, with a price drop of at least 10% on average in Europe predicted, continuing a long-term trend.

It is also believed that the French government will not reduce its FIT by more than 20% in 2011, following the policy revision in Italy, where cuts of 10%–27%, depending on segment, were agreed in August 2010.

In France, speculation concerning future PV regulations are becoming something of a source of derision. In September the country’s environment ministerJean-Louis Borloo said that France could reach 5 GW in 2011 and quadruple its 2020 targets. However, Christine Lagarde, the industry and economy minister, interpreted

Figure 1. Worldwide PV installation forecast (Q3 2010) ISUPPLI

Debate over how 2011 will shape up is rife, with questions raging over possible market dips in Germany and Italy SOEN


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the 2010 dynamics the other way round, saying: ‘A large part of our 2020 goals have been achieved – we can reduce our efforts.’

In September iSuppli revised down its installation forecast for France from 1080 MW to 700 MW.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT HOLDS UPThe bottom line is that the average return on investment for projects installed in the major market countries of Germany and Italy during 2011 will remain attractive and will, in fact, stimulate substantial demand. The average FIT will be cut by 13% in Germany, according to our forecasts, while the projected return on investment (ROI) will range at about 8%. Likewise, Italy’s FIT reduction will be 10% to 27% and will be split over the year. Our models assume ROIs will average 10% for projects completed during the year in Italy.

Next year could be the year the PV industry begins to wean itself from German market generosity, with other markets stepping up to complement it. Some 19 GW will be installed in 2012 worldwide, according to our forecast, down slightly from 2011’s 19.5 GW.

German installations are expected to cool off from a pace of 9.5 GW in 2011 and reduce further for a number of years into the 4–5 GW/year range. This will result, we believe, from the government’s aim of maintaining an orderly progression towards its ultimate goal of about 80 GW of installed PV capacity by 2028.

Meanwhile, countries like Italy, the US, China and Canada, specifically Ontario, will fill in the gap partially in 2012 and more completely in 2013.

German installations are expected to cooloff from a pace of 9.5 GW in 2011 andreduce further for a number of years intothe 4–5GW/year range

MANAGING INVENTORY WHILE RIDING A BUCKING BRONCOOperations managers at PV module companies are often under great pressure to maintain production levels and inventories at optimal levels and to ensure that the product can be easily accessed by its buyers. In addition, currency fluctation can be a key concern, especially if the supply chain is in yuan. There is also pricing pressure against a sliding euro.

Average ROI in 2011 will remain attractive in key markets SOEN


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Although in some quarters these could be considered minor issues for a rapidly developing industry, those who fail to take into account these challenges could find themselves permanently relegated to the minor leagues of the sector.

CHANNEL VISIBILITY IN A FIT-DRIVEN WORLD Channel inventory, as iSuppli defines it, includes modules that are on ships, in customs, with distributors, with installers, on trucks and on the job site, including those awaiting inspection, commissioning and official approval. Collectively, this constitutes the largest cache of inventory for modules. Modules can flow through part of the chain in days – for an expedited shipment, right to the job site – or sit installed for months until grid or legal issues are worked out.

Unlike electronics, where communications and supply chain practices and technologies are fairly mature, the PV industry is still in a rudimentary state, struggling with ill-timed capital spending (or its absence), over- and under-production, and nationalistic government efforts to create local jobs without considering the global supply picture. Electronics suffer the same afflictions, but to a lesser extent.

In electronics, the bulk of the inventory is typically held by upstream suppliers like semiconductor firms, even for products that flow through distributors and electronic manufacturing services (EMS) contractors. This adds cost to the semiconductor supplier, but has greatly reduced oversupply risks downstream and has helped control pricing from the supplier’s point of view.

CAN PV LEARN FROM ELECTRONICS?Most inventory in the PV industry remains piled up in the later stages of its market flow and it can be argued that until uncertainty over changes to FITs is resolved and installer operations become more efficient, reducing the oversized inventory swings will be hard.

But an interesting trend from an inventory perspective is that, as more module companies move into system installer/developer/EPC roles, overal inventories should become easier to manage and the industry can look forward to more subdued swings.

Another trend that could emerge is that module manufacturing contractors – such as EMS – could help supply to match demand. EMS companies dislike being used in this way but are better placed to aggregate demand across their customers and smooth out industry-wide production levels.

The PV inverter market is set to grow by 98% in 2010 and PV inverters are on track to become one of the world’s highest volume

ruggedised electronic systems with annual shipments of more than 10 million units and 32 MW by 2013.

But these risks could be mitigated by a further drop in system installation prices,with a price drop of at least 10% on averagein Europe predicted

Revenues should also top $7.2 billion by then. PV inverter suppliers are straining to keep up with system installations this year as they roughly double. Consolidation is expected, we predict that


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the current 200 inverter companies worldwide will settle into 15 companies controlling 90% of the market by 2012.

TRYING TO ESCAPE THE COST PER WATT TREADMILLThe average price per watt for inverters will be down by 13.5%

this year, our analysis predicts. Considering the strong demand and catch up on supply, this may seem to contradict the laws of supply and demand.

But digging beneath the surface reveals a shift towards large inverters with a lower price per watt, as well as a challenge for inverter suppliers on the market’s expectation of price reductions.

It is expected that inverter suppliers will increasingly be valued for their impact on the levelised cost of energy (LCOE), which takes into account total energy production – not just the acquisition cost of an inverter but the lifecycle costs of the inverter over 20 or more years within an installation.

As the inverter industry closes in on efficiencies well above 90% this figure is unfortunately becoming just a prerequisite to compete and less the overwhelming selection criterion it once was.

Factors like total energy harvest and advanced features – such as those for the utility segment – as well as lifetime and uptime guarantees are increasingly defining who wins a supply deal.

UTILITY-SCALE INVERTERS IN DEMANDHigh-power inverters rated 500 kW or more that target utility-scale operations on the ground and on large building rooftops are one of the market’s fastest growing segments.

This range of inverters will average a 61% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) on a MW basis over the next five years. These systems must incorporate considerable capability to help utilities manage the grid, including low voltage ride through (LVRT) for tackling outages as well as ways to smooth out harmonics and to correct the power factor when voltage and current get misphased.

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PROCUREMENT ISSUESLast year and for part of this year, adequate production capacity to make inverters was a key issue. But a lingering shortage of electronic components has now solidified into an ongoing challenge for inverter companies.

PV inverter suppliers are straining to keepup with system installations this year as they roughly double. The current 200inverter companies worldwidewill settle into 15 companies controlling90% of the market by 2012

The most troublesome components to source include IGBT modules, of which many inverter companies are already complaining of a short supply. Market leader SMA has cited component shortages as a factor in limiting its shipments over recent quarters. DSP-based controllers and certain high cap value capacitors have also been running in short supply.

PV inverters are estimated to be a $1 billion market for semiconductor suppliers by 2014. In addition to IGBTs, MOSFETs, rectifiers, DSP controllers, FPGAs, ASICs and even flash memory will be used in high volumes for inverters – creating a very respectable market opportunity that is worthy of investment.

Henning Wicht is senior director & principal analyst, photovoltaics, iSuppli.Stefan de Haan is senior analyst, photovoltaic materials & systems, iSuppli.Greg Sheppard is chief research officer at iSuppli.



Figure 2. PV inverter shipments forecast (Q2 2010) ISUPPLI


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CHINA & THE USPOLICY AND MARKETS: CHINA AND THE US

The number of green relationships being established between the US and China is on the increase but does that mean these two giants see past their differences to become an unstoppable combined force for the greater, greener good? Elisa Wood reports.

OPPORTUNITY OR THREAT IN THE GREEN REVOLUTION?

China’s success in wind turbine manufacturing has some in the US concernedSINOVEL


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POLICY AND MARKETS: CHINA AND THE US

China now stands alone as the most attractive market for renewable energy investment in the world, a position it had

previously jointly held with the US, according to Ernst & Young’s most recent Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices report.

The news became political fodder in a US mid-term election year and has been highlighted as an example of the nation’s failings. With US jobs at stake people are worried, and for good reason.

That’s one way to look at it. Another is that China’s rise offers a new and crucial opportunity. Paired, the countries can float a tremendous clean energy market that could buoy the industry worldwide – or sink it if they fail.

‘Imagine a small canoe, barely above the waterline with two sumo wrestlers, China and the US, in it – one at each end,’ says Elton Sherwin, senior managing director at California-based Ridgewood Capital and author of the book Addicted to Energy.

The rest of the canoe, he says, is packed full of people from all of the other countries. The two sumo wrestlers account for 42% of the world’s energy demand, are the world’s biggest coal consumers and the largest importers of oil. Both have aggressive goals to integrate renewable energy into their supply mix and they lead the way in wind power development. Last year China installed 13.8 GW of wind power, the US added 10 GW.

A recent criss-crossing of the globe by industry leaders and government officials from both nations demonstrates a heightened understanding of their paired potential and they have been meeting to investiagte joint green energy opportunities. China brings to the table its cheap manufacturing capability and the US its high tech know-how.

‘We can’t view this as one against the other. Over the past 12 months, partnerships and collaborations and deals from the manufacturing side all the way up to the development and installation side have really taken off. It makes a lot of sense. We are working together on the government side and private sector side to grow the pie and make it beneficial and profitable for businesses in the US and China,’ said Foley & Lardner partner Jeffery Atkin.

One such meeting, a panel discussion entitled ‘US-China Private Sector Cooperation in Energy’, brought together industry and government heavy hitters in early October at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. Among the attendees was Jim Rogers, chief executive officer of Duke Energy, one of the US’ largest electricity companies.

‘I believe that China and the US are uniquely positioned to answer the environmental energy challenges for the globe,’ he said at the forum. ‘We are smart enough and have a clear enough vision to be able to cooperate and compete at the same time.’

While the two nations have many political and social differences, both face similar challenges in their power sectors. Both depend heavily on coal as a core energy resource; it accounts for 50% of the electricity mix in the US and 80% in China, which in turn makes the two countries the largest carbon dioxide emitters in the world. Also at the forum was US secretary of commerce Gary Locke, who said: ‘If not addressed, this current energy mix will significantly impact our businesses, our environment, and our way of life in both countries.’

THE GREAT GRID OF CHINAIn addition to many similarities in energy supply, both countries are poised for enormous electricity transmission grid build-outs, which will be required to meet increasing energy demand through to 2050.

Rogers sees a ‘daunting challenge’ ahead for the US. The nation will need to spend an estimated $2.1 trillion to meet its electricity


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demand by 2030, with consumption set to grow at an estimated rate of 0.5%/year through to 2035.

Over the next 40 years almost all US power plants, with the exception of its hydroelectric sites, will have to be retired and replaced, said Rogers. This comes on top of the transmission and distribution overhaul needed for smart grid applications.

Conversely, China will focus less on upgrading an outdated grid and more on building new facilities. It has 700 million rural inhabitants, 15 million of whom, it is anticipated, will flock to its cities every year. By 2025, China is expected to build 40 billion m2 of floor space across five million buildings – the equivalent of two Chicagos every year, said Rogers.

Electricity consumption rises in line with higher average incomes through the increased use of energy-hungry devices such as refrigerators and air conditioning units. By 2030 an estimated $3.1 trillion will need to have been spent to keep up with China’s burgeoning demand.

With such levels of growth predicted in China and the US entirely new power infrastructures in both are expected to be built in the next 40 years.

BIG PROBLEMS, BIG SOLUTIONSWith such daunting figures, it is an enormous challenge for the two countries to simultaneously meet new demand and achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but significant progress is afoot.

China has a five-year plan for renewables to account for 15% of its energy mix on top of a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

In just three years, the country became the world’s largest producer of photovoltaic panels, according to Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ (PwC) recently published document: ‘US-China Cleantech Connection: Shaping a new commercial diplomacy’.

The US is also making hefty strides in cleantech development, an example being its solar industry, which by the end of the year is expected have seen a year-on-year doubling in size, despite ongoing global economic issues, according to trade group the Solar Energy Industries Association.

The president and CEO of SEIA, Rhone Resch, recently announced a target for the US to install 10 GW/year of solar by 2015. Simultaneously the US government began to approve the construction of large utility-scale solar plants on federal land. Construction work on several large projects is expected to be underway by the end of the year.

Bolstered by strong government commitment over the past two years, the US is shaping up to be the largest solar market in the world, with its potential serving to attract Chinese companies including Suntech Power Holdings. The company, the world’s largest crystalline silicon PV module producer, said earlier this year it plans to construct its first manufacturing plant in the US, while Yingli Green Energy is also said to be considering building a facility in the country.

CAN THE MARRIAGE WORK?However, not everyone in the US welcomes expansion of Chinese companies into the US clean tech market. One concern is that while China may excel at cheap manufacturing, there may be quality

issues with its goods, a problem acknowledged in a recent report published by Greenpeace, the Global Wind Energy Council, and the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.

Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, said in the report ‘2010 China Wind Power Outlook’ that China remains dependent on Europe and the US for key wind turbine design technology; that it lacks experience in operating and maintaining wind farms; and that its workers’ skills are ‘insufficient’.

‘To face and address the long-term problems, China needs to learn constantly, create opportunities for international cooperation and communication,’ he said. The country must also establish a ‘cooperative mechanism of win-win and multilateral wins with wind power corporations and research institutes all over the world in order to learn other countries’ strong points, compensate for [its]own weak points, and develop together’.

To date the Chinese solar industry has largely been driven by the production rather than the utilisation of its PV technology. Indeed in 2009, one third of the world’s PV panels were produced in China, yet installations there accounted for less than 3% of the global total, according to PwC.

Both countries are poised for enormouselectricity transmission grid build-outs,which will be required to meet increasing energy demand through to 2050

Some quarters have voiced concerns that this allows Chinese manufacturers to have less stringent quality standards. However, again according to PwC, as China finds a new balance and moves from largely being a solar technology producer into an adopter, an broad upturn in quality to Western standards is expected to follow.

A technologically-innovative and growing Chinese market is also expected to see more widespread applications in China itself, while welcoming the country into the global market will force it to raise the quality of the goods it manufactures.

The Chinese installation market remains wide open and therefore provides a huge opportunity for US companies that produce high quality products to seek to do business there.

In September 2009 US-based First Solar unveiled a memorandum of understanding with Chinese government officials to build a 2 GW solar power plant in the Mongolian desert. The development site, slated for completion in 2019, requires cutting edge technology and high quality components.

The growth of the clean technology sector in both countries is in part due to the state of the industry in the other, with companies from each becoming increasingly co-dependent. Bilateral trade and investment between China and the US has given and continues to give citizens from both countries greater access to high quality products and services, according to Locke.

An example of this is the growth in China’s middle class, which has spurred demand for US products, helping US producers’ order books and satisfying Chinese consumers, while lower-cost products from China which are being sold in the US mean a potential increase in the disposable incomes of US citizens. ‘That is what a win-win relationship looks like,’ said Locke.

Another major partnership opportunity between the US and China is the development of smart grid technology. The PwC


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report forecast that China could spend up to $100 billion over the next decade on smart grid development, which could result in the deployment of 300 million smart meters alone.

Not surprisingly, Intel Corporation recently consolidated its chip-making operation in Chengdu into a 2400-employee facility and is now the largest chip packaging and testing base in Asia.

To help US companies penetrate Chinese and other foreign markets, the Obama administration in March launched the National Export Initiative, which seeks to double exports from the United States over the next five years.

‘I am confident that our efforts and a sustained focus on the National Export Initiative will allow the US, China and countries all around the world to reap the benefits of the emerging clean energy economy,’ said Locke.

Entering the US market, however, is another story. Accessing this market can pose difficulties for international companies owing to a quagmire of local, state and federal regulations.

‘The US is very complex compared with most other places in the world. It is more time consuming. That is a reason why foreign companies, the European companies, the Chinese companies, are joint venturing and partnering with local companies,’ said Foley & Lardner’s Atkin.

‘You can build a solar facility almost anywhere in the world without a lot of complication in a couple of months. You go to do that in California and it is a much longer period of time,’ he added.

PARTNERSHIP PROS AND CONS Duke Energy is hoping that a United States–China partnership will lower costs, create more jobs and expedite the deployment of clean energy technologies. The North Carolina-based utility has entered into two agreements with the Chinese power companies ENN and China Huaneng.

The agreement with ENN, signed over a year ago, covers the development of several different cleantech projects, including a pilot smart eco-city near Beijing. By working with Chinese companies, Duke Energy hopes to gain experience both in scaling up and in driving down the costs of green energy deployment.

US universities and other research institutions are now also partnering with China. In September, some 30 senior executives from the State Grid China Corporation, the world’s largest utility, met with representatives of the University of California San Diego, to tour its energy facilities along with executives from IBM and utility group San Diego Gas & Electric.

But despite recent efforts to promote business cooperation between the US and China, significant political and economic tensions remain. In September 2010, the United Steelworkers trade union filed a complaint accusing China of ignoring World Trade Organization rules, claiming that its government is granting too many subsidies to Chinese companies, making it impossible for US groups to enter China’s market.

In addition, the union accused China of depressing its currency so exports of clean energy products sell cheaply abroad while foreign imports appear expensive. China’s currency, the yuan, is appreciating, but at a much slower pace than China’s economic gains, said the union.

Its complaint echoes similar charges by manufacturers in other countries, who argue that China grants hidden subsidies including

free land and low-interest loans to its clean energy industries while restricting access to its domestic market.

In response, in October Zhang Guobao, a senior economic official for China, held a US news briefing in which he accused US trade officials of delaying trade talks with China, adding that the United States uses economic reforms to promote US companies over foreign investors.

Zhang also accused US politicians of looking for someone to blame for America’s slow economic recovery. The criticism of China, he pointed out, had coincided with the then-upcoming US mid-term elections. ‘Do they want fair trade? Or an earnest dialogue? Or transparent information?,’ he asked rhetorically, before answering: ‘I don’t think they want any of this. I think [it] more likely, the Americans just want votes’.

The development of a large and technologically advanced clean energy industry is critical for both countries to successfully mitigate the effects of climate change, promote economic recovery, and compete in a globalised market,’ said Locke.

Ultimately it would benefit both countries to put aside their differences and work together to accomplish a similar goal, he added, before saying: ‘I am confident that these partnerships, especially in clean energy, will continue to strengthen over time and we will all be the better for it.’

Cooperation in the clean energy industry could be a starting point for further cooperation between the two countries, he continued, saying: ‘The power sector is just one step on a ladder of cooperation that is needed to encourage other companies to work together, which could possibly influence the governments to work together as well.’

Many issues remain for the two countries to work out but the advantages of collaboration conspire to drive them together. Only time will tell if the two sumo players will continue to work together to develop the clean energy industry or if they will start wrestling instead, and sink the boat.

Elisa Wood is US correspondent for Renewable Energy World magazine.



Wind turbine manufacturing facilities in Dalian, China SINOVEL


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CHILLING IN THE HEAT OF DOHA SU

SOLAR THERMAL: KEEPING FANS COOL

A pioneering solar thermal cooling project at a sports stadium in Qatar is kicking off the technology for far larger endeavours, and perhaps levelling the playing field for this long-overlooked solar option. David Appleyard reports.

SOLAR SOCCER STADIUM STAYING COOL

The solar-cooled showcase stadium in QatarGEM ADVERTISING AND PUBLICATIONS


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For the final of the 2022 FIFA World Cup football tournament some 86,000 spectators will convene at the Lusail Iconic Stadium in

Qatar, if the nation’s on-going bid is successful. As envisaged, the stadium is certainly iconic. Its Foster + Partners

design encompasses the sweeping curves evocative of the sails of a traditional dhow boat, but – perhaps more significantly – it is also potentially set to feature a major solar thermal cooling installation. Designed to cool those thousands of fans who visit the Doha stadium in the up to 45˚C heat of the Arabian Peninsula, with a backdrop of a World Cup final and its television audience of many millions, it will no doubt do much to highlight the power of solar cooling and low-carbon, low-energy development.

Located to the north of Doha, with direct connections by road and a new metro line, its parking and service areas are to be shaded by canopies of solar PV collectors, which will produce energy for the stadium when it is in use, as well as generate power for neighbouring buildings. Overall, the stadium is designed to be net zero carbon in operation.

Indeed, Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, chairman of the Qatar 2022 Bid, reportedly said: ‘The stadium will inspire a new generation of regional and international sports venues, incorporating environmentally friendly cooling technologies to ensure the ideal conditions for players and spectators alike. The design of the stadium provides fans with optimum views of the action in a cool and comfortable setting.’

In a recent interview, Mark Fenwick, senior partner of RFA Fenwick Iribarren Architects, commented on the major challenges in designing and developing such venues for this region. ‘Certainly the most important challenge for stadium design in the Middle East has to do with the need to cool the interior environment to an acceptable level, especially in the summer months,’ he said. Fenwick added: ‘One of the most exciting challenges in modern stadiums in the Middle East is to develop a design which allows cooling for the players and the spectators, and to resolve a responsible energy source, such as solar power.’

A SHOWCASE FOR LOW-CARBON DEVELOPMENTBlazing a trail for that major development is a pioneering installation at another of the 12 stadiums which the Qatar authorities submitted as part of their bid to FIFA.

Designed by Arup Associates, the 500-seater showcase ‘model stadium’ in question is zero carbon in operation and features an operating concentrating solar thermal cooling system. Serving as a proof-of-concept, it is expected to act as a development platform to refine the technologies for application across Qatar, at the Lusail Iconic Stadium and potentially across all arid regions.

Commissioned to demonstrate to FIFA and the world-wide audience that the harsh climate over the summer months is no longer a barrier to hosting global events, the showcase has been designed to create a controlled microclimate over and around the football field, and other public spaces. Its design is focused on three key elements: passive energy-saving architecture; photovoltaics; and solar thermal cooling for summertime air conditioning load.

Now completed after a four-month build period, the structure features a revolving canopy roof which moves to provide cooling shade within the building and is thermally insulated. Remaining closed over the space until the sun has passed overhead, the shading roof can then be opened without letting the sunshine heat up the space.

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the roof may open to the sky. Under more adverse conditions, the canopy can be closed in the run-up to an event, allowing the system to cool down the closed air volume ready for match time, working at maximum efficiency. The developers emphasise that the surfaces of the showcase are also designed to remain cool throughout a match in order to help to stabilise the thermal gains from lights, the assembled spectators and so on.

A solar field outside the stadium is made up of both grid-connected photovoltaic panels and Fresnel-type reflectors. Together with generators using biofuels, the amount of electricity generated exceeds net imports for events over the year, making the facility zero carbon for electricity.

The solar thermal field, supplied by German engineering and manufacturing group Mirroxx GmbH, features single-axis tracking flat-plate mirrors which focus solar energy onto a water-filled Schott PTR® 70 vacuum absorber tube – heating the fluid, which is pressurised at 16 bar, to some 200˚C. With a total aperture area of 1400 m2, the collectors are rated at 700 kW, with Mirroxx claiming a maximum optical efficiency of 62%, based on DNI, and a peak performance of 500 W/m2. The system has modules that are 4 metres long and 8 metres wide with 11 primary mirror rows and uses toughened flat white glass mirrors and a polished aluminium secondary reflector. Arrayed in 32 metre-long sections, each of the individually-driven mirror rows features a 7 W electric drive motor.

Mirroxx’s Fresnel technology is a spin out from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) and the product was launched

five years ago, the Qatar installation being the largest demonstration of the collectors to date. High output temperatures from the design make the collector ideally suited to power absorption chillers, the company says.

Energy from the collector field is used to drive a double-effect lithium bromide absorption chiller supplied by Thermax Absorption Cooling, headquartered in Pune, India. Thermax Vapour Absorption Machines (VAMs) are designed to be driven by different heat sources and to offer a minimum outlet temperature of +5˚C.

The output is then stored in eutectic tanks beneath the showcase for use in the evening when it is circulated through air-handling units (AHUs) supplied by Desiccant Dry Air. Commissioned in the early summer of 2010, the UK company produced two 8-metre-long dual wheeled desiccant AHUs designed to control the very high temperature and humidity found at the site, with outside temperatures as high as 45˚C and relative humidity as high as 95%. The company’s engineers designed a high temperature, high pressure water system that would regenerate lithium bromide coolant for chilling the airflow. High pressure vessels were fabricated and pump sets designed and installed. These units supply chilled air to the area beneath the spectators’ seats, cooling the seating area and flowing down to the pitch to provide cooling for the players.

With the solar cooling system in operation, maximum temperatures are well below the guidelines set out by the FIFA medical committee to avoid players suffering significant heat stress and also beat the ASHRAE comfort standards for spectators, its designers say.

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FANNING THE FLAMES OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENTRecent research sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and conducted by the Fraunhofer ISE and others found that in the near term, small concentrating solar collector systems can significantly contribute to sustainable development goals. Such small and medium-scale solar thermal power stations generate heat at temperatures up to 400˚C and can generate electricity, cooling and industrial process heat. Dr Werner J. Platzer, department head at Fraunhofer ISE observed: ‘Small is beautiful – and most of all fast. Systems ranging from 20 kW up to 2 MW can be more easily realised and they offer greater possibilities.’

‘For regional applications, the technology is economical where

there is a large fraction of direct sunlight. For off-grid applications or for applications where the provision from the grid is unreliable, this technology is more cost-effective than employing a diesel generator,’ said Platzer.

‘Air-conditioning could also be an important application. Over 40 million new air-conditioning units are sold worldwide annually and the tendency is increasing. Up to now, this potential application has not been used because market-ready products and demonstration projects that serve as role models are still needed,’ he added.

The Qatar 2022 Showcase appears to have delivered at least one more role model. During the FIFA visit, with an outside temperature at 44˚C only two hours earlier, the pitch was recorded as 23˚C. If Qatar wins through against the other bids for the FIFA 2022 – including Australia, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the USA – then it will surely serve as a role model for large scale solar thermal cooling too. The FIFA Executive Committee, chaired by President Joseph S. Blatter, is due to vote on the winning bidder by secret ballot as REW goes to press.

David Appleyard is chief editor of Renewable Energy World magazine.



The showcase stadium’s collector field GEM ADVERTISING AND PUBLICATIONS


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SCOTLAND PLANS LARGEST EVERANAEROBIC DIGESTOR

BIOMASS: ANAEROBIC DIGESTION

AN INSPIRATION FOR SMALLER CONTRACTORS

With UK landfill taxes set to rise in April 2011, as the emphasis grows on recycling and recovery, while new incentives

encourage renewable energy from waste, and innovative new technologies come on stream, the opportunities for small and medium-sized contractors have never been greater.

Nowhere is this truer than in the area of commercial and industrial biomass wastes, where the volumes being generated in the UK are four to five times higher than municipal solid waste. And nowhere

are the commercial and environmental pressures greater than in Scotland, where the recycling targets are the highest in Europe.

So the recent news that planning permission has been given for Scotland’s largest ever anaerobic digestion facility, capable of handling around 105,000 tonnes of biomass a year, should be a real inspiration for smaller contractors looking to diversify into new resource streams and to take advantage of a whole new market.

Led by Banks Developments in partnership with recycling firm Scotwaste, the anaerobic digestion (AD) plant will be built as part of a £70 million (US$111 million) facility at Pond Green Energy Park near Bathgate, in between Scotland’s two largest cities, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The facility as a whole will have a design capacity of 200,000 tonnes/year. Although the waste input will mainly be commercial, the site is well suited to serve the West Lothian municipal waste in addition to existing Scotwaste inputs. It will also generate enough

An anaerobic digester in central Scotland which will be able to handle up to 105,000 tonnes of mainly commercial waste each year is now under development. The site will serve densely populated local areas and produce biogas to fuel an on-site combined heat and power plant, writes Daniel Leaver.

An operational AD plant in the UKWARDELL-ARMSTRONG


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BIOMASS: ANAEROBIC DIGESTION

electricity to power more than 7000 homes and enough heat to serve the equivalent of 9000 homes.

The location is well placed to serve densely populated areas that generate large volumes of organic waste. The site is jointly owned by Scotwaste and Banks Developments.

However, AD is relatively new in the UK – although there are around 30 plants at various stages of development, only three are operational and of a similar scale to the proposed Pond site.

AD: DESIGN FOR LIFEWardell Armstrong, an engineering and environmental consultancy, was called in by Banks Developments to provide early input on energy from waste, to advise on the various technological options for anaerobic digestion, and to prepare a financial model for the proposed facility. The firm was also briefed to carry out the design of the facility.

The anaerobic digestion system at Pond will use a two stage process in order to maximise control of the bacterial communities. Before reaching one of the three large anaerobic digestion tanks the slurry is treated in the buffer and hydrolysis tanks which act as a buffer between the ‘raw’ slurry and the digestion tanks in two ways. Firstly, they allow for the quality of waste passing through the digestion tanks to be accurately controlled to ensure the most efficient treatment of the slurry. Secondly, they have the effect of homogenising the chemical attributes of the incoming feedstock providing a natural balance for PH and other variables.

The prepared slurry is then pressurised, by retention for a minimum of one hour at 70°C, in order to immobilise pathogens and active seeds. Through the use of air coolers the temperature of the slurry is then reduced to 37°C to meet the requirements of the digesters. Once the correct temperature has been achieved the slurry is pumped into the digestion/fermentation tanks for anaerobic digestion. In order to prevent heavier sludge from settling and to maintain consistency, the digester is also equipped with a slowly rotating agitator.

The addition of fresh slurry into the bio-reactor and the simultaneous draining of the fermented liquid is a continuous process. Once in the reactor the slurry remains there for approximately 15-

20 days. This is how long it takes to form a stable post-formation digestate material. Once the organic fraction has worked its way through the digestion tanks it passes into the strip tank to undergo aeration which effectively terminates the anaerobic digestion process and prevents the formation of biogas in the following stages.

The generated gas is transported into a low pressure gas storage facility via filters suitable for drying and purification – preventing them from being released to atmosphere and holding them ready for use in powering a combined heat and power plant on the site.

The remaining, non-digestible material which the bacteria cannot feed upon, along with any dead bacterial remains constitutes the solid digestate.

This digestate is dewatered and then heat dried to produce a stabilised odourless organic material.

Air quality assessment is also essential to ensure that emissions from the stack would be suitably dispersed.

‘This development drives us firmly forward into the twenty-first century,’ said Scotwaste director Stewart Melrose. ‘As a local business and employer we’ve built up a good customer base and a good reputation, but we wanted to go much further by using new technology to convert the waste streams in the area into a sustainable resource.’

Colin Anderson, managing director of Banks Property Development, said: ‘We hope to start construction during 2011, with the facility coming on line in 2012.’

Daniel Leaver is the senior waste & resource manager at Wardell Armstrong


This article is available on-line. To comment on it or forward it to a colleague, visit www.RenewableEnergyWorld.com

However, AD is relatively new in the UKalthough there are around 30 plantsat various stages of development, onlythree are operational

MORE UK ENERGYFROM BIO WASTEDEVELOPMENTSSterecycle, the waste treatment and renewable power company, has recently been awarded planning permission by Essex County Council to develop a waste recycling and biomass Combined Heat and Power facility at Harlow in Essex.

The development will treat up to 240,000 tonnes per annum of municipal household and commercial waste from the local area.

Sterecycle Harlow will be developed to house the biomass CHP plant which will be used to generate electricity for export to the grid. The company is also expanding its facility in Rotherham, South Yorkshire in response to increasing demand from local authorities and commercial customers, it says. This development has planning permission to double the current capacity of 100,000 tonnes annually and construction is expected to be complete in mid-2011.

Meanwhile, one of the UK’s largest wood recyclers Growing Beds Recycling Services is to build a 2.6 MW biomass-fired power station, situated in a disused 1960s Ministry of Defence research and development building in Thurleigh, Bedfordshire. This project is also due for completion during summer 2011.

Under the terms of a joint venture agreement with waste to energy company Bioflame, specialist renewable energy investors the Ventus Venture Capital Trust Funds and B & W Waste Management Services, Growing Beds will divert 30,000 tonnes of low-grade wood waste as feedstock for Twinwoods Heat and Power Limited’s (THPL) system.

THPL has signed a contract with a supermarket giant, which will purchase the energy output under the terms of a long term contract.


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Company Results

Solar shines on while wind blows hot & cold

The jury is still out on whether signs of economic recovery are a ‘blip’ or represent underlying confidence. Energy companies are,

however, showing remarkable resilience, as REW’s round-up of the latest earnings postings reveals.

Warnings of a ‘double-dip’ recession in the US and elsewhere, notably the UK, have done little to undermine confidence in the renewables sector. Venture capital investment in cleantech companies, according to analysis firm Ernst & Young, topped US$1.5 billion in the second quarter of the year. Industry observers are keen to see if the momentum can be maintained for the remainder of the year.

E&Y reports that some 65 financing rounds for the period saw a 63.8% increase in capital and a 4.6% increase in deals compared with the same quarter in 2009 (Dow Jones VentureSource). The figures represent the highest level of venture funding for cleantech since Q3 2008.

Solar projects were among those receiving higher investment than previously, and made up five of the top-10 VC deals with $438.8 million in investment, a rise of 182.6% from Q2 2009. BrightSource Energy, a developer of utility-scale solar thermal energy plants, received the second-largest deal of the quarter, a $180 million later-stage round.

Earlier this year the US Department of Energy conditionally committed to provide $1.37 billion in loan guarantees to support the financing of the company’s Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. The 392 MW Ivanpah project, which was given the green light by the California Energy Commission in August, will be the first large-scale solar thermal project built in the state in nearly two decades.

Elsewhere, there is no shortage of companies putting on a brave face, however adverse the wider market conditions. SunEdison, a leading solar energy services provider, has announced an agreement with J P Morgan Capital to fund an estimated $60 million in project financing for deployments across key markets in the US.

The J P Morgan commitment will be funded through SunE Solar Fund and used to help fund solar installations for both commercial and government projects. It is the first distributed generation solar programme in which J P Morgan has been involved. Meanwhile, SunEdison confirmed that Bank of America Merrill Lynch has committed to financing the final two phases of its 17.3 MW solar farm project in Davidson County, North Carolina. The solar farm is being deployed through solar power purchase agreements between Duke Energy Carolinas and SunEdison. The solar farm will be expected to generate more than 510 GWh of energy over a 20-year period.

Yet despite these successes, companies with particular exposure to the North American markets will take little comfort from the failure of the US Senate’s proposed energy bill to include a Federal Renewable Energy Standard (RES) provision. The expiry of the treasury grant programme after 2010 means that renewable

energy projects will lack any real effective incentive mechanism. Accordingly, the US has fallen from the top spot of E&Y’s renewable energy country attractiveness indices, a position it has held since 2006, allowing China to take the crown. For more on the latest E&Y investment attractiveness index see the News and Analysis section starting on page 9.

YINGLI GREEN ENERGY Yingli Green Energy, also known as Yingli Solar, is one of the world›s largest vertically integrated photovoltaic manufacturers, recently reported its unaudited consolidated financial results for the quarter ended 30 September, which saw total net revenues of RMB3.284 billion ($490.9 million), an on-quarter increase of 21.7%, and a gross profit of RMB1.094 billion ($163.3 million) – giving a gross margin of 33.3%. Gross profit in Q3 was up 20.9% on Q2, while the gross margin saw a minor downtick from the previous 33.5%.

Operating income for the three month period was RMB735.8 million ($110 million), up 30.1% on the previous quarter and 203% up from the same period in 2009. Its Q3 operating margin was 22.4%, a 20.9% increase on Q2 and 10.9% growth against Q3 2009, said the company.

Net income closed the quarter at RMB456.1 million ($68.2 million) while its diluted earnings per ordinary share and per American depositary share value was RMB3.57/share ($0.53/share).

Announcing the results, chairman and CEO of Yingli, Liansheng Miao, said: ‘The third quarter was another exciting period for us with strong operating results. PV module shipment volume increased by 25.2% from the second quarter and [the] gross margin was 33.3%, higher than our previous estimation in the range of 31%–31%.’

Continuing, he said: ‘The demand for our Yingli Solar modules continues to grow rapidly in the global market.’

The CEO said there had been a 25.2% on-quarter increase in PV module shipments in Q3 which he also attributed to ‘broader recognition of our premium brand, supported by the expanded manufacturing capacity from the new 400 MW production lines’.

‘As of today, we have entered into sales contracts under which a total of 721 MW of PV modules are expected to be delivered in 2011, and this figure is expected to increase to 1000 MW by the end of this year.’

Continuing, Miao said: ‘In order to meet the growing market demand and increasing interest in our products, we have recently launched a total of 700 MW of new capacity expansion projects, which are expected to start initial production in the middle of 2011 and increase our nameplate capacity to 1.7 GW in late 2011.’

‘To support the financing needs of the fast expansion I’m delighted that through one of our operating subsidiaries in China, we have become the first China-based solar company to have completed a successful registration of [RMB] 2.4 billion and [the]


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Company Results

issuance of [RMB] 1 billion [of] medium-term notes on the PRC inter-bank debenture market,’ he added. ‘We have always been committed to bringing state-of-the-art technology to our customers to drive down their balance-of-system cost,’ he said.

‘Our Panda cell conversion efficiency has achieved 18.5% on the commercial production lines and we expect to increase the figure to 20% towards 2012. Currently we have achieved a new record cell efficiency of 19.5% on Panda trial production lines with third party verification from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy System ISE in Germany.

SOLAR MILLENNIUM Solar Millennium recently released its interim results and earnings forecast for the full year, adjusted to take account of a relatively weak position in the first half of 2010. The company recorded sales of €37.1 million ($51.6 million) for the period 1 November 2009 to 30 June 2010, compared with €48.5 million the previous year.

Solar Millennium said that although the interim results fall short of the previous year’s respective performance, it had reached important milestones in the current fiscal year. The approval process for power plant projects in the US, in particular, was on schedule, it said. However these achievements were not be shown in the interim financial statements as they could only be recognised in the balance sheet after an approval phase was completed, said the company. Its executive board said it still plans to generate respective sales and earnings in the current fiscal year with both the US projects and Ibersol.

Sales in the first eight months of the current fiscal year were largely generated in its technology and power plant construction sectors for the Andasol 3 parabolic trough power plant in southern Spain and through the work being finished for the Egyptian hybrid power plant in Kuraymat, as well as in its project development sector. The negative interim result was attributible to one-time charges in connection with former CEO Utz Claassen’s signing fee as well as to consistently high pre-investments in projects and the company’s growth, particularly in the US, it said.

GAMESAIn the recent publication of both its third-quarter and year-to-date results covering January through September, Spahish engineering group Gamesa reported a strong recovery in orders in Q3 with 1186 MW of firm orders placed – split into 584 MW for delivery this year, and 602 MW for delivery in 2011. However, despite this late upturn its nine-month net income slipped by almost 71% to €25 million from the €86 million reported in the same period of 2009. The value of sales for the same period also tumbled, this time by almost 28% dropping to €1.786 billion from the previous €2.478 billion. But the company still claims to have a strong balance sheet position and ‘sound profitability’ in what it described as a ‘highly competitive market’. The company’s wind turbine division reported a 5.4% EBIT margin and a 58% annual increase in O&M service sales – reaching €227 million in the nine month period. For Q3 the figure was 39% up year-on-year. Net debt at the company

also dropped year-on-year by more than €400 million to €297 million at the end of September.

In its outlook, the company said it was ‘steadily moving forward’ and the results showed it has achieved financial soundness and profitable delivery in the periods concerned. At the same time it also launched its 2011–2013 business plan, which it said would strengthen the company’s industry leadership in three ways – cost of energy, growth, and efficiency.

Capital expenditure in the period will amount to €250 million/year with no need to resort to the capital markets, while offshore activities will account for 20% of total capex, it said. The company also plans to double the amount of installed capacity under maintenance by its services arm within three years to 24 GW.

With an eye on reorganising its manufacturing arm to boost its footprint in growth markets such as China, India, Brazil and the US, the company plans to reduce its exposure to the Spanish market by halving current capacity.

Those active in the wind sector continue to cast their net to the East to grow market share and Gamesa, too, has obtained new contracts in China to supply 197 turbines with a combined capacity of 251 MW. Gamesa’s wind turbine division signed the contracts with two of its largest customers in China, Guangdong Nuclear Wind Power and Datang Renewable Power, and a new customer, Henan Weite Wind Power, a mid-sized independent power producer. The deals underscore Gamesa’s commercial strategy for expanding into new markets and customer segments.

Gamesa will supply Guangdong with a total of 48 of its G90 2 MW turbines, representing a combined capacity of 96 MW. The agreement with Datang Renewable Power covers 25 Gamesa 2 MW turbines, with a combined capacity of 50 MW, supplied to the Chinese power company’s wind farms in Liaoning Province.

In addition, Gamesa will supply Henan Weite Wind Power with 124 of its G58-850 kW turbines, for a combined capacity of 105 MW. The turbines are destined for the Henan Weite Wind Power Project, which is being funded by a China Climate Change framework loan from the European Investment Bank, and which will have an annual capacity of 200 GWh and will allow the Chinese company

Gamesa’s share price over the last 12 months, in €


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Company Results


to meet the renewable energy generation targets stipulated in its five-year plan.

VESTASVestas’ October-published third-quarter and year-to-date financials were never going to be easily digested because, like many other majors in the sector, it has faced and continues to face a dip in European demand as well as ever-increasing competition and pricing pressure from newcomers, particularly in Asia. Put simply, this giant of the global wind energy market said it plans to stay on track – both financially and in terms of maintaining and growing its market share – by cutting its manufacturing capacity through the closure of five of its sites, four in Demark and one in Sweden, in a move that will see a workforce reduction of approximately 3000.

Speaking from Copenhagen, rather than from New York, as had been planned before the announcement of the job cull, Ditlev Engel, president and CEO, described the market situation as ‘challenging’.

‘The situation that we experience is unfortunately at a level where we have to reduce our expectation of European demand compared to what we thought a while back,’ he said.

‘At the same time we definitely also see, on a global level, that competition is increasing. But I would also like to stress that Vestas is more than ready to handle this situation.’

Consultations with those set to lose their jobs was to begin immediately and was expected, he said, to be completed by November 2011.

‘We have to be very certain that Vestas’ competitiveness is being increased in the years to come, making sure that we can provide the lowest cost of energy to our customers,’ he said.

‘This obviously does not just come from the development of technology but definitely also from the fact that we have to make sure that the turbines are manufactured at the most cost-competitive level that one can imagine. Otherwise it would, of course, be very difficult for Vestas in the years to come to win, let’s say, in this industry – which we intend to do.’

In the Q3 report the company said its 2010 guidance, before one-off costs, remains intact, and that it has an order intake of 7–8 GW for 2011 as well as a positive free cash flow for the year ahead. ‘Value proposition pays off,’ said Engel.

The income statement showed perhaps why its austerity drive had come to the fore, as almost across the board the year-on-year

quarterlies and nine-month numbers showed a fall. Third-quarter EBIT was €185 million from €244 million in Q3 2009. Nine-month to end-September figures swung to a loss of €59 million from a profit of €398 a year earlier.

The picture was similar when broken down specifically into profit both before and after tax in which the third quarter fell to €175 million from €229 million in the same period of last year, and €126 million from €165 million in Q3 2009, respectively.

The nine-month to end-September before and after tax figures show more dramtic swings, closing at a loss before tax of €104 million from a profit of €366 million in the same period of 2009. After-tax profit was wiped out, coming in at a loss of €75 million from a figure of €264 million in the black in the same nine month period in 2009.

Gross profit for the nine month period was down 45% on year at €451 million from the previous year’s €816 million. For the third quarter the fall was decidely more subdued at 4% with a showing of €363 million against Q3 2009’s €377 million. The EBIT margin fell for the quarter and closed out at 0.7%, well down from the previous figure of 13.5%. But on the positive, the company’s gross margin for Q3 was up by 0.3% on year to 21.1% from the previous 20.8%.

However, its net debt had fallen on quarter by €169 million by the end of Q3. Its net working capital, on year at the end of Q3, was down 15%, said the company, at €1.92 billion as of 30 September from €2.25 billion as of the same date in 2009. But its cash flow was up to €300 million by end-September from €291 million a year earlier.

In terms of orders, the company said it is ‘on track’ for the 8–9 GW estimated for full year 2010, with 6.567 GW of orders in hand by end-September.

The regional distribution of where orders are placed from has been maintained, said the company, with the Asia-Pacific region almost dead on target for its full year estimate, although the Americas and Europe have some way to go in the final three months of the year to meet forecasts.

The company described its decision not to cut manufacturing capacity earlier in the year as a wrong decision from a financial point of view. However it was the view of the company’s management that the decision to hold off on the cuts was the right one.

Vestas said 2010 had been an extremely tough year and that in 2011 it would face fierce competition. Furthermore, the company

added that 2011 will bring with it a number of weak demand drivers in Europe.

Low economic growth, low demand for energy, modest short-term political possibilities due to changes in fiscal agendas and uncertain project approval processes would result in lower than expected demand in Europe next year.

The firm’s solution would be, according to the report, to align its capacity and costs to 2011 demands. The report added that, no matter where the company sells its products, it would have to be competitve. In conclusion, it said fierce competition in the market would be answered by its global presence.Vestas’ share price over the last 12 months, shown in DKK


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SEAENERGYThe marine energy specialist also recently published its six-month results for the period ending 30 June. Operational highlights included a start to offshore activity on the company’s UK Round 3 Zone 1 site in Scotland’s Moray Firth. Geophysical, met-ocean and bird surveys for the site all got underway during the period and a consent application along with an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is due for submission in 2012.

The company said arrangements with UK’s Crown Estate to advance the Inch Cape project off Scotland’s eastern coast were close to being concluded and, importantly, had allowed offshore work to commence. Work on the Beatrice Offshore Wind Farm in Scottish territorial waters had also progressed well during the period with geophysical survey work completed and geotechnical work on the site set to commence shortly.

Elsewhere, it signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Nantong COSCO Ship Steel Structure Co, a subsidiary of China’s COSCO Group.

The company reported a loss from continuing operations after tax of £4.2 million ($6.6 million) for the first six months of 2010 compared with £2.5 million for the same period in 2009.

Group cash balances at stood at £1 million as of 30 June against a figure of £1.8 million for the same period of 2009. The company also reported that a financing agreement with LC Capital Master Fund had been extended until the earlier of 31 December 2010 or the completion of the SERL sale process.

On the current status of its divestment of SERL, which is being coordinated by Ernst & Young, it said it was progressing well and that its board had been encouraged by the level of interest shown to date. Further announcements concerning the sale would be released in due course, it added.

SeaEnergy executive chairman Steve Remp said he expected the sale process to be complete by the end of the year, after which the company would refocus its attention on opportunities elsewhere

in the business.‘We believe the supply chain and service industry

for offshore wind farms will be a rapidly growing and profitable sector and our marine team has done a terrific job over the past year in developing a business model surrounding turbine access and servicing,’ he said.

‘We now look toward generating orders, and ultimately cash flow, by providing the solution to what we believe is a key issue for offshore wind constructors and operators.’

OTHER RESULTS IN BRIEFOcean Power Technologies’ recently published its financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal year, which ended 31 July, revealed its contract order backlog had increased to $6.5 million compared with $5.7 million as of 20 April, and $6.4 million as of 31 July, 2009.

Revenue grew by 5% to $1.4 million for the quarter, compared with $1.3 million for the same period in 2009. In addition it reported cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and marketable securities of $60.8 million as 31 July

against 30 April’s $66.8 million.Operating loss for the three months ended 31 July was

$6.3 million compared with $3.2 million for the same period in 2009. Net loss attributable to OPT was $6.3 million for the quarter against $2.1 million in the same period of the previous year. The increases in fiscal 2011 operating loss and net loss attributable to OPT were primarily due to costs incurred in its product development programmes, principally for the PB150 system, it said.

In October the US Navy awarded $2.75 million in additional funding to OPT for a second stage under its existing contract to provide an autonomous PowerBuoy wave energy conversion system for the Navy’s near-coast maritime surveillance programme.

Meanwhile, Acta, the clean energy products company, announced its interim results for the six months ended 30 June, with an increased operating loss of €2.4 million ($3.2 million) from €1.3 million the previous year reflecting, said the company, an increase in commercial and production activities, including materials, staff resources, operating expenses.

Despite this, the company said it had benefited from the rapid exploitation of the highly favourable, cash-generative Italian solar photovoltaic market.

During the reporting period the company’s hydrogen generator won the prestigious Qualitec Technology Award for innovation and CE certification and it also launched its so-called hydrogen village in Viareggio, Italy, in which its integrated PV panels, a hydrogen generator and fuel-cell powered bikes and boats feature. Furthermore it received a €780,000 grant award from the Tuscan regional government to develop a wind power storage system.

Chris Webb is a correspondent for Renewable Energy World magazine. Additional reporting by David Beattie.



Company Results

SeaEnergy’s share price over the last 12 months

Seaenergy’s share price over the last 12 months, shown in £


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THE LASTWORD

A recent study by Oracle Utilities reveals that organisations in the EMEA region are making progress towards the adoption of smart grids and smart meters. Nonetheless, argues Bastian Fischer, utilities are yet to fully understand or appreciate the potential benefits that the technology can offer for the increased use of renewable energy.

DEVELOPING THE SMART GRID

Utilities could find smart grid technology offers a useful tool in cutting carbon emissions

Global warming and the effect of carbon dioxide emissions on the environment is of growing concern to countries worldwide, so

much so that the EU has pledged that by 2020 one fifth of the region’s energy will come from renewable energy sources. In response to this, many countries have introduced targets to reduce energy use.

In the UK, for example, this comes in the form of the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme which was introduced in April 2010, and requires companies to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.

As well as this, the European Union has launched the Emissions Trading Scheme, which calls for large emitters of CO² to monitor and annually report their CO² emissions. Through the initiative, the ETS pledges to cut CO² emissions by 34% below 1990 levels by 2020.

There is undoubtedly increasing pressure on organisations and countries to become greener. One of the biggest contributors to CO² emissions is the electric utility industry, accounting for a quarter of all carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, the largest share amongst all industries. For this reason, utilities are faced with the added pressure of curbing both their own and their customers’ energy use. One way this can be achieved is through the successful implementation of smart grid infrastructures.

Smart grids deliver a series of benefits to utilities which can help in

the reduction of carbon emissions, including the capability of managing distribution grids more effectively in order to create fewer emissions. What is more, the technology enables utilities to integrate renewable energies, such as wind, water and solar, into the grid. This means that sources of power from high carbon emitting energy sources, such as fossil fuels, can more effectively be substituted with renewable energies in an effort to reduce emissions, and consequently help meet EU targets.

However, despite the many benefits of the smart grid, a recent study conducted by Oracle Utilities, titled ‘The EMEA Smart Grid Rollout’, found that, while over a third of utilities across the region have made progress towards the adoption of smart grids and smart meters, the vast majority of utilities do not realise the full capabilities it delivers.

Addressing the lack of awarenessThis lack of understanding around the technology is evident in utilities’ awareness of the use of renewable energy within the smart grid. The study found that only 6% of utilities questioned across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) consider increasing their level of renewable generation as a top priority over the next five years. What is perhaps more surprising is that some utilities surveyed across the region, including utilities from France, Greece and the UK, do not consider it to be one of their top three priorities.

One country that does place significant importance on the capabilities


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of integrating renewable energy sources into the smart grid however, is Turkey, with 100% of Turkish utilities surveyed considering it as their top priority over the next five years.

This can be attributed to the prediction that energy use within Turkey is expected to double over the coming decade, with the demand for electricity likely to increase even faster. Furthermore, Turkey aims to increase its renewable energy resources in electricity by 30% by 2023 to meet the increasing demands placed on its grid. With this in mind, it is hardly surprising that the country’s utilities place so much importance on the benefits the smart grid brings in regards to renewable energy.

While many countries may not currently consider the smart grid’s capabilities to integrate renewable energy into the grid as one of their top priorities, what is promising, as found in the report, is that two thirds of utilities surveyed do have plans to evolve their grids in order to support the technology and the subsequent level of renewable generation.

In fact, four fifths of German utilities surveyed have already started, or have plans to evolve their systems so that they are capable of supporting the smart grid. This is not only good news for utilities across Germany, but also for those across Europe. According to DENA, the German Energy Agency and adviser to the German government, Germany is faced with a unique problem in that it is currently producing too much solar power during the summer months. Feeding too much solar power into the grid could cause instability within the current infrastructure and lead to further problems. However, the implementation of smart grids can help tackle this problem. Smart grids enable the power gathered from the solar source to be retained in energy storage systems which can then feed into the grid during periods of peak demand, or when other renewable energy sources are low.

Furthermore, the smart grid can play an important role as countries across the EU formally draw up plans to link their clean energy projects around the North Sea in the form of a giant universal grid, being labelled as a ‘supergrid’.

One criticism of renewable power has always been that due to unpredictable weather patterns it is unreliable. However, with a supergrid in place, Germany could distribute the excess solar power it generates to members of the supergrid who are not generating enough solar power during the summer months, while during the winter months, when solar energy is low, it could source its renewable energy from wind turbines off the Scottish coast.

It is clear to see that the smart grid provides many benefits in regards to renewable energy, yet ‘The EMEA Smart Grid Rollout’ found that only half of utilities surveyed across the region have a system in place to educate their customers on the environmental benefits of the technology. For utilities to get the most out of the technology in order to reduce their own and their customers’ carbon emissions, utilities must increase their knowledge of the benefits of the grid and smart meters, which they can then pass on to their customers. The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK are already well on the way to doing this with 100% of utilities surveyed, from the respective countries, having in place a communications programme to educate their customers about the environmental benefits of the smart grid.

However, in order to successfully implement a smart grid infrastructure

and reap the full benefits of the capabilities available, utilities must take it upon themselves to leverage the tools that enable them to extract intelligence and manage data created by smart meters. One such software application is meter data management (MDM), a key component of the smart grid platform. MDM allows utilities to manage the vast quantity of data gathered from smart meter deployments helping turn the data into actionable intelligence, enabling utilities to improve service by accurately responding to the demands placed on the grid. For instance, MDM allows utilities to see when power is in peak demand, meaning they can feed more energy from renewable sources into the grid to meet customer demand.

Another technological innovation that can enable utilities to manage data volumes more efficiently is a customer information system (CIS), which is an enterprise-wide software application that allows companies

to manage every aspect of their relationship with a customer. The system helps turn customer satisfaction into customer loyalty. Therefore, an effective CIS could play a crucial role in allowing utilities to educate their customers on the environmental benefits of the smart grid.

Furthermore, an intelligent CIS delivers additional benefits, especially when supported by a smart grid infrastructure. For instance, it can enable better forecasting and management of the energy demands placed on the grid. Moreover, the solution is able to provide optimisation capabilities that can determine the best mix of energy and resources required to handle changing voltage requirements within certain areas. Consequently, a CIS could not only play an important role in educating customers of the renewable benefits of the smart grid, but it also enables utilities to provide the best mix of energy needed to satisfy the demands placed on the grid.

Smartening upAs pressure grows on various organisations and countries around the world it is increasingly important that utilities begin to realise the full benefits of the smart grid, especially its capabilities to integrate renewable sources. Similarly, as alternative sources of energy begin to run low, it will be crucial for utilities to have in place a system that enables them to input renewable energy into the grid.

Smart grids will be critical in helping utilities meet the various regulatory demands placed on them in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and integrate renewable sources, as well as helping them cope with the increasing power demands of growing populations and improved infrastructures across the globe. Renewable energy can play a crucial role in helping utilities meet these demands, and the smart grid can play a vital role in making it a reality.

Bastian Fischer is vice president and general manager of Oracle Utilities, EMEA



THE LAST WORD: RENEWABLE ENERGY IN THE SMART GRID


What is more, the technology enables utilities to integrate renewable energies,such as wind, water and solar, into the grid

Utilities are faced with the added pressureof curbing both their own and theircustomers' energy use

TD


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DIARYSend details of your event to: Renewable Energy World [email protected]

2010

POWER-GEN InternationalOrlando, Florida, USA 14–16 December 2010PennWell Corporation, Stephanie Moore, 1421 S. Sheridan Road, Tulsa, OK 74112, USA Tel: +1 918 832 9382Fax: +1 918 831 9729e-mail: [email protected]: www.power-gen.com

Intersolar IndiaMumbai, India14–16 December 2010Solar Promotion International GmbH, Diana Döppe, Kiehnlestrasse 16, 75172 Pforzheim, GermanyTel: +49 7231 5859 822Fax: +49 7231 5859 828e-mail: [email protected] web: www.intersolar.in

2011

World Future Energy SummitAbu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates17–20 January 2011Reed Exhibitions, Kelly King, P.O. Box 60799, Abu Dhabi, United Arab EmiratesTel: +971 2 409 0442e-mail: [email protected] web: www.worldfutureenergysummit.com

EPIA 2nd International Conference on PV Module RecyclingMadrid, Spain25 January 2011 The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), Pietro Caloprisco, Renewable Energy House, Rue d’Arlon 63-67, 1040 Brussels, BelgiumTel: +32 2 400 10 42e-mail: [email protected]: www.epia.org

PHOTON’s Solar Terawatt-hours Conference Series 2011 USASan Francisco, California, USA16–17 February 2011PHOTON USA Corp., Moritz Dieck, 514 Bryant Street, CA, 94107 San Francisco, USATel: +49 241 4003 5103 Fax: +49 241 4003 5503e-mail: [email protected]: www.photon-expo.com

SNEC 5th International Photovoltaic Power Generation Conference & ExhibitionShanghai, China22–24 February 2011Shanghai New Energy Industry Association (SNEIA), Room 1008, 1525 West Zhongshan Road, Shanghai 200235, ChinaTel: +86 21 6438 0781 Fax: +86 21 6464 2653 e-mail: [email protected]: www.snec.org.cn

RenewableUK Wave & Tidal 2011London, UK2 March 2011 RenewableUK, Greencoat House, Francis Street, London, SW1P 1DH, UK Tel: +44 20 7901 3000Fax: +44 20 7901 3001e-mail: [email protected]: www.renewable-uk.com

World Sustainable Energy Days 2011 Wels, Austria2–4 March 2011 Christine Öhlinger, O.Oe. Energiesparverband, Landstrasse 45, 4020 Linz, AustriaTel: +43 732 7720 14380Fax: +43 732 7720 14383e-mail: [email protected]: www.wsed.at

Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo North America 2011Tampa, Florida, USA8–10 March 2011 PennWell Corporation, Stephanie Moore, 1421 S. Sheridan Road, Tulsa, OK 74112, USA Tel: +1 918 832 9382Fax: +1 918 831 9729 e-mail: [email protected] web: www.renewableenergyworld-events.com

Photovoltaics World Expo Tampa, Florida, USA8–10 March 2011 PennWell Corporation, Stephanie Moore, 1421 S. Sheridan Road, Tulsa, OK 74112, USA Tel: +1 918 832 9382Fax: +1 918 831 9729 e-mail: [email protected] web: www.pvworldevent.com

EWEA 2011Brussels, Belgium14–17 March 2011 European Wind Energy Association, Wind Power House, Rue d’Arlon 80, 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 2 213 18 00Fax: +32 2 213 18 90 e-mail: [email protected] web: www.ewea.org/annual2011

Intersolar China / SOLARCON China 2011 Shanghai, China15–17 March 2011Solar Promotion International GmbH, Ms Chi Zhang, Kiehnlestrasse 16, 75172 Pforzheim, Germany Tel: +49 7231 5859 8205Fax: +49 7231 5859 828e-mail: [email protected]: www.intersolar.asia

World Biofuels Markets 2011Rotterdam, The Netherlands22–24 March 2011 Green Thinking (Services) Ltd., Southbank House, Black Prince Road, Vauxhall, London, SE1 7SJ, UKTel: +44 207 099 0600e-mail: [email protected] web: www.worldbiofuelsmarkets.com

Russia Power 2011Moscow, Russian Federation 28–30 March 2011PennWell Corporation, Crispin Coulson, The Water Tower, Gunpowder Mill, Powdermill Lane, Waltham Abbey, Essex, EN9 1BN, UKTel: +44 1992 656 646Fax: +44 1992 656 700e-mail: [email protected]: www.russia-power.org

Hannover Messe Hannover, Germany4–8 April 2011Deutsche Messe, Messegelände, 30521 Hannover, GermanyTel: +49 511 89 0 Fax: +49 511 89 32626web: www.hannovermesse.de

PHOTON’s 7th Photovoltaic Technology Show Europe 2011Stuttgart, Germany 5–7 April 2011 PHOTON Europe GmbH, Jülicher Straße 376, 52070 Aachen, GermanyTel: +49 241 4003 109Fax: +49 241 4003 309e-mail: [email protected]: www.photon-expo.com

Wind Power India 2011Chennai, India7–9 April 2011 Global Wind Energy Council, Wind Power House, Rue d’Arlon 80, 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 2 213 1897 Fax: +32 2 213 1890e-mail: [email protected] web: www.windpowerindia.in

POWER-GEN India & Central AsiaNew Delhi, India5–7 May 2011PennWell Corporation, Sue McDermott, The Water Tower, Gunpowder Mill, Powdermill Lane, Waltham Abbey, Essex, EN9 1BN, UKTel: +44 1992 656 632 Fax: +44 1992 656 700 e-mail: [email protected] web: www.power-genindia.com

Renewable Energy World India Conference and ExpoNew Delhi, India5–7 May 2011PennWell Corporation, Lee Catania, The Water Tower, Gunpowder Mill, Powdermill Lane, Waltham Abbey, Essex, EN9 1BN, UKTel: +44 1992 656 647 Fax: +44 1992 656 700 e-mail: [email protected]: www.renewableenergyworldindia.com

6th AsiaSolar Photovoltaic Industry Exhibition and Forum 2011 Shanghai, China5–7 May 2011 Shanghai AiExpo Exhibition Services Co Ltd, 5F, No. 501 Guangyue Road, Shanghai, 200434, ChinaTel. +86 21 6592 9965Fax: +86 21 6528 2319e-mail: [email protected]: www.asiasolar.cc/en

Solar 2011Raleigh, North Carolina, USA16–21 May 2011American Solar Energy Society, 2400 Central Ave, Suite A, Boulder, Colorado 80301, USATel: +1 303 443 3130Fax: +1 303 443 3212e-mail: [email protected]: www.ases.org


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DIARY

All Energy 2011Aberdeen, UK18–19 May 2011All Energy Conference Management, Judith Patten, 34 Ellerker Gardens, Richmond, Surrey, TW10 6AA, UKTel: +44 208 241 1912Fax: +44 208 940 6211e-mail: [email protected]: www.all-energy.co.uk

WINDPOWER 2011Anaheim, California, USA22–25 May 2011American Wind Energy Association, 1101 14th Street, NW, 12th Floor, Washington, DC 20005, USATel: +1 202 383 2500Fax: +1 202 383 2505e-mail: [email protected] web: www.windpowerexpo.org

Sustainabilitylive 2011Birmingham, UK24–26 May 2011Faversham House Group, Sandra Bilz, Faversham House, 232a Addington Road, South Croydon, Surrey, CR2 8LE, UKTel: +44 20 8651 7106e-mail: [email protected] web: www.sustainabilitylive.com

POWER-GEN EuropeMilan, Italy7–9 June 2011PennWell Corporation, Crispin Coulson, The Water Tower, Gunpowder Mill, Powdermill Lane, Waltham Abbey, Essex, EN9 1BN, UKTel: +44 1992 656 646Fax: +44 1992 656 700e-mail: [email protected]: www.powergeneurope.com

Renewable Energy World Europe Conference and ExpoMilan, Italy7–9 June 2011PennWell Corporation, Dorothee Petereit, The Water Tower, Gunpowder Mill, Powdermill Lane, Waltham Abbey, Essex, EN9 1BN, UKTel: +44 1992 656 641 Fax: +44 1992 656 700e-mail: [email protected]: www.renewableenergyworld-europe.com

Intersolar 2011Munich, Germany8–10 June 2011 Solar Promotion GmbH, Kiehnlestrasse 16, 75172 Pforzheim, GermanyTel: +49 7231 58598 0Fax: +49 7231 58598 28e-mail: [email protected]: www.intersolar.de

Brazil Windpower 2011Rio de Janeiro, Brazil31 August – 2 September 2011Global Wind Energy Council, Wind Power House, Rue d’Arlon 80, 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 2 213 1898e-mail: [email protected] web: www.brazilwindpower.org

26th European PV Solar Energy Conference & ExhibitionHamburg, Germany5–9 September 2011WIP, Sylvensteinstr. 2, 81369 München, GermanyTel: +49 89 720 127 35Fax: +49 89 720 127 91e-mail: [email protected]: www.photovoltaic-conference.com

POWER-GEN Asia Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 27–29 September 2011PennWell Corporation, Neil Walker, The Water Tower, Gunpowder Mill, Powdermill Lane, Waltham Abbey, Essex, EN9 1BN, UK Tel: +44 1992 656 643Fax: +44 1992 656 700e-mail: [email protected] web: www.powergenasia.com

Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo Asia Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 27–29 September 2011PennWell Corporation, Neil Walker, The Water Tower, Gunpowder Mill, Powdermill Lane, Waltham Abbey, Essex, EN9 1BN, UK Tel: +44 1992 656 643Fax: +44 1992 656 700 e-mail: [email protected]: www.renewableenergyworld-asia.com

Solar Power International 2011Dallas, Texas, USA18–20 October 2011Solar Electric Power Association, 1220 19th Street, NW, Suite 401, Washington, DC, 20036, USATel: +1 202 857 0898Fax: +1 202 559 2035 e-mail: [email protected] web: www.solarpowerinternational.com

China Wind Power 2011Beijing, China19–21 October 2011 Global Wind Energy Council, Wind Power House, Rue d’Arlon 80, 1040 Brussels, Belgium Tel: +32 2 213 1898 Fax: +32 2 213 1890e-mail: [email protected] www.chinawind.org.cn

POWER-GEN Middle EastDoha, Qatar24–26 October 2011PennWell Corporation, Neil Walker, The Water Tower, Gunpowder Mill, Powdermill Lane, Waltham Abbey, Essex, EN9 1BN, UK Tel: +44 1992 656 643Fax: +44 1992 656 700e-mail: [email protected]: www.power-gen-middleeast.com

RenewableUK 2011 Annual Conference and Exhibition Manchester, UK25–27 October 2011 RenewableUK, Greencoat House, Francis Street, London, SW1P 1DH, UK Tel: +44 20 7901 3000Fax: +44 20 7901 3001e-mail: [email protected]: www.renewable-uk.com

Advertisers’ indexBEIJING SUNDA SOLAR ENERGY TECH 68

CG HOLDINGS BELGIUM NV REGISTERED

OFFICE 8

CIB SOLAR LTD 69

CONTITECH AG 35

DRESSER-RAND 7

EWEA 15

GEBR SCHMID GMBH CO 43

GEMS INTERNATIONAL NV 13

HANSEN TRANSMISSIONS

INTERNATIONAL NV 49

HUBER SUHNER AG 59

HYUNDAI HEAVY INDUSTRIES CO LTD 5

INGETEAM SA 11

INTERSOLAR EUROPE 2011 38

JIANGSU LINYANG SOLARFUN CO LTD 41

MASDAR IFC

MMI ASIA PTE LTD 21

MOOG 37

NORDEX SE 33

NRG SYSTEMS INC 1

PENNENERGY JOBS 69

PENNWELL CORPORATION 21

PRYSMIAN CABLES

& SYSTEMS LIMITED 17

Q CELLS AG 22

RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLD EUROPE

2011 19

RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLD INDIA 2011 57

RENEWABLE ENERGY WORLD NORTH

AMERICA 2011 78

REPOWER SYSTEMS AG 46

RES – RENEWABLE ENERGY

SYSTEMS LTD 2

SEMIKRON INTERNATIONAL GMBH 51

SOVELLO AG 45

SPUTNIK ENGINEERING 54, IBC

SUNGROW POWER SUPPLY CO LTD 58

THE SWITCH 30

TRANSFOR S.A. 53

TSINGHUA SOLAR 67

UNDERWRITERS LABORATORIES

INTERNATIONAL GERMANY GMBH OBC

UPSOLAR EUROPE SAS 61

WPD THINK ENERGY GMBH & CO KG 52


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Renewable Energy World Magazine - December 2010