Chinese Banks Back $10 Billion Bid to Build Solar Energy Plants in Europe

Two Chinese banks are providing as much as $10 billion in funding to a group of three Chinese makers of solar equipment to build sun-powered energy projects in Europe.

China Merchants Bank Co. and the state-owned China Development Bank Corp. are backing the efforts of Goldpoly New Energy Holdings Ltd., TBEA SunOasis Co. and China Technology Development Group Corp. (CTDC) to expand in Europe, CTDC said in a statement.

The solar companies say their goals align with the Chinese government’s policies on promoting renewable energy, and that the German government’s plans to abandon nuclear power by 2022 will drive up demand for solar energy in the region.

“We feel confident that we will be leading the next golden decade of solar energy development,” Tim Yiu, executive director and general manager of the solar energy business of Goldpoly, a solar cell maker based in Jinjiang in China’s Fujian Province, said in the statement.

The three companies plan to use modules produced with their own components, including polysilicon, wafers, cells and inverters, according to the statement. They expect to initially develop small projects and then move on to larger ones.

“Our PV investment consortium has strong financial support from China Development Bank and China Merchants Bank,” said Jianxin Zhang, chief executive officer of TBEA SunOasis, based in Urumqi. “Given their backing of $10 billion credit facilities, we will be able to grow steadily and advance our investment and construction of solar plants in Europe.”

State Support

An exact timeline and breakdown of the financing wasn’t disclosed. Lending by China Development Bank for clean energy projects exceeded $35.5 billion last year, according to a February report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

China Development Bank has loaned to other Chinese solar power equipment makers, including more than $26 billion to LDK Solar Co., Trina Solar Ltd. (TSL), Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., Suntech Power Holdings Co. and JA Solar Holdings Co., according to data compiled by the London-based researcher.

The three solar makers said this is the first time three listed Chinese companies have formed such a group, and the funding will provide a new avenue to sell their own products.

Other solar companies have purchased development companies to ensure demand for their products. SunPower Corp. (SPWRA), a U.S. maker of solar panels, bought Malta-based SunRay Renewable Energy in February 2010 to increase its sales in Europe. LDK Solar bought in January a 70 percent stake in Solar Power Inc.

Global Marine Power Industry May Be Worth $760 Billion by 2050, U.K. Says

By Alex Morales - May 3, 2011 1:00 PM GMT+0100

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The global marine power industry could be worth as much as 460 billion pounds ($760 billion) by 2050, with the U.K. comprising a sixth of the market, Carbon Trust said today.

Power generated from the waves and tides could bring 76 billion pounds to the British economy, including 68,000 jobs created over four decades, the government-funded trust said. Those jobs would be due to growing export markets in countries such as Chile, the U.S. and European nations on the Atlantic, it said in an e-mail.

“Marine energy could be a major ‘made in Britain’ success,” Benj Sykes, director of innovations at Carbon Trust, said in a statement. “By cementing our early mover advantage, the U.K. could develop a significant export market, generate thousands of jobs and meet our own demand for clean, homegrown electricity.”

Marine power costs will need to come down for the industry to grow and there is a high risk of “much smaller, or zero deployment” of the technologies, the Carbon Trust said.

It costs about $396.10 to generate a megawatt-hour of power from the waves and $315.98 for tidal power, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That compares with $83.20 for onshore wind, $70.07 for coal and $59.76 for natural gas.

U.K. marine energy capacity could reach 27.5 gigawatts by 2050, enough to meet more than a fifth of current demand, the trust said. Globally, 240 gigawatts may be developed over the next four decades, three-quarters of that from wave power, it said.

The U.K. is home to 35 of the world’s 120 to 130 companies developing wave and tidal power, according to the Carbon Trust. They include Marine Current Turbines Ltd., a Bristol-based company whose shareholders include Siemens AG (SIE), and Pelamis Wave Power Ltd. in Edinburgh.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net

LNG to add $36 billion a year to Australian economy

• By Florence Chong 
• From:The Australian 
• June 07, 2011 12:00AM

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Australia exported $7.2bn worth of natural gas in 2009, the latest figure available / File

AUSTRALIA is poised to become the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas by 2020, earning $36 billion annually by then, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency.

In a special report released in London yesterday, the IEA also says Australia will remain among the leading global suppliers for 15 years through to 2035, reported The Australian.

"We think Australia will play a crucial role in the golden age of gas. It could be a golden age for Australia's LNG industry," said IEA chief economist Fatih Birol, the lead author of the report. "By around 2020 -- only 10 years from now -- Australian production may increase threefold."

Speaking exclusively to The Australian, Dr Birol said the new report examined factors that could result in a more prominent role for gas in the global energy mix.

Related Coverage

• Emissions record clouds climate talksNEWS.com.au, 1 day ago
• Carbon emissions 'reach record in 2010'The Australian, 7 days ago
• Shale gas shapes up as LNG rivalThe Australian, 22 May 2011
• LNG winner in fallout: VoelteThe Australian, 11 Apr 2011
• Public in the dark over export potentialThe Australian, 7 Apr 2011

These included the widespread development of unconventional resources, gas targets in China's 12th Five-Year Plan, a slowdown in nuclear energy and increased deployment of natural gas vehicles.

Based on IEA's price assumptions, Australian exports, totalling 85 billion cubic metres (bcm) in 2020, would generate export revenues of $36bn a year.

Australia exported $7.2bn worth of natural gas in 2009, the latest figure available.

In 2010, it was the fourth-largest exporter behind Qatar, Indonesia and Malaysia.

But whether Australia becomes a world leader in gas exports depended on the policy framework of the Australian government and the industry making timely and sufficient investment.

However, there would be challenges, including the risk of construction delays and cost escalation due to workforce shortages, as large resources projects compete for limited manpower in Australia and also in neighbouring Asia-Pacific countries where other LNG liquefaction projects were under construction.

Asked whether the proposed carbon tax would be a negative, Dr Birol, named by Forbes Magazine as the world's fourth most powerful person in the energy scene, said it would not be a deal-breaker.

The IEA said large projects such as Gorgon, based on Barrow Island in Western Australia and producing about 20bcm per year with a capital investment of some $40bn, would be the backbone of Australian supply. Australia's key customers would be Asian countries, with growth led by China, followed by India.

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Australia's LNG production

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/golden-age-of-gas-to-pipe-in-36bn-a-year-to-australian-economy/story-e6frfm1i-1226070658026#ixzz1OZju47hU

World Bank to Back African Dams in New Energy Strategy

Wed, 03/30/2011 - 11:30am

By: 

Zachary Hurwitz

Takeze Dam in Ethiopia

The World Bank's new draft Energy Strategy makes some positive advancements in creating our energy future.  For example, the Bank has tentatively made a commitment to cut lending for coal projects in all countries that do not receive funding from the International Development Agency (IDA).  Yet what the Bank promises as a trade-off for coal spells trouble for the future of rivers in Africa.


I've just come back from a meeting with Bank officials to address some of the problem language around dams in the draft strategy.  As the meeting came to a close, it was made clear to me that the draft strategy seeks to scale up investment in hydropower – especially large dams in Africa – as a trade-off for potentially cutting its lending for coal to non-IDA countries.  However, doing so would ignore a number of problems with hydropower that could create unexpected negative outcomes for future Bank investments.

First, dams are not the solution to climate change.  Increased streamflow variability and extended droughts will make hydropower projects economically unviable, increased siltation will reduce their useful lifetime, and more extreme weather events will make them unsafe.  Meanwhile, large hydropower typically causes severe impacts on freshwater biodiversity and fisheries, which are already suffering from extensive damage due to climate change.

What's more, in recent years many countries have suffered major reductions in hydropower generation because of droughts. According to the 2010 World Bank paper “Minding the Gap:World Bank's assistance to power shortage mitigation in the developing world” (Heffner et al.), half of the 18 “notable power shortages” since 2000 were related to drought. Global climate change is very likely to increase rainfall variability and unpredictability in future, meaning that hydrological risks will increase – and will put predominantly hydropower-based economies at grave risk. Much of sub-Saharan Africa is already excessively dependent on hydropower , and many African nations have experienced the economic shocks of drought-induced energy shortages. Indeed, a new study by Funk and Williams shows that East Africa is likely to be hit by worse and more regular droughts.

Energy Emissions

Second, there is no consensus in the scientific literature over how to measure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from dams.  Full life-cycle GHG accounting should take place for dams, not just accounting of reservoir emissions or dam construction.  Indeed, dams can act as a driver for economic growth and migration, causing land use-induced emissions in tropical areas.  While the Energy Strategy commits to establishing GHG accounting across all projects, independent methodologies for the accounting of GHG emissions from dams should be established by an independent board in the Bank's Climate Strategy.

Third, the World Bank has not proven that dams increase energy access.  Rural Africans – who are often the poorest – often live far from centralized electrical grids.  To meet the energy needs of the poorest of the poor, African countries could benefit instead from scaled-up investments in decentralized, truly renewable energy.  Indeed, the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook 2010 found that it is possible to achieve universal energy access through extending decentralized renewable energy systems to 70% of the developing world's rural areas.  Further, other sources could replace large hydropower to meet the needs of grid expansion throughout Africa; dynamic investments in large-scale, grid-based solar energy, and natural gas flare tapping, could offset much of the power generation of hydropower.

The World Bank's new Energy Strategy potentially puts the Bank back into large dams in Africa, in a large way.  But large dams on the whole are not a solution to climate change nor to improving energy access.  Now is the time to contact your World Bank Executive Director and regional staff to demand that a broad mix of truly renewable energy sources – not just large dams – replaces coal as the investment of choice over the next decade at the World Bank.

More information: 

• World Bank Energy Strategy Promotes Large Dams
• Read the press release
• Download the Leaked World Bank Energy Strategy (PDF)
• Read about dams and climate change

South Africa could produce its first concentrating solar power from a mooted solar farm by 2012

Eskom wants to diversify the energy mix of Africa's largest economy towards cleaner sources such as concentrated solar energy and wind energy.

The World Bank's Clean Technology Fund is expected to take a final decision on a $350 million loan for South Africa's power utility Eskom no later than June, a minister said on Tuesday.

State-owned Eskom, which is spending billions of dollars to build and upgrade existing coal-fired power plants, wants to diversify the energy mix of Africa's largest economy towards cleaner sources such as solar power and wind energy.

Eskom submitted a $350 million loan application to the World Bank, the African Development Bank and other co-financiers -- through the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) -- to finance a 100 megawatt concentrated solar power plant and a separate 100 MW wind power plant.

"The CTF appraisal team was in South Africa (between) 7 February and 12 February 2011 and the final outcome is expected in June 2011 at the very latest," Sibusiso Ndebele, transport minister and chairman of government's infrastructure development cluster, told a media briefing.

South Africa could produce its first concentrating solar power from a mooted solar farm by 2012, and depending on investor appetite, eventually supplying 5,000 MW of power as a viable and cost-effective alternative to energy from coal.

Eskom Gets $365 Million African Development Bank Plants Loan

(Updates with minister’s comments from fourth paragraph.)

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Eskom Holdings Ltd., South Africa’s state power utility, received a $365 million loan from the African Development Bank to help fund wind and solar plants, Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba said.

The plants will each produce 100 megawatts of power and help South Africa meet its commitment to providing more clean energy, he told lawmakers in Cape Town today.

Eskom currently has 40,000 megawatts of capacity, more than 80 percent of which comes from coal-fired plants. The utility, which supplies about 95 percent of South Africa’s electricity, was given a $3.75 billion World Bank loan in April last year to fund expansion on condition it introduces renewable energy projects.

“Eskom has incorporated renewable energy projects into its build program,” for which is seeking to tap additional sources of funding, Gigaba said. “Eskom has submitted a $250 million loan application to the World Bank for funding from the Clean Technology Fund, the final outcome of which is expected later this year.”

Johannesburg-based Eskom supplies power to Xstrata Plc’s ferrochrome furnaces, AngloGold Ashanti Ltd.’s gold mines and BHP Billiton Ltd.’s aluminum smelters in South Africa. The utility, one of the 10 largest in the world by capacity, will spend about 76 billion rand ($11.2 billion) in the year through March 2012 on an expansion plan aimed at preventing a repetition of power blackouts that hit mines, factories and cities in 2008.

Eskom won’t be able to guarantee security of supply until its new Medupi plant begins producing power in late 2012, and will have to rely on private companies to meet any shortfall, according to Gigaba.

Since April last year, Eskom has signed contracts with five independent power producers to supply it with about 373 megawatts of power, and it has also agreed to buy 200 megawatts of electricity from municipalities for this winter, he said.