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10. World round up
France has wind problems ...
French electricity bills will rise significantly
since the government has set high guaranteed prices for wind-generated
electricity, according to the country’s energy watchdog, the Commission
de Regulation de l’Electricite (CRE). The government has confirmed
that wind energy producers will be paid 55 centimes per kilowatt hour
for the first five years- although it added that prices will subsequently
fall to an average 48 centimes/kWh over 15 years. The State-owned Electricite
de France company (EdF) will pay the fixed prices to the wind producers
and then they can pass the cost to consumers.
CRE estimated that if 10,000 MW of wind power was
built under this REFIT styled system, residential prices would have
to rise 3% and industrial prices by 15% to pay for the wind energy -
equivalent to an increase of between one and two centimes per kWh. The
cost of subsidising France’s whole renewables programme, which
includes solar and biomass, will come to 3-4 centimes/kWh by 2010. Reuters
noted that ‘France has a target to produce 21% of its energy from
renewable sources by 2010, building on the 15% currently generated by
hydropower. The government is working on fixed price proposals for small
hydro, solar and biomass’.
However, as far as the new wind programme was concerned,
there seemed to be problems. Thierry Trouve, from CRE, told Reuters
"The government has chosen a very expensive way of doing this. With
the same targets, the costs could be a third lower for example by using
market driven mechanisms". Trouve said wind generators’ operating
costs were between 30 and 35 centimes/kWh while typical French electricity
prices were around 20 centimes/kWh. Because EdF is government owned,
the programme could be interpreted as state aid and the government did
not seek EU approval before setting the tariffs. As we noted in Renew
133, recently the European Court of Justice ruled that generous prices
paid by German utilities for renewable energy were allowed under EU
law but Trouve said that case was different as the companies were privately
owned.
The French government has said it chose the guaranteed
price system to develop renewables as it would be quicker than using
market mechanisms like green certificates. In market-based systems,
as adopted in the UK, renewable generators issue green certificates
which are bought by suppliers as a way to meet legal commitments to
buy a certain amount of electricity from green sources. Source: Reuters
The British Disease ? Meanwhile
opposition to wind projects has emerged in the Languedoc-Roussillon
region where some 800 projects are envisaged. It may not be entirely
co-incidental that this is an area where large numbers of British people
have bought homes. James Graham, a local British wine grower, said:
"We’re not against wind power as such. But what we want to avoid
is turning a vast expanse of beautiful scenery into what amounts to
an industrial site". Sounds familiar?
... so does Norway
Norway’s wind
power development programme has been thrown into chaos by a call from
two government agencies for eight out of 13 proposed projects to be
blocked on environmental grounds. Though some of the projects were already
approved, the government’s nature management and cultural heritage
directorates said that more investigation was required. "Freedom from
emissions is not enough to justify classification of a wind power facility
as environmentally friendly." The directorates recommended an overhaul
of planning procedures to avoid "unacceptable and unnecessary conflicts
and environmental destruction".
Iceland to go green
Iceland is currently
the largest user of renewables, with 99% of electricity coming via geysers
and hydroelectric dams, but it has only explored about 14% of this potential
and it is committed to becoming the world's first hydrogen economy-
hoping to cut greenhouse emissions to zero, within 30 years. At present,
it imports oil to meet 35% of its energy needs, and this makes the country
one of the world’s higher per capita carbon emitters, but, on the
basis of a programme being backed by DaimlerChrysler, Shell Hydrogen
and Norsk Hydro, in a joint Icelandic New Energy venture, the aim is
to lead the conversion into a hydrogen economy by following a six-step
plan which could take 30 years to fulfill. The first phase, now running,
is a £4m programme, subsidised by the EU, to run a trial on three hydrogen
buses and to add a hydrogen station in a conventional petrol station.
The second phase will convert the island’s buses to hydrogen, followed
by all cars. The fourth and fifth phases should convert the fishing
fleet. The sixth and most adventurous phase is to export hydrogen to
Europe. Source: Guardian 18/7/01
Australian Green Power
The Australian government has issued its
latest call for projects to receive funding under the Aus $55.6 m Renewable
Energy Commercialisation Programme, while in Queensland more than $8
million in funding is to be provided to support a renewable energy program.
The federal funding will support the Renewable Remote Power Generation
Program Working Property Rebate Scheme. In parallel the Australian Wind
Energy Association and environmental group Greenpeace have pledged to
boost wind-fired power production to 5,000 megawatts a year by 2010
from 72 megawatts currently. The government ruled last year that energy
retailers source an extra 9,500 gigawatt hours from renewable energy
by 2010, helping to boost demand for alternatives to the main coal and
gas-fired supplies. But the association argued this target was too low.
www.greenhouse.gov.au/renewable/recp/round6.html
www.affa.gov.au/ministers/truss/releases/01/0160wt.html
* Suncor, one of Canada’s largest oil producers,
has abandoned plans for extracting oil shale in Australia, and are investing
in 11MW wind project in Canada, with emissions being a key issue.
German Biomass boost
New rules have come into force aimed at helping
Germany’s biomass energy sector replicate the runaway success of
the wind power industry. The rules define which materials can be considered
biomass, which technical procedures will be used and to which environmental
standards producers must adhere. Operators of biomass plants in Germany
are guaranteed tariff levels between 17 and 20 pfennigs (7.5 and 8.8
US cents) per kilowatt-hour
US, Canada, Mexico link
The North American Free Trade Agreement evidently
isn’t all bad. Following a meeting of its Commission for Environmental
Cooperation in Mexico last year, the USA, Canada and Mexico have signed
an agreement to explore market opportunities for renewable energies
in the three countries.
Mind you, it could simply be seen as a way for the
US to meet it energy shortfalls from southern and northern sources.
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