Extracts from the May-June 2003 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it

12. International Developments

Renewables in the USA

Despite the hostility of the US administration to Kyoto, renewables are still doing quite well in the USA. The US already had a large existing hydro capacity, but the development of the ‘new’ renewables has brought the total renewable generating capacity to more than 15% of total U.S. electricity generation capacity. Of the ‘new’ renewables, (i.e. apart from hydro), various types of energy crops have been developed most extensively (biomass represented 50% of the total renewable energy produced in the USA in 2002), followed by geothermal (6%) and wind and solar energy (both at 1% in 2002). Interestingly, according to the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), the hydro share in 2002 was 42% of total renewables, but its contribution had fallen by 23% from previous years due to the record low rain and snow falls, thus providing a reminder that some renewables may be effected by climate change. It also meant that the overall renewable contribution dropped from previous years.

Even so, overall, renewables seem to be doing well in most sectors. In 2002, around 53% of the renewable energy produced in the U.S. was delivered as electricity, with there being around 97GW of renewably sourced electricity generating capacity, including large hydro. Of the new renewables, wind power, at 3 to 6 cents depending on location, is seen as increasingly competitive with fossil fuels, and cheaper in some locations than oil or gas-fired power. Wind projects are consequently continuing to develop rapidly around the country, moving out from the initial California base, for example into Minnesota, Iowa, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. This has boosted U.S. wind generation capacity to over 4000MW. Some very large wind projects have been built, including a 300MW wind farm on the Oregon/Washington border, currently the world’s largest, but there are also plans for one ten times larger in South Dakota. There are also plans for a giant offshore wind farm, covering an area of 28 square 4 miles off Yarmouth on the New England coast. In parallel, photovoltaic solar systems are also gaining ground, following President Clintons commitment to a 1m solar roof programme. Shipments of solar photovoltaic cells and modules expanded 11% to nearly 98,000 peak kilowatts in 2001, according to EIA’s Renewable Energy Annual 2001 report.

Even so, compared with the huge potential of renewables in the USA, the scale of development is still relatively limited. By 2002, around 4% of US primary energy was being produced from new renewables, overtaking the 3% from existing hydro. Clearly this is only scratching the surface. Lester Brown from the Washington based Earth Policy Institute has claimed that ‘the Bush plan to add 393,000 megawatts of electricity nationwide by 2020 could be satisfied from wind alone’, arguing that ‘the U.S. Great Plains are the Saudi Arabia of wind power. Three wind-rich U.S. states- North Dakota, Kansas, and Texas- have enough harnessable wind to meet national electricity needs’ The Bush administration is still funding renewables and it does acknowledge that climate change poses serious problems, but a sense urgency does not seem to be there.

For example, as the Wahington Post noted, senior officials speaking at a recent climate-change policy conference insisted that numerous uncertainties remain about the cause and effects of climate change and urged caution in committing the country to long-term solutions that might hurt the economy. John Marburger, the White House science and technology adviser commented "What we are arguing is that we need more information to have a clearly articulated regulatory policy that is practical, that’s affordable and doesn’t put the economy at risk".

IEA calls for more renewables

The European Union should give further backing to renewable energy or face a doubling in gas imports which could jeopardising security of supply, according to the International Energy Agency.

"Unless it changes its energy policy and makes it legally binding to meet targets for increased use of renewable energy we will have a scenario with rapidly growing import-dependency", Fatih Birol from the IEA told Reuters in an interview. Otherwise the IEA forecasts that EU gas imports will jump to 80% by 2030 from 44%.

The IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2002 concluded that, as matters stand, fossil fuels will remain dominant until at least 2030, but inexorable growth in energy use will raise questions about security of energy supply, investment in energy infrastructure and environmental damage. It noted that increasing demand will cause Asia to compete more with Europe for oil and gas supplies from the Middle East, the Caspian Basin and Russia. For more see http://www.worldenergyoutlook.org/

BP/Texaco wind up

BP and Chevron Texaco has combined to build their first wind project, a 22.5megawatt wind farm project in the Netherlands, which will sell green electricity to the Dutch national power grid. The $23 million project, located at the companies’ jointly owned Nerefco oil refinery near Rotterdam, generates sufficient electricity for approximately 20,000 Dutch households. Within Europe it is the first large scale wind project on a brownfield refinery site and will displace 20,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide) emissions each year. Xavier Bontemps, Nerefco refinery manager, said the new wind project represented an innovative use of brownfield land: "Placing the project within our refinery optimises the use of our assets, minimises any visual or noise impact on the surrounding area and helps The Netherlands achieve its environmental targets".

The project consists of nine Nordex turbines, each 120 meters tall and with a generating capacity of 2.5MW.

The Dutch Government has set a target to increase the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources to five per cent by 2005. At present, wind accounts for approximately one TWh of the total Netherlands power market but this figure is predicted to rise to four TWh by 2010- equivalent to approximately 35-45 per cent of the total renewable power generation in the Netherlands.

Local Renewables in Denmark and Japan

Denmark In 1997, the 4,400 residents of Samso, a small Danish island off the east coast of the Jutland Peninsula, embarked on an ambitious attempt to become independent of fossil fuels by switching over to the use of wind turbines, local heating systems powered by solar energy and biomass fuels derived from farm products, and also the replacement of gasoline-fueled vehicles with electric-powered and eventually fuel-cell cars. The aim is eliminate all use of fossil fuels by the end of 2008. So far eleven 1MW windturbines have been installed, meeting the islands electrical needs, and two district heating networks have been set up, supplying heat to three villages, one of them using heat from 2,500m2 of solar collectors. A fourth village is to be supplied with heat from a biogas plant. An island co-operative runs most of the generators and supplies heat for households- but some of the wind turbines are owned by individuals and one by an investment company. Although all residents are invited to be involved in the programme, installing necessary equipment and suggesting ways to reduce electricity consumption and save energy, most of the running seems to have been made by the 350 members of the co-op, which provides a way for local people to own shares in the project. The benefits however are spread across the community. Samso, which earns most of its income from tourism (and its annual music festival), is hoping that the clean-energy project will attract new industries and bring new jobs.

As Wind Directions (Jan 2003) reports, the latest move is a 23MW offshore windfarm, 7 km off the coast, using 2.3 MW Bonus machines, installed by ABB at a cost of 32.2m euro. It will provide enough power to offset that used by the ferries linking the island to the mainland, and by its fleet of electric vehicles. Half the cars on the island should be electric by 2008, and there are plans to build a hydrogen producing wind plant to provide power for vehicles- making the island totally self-sufficient. Indeed, with the offshore wind project now in place, the island can actually export power.

Japan According to a report in Asahi Shimbun (Jan. 9), similar initiatives are also emerging in some parts of Japan- thanks to a Danish link. ‘In Yasaka, a town in the Tango Peninsula in Kyoto Prefecture, the ‘School of the Wind’ in Kyoto, an environmental protection training facility opened last June. It is jointly operated by the municipal government, Amita Co., an environmental consulting company, and Kenji S. Suzuki, an environmental expert from Iwata Prefecture. Suzuki, a naturalized Dane, heads the ‘School of the Wind’ in Denmark, a facility devoted to learning about and using the wind. He has been involved in establishing the sister school in Kyoto.’

Suzuki evidently hopes to encourage local industry to adopt innovative approaches and products that use renewable energy to transform Yasaka into an attractive community with plenty of jobs from what is now a depopulating area "In Denmark, as independent power generators using wind power and biomass fuels have become popular among farmers, the move away from fossil fuels has picked up speed". Suzuki said. "If renewable energy comes into wide use in Yasaka, the town would become an important ecological success story and a catalyst for change in the entire society."

Tidal in S.Korea

The Korea Water Resources Corp has announced that it plans to build the world’s largest tidal-power plant in Sihwa Ho, a large tidal lake in Gyeonggi province, bordering the West Sea. According to the company, the 252,000 kilowatt plant cost $250 million to construct and will generate power from the incoming tide, when the water-level reaches 5.64 meters. Water would be discharged during the ebb. The company said the plant was would generate 550 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, substituting for nearly a million barrels of oil. Korea imports about 2.5 million barrels of oil a day (its the worlds fourth largest oil importer) and is trying to diversify . It plans to increase spending on alternative energy sources by 21%, to $72.66 million, in 2003 and wants to increase the share of alternative energy from 1.4% to 5% by 2011. Solar and wind are favoured, but tidal power also seems to be an option.

According to Shin Hye-kyung, Sihwa Ho is ‘one of the largest tidal lakes in Korea, but has been severely polluted since the nation’s economic development drive started in the 1970’s. Korea Water Resources said the plant would improve the lake by circulating 60 billion tons of seawater annually’.

Sources: Reuters& Shin Hye-kyung: celine54@joongang.co.kr

Hawaii Taps Waves

Ocean Power is to install a group of power-generating buoys offshore from the Kaneohe Marine Corps Base in Hawaii. The steel buoys will be connected to each other and the electricity they generate transmitted to land via an undersea cable linked into the local power grid. The $7m project is funded by the U.S. Navy. Source: Associated Press

Australia rubs it in

Not content with refusing to ratify the Kyoto accord, the Australian Government is closing the Cooperative Research Centre for Renewable Energy, but it is increasing funding for research on carbon sequestration ($22m) and on cutting emissions in minerals processing ($19m). There is also $25m for a centre to ‘prepare for and control bushfires, and minimise their destructive impact on people, property and the economy’. So at least as Climate change gets worse, they will be ready!

Danes Criticise Lomborg

The work of Bjorn Lomborg, whose book ‘The Skeptical Environmentalist’ has come under fire, given that it argued that most environmental problems had been overstated, has been subject to a year-long investigation by the Danish Committee on Scientific Dishonesty. The committee, which is made up of eminent scientists, recently concluded its review and commented: "Based on customary scientific standards and in light of his systematic one-sidedness in the choice of data and line of argument, [he] has clearly acted at variance with good scientific practice".

Focussing on his book, the committee said: "Subject to the proviso that the book is to be evaluated as science, there has been such perversion of the scientific message in the form of systematically biased representation that the objective criteria for upholding scientific dishonesty have not been met".

Lomborg had been lauded by contrarians around the world and been made director of the new right wing governments Environmental Assessment Institute, a position which may now no longer be secure. Lomborg however was evidently unrepentant. He told the Guardian ‘I maintain that the complaints of the plaintiffs are unfounded.’

* The adverse political climate in Denmark seems to have combined with the uncertain US market for wind systems, to hit Vestas, the pioneering wind manufacturer - sales fell by a third recently. Even so, windpower is still doing well in Denmark. With the giant new 160MW Horns Reef offshore project coming on stream, total wind capacity grew by 500MW in 2002, the second best year for expansion so far.