Tag Archives: european
Bluefield Bets On UK Solar Potential With Market Debut Of Fund
By Christoph Steitz FRANKFURT | Tue Jun 25, 2013 (Reuters) – Asset management firm Bluefield Partners is betting that the solar industry has the potential to grow in Britain, while taking a beating elsewhere in Europe, benefiting from favourable laws and a relatively underdeveloped market. Bluefield, which specialises in buying and managing energy and infrastructure assets, plans to list the Bluefield Solar Income Fund ( IPO-BSI.L ) on the London Stock Exchange on July 12 to raise up to 150 million pounds for the acquisition of solar plants in Britain. “The UK is in its infancy compared to markets like Germany or Italy ,” James Armstrong, managing partner at Bluefield, said on Tuesday. “We’re just going into a market that has significant growth potential.” According to figures by European solar industry association EPIA, Britain’s cumulative solar installations more than doubled in 2012 to 1.83 gigawatts. This compared with 32.4 GW in Germany and 16.4 GW in Italy , where lavish incentives for solar power have led to soaring installations over the past few years. Demand in these markets is expected to drop sharply this year, however, as governments reduce the incentives and make investment in solar power less rewarding. Armstrong pointed to favourable legislation in Britain, which said in its updated renewable energy roadmap in late 2012 that its solar market had the potential for up to 20 GW by 2020. Bluefield’s fund aims to invest the proceeds from the initial public offering within 12 months to buy solar plants that it expects will provide stable annual levels of power generation with low operational costs. Armstrong said he expected the fund to grow to about 300 million to 400 million pounds in assets over the next two to three years. Bluefield has clinched deals with British power companies including British Gas Solar, the solar contracting unit of Centrica ( CNA.L ), for exclusive access to solar projects until April 2014. The Bluefield fund will finance solar projects but not build them, reducing its operational risk. Armstrong did not want to disclose plans for concrete investments after the IPO, saying only: “We have a deep and significant pipeline.” (editing by Jane Baird) Continue reading
Carbon Trading Boosters
The world’s largest carbon emitter kicked off a pilot emissions trading scheme in the south eastern city of Shenzhen last week even as the elusive search for a fix to Europe’s emissions system continued. This is the first of the seven test markets that China hopes to roll out soon, and the smallest, with covered emission estimated at 32MTCO2e/year from 635 entities. The buyers of allowances on June 18 – the day that trading officially began – included PetroChina and Hanergy Holding Group, at prices which were about a fifth less than European Union permits on the London’s ICE Futures Europe exchange. Trading is likely to be muted during the year, but some spurt in volumes and price could occur close to the compliance date, which, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance analysts, would be in early 2014. There is also some talk of linkages of the Shenzhen scheme with other markets, but these discussions are at an early stage. Meanwhile, there was some straight talk about the European carbon market from the executive director of the International Energy Agency, Maria Van der Hoeven. In an interview in Russia, she said the EU carbon market “doesn’t work anymore.” The attempts to make it work moved another step ahead when the environment committee of the European Parliament supported the backloading proposal. There is now a higher likelihood of it being approved in the plenary vote on July 3. Back in China, there was an interesting proposal from the city of Shijiazhuang – the capital of steel-producing Hebei province surrounding Beijing – that would control some emissions immediately. It plans to restrict the number of new vehicles to 100,000 this year, and limit cars per household to two. This quota will be cut to 90,000 in 2015, with a lottery being used to determine who can buy the cars. The Chinese government was also in the news for promising support to its solar industry, urging lenders to ease financing and pushing for industry consolidation. In an online statement, the State Council said that China must aid the industry’s “healthy development” through the current sluggish global market and slow domestic demand. It will encourage mergers and acquisitions among solar companies and curb blind expansion of capacity. It will also control the expansion of energy-intensive production to curb pollution. Chinese solar companies like Trina Solar and JinkoSolar, singed by duties on solar exports to Europe and the US, are moving production overseas. The target countries include South Africa, Turkey and Portugal. There is also another reason for production to move out of China: rising costs. US-based solar manufacturer Silevo, which produces cells at a 32MW factory in China, is in the process of financing a 200MW cell and module plant in the US. “Water and electricity in China are much more expensive than in the US, and the labour cost is very close. In terms of production cost, it’s very comparable to North America,” said chief executive officer Zheng Xu. There were two important financing announcements last week. PensionDanmark pledged $US200 million in funding for a wind farm in Nantucket Sound, in the first committed investment in Cape Wind Associates’ proposed 468MW offshore park. This will be the first offshore wind park in the US and has been 12-years in the making. The investment is conditional on a final decision this year to construct the farm. In addition to pension funds, the renewable energy sector could also see some Islamic financing. Activ Solar is tapping into that source to expand into markets in the Middle East. The company’s CEO said the predictable and steady revenue streams of solar plants could be a good fit for the growing Islamic financing market. EU carbon European carbon slipped last week after lawmakers voted – by only a small majority – in favour of a compromise plan to fix the region’s oversupplied market. European Union allowances (EUAs) for December 2013 lost 8.2 per cent over the week to close at €4.38/tonne on Friday, compared with €4.77/t at the end of the previous week. EUAs were trading as high as €4.90/t as the market opened last week. They dropped on Wednesday to close at €4.39/t after the Environment Committee of the European Parliament (ENVI) passed an amended version of the European Commission’s proposal to delay auctions of some carbon permits. The committee carried the main compromise amendments with 38 out of 69 votes. This was the same result as in an ENVI vote in February on the original backloading proposal. The bearish price reaction on Wednesday may imply that market participants required a more clear-cut signal from ENVI to justify bullish bets. UN Certified Emission Reduction credits (CERs) for December 2013 gained just €0.01/t last week to close at €0.47/t. This article was originally published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Read more: http://www.businesss…s#ixzz2XJdVSgQo Continue reading
Will Europe Heed To Calls For 100% Renewable Energy Target For 2050?
June 25, 2013 Mridul Chadha European legislators have been urged to set a 100% renewable energy target for 2050 by the Global Alliance for 100% Renewable Energy. The Alliance, launched in Europe recently, criticised the EU legislators for not setting aggressive long-term renewable energy targets. Middelgruden Offshore Wind Farm in Denmark Credit: United Nations Photo | CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Alliance members, which include World Future Council, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, and the World Wind Energy Association, noted that the EU legislators lack the political will to set aggressive, yet achievable and highly beneficial long-term renewable energy targets . The continent currently has set a renewable energy target of 20% by 2020 and is contemplating a medium-term target of 30-35% by 2030. A number of member states have set renewable energy targets of more than 20%. Scandinavian and Baltic member states have among the highest renewable energy targets. Norway, Sweden, and Latvia have set targets of 67.5%, 49%, and 40% respectively. Need For Long-term Renewable Energy Target EU legislators are believed to been having discussions to set renewable energy targets for 2030 as one of the ways to continue the low-carbon development which seems to have been stalled due to the poor state of the continent’s carbon market. European carbon prices have fallen to record lows as emissions across member states have fallen due to the economic slowdown. Industrial units are sitting with surplus emissions rights of about two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions . The EU legislators have thus been urged to take initiatives to make investment in low-carbon development attractive. In addition to renewable energy targets, the Members of European Parliament are also considering a regulatory fix for the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). Recently, the Committee for Environment, Public Health and Food Safety approved a measure to delay the auction of permits equivalent to 900 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions . Some legislators have also supported increasing the emissions reduction target from the current 20% by 2020. Higher targets have also been suggested for 2030 and 2050 so as to provide the investors with a long-term assurance. Significant Opposition To Renewable Energy Targets The United Kingdom, which has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050 from 1990 levels, has supported EU-wide higher emission reduction targets but has categorically opposed setting higher renewable energy and energy efficiency targets The country seems more interested in nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage to reduce emissions rather than deploying large-scale renewable energy infrastructure. A number of European states have also withdrawn financial support for renewable energy technologies, especially solar photovoltaics (PV). Several countries, including the Czech Republic and Romania, have levied revenue tax on solar PV projects while Germany may reduce feed-in tariff support for solar PV projects over the next few months. Additionally, the anti-dumping duties imposed on cheap Chinese solar power equipment may make the EU solar power sector even more unattractive to the investors and project developers. Some may argue that given the poor economic health of the EU and its beleaguered carbon market, its importance as the global leader for low-carbon development has diminished over the last few years. China, US, Japan, and emerging renewable energy and carbon markets are gaining importance and are now looking more attractive compared to the EU. China launched its first emissions trading scheme last week; the US looks set to announce emission standards for coal-based power plants ; California launched its own cap-and-trade scheme last year; India, China, and Japan are fast emerging as the engines of the global renewable energy market. While the EU may have lost its charm as the low-carbon leader of the world, increasing investment in renewable energy and low-carbon technologies would serve its own interests in the long-term and help it build a resilient economy for the future. Read more at http://cleantechnica…uMwKoRBk7AtL.99 Continue reading
