More than 9,600 megawatts of wind power capacity was installed in European Union member states in 2011, accounting for about 21 percent of all new power capacity installations, according to an industry report.

New offshore wind farms in the UK and land-based projects in Sweden and Germany pushed EU member states to a combined 93,957 megawatts of wind power capacity, an increase of about 10.5 percent from 2010, according to the European Wind Energy Association.

Overall, renewable energy installations accounted for more than 71 percent of all new installed power capacity, with more than 32,000 megawatts installed, according to the report. In the UK, the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the offshore wind industry will unveil new policies today to encourage greater production of wind turbines within the UK, setting a new target requiring that more than half of the equipment for the next generation of wind farms will be made domestically.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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The European Environment Agency published a report on the cost and toll of air pollution due to industrial facilities to the European Union last November.

The costs are staggering as the 10,000 facilities induced up to 102 and 169 billion euros in 2009 alone.

However, only a small number of these plants are responsible for the vast majority of this pollution. The EEA notes:

Fifty per cent of the total damage cost occurs as a result of emissions from just 191 or 2 % of the approximately 10 000 facilities that reported data for releases to air.

Three quarters of the total damage costs are caused by the emissions of 622 facilities — 6 % of the total number.

This proves that solving the problem of industrial air pollution could be relatively easy.

The energy sector is the most polluting one as it is responsible for 66 to 112 billion euros of damages. Excluding carbon dioxide, the pollution still costs the 27 country members up to 26 to 71 billion euros.

Other sectors like production processes and manufacturing combustion are responsible for much less pollution, and thus much less induced: 23 to 28 billion euros and 8 to 21 billion euros respectively.

Meanwhile, the report notes that carbon dioxide contributes the most to the overall damage costs with approximately 63 billion euros in 2009. But this is not enough:

Air pollutants, which contribute to acid rain and can cause respiratory problems – sulphur dioxide (SO₂), ammonia (NH₃), particulate matter (PM₁₀) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x) – were found to cause €38-105 billion of damage a year.

The bottom line: the European Union needs to change the way it is producing electricity and to improve its few remaining plants to get much cleaner air.

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If all Europeans bicycled as much as the people of Denmark, the European Union could achieve up to one-quarter of its target for carbon emissions reductions in the transportation sector by 2050, a new report says.

According to the European Cyclists’ Federation, the average Dane cycles about 2.6 kilometers a day. If that rate were achieved across the EU, it would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 55 million to 120 million tons annually, or 5 to 11 percent of the EU’s overall emissions target, by 2020. (By 2020, the EU has vowed to reduce emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels).

By 2050, a large-scale shift to cycling would represent a cut in C02 emissions of 63 million to 142 million tons, or 12 to 26 percent of the target reduction for the transportation sector.

Since the EU is unlikely to meet its targets with more efficient technology alone, the report says a shift away from cars is critical. Meanwhile, New York City transportation officials say the number of people bicycling in Manhattan this year is double the ridership in 2007, largely as a result of increased bike lanes across the city.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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In 2008, the European Union (EU) created its very ambitious 20-20-20 plan. It called for an increase in renewable energy use throughout the EU by 20 percent by the year 2020. Also included in this plan is a decrease in carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent under 1990 levels and increased energy efficiency by 20 percent. The plans focus on three key areas – buildings, transportation, and industry. To obtain these goals, the EU has made lots of efforts working with countries, businesses and people. Here are some of the highlights of the EU’s cleantech initiatives.

1) EU Looking to Build Greener Technology for Greener Cars. The EDISON Project, short for Electric Vehicles in a Distributed and Integrated Market Using Sustainable Energy and Open Networks, in the EU is targeted at developing a smart infrastructure to alter extensive adoption of EVs powered by sustainable energy. EDISON is being looked at as an instrumental project to assist in the development of the required infrastructure for a large scale roll-out of EVs in Denmark. Denmark is one of the most energy efficient countries in the EU and if it works, the project will be tweaked to spread throughout the EU.

2) EWEA Looking to Reach 2020 Goals with Wind Power Generation. The European Wind Energy Association, or EWEA, said in August 2011 that its energy generated via offshore and onshore wind power installations throughout the EU will triple by the year 2020. According to EWEA the wind power will increase from 182TWh to 581TWh by 2020. It will be enough electricity to power all households in the United Kingdom, Spain, Poland, France, and Germany.

3) EU – India Cleantech Initiative. The EU – India Cleantech Initiative looks to work together to create a major initiative to “define and encourage opportunities for businesses and research institusions from the European Union to engage with India across a wide portfolio of clean technologies.” Both sides are hoping for a number of outcomes from this strategic alliance, including providing insight into the convergence of both areas energy and environmental concerns, look at collaborative efforts to address these concerns, share best practices to promote clean technologies, and increase cooperation and knowledge sharing.

4) European Energy Venture Fair. The European Energy Venture Fair is a two day event created in 2007 to promote energy activities and use the assets found to support clean technology ventures. It seeks to provide support to research and development teams looking to carry out clean technology programs throughout the EU as well as the world.

5) Energy Efficiency Directive. The EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive was created in June 2011 to provide a new set of measures to increase total energy efficiency throughout the EU. Unfortunately, in the last few years the EU got a bit off track with their energy efficiency guidelines and this new directive is supposed to bring new measures forward to step up the efforts of EU member states to use energy much more efficiently throughout all stages of energy chains, including transformation of energy and distribution to energy consumption.

6) EU Energy Star. Much like the United State’s Energy Star, the EU created its own energy labeling for all domestic appliances. The EU has determined that 35 percent of energy needs come from the households of all member states, mainly for use of household appliances, which see the biggest increase due to high standards of living, multiple appliances and the increased need for HVAC systems. The energy labeling of all appliances, including ovens, HVAC systems, washing machines, dishwashers and so on will create consumer awareness in regards to energy use and will make the conscious effort to be more energy efficient with energy efficient products.

7) Albania – EU Energy Efficiency Center. The Albania – EU Energy Efficiency Center was established in 1995 under the European Commission and Albanian government. The center collaborates with a number of countries to improve and promote energy efficiency throughout the Albanian economy and protection of the Albanian environment. Through the center, technical expertise is provided as well as sources of information necessary to use more renewable energy and become more energy efficiency.

8 ) The Euro-Mediterranean Energy Efficiency Forum. The Euro-Mediterranean Energy Efficiency Forum is “Europe’s premier, invitation-only event that creates an energy ethic to accelerate the adoption of legislation designed to curb climate change.” This forum looks to address a number of emerging trends that will change the way countries utilize their energy resources. The 2011 forum will highlight a number of ways countries intend to capitalize on political momentum for energy efficient and assist in ensuring that business models, policies, communications and technologies related to the field of energy efficiency are stronger and more long lasting.

9) Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign. The Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign displays a number of activities that are dedicated to solutions in the areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency. The campaign looks to focus on spreading best practices in sustainable energy technologies as well as inspire new ideas and actions in the field of energy sustainability. Anyone with a projects or event that encourages energy efficient or renewable energy use is welcome to join the campaign.

10) The European Renewable Energy Council. The European Renewable Energy Council was established in 2000 to act as the voice of the renewable energy industry in the EU. It is an umbrella organization active in a number of sectors, including solar thermal, photovoltaics, small hydropower, bio energy, ocean power, geothermal, and wind energy. The main location of the council is the Renewable Energy House in Brussels, which is the capital of the EU. The house creates alliances between renewable energy stakeholders and provides easy flow of information on renewable energy. Some current projects include Renewable Energy Policy Action Paving the Way towards 2020 and common quality certification and accreditation for installers of small scale renewable energy systems.

Article by Shawn Lesser, Co-founder & Managing Partner of Atlanta-based Watershed Capital Group – an investment bank assisting sustainable fund and companies raise capital, perform acquisitions, and in other strategic financial decisions. He is also a Co-founder of the GCCA Global Cleantech Cluster Association ”The Global Voice of Cleantech”. He writes for various cleantech publications and is known as the David Letterman of Cleantech for his “Top 10″ series. He can be reached at shawn@watershedcapital.com

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A short while ago we discussed the European Union’s Energy Efficiency Plan and its goal to achieve a 20% improvement in its energy savings by the year 2020. Click here for a refresher on that. Basically, we found out that the initially instituted plan wasn’t totally working out as the European Commission had hoped, so they did some quick figuring and implemented another plan which would get everyone back on track. Handshakes and back-pats all around.

But what of the non-European Union countries? There is a fair number of them – 17 to be exact (there are 27 countries in the Union, with 5 candidate countries listed). What’s on the energy efficiency table for them? Well, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which fosters sustainable economic growth for developing countries and, amongst other things, addresses climate change, and environment and social sustainability activities, is promoting the efficient use of energy in industrial enterprises in those countries.

The IFC conducted a survey in 2008 (2006 for Russia) assessing how industrial enterprises in six non-EU countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Russia and Ukraine) prioritize, understand, plan, finance, and implement energy efficiency measures. These countries are some of the most energy-intensive countries in Europe with Ukraine and Russia ranking within the top five and Belarus and Azerbaijan following up in the top ten.

What they found was the almost half the responding institutions in each country stated that improving energy efficiency was one of their main priorities for their business, with those with higher energy costs assigning a higher priority. Makes sense, non? However, they also found that the respondents almost always underestimated the potential benefits of energy efficiency benefits to their companies and fewer than half the respondents ever conducted energy audits to see where energy could be saved.

Even with these challenges, most companies in the surveyed countries had implemented some energy efficiency measures, but there was a clear preference towards measures that were low-cost or no-cost. These were typically administrative or organizational actions (i.e. turning off lights, appointing a specific employee responsible for energy efficiency), which had shorter payback periods and did not require significant budgetary allowances. Most of the companies in the surveyed countries have plans for future energy efficiency investments, but again, these investments were typically in the low-cost range, and while these low-cost investments certainly make a difference, large-scale, formal planning for energy efficiency would make more of a significant impact.

The actually implementation of a formal plan for energy efficiency and incorporating this into the company business strategy wasn’t especially prevalent within the surveyed companies. For instance, just under a third of the surveyed companies in Armenia and just under a quarter of the companies Azerbaijan and Georgia had developed and executed an energy efficiency plan, while in contrast, almost 80% of the companies in Belarus had.

The companies in the surveyed countries appear to be meeting roadblocks on their way to a more energy efficiency future. For instance, all of the countries (except Georgia) had passed national legislation related to energy efficiency, however many of the respondents felt as though the existing legal framework did not effectively promote energy efficiency in their country. Financial, organizational and technical barriers revealed themselves to be a further impediment preventing large-scale initiatives.

Of the respondents, only 15-35% sought outside financing for their projects and they were generally successful in obtaining such financing. The projects that did receiving financial backing had longer payback periods than projects in the recent past, suggesting that more substantial energy efficiency investments were being implemented.

So, as the IFA puts it, it’s a “mix of promise and challenges”. To summarize, the promising trends include energy efficiency being a priority in the minds of the managers of the respondent companies, the fact that planned investments in energy efficiency is substantially higher than in the past, a higher lender knowledge of these investments, and longer payback periods indicating a move towards more substantive measures with greater overall savings potential. Challenges include the organizational, financial and technical barriers to implementing energy efficiency plans, as wells as the ineffective laws, regulations and incentives for energy efficiency.

The IFA recommends various ways to get past these challenges in their report. They suggest improvements in three areas: industry, government and lenders. In terms of industry, increased awareness of the benefits of energy efficiency by managers and staff will help, as well as providing incentives for those staff members to reduce their energy consumption. Implementing a plan – any plan – for energy efficiency, and improving the equipment used to measure usage is also encouraged, along with applying for loans that allow the companies to save energy sooner than it would if it were being financed internally.

It’s suggested that governments ensure that the legal framework for energy efficiency is effective and that the necessary measures are designed and funded to allow companies to achieve their energy goals. Also, governments can work to remove the obstacles that hinder efforts to invest in energy efficiency. Financiers of energy efficient projects can help educate the company managers regarding the impact of energy efficiency, foster the creation of financial products and services in alignment with such projects, and aid in the application, design and evaluation of the projects.

While this study represents only six of the 17 non-European Union countries, between this and what we learned last post, it appears as though overall, Europe is working hard at achieving a significant reduction of energy usage and a significant increase in energy efficiency.

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Back in 2006, the European Union realized that they were facing some serious energy challenges. These challenges were due to an increase in import dependency, global fossil fuel supplies, a “…clearly discernable climate change”, and a substantial waste of 20% of its energy due to inefficiencies.

Say what now? “A substantial waste of 20% of its energy due to inefficiencies”? Oh. Ok, we’ll be revisiting that shortly…

Anyway, a plan to achieve a 20% improvement in energy savings by the year 2020 was implemented and was included as one of the five headline targets of the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable growth. Unfortunately, after a progress review, the European Commission found that it was likely that the EU would achieve only half the 20% target by 2020 and it was strongly urged that a new plan be developed to get it back on track. This urgency was likely further fueled by the estimated 100 billion Euros that these inefficiencies cost the EU every year, to say nothing of the kilograms upon thousands of kilograms of carbon emissions being dumped into the atmosphere. And then there’s that pesky economy in desperate need of stoking. It’s been suggested that a focus on renewable energy could put a much needed log in the European Union’s economy fire.

Cut to March, 2011, and the Commission has put forth a new energy efficiency plan (aptly named the…ahem…Energy Efficiency Plan) which set out further measures to achieve the kind of energy savings they were looking for originally. The plan states that energy efficiency is “…one of the most cost effective ways to enhance [the] security of [the] energy supply and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.” It goes on to say that energy efficiency as a model could be considered Europe’s biggest energy resource. Huzzah!

The reinvigorated plan has potential to save each household an average of €1000 (approx. $1400 USD) each year, create up to 2 million jobs and reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 740 tons. Sounding pretty good, so far.

So, where exactly is the greatest source of such savings? Buildings. The plan “…focuses on instruments to trigger the renovation process in public and private buildings and to improve the energy performance of the components and appliances used in them”. Of course, other sectors with potential for energy efficiency upgrades are addressed as well – transportation, for instance. However, considering that buildings (residential and commercial structures) represent about 30% of total EU energy consumption, I’d say a strong focus on that particular sector is what you might call a wise decision.

An example of that wise decision can be found in the energy efficiency solution that a Smartcool Systems distributor, Bricks & Bits, developed for a commercial wholesale store in Poland. Smartcool’s technology was installed as a pilot project in a Makro Cash & Carry store and ended up providing a return of invested capital in just 20 months! Remember that “…substantial waste of 20% of…energy due to inefficiencies”? Looks as though Makro Cash & Carry is making a dent in that percentage. Well played, Makro Cash & Carry. Well played.

The Energy Efficiency Plan states that by producing more with less energy, the EU’s industries will only become more competitive and will put them in the lead in global markets for energy efficiency technologies. The Plan appears as though it will be effective, as long as everyone stays on track. The countries in the Union are taking the necessary steps towards a more energy efficient future, but they’re not the only countries in Europe. We’ll be taking a look at the steps that a number of non-Union countries are taking towards a more sustainable future in upcoming blog posts, so stay tuned!

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The European Union (EU) is made up of 27 countries and over 500 million people. Each country (more commonly called “States”) has its own sovereign identity but the governing body of the EU has rights to set limited legislation and broader policy direction for its member States. Initially set up as a trading bloc for the free movement of goods and labor, the EU is now much more.

The EU is increasingly setting far-reaching and far-sighted policy on the environment and sustainable development. Two critical documents have come out since the start of the year. A third is due, which will steer a number of critical decisions made over the next decade.

The headline policy that most people have heard of is the “20/20/20” target. Or, in longhand, the member States of the European Union have committed themselves to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 20 percent, increasing the share of renewables in the EU’s energy mix to 20 percent, and achieving the 20 percent energy efficiency target by 2020. To do this, brains behind the policy have undertaken a lot of “how to” modeling work to see how to get from here to there.

Now 2020 is deemed too close and policy is looking out to 2050. As part of this “A Roadmap for moving to a competitive low carbon economy in 2050” was published in March of this year. The focus of the document is in the title – keeping (or making, depending on your point of view) the EU greener and competitive by 2050. The document is incredibly important, as it doesn’t give clues, but full-blown statements of direction for the development and deployment of policy across the Euro zone over the next decade.

Here are the highlights and implications from the roadmap:

- Electricity will play a central role in the low carbon economy. The EU’s analysis (of which we have not seen but is reported throughout the document) implies that is it possible to totally eliminate CO2 emissions by 2050, and offers the prospect of partially replacing fossil fuels in transport and heating.

- Demonstration and early deployment of technologies, such as various forms of low carbon energy sources, carbon capture and storage, smart grids, and hybrid and electric vehicle (battery and FCV) technology are of paramount importance to ensure their cost-effective and large-scale penetration later on.

All the buzzwords are here and it is clear they don’t want to annoy any one technology or industry over another, but actual rollout is going to be a lot messier than this neat sentence.

For those interested in reading about the transport section rollout, the EU White Paper on Transport provides a “comprehensive and combined set of measures to increase the sustainability of the transport system.” It caused some strong debate when it came out.

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is thought to be critical in driving a wide range of low carbon technologies into the market.

The implication behind this is that the price of carbon will not only need to be stabilized, but also increased above its current bargain basement price.

- Investment in smart grids is a key enabler for a low carbon electricity system, notably facilitating demand-side efficiency, larger shares of renewables and distributed generation, and enabling electrification of transport. For grid investments, benefits do not always accrue to the grid operator, but to society (with co-benefits for consumers, producers, and society at large: a more reliable network, energy security, and reduced emissions). In this context, future work should consider how the policy framework can foster these investments at EU, national and local levels and incentivize demand-side management.

- The objective of the altered directive on energy performance of buildings is that new buildings built from 2021 onwards will have to be nearly zero-energy buildings.

The sad part is that if we can make buildings nearly zero-energy now with some investment and political will, why are we waiting until 2021?

- The Commission’s analysis shows that GHG emissions in the industrial sector could be reduced by 83 percent to 87 percent in 2050. The application of more advanced resources, energy efficient industrial processes and equipment, increased recycling, as well as abatement technologies for gases such as nitrous oxide and methane, could make a major contribution by allowing the energy intensive sectors to reduce emissions by half or more.

- In addition to the application of more advanced industrial processes and equipment, carbon capture and storage (CCS) would also need to be deployed on a broad scale after 2035, notably to capture industrial process emissions (e.g. in the cement and steel sector). This would entail an annual investment of more than 10 billion euros.

So between now and 2050 there is going to be a major investment in R&D for CCS and am sure some fine subsidies for its rollout.

- The European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, as well as dedicated funding in the next Multi-Annual Financial Framework should play a role in providing additional financing for energy efficient and low carbon technologies.

That should cause a dash to these banks.

While this blog has been very cynical, the EU should be congratulated for looking out as far as 2050. We will know much more about the energy portion of this when the Energy 2050 Roadmap is published combined with the White Paper on Transport (which is already out). It should not only give me lots of write about but do what it seems impossible to do in the United States – have a coordinated policy on energy!

Article by Kerry-Ann Adamson, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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A coalition of green groups that includes ClientEarth, Friends of the Earth Europe, FERN and Corporate Europe Observatory, have filed a legal suit against the European Union. They accuse the European Commission of violating European transparency laws for refusing to provide access information in decisions relating to the sustainability of Europe’s biofuel policy.

The request for information dates back to 2010 but it was rejected by the Commission. This was challenged in December, but despite a deadline of February 4th 2011, the Commission has still not responded.

The group is worried that EU policies on biofuels will increase pressure on land, increase gas emissions, threaten vulnerable communities and biodiversity. The Renewable Energy Directive sets a 10 per cent target for use of renewable energy in the transport sector and biofuels are the main component of this policy.

In theory the directive includes sustainability criteria to make sure biofuel production protects high carbon stock areas (land with a high ability to retain and release carbon) and biodiversity standards, although social impacts are ignored. Compliance is monitored by accredited voluntary certification schemes. The EU currently studies which of these schemes it will accredit but the process has lacked transparency, the group of NGOs said.

“The amount of money at stake over Europe’s biofuels policy is colossal, and so is the potential for environmental devastation. These policies are too important to shield from scrutiny, decision making processes need to be more participatory. We need to know which organizations have applied to run voluntary certification schemes, and how they’ve been chosen, so that we can be certain that they will provide robust and reliable information”, said James Thornton, ClientEarth CEO.

The group cites the example of Kenya Jatropha Energy Ltd, owned by Nuobe Iniziative Industrali, which has applied to plant 50,000 hectares of jatropha in Dakatcha on the North Eastern coast of Kenya to make biodiesel for European markets. However, the proposal would create more emissions once land-use change consequences are considered as the area is also a high carbon stock area. The area is also home to threatened bird species and 20,000 people who rely on small-scale farming and the woodlands to make a living. These people would face eviction if the proposal was accepted.

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

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Though the Obama Administration has taken some serious steps to help accelerate the market for offshore wind power in the United States, a new report from Pike Research reveals that it is Europe that is in the driver’s seat, and that China is the other prime contender for world leader over the next decade.

The market for offshore wind in Europe is more developed than the North America market because it takes advantage of a robust onshore market and the resources put in place to maximize this renewable energy option. Public policy is the prime driver, as European Union (EU) legislation requires greater carbon emissions reductions – and higher corresponding penetrations of renewable energy resources – by 2020. Some of the world’s best turbine manufacturers and supply chain providers are based in Europe, a pooling of expertise that can offer synergies for offshore wind not available anywhere else in the world.

Europe is clearly the focal point of near term offshore wind development. In the United Kingdom, for example, 49 GW of offshore wind projects already have pre-approval, representing a potential investment of over $100 billion!

Of all the European nations, the United Kingdom has taken the most market-based approach to the development of its offshore wind resources. Yet, it also offers the greatest level of government subsidy. For example, the tender process for transmission infrastructure relies on competitive bids from a variety of market participants to drive down costs and spark new market entrants. The series of three rounds of solicitations for offshore wind was designed to help the industry “get off the ground” and ramp up, a staged process aimed at growing the necessary supply chain. While a focus on competitive bidding will introduce delays in the construction and development process, the offshore wind market might also serve as a magnet for developers, creating a more sustainable industry over the long term.

The Pike Research base scenario forecast assumes 12 GW of capacity will come online by 2017, a 42 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR). Pike Research estimates that the United Kingdom – the largest single market in the world – will be valued at $4.5 billion in power production revenue by 2017.

Germany is the other lynchpin country in the EU market. Despite its limited coastline – and the need to go to deeper waters – Germany has recently gained significant momentum on offshore wind, as private and public investments are being steered toward required infrastructure. The industry hopes to build on the manufacturing capacity and knowledge base that already exists with onshore wind in northwestern Germany. The country has the most favorable transmission interconnection policies on paper, though there are recent reports of time delays associated with grid interconnections. Because projects have to be built in deeper waters, there is also concern related to whether the subsidy schemes in place are sufficient. The Pike Research base scenario shows a CAGR of 66 percent and 9.5 GW of installed capacity for Germany.

At present, competition between the United Kingdom and Germany is quite intense. It may not be possible for the offshore wind industry to concentrate infrastructure (ports, vessels, and component suppliers) in multiple regional clusters. The prime challenge for all of Europe, nevertheless, is finding new sources of financing, as the utility balance sheet approach that worked in the past is not sustainable.

And then there is China.

China recently completed construction on its first offshore wind farm, the 102 MW Donghai Bridge project. By 2020, the Chinese government plans to increase the use of alternatives to fossil fuels to generate 15 percent of the nation’s total energy consumption. Offshore wind energy has the potential to generate more than 750 gigawatts (GW) of China’s energy, which is almost three times the wind energy potential on land. According to China’s Development Plan on Emerging Energies, offshore wind capacity could grow to 30 GW by 2020. Coastal provinces are now drawing up grid integration plans.

According to the latest available figures, China currently has 51.365 GW worth of offshore wind capacity in some stage of planning. As of 2009, 13.6 GW of offshore wind capacity was in the pipeline according to Azure International, all concentrated on China’s East Coast. Roughly 2.3 GW is currently under construction in China, including some demonstration projects. Perhaps the most interesting of these pilot projects will test vertical axis turbine technologies – the 450 MW Caofeidian Offshore Wind Farm.

Pike Research’s base scenario assumes 11.7 GW will come online by 2017, a CAGR of 70 percent, which is higher than the CAGR for Europe as a whole (57 percent). In the aggressive scenario, China will produce approximately 13.0 GW, which would rank it second behind the United Kingdom (14.4 GW). While Pike Research believes the dire scenario forecast is more probable overall than the aggressive scenario forecast globally, China is the one country where this general rule of thumb does not apply. Even under this dire scenario, China still adds 9.7 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2017.

Article by Peter Asmus, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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European biofuel targets are encouraging unethical practices worldwide, from human rights violations to deforestation, and should be suspended until better safeguards are in place, a new report says.

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, an independent organization that studies ethical issues in medicine and biology, says current European Union and UK policies intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — including an EU directive requiring that 10 percent of transportation fuels be derived from biofuels by 2020 — have backfired.

Such targets have triggered a boom in production of biofuel crops that has resulted in the displacement of indigenous peoples in the developing world, higher prices for food crops, and forest loss.

In addition, the current policies provide few incentives for developing new biofuel technologies that would avoid such problems, the report says.

“We want a more sophisticated strategy that considers the wider consequences of biofuel production,” said Joyce Tait, scientific advisor to Edinburgh University’s Innogen Centre and chairwoman of the study.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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