Deputy Energy Minister Mohammad Behzad told IRNA that the sum will be paid to small developers in the form of loans.

The National Development Fund – which is currently valued at $35 billion – was set up by Ahmadinejad’s government last year (March 2011-March 2012) to tap 20 percent of oil and gas revenues for social investment.

Iran is projected to export as much as 10 billion kilowatt hours (BkWh) of electricity in the current calendar year, compared to 8.6BkWh in the past year, Behzad said on April 30.

He noted that the value of electricity exports has increased by 40 percent since the beginning of this year, which began on March 20, in comparison to the year before, the ISNA news agency reported.

A number of countries, including Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq and Armenia have signed new deals to boost electricity imports from Iran, he said.

Behzad said on April 4 that the Energy Ministry had prepared plans to increase electricity generation capacity of national power plants by 5GW this year.

“Over 10,000 megawatts should be added to the generation capacity of hydroelectric and thermal power plants by August 2013,” he added, the Fars News Agency reported.

By the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2015), Iran will boost its electricity generation capacity by 25GW to reach 73GW, Energy Minister Majid Namjou said on February 7.

Iran currently exchanges electricity with Turkey, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Source: www.tehrantimes.com

A draft European Commission communication on renewable energy, expected to be published later this month, said EU member states need to share renewables across borders with the help of improved infrastructure and underlined the urgency of agreeing on new laws to guide investment.

The EU is a pioneer in green power and officially is on track to reach a goal of increasing the share of renewables, such as solar, wind and wave, in its energy mix to 20 percent by 2020.

For the future, however, progress could be much harder to achieve as member states squabble over policies to replace existing targets and as subsidies for renewable energy fall victim to the region’s economic crisis.

The emergence of China as a leader in green technology is also challenging the ability of the European sector to export technology and expertise as Chinese rivals threaten to grab market share.

“All in all, renewable energy export opportunities will strongly depend on the elimination of trade barriers in and free access to key emerging renewable energy markets such as in China, India and Brazil,” an impact assessment accompanying the a Commission communication on renewable energy said.

China’s Vice Premier Li Keqiang visited Brussels this week for talks on energy cooperation.

“We hope that the EU will exercise more flexibility in exporting higher technology to China. Therefore, we can benefit from each other’s strengths,” Li said in an address.

Some in the European solar industry have been agitating for action to fight off competition from cheaper Chinese products, perhaps through trade moves and defensive duties.

Others have said a better way to save European jobs could be for EU firms to learn from China, whose strength is in producing on a large scale.

SINGLE MARKET

The draft communication on renewable energy said the way forward is to ensure a single, open EU energy market as well as access to markets outside the 27 member states.

EU policy has created “cooperation mechanisms” to lead to greater trade in renewable energy, but so far only two member states said they would use these mechanisms to achieve part of their 2020 goals, it said.

At the same time, 10 member states expect to have a surplus of renewable power, it said without naming them.

To help achieve the Commission dream of a single energy market with a rising share of renewable power, an estimated 100 billion euros ($131.1 billion) needs to be spent on electricity transmission lines alone.

Investments are far more likely if the Commission, the EU’s executive arm, can achieve speedy agreement on what policy should follow its 20 percent target in the years after 2020.

The communication lists a set of options for moving on from the 2020 target, ranging from firm goals, with financial support agreed across the EU, to no targets at all.

Some business leaders are keen for more binding targets to be agreed, while others resist regulation. Member states also have various objections, with coal-reliant Poland the most high-profile opponent of low-carbon goals.

The European Commission has strongly backed green growth as a way out of recession, and the draft documents seen by Reuters said a strong renewables sector could generate more than 3 million jobs.

At the same time, the impact assessment said the cost of financial support for renewable power could result in higher energy prices, affecting consumers and energy-intensive industries.

Other risks include public resistance. Although the public has largely accepted renewable power, some campaigners have raised issues about land use and the environmental effects of proposed infrastructure.

www.uk.reuters.com

The Commission routinely does not comment on leaked drafts.

“It’s possible if we show political leadership,” Ban said about the goal that falls under a sustainable energy initiative aiming to have universal access to power by 2030. Currently, renewable energy accounts for about 16 percent of world consumption.

“We have to be very austere in using energy… We have to completely change our behavior, at home, at the office,” the UN secretary-general added at an event hosted by the Center for Global Development think-tank in Washington.

About 1.3 billion people on Earth — a fifth of the global population — lacks access to electricity, while 2.7 billion do not have clean fuel to cook their food and heat their homes, relying instead on open fires or furnaces that burn coal, wood or animal waste.

“Energy is central to jobs, transport, water, sanitation… climate,” Ban said after meeting with finance ministers from the G20 most powerful economies.

The United Nations is expecting some 120 heads of state and government to attend the Rio+20 meeting on sustainable development in Brazil in June, with a focus on developing a plan for implementation and action.

On April 23, the European Union vowed fresh funds Monday to help developing nations provide sustainable energy to 500 million people by 2030.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso pledged 50 million euros ($65 million) over two years for technical assistance and said EU nations would seek hundreds of millions of euros more to support investments in sustainable energy for developing countries.

Speaking at the Center for Global Development event, Danish Development Cooperation Minister Christian Friis Bach noted that fossil fuels received four to five times more subsidies worldwide than renewable energy.

The think-tank issued a report coinciding with the event saying the U.S. government should play a key role in helping meet the UN targets.

“The United States is the logical country to lead an effort to address these problems, given the size of its venture capital and investment community, the prominence of its financial markets and exchanges, and its tradition of support for business-oriented agencies,” it said in a statement.

Source: www.mnn.com

Alternative energy simply means energy that is produced from sources other than our primary energy supply: fossil fuels. Coal, oil and natural gas are the three kinds of fossil fuels that we have mostly depended on for our energy needs, from home heating and electricity to fuel for our automobiles and mass transportation. The problem is, fossil fuels are non-renewable .

The importance of renewable energy is indisputable. Developed countries and even oil & gas based economies are focusing and evidencing its importance. An example of this was the commitment reached by the G-20 leaders in 2009 (Pittsburgh Meeting) to rationalize and phase out over the medium term inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies that encourage wasteful consumption (these subsidies totalized US$ 312 billion in 2009) . Well known is also the commitment declared by the European Union to reach a 100 percent renewable energy supply by 2050.

In Latin America, renewable energy use raises to an impressive 30 percent of the total primary energy supply in comparison with the 6 percent share of renewables in the OECD countries (and the less than 1 percent in Middle East). But the numbers are not as good as they seem as generation is mostly dominated by large hydro generation plants and bio-fuel: the first heavily depending on the changing water levels (and particularly affected by droughts due to climate changes) and the second highly criticized due to its failure in reducing greenhouse gases.

Latin America is in a state of continuing progress in the investment and use of renewable energy. From a very timid start we can now see various renewable projects which would soon provide more sources of energy to our countries. The technology and know-how has also been imported to Latin America and we can now see agreements with more advanced countries (in this particular field) like the one entered into between Portugal and Venezuela and the United Kingdom with Cuba.

However, the market of alternative energies is far from perfection. There are a number of barriers and difficulties to overcome and therefore there is still work to be done. In this context, we will analyze other realities and some examples and cases in Latin American countries. We will finally, examine the coexistence between renewable projects, mining and hydrocarbons where their relationship is sometimes pacific and collaborative and -in some occasions- hostile and conflicting.

Italians voted in a 1987 referendum to prevent new nuclear power plants. Subsequently, the government decided in 1988 to phase out existing reactors.

Berlusconi conceded defeat saying “addio” to nuclear and noting that the country must now develop its renewable energy resources.

The Italian referendum follows Germany’s proposal to close all its reactors by 2022 and Switzerland’s decision to phase out its nuclear plants as well.

As Craig Morris points out at Renewables International, Italy is the world’s largest industrial economy to not use nuclear power for the past 14 years.

Italy sets 23 GW solar PV target

Meanwhile, the Italian Government has adopted detailed new tariffs for solar photovoltaic systems (PV) targeting 23 GW by 2017.

The new target supersedes the previous 8 GW target that was likely to be surpassed this year.

At the end of 2010, Italy officially had installed a total solar PV capacity of 3 GW. There may have been as much as 4 GW of additional capacity that was installed in 2010, but the paperwork has not yet been processed. Consequently, there could be 7 GW of solar PV now operating in Italy.

For comparison, Germany has a current installed capacity of 17 GW. There is about 2.2 GW of solar PV installed in the USA.

Italy is currently the world’s second largest market for solar PV, following Germany. The new policy ensures that Italy will likely maintain this position for the foreseeable future.

Solar potentially 10% of supply

Under Italian conditions, the new solar PV target of 23 GW could generate more than 30 TWh annually by 2017.

Italy consumed 319 TWh of electricity in 2010.

If the Italian solar industry reaches the capacity target of 23 GW, it alone will be meeting nearly 10% of the nation’s electricity supply.

Wind energy currently provides nearly 5% of supply.

New solar PV tariffs remain attractive

While the trade press has emphasised that the new policy ‘cuts’ the existing tariffs dramatically, Italian solar PV tariffs will remain among the highest in Europe relative to its more intense insolation.

Though the programme in Italy differs markedly from that in Germany, some of the new tariffs introduced can be compared to those now used in Germany.

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Germany receives approximately three-fourths the insolation of Italy. Thus, current German tariffs would be reduced by an equivalent amount in Italy to provide the same return on investment as in Germany, everything else being equal.

There is a further complication. Quarto Conto Energia, or the fourth energy policy, includes payment of the wholesale rate on top of the feed-in tariff for the remainder of 2011 and for all of 2012. Recently this amounted to an additional 0.07/kWh that’s not shown in the tariffs.

Italy’s new tariffs remain at least 50% greater than the current tariffs in Germany.

Source: www.renewableenergyfocus.com