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

The commitment covers its entire energy supply – encompassing electricity, heating, industry and transport.

The country’s parliament had previously committed to phasing out fossil fuels by 2050, but now has gone much further committing to cutting greenhouse gas emissions 34% on 1990 levels by 2020 and reducing energy consumption by 12% on 2006 levels.

These ambitions will now be coupled with a target of 35% renewable energy by 2020, half of which will be provided by wind. The remainder of Denmark’s renewable energy target will be realised through renewable heat, smart grid, biogas and other green technologies.

The target will require 1500 MW of offshore wind and 1800 MW of onshore wind capacity by 2020, to make up for the replacement of older turbines. A comprehensive smart grid strategy will also be adopted to enable the integration of great renewables in the grid.

The legislation also brings in incentives for large-scale power plants to switch from coal to biomass and new support for geothermal energy.

Funds will also be made available to convert oil boilers for heating buildings into renewable ones, and from 2013 oil and gas boilers will be banned from new buildings.

Energy efficiency investments by industry will be subsidised under the new regime, as will the use of renewable energy in production processes.

Biogas use will also be encouraged in industrial processes, the natural gas grid and transportation, which will also be the focus of new efforts to drive the adoption of electric and hydrogen fuel vehicles.

“Denmark will once again be the global leader in the transition to green energy,” said Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Building, Martin Lidegaard. “This will prepare us for a future with increasing prices for oil and coal. Moreover, it will create some of the jobs that we need so desperately, now and in the coming years.”

Source: www.energyefficiencynews.com

It’s unique features were 1) a renewable-energy-source-specific feed-in tariff (FiT) guaranteed for 20 years and 2) minimum goals for the share of renewable energy generation for the decades to come. At a time when renewables had a share of about 6% of electricity production, the law called for an increase to 12.5% by 2010 and 20% by 2020.

Since Germany has rather limited untouched resources for conventional hydro power, most of the new renewable capacity had to come from wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, small hydro, or other so-called “alternative energy sources.” Considering that the share of these sources amounted to only 1.7% of electricity production after almost a decade of renewable energy investments based on the “Feed-in Law” of 1991, critics called the “Renewable Energy Sources Act” a waste of money that would accomplish nothing. The goal of 12.5% for 2010 was laughed at for being unrealistic and an “environmentalist pipe-dream.” Many so-called “energy experts” actually went on record and claimed that such goals were impossible to reach because the physical potential of renewable energy sources would simply not be enough.

And criticism didn’t end when the success and the actual potential started to show. In 2005, the head of the conservative party and current Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel said, “Increasing the share of renewable energy sources to 20% by 2020 is unrealistic.”

A Taste of Tomorrow…

12 years later, the laws of physics haven’t changed, but the so-called “experts” have been unmasked as ill-guided charlatans. Just 11 years after its introduction, the “pipe-dream law” reached it’s minimum goal for 2020. In 2011, a share of 20.1% of renewable electricity generation was achieved, despite electricity demand being 6% higher compared to 2000. Many conservative politicians and CEOs of conventional energy corporations have come to the painful realization that they underestimated the potential of renewable energy sources and the law they campaigned against and laughed at on April Fools Day more than a decade ago.

As the law entered it’s 12th year of existence, nature gave it a fitting birthday present yesterday. Wind and solar worked together to show what they are capable of, while hydropower and biomass provided their share with their baseload-capable form of production.

The strong performance of renewables had several effects:

?At least two of the remaining nine nuclear reactors had to be taken offline to grant wind power it’s priority in the grid.

?Lignite power plants operated at an average of just 11 GW all day. That’s less than 60% of their installed capacity.

?The capacity factor of conventional load-following and peak-load power plants using imported hard coal, natural gas, or oil fell to approximatly 6-8%

?Due to the current market design and the resulting Merit-Order Effect, peak-load power actually sold cheaper than baseload power at the European Energy Exchange. While traders and industrial customers paid very cheap 2.4 ct/kWh for baseload power, they could buy “expensive” peak-load power for only 1.8ct/kWh on the spot market.

Of course, it was a Sunday, which means that overall demand was rather low, but nonetheless, it’s been a wonderful birthday gift for the “Renewable Energy Sources Act” and a small glimpse into the future.

Source: www.cleantechnica.com