To achieve such reductions, however, it will be necessary for the US to reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to zero within ten years. Because “Australia has about the same per-capita emissions as the USA,” according to the report, it too would have to pursue the same goal.

The report, entitled Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan, “outlines a technically feasible and economically attractive way for Australia to transition to 100 percent renewable energy within ten years.” The plan specifies that the 100 percent renewable grid be “based on proven technologies that are already commercially available and that have already been demonstrated in large industries.”

In addition to assuming a significant reduction in energy consumption by means of implementing efficiency measures, the plan asserts that 98 percent of Australia’s energy needs can be met by wind generation and large-scale Concentrating Solar Thermal with molten salt storage. According to the plan, wind turbines will meet 40 percent of demand, and solar will provide the remaining 60 percent.

In addition to reducing Australia’s GHG emissions to zero, the plan will create up to 80,000 jobs from renewable energy installations, and an additional 45,000 jobs in operations and maintenance. According to the report, the transition to renewable energy will create many more jobs “than are lost with the phasing out of coal and gas from the stationary energy supply chain.”

The total cost of implementing the plan would be $370 billion, or three percent of Australia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The plan is characterized by higher upfront investment, but lower ongoing costs than continuing reliance on the stationary energy sector.

The plan does not specify funding mechanisms; however, a letter [PDF] published last December by the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) addressed “the important role that capital markets, institutional investors and private finance, will play if the global community is to deliver the needed transformation to a low–carbon and resource-efficient global economy.”

Source: www. reuters.com This article originally appeared on SocialFunds.com, and is reprinted with permission.

Like China, the Portuguese government restructured and privatized former state energy utilities to create a grid better suited to renewable power sources.

Like the rest of Europe, under Europe’s cap and trade system the nation is subject to a price on carbon, making it cheaper to build clean energy than dirty energy. In 1990, the base year for the Kyoto accord that Europe signed, Portugal had a simple agrarian economy.

Now, along with Scotland, Portugal has shot to leadership in enabling the development of wave energy. It set a feed-in tariff for wave energy that will pay 260 euros per megawatt-hour for the first 20 MW installed. The government has a very practical approach to radical innovation. They say, “Let’s do it: then we’ll see.This a problem; this is not”, says WaveRoller CEO John Liljelund. Portugal nurtured the first ocean power testing centers near Peniche, off the coast in Europe for wave and tidal energy.

Since the very capital-intensive first prototypes of wave and tidal power are still largely at the R&D stage, ocean power has yet to bring much power to the grid. But a thriving wind industry, created from scratch in the formerly agrarian society, is not only supplying the nation, along with hydro power, but now exporting wind farms to less developed nations such as the USA.

Energias de Portugal, the country’s largest energy company, owns wind farms in Iowa and Texas, through its American subsidiary, Horizon Wind Energy.

Portugal’s next goal is 60% by 2020. They should find that easy. When you consider the extraordinary feat of adding 28% in only 5 years to get to 45%, adding another 15% more over 10 years looks like a walk in the park.

Source: www.yourrenewablenews.com

The $1bn wind farm near Hamilton, 260km west of Melbourne, is due to be completed in early 2013.

The site will consist of 140 Vestas turbines and will have the capacity to power more than 220,000 homes. AGL said the development would help to cut carbon emissions by more than 1.7 million tonnes of greenhouse gases a year, equivalent to taking more than 420,000 cars off the road.

AGL chief executive Michael Fraser hailed the project as the “most ambitious ” renewable project in Australia in recent history.

“The joint venture between AGL and Meridian combines the considerable experience and complementary skill sets of the largest renewable developers in Australia and New Zealand,” he said. “I have great confidence the partnership will deliver significant benefits for both parties.”

AGL and Meridian will each fund 50 per cent of the capital cost of constructing the wind farm, while AGL will receive all of the wind farm’s energy output and renewable energy certificates.

The company said about 400 direct jobs and 800 indirect jobs would be generated during the construction phase of the project. The completed wind farm will then employ 30 full-time staff during its anticipated 25-year life span.

Leighton Contractors has been awarded a $290m contract for the engineering, procurement and construction work.

AGL and Meridian had been working on the project for five years, but it was put on hold while the firms awaited changes to Australia’s renewable energy legislation.

The plans were revived last month after the Australian Senate finally approved revisions to laws which upped renewable targets to 20 per cent by 2020 – meaning around 9,500MW of new renewable generation capacity must be built this decade.

“The amendments supported the development of large-scale renewable projects, ” Fraser said.

AGL currently sources a third of its power from renewables but will spend a further A$10bn ($9bn) to add another 5,000MW of renewable capacity, Fraser added.

Source: www.businessgreen.com

Whether they are driven to set up a new shop by strong FITs or other important state and local drivers, it’s clear the the global expansion of renewable energy is on the rise.

In Ontario, Canadian Solar announced that it will be setting up shop in Guelph. The facility is expected to be ready by 2010 and the company says that it will be one of the largest solar panel module manufacturing plants in North America, capable of manufacturing 200 megawatts of solar modules a year and employing approximately 500 people in the process.

Canadian Solar currently has its manufacturing operations in China. The decision to set up a manufacturing facility in Ontario was driven by the feed-in-tariff domestic content requirement set forth by the government of Ontario under the Green Energy and Economy Act.

Arizona’s State Incentives Draw Solar Companies

In Surprise, AZ, CSP component manufacturer Rioglass Solar, a subsidiary of Spain-based Rioglass Solar Holdings, will set up U.S. headquarters that it says will create more than one hundred new jobs through its $50 million capital investment.

Rioglass Solar’s tempered glass reflectors will be deployed at Abengoa Solar’s Solana Generating Station, to be constructed near Gila Bend. Rioglass says that it is in negotiations to supply reflectors for several other solar projects under development in the United States.

Rioglass Solar received $10.6 million in federal tax credits to locate its mirror manufacturing facility in Surprise. In addition, Surprise will waive $290,000 in review and public infrastructure fees; invest $865,000 in public infrastructure including rail and electricity upgrades needed to serve the solar facility and will provide the company with project office space at the city’s business incubator, the AZ TechCelerator.

This is the 5th solar energy company to set up operations in Greater Phoenix under the state’s new Renewable Energy Tax Incentive Program, which was launched in January 2010.

Boston-based Photon Consulting delves deeper into the global expansion of solar energy in its new report: Solar Annual 2010 Part One: Place Your Bets. The report predicts 17.2GW of new PV system installations in 2010 alone, which is a 104% year over year growth.

“As the solar sector grows and increases in complexity, it is also becoming increasingly exposed to major shifts in capital market conditions, energy technology evolution and incentive policies in key markets,” says Mark Farber, PHOTON Consulting consultant and co-author of the report.

Wind Companies On the Move, Too

Across the world in South Africa, independent renewable energy group, Wind Prospect, announced that it will open a new office in South Africa with the goal of becoming a key element in the developing African wind market by 2012.

Since the company launched its Developer Service business in 2009, Wind Prospect has opened offices in emerging markets across Europe including most recently Turkey and Poland. The African office will open in Cape Town in October and will provide wind resource assessment, due diligence and development support services to developers, banks and financial institutions across the continent, according to the company. The company says that it is already working on 11 contracts across Kenya and South Africa, representing 1.3 GW of potential capacity.

Following the opening of the African office, Wind Prospect will have offices in 10 countries around the world: Australia, Canada, China, France, Ireland, Poland, South Africa, Turkey, UK, USA.

Source: www.renewableenergyworld.com

The facility is being built by Czech energy giant CEZ. Once completed in 2012, it will produce 600 megawatts of power, making it the largest onshore wind farm in continental Europe, nearly doubling the output of the Whitelee facility in Scotland, Europe’s current largest plant.

Not to be outdone, Spain’s Iberdrola SA (PINK: IBDRY), the world’s biggest wind-farm owner, plans to construct an even larger facility (1,500 megawatts) in Romania, a project that will require a minimum of US$2 billion in investment through 2017. In all, the company plans some 50 Romanian wind parks capable of supplying power to almost 1 million homes.

At the end of 2009, Romania had an installed wind capacity of only 14 megawatts. That number is expected to jump to above 500 megawatts this year. The Romanian Wind Energy Association (RWEA) forecasts that the nation’s total wind capacity could reach 5 gigawatts by 2020.

Romanian law makes receiving planning permission to build wind farms relatively simple. Renewable energy-focused Italian utility Enel Green Power and Portugal’s EDP Renováveis are also planning to invest in wind assets in the country.

Source: www.energyboom.com