news20100313gdn

[News] from [guardian.co.uk]

[News > World news > India]
Putin in deal to build nuclear reactors for India

Moscow signs agreement that will see Russia help construct up to 20 atomic plants
Nirmala George in New Delhi
guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 March 2010 18.39 GMT Article history

{{Vladimir Putin and Manmohan Singh at the signing of the nuclear agreement.}
{Photograph}: Harish Tyagi/EPA}

India and Russia today signed a nuclear co-operation agreement, which paves the way for the building of about a dozen nuclear reactors in India, with Russian help, over the next few decades.

The agreement came at the end of talks between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, in New Delhi.

"We are building a strategic partnership with India in the nuclear sector," Putin told business leaders in a video conference earlier.

No exact figures on construction of nuclear reactors were immediately available but last December Russia's nuclear energy chief, Sergei Kiriyenko, had said Moscow would build up to 20 reactors at three sites in India.

Singh said the two sides had completed several important defence co-operation projects, emphasising that ties between the cold war allies remained close. "We regard Russia as a trusted and reliable strategic partner," he said.

The two countries signed a $1.5bn (£1bn) deal for Russia to sell MiG-29K aircraft carrier-based fighter jets to India, with the first deliveries to begin in 2012. The leaders also agreed to intensify their consultations on Afghanistan in tackling the challenges posed by terrorism and extremism in the region, Singh said.

Earlier, Putin told the business leaders that the activities of extremist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan were a "matter of worry for the entire region and the whole world". "Parts of Afghanistan's soil continue to be used by terror groups. We understand the concerns of India regarding the activities of banned outfits in Pakistan," he said.

Other agreements signed Friday included one on the production of satellite navigation systems and others relating to hydrocarbons and the energy sectors, officials said.

Putin also held talks today with India's President Pratibha Patil and ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi.

Discussions between Putin and Singh focussed on strengthening the decades-old bilateral ties between the two countries and examined ways to take them forward as India's burgeoning economy is courted by other players.

India remains one of the world's biggest arms importers and a top Russian arms client, with Moscow supplying nearly 70% of New Delhi's military hardware. Putin said Russia was pursuing technical military co-operation with India that included joint work on a next-generation fighter jet. The two sides further signed a series of agreements marking the end of a protracted dispute over the cost of refurbishing a Soviet-built aircraft carrier, the Admiral Gorshkov, for the Indian navy.


[Environment > Energy]
Love thy neighbour – pool your energy bills, says Labour

General election manifesto to encourage creation of community co-ops for getting good deals on insulation and solar panels
Juliette Jowit
guardian.co.uk, Friday 12 March 2010 18.21 GMT Article history

{{It is estimated consumers could save about 10% on their energy bills from a community energy co-operative.}
{Photograph}: Staff/REUTERS}

Home owners will be encouraged to club together to negotiate discounts from their energy bills under plans to be put forward in Labour's general election manifesto.

Such community energy co-operatives could also be used to get good deals on insulatiing properties and renewable energy devices such as solar panels or wind turbines.

Labour will not pledge money for the idea, but will offer to set up an advisory service to support groups. No target will be set, but a Labour source said there could eventually be "several thousand" such projects. In the US there are 900 similar schemes involving 42m people.

Ed Miliband, the climate secretary, said: "One of the most exciting things happening in the energy field at the moment is the formation of energy co-ops – local people banding together to get cheaper energy bills by buying electricity in bulk and discounts on energy efficiency measures such as home insulation.

"The government has already provided funding for some of these groups through our Low Carbon Communities Challenge Fund. But now I want Labour's manifesto to commit to establishing a support service so that more energy co-ops can be formed and more people can benefit from their services."

Energy co-operatives already exist in the UK, though they are mostly organised to invest in renewable power or mass insulation and share the profits from selling the electricity or energy savings, rather than push for reduced bills. Labour's idea builds on a report from the Co-operative Party, published last year, which suggested more consumer groups could be set up to emulate the success of those in US and Europe. One scheme in Belgium has about 15,000 members.

Based on overseas schemes, the report estimates consumers could save up to 10% – or about £100 a year – on their annual bills by using "collective power" to negotiate better deals with suppliers or direct with generators.

Those groups could then club together to pay for insulation, and following that build combined heat and power units, for example burning biomass, or put up renewable energy such as solar panels on roofs or even commercial wind turbines. These could in turn provide clean energy and possible generate profit from selling surplus electricity back to the National Grid, said Michael Stephenson, the party's general secretary.

"Firstly you can save even more money – the more control you have, obviously the more money you can save," said Stephenson. "If you're saving carbon, you're saving energy which means you're saving money off your bills. [But] a lot of reasons why local communities are working to get this off the ground is because they want to tackle climate change as well.

"We can see this as a potentially massive player in the energy market."

As well as the obvious appeal of lower energy bills – especially with Ofgem warning bills could rise 25% by 2020 – and pressure from most rival parties including the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to announce clear policies on the environment, Labour is understood to be attracted to the benefits of co-operatives in improving community links.

However the lack of any new funds to support the scheme will raise concerns that many community groups will not be able to afford the up-front cost of investing in efficiency or renewable power. There will also be questions about whether power companies will pass on the price cuts to the new groups, in the form of higher bills to other customers.

Stephenson said experience in the banking sector suggested they would not: in countries with a strong mutual (customer-owned) banking sector all banks tended to make lower profits out of their retail customers, said Stephenson. "It tends to have a civilizing influence on the market, rather than driving people the other way," he added.

Simon Roberts of the Centre for Sustainable Energy charity, which oversees a network of community energy groups in Somerset, said co-operatives would need advice on which technology to use in their area, likely costs, procurement and how to develop the structure of the organisation, especially if they needed to employ staff later to manage projects.

news20100313nn1

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 12 March 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.121 News
Clock ticking for an Istanbul earthquake

A wake-up call for seismic-hazard preparedness in Turkey.
By Katherine Barnes

{{The earthquake that hit Turkey on 8 March has triggered concerns that a quake might strike Istanbul.}
STR/AFP/Getty Images}

The magnitude-6.1 earthquake that hit eastern Turkey at 2:32 GMT on 8 March has provoked fresh concerns over whether Istanbul could be the next Turkish site to be hit by a major tremor ┄ and whether it is adequately prepared should a quake strike.

According to data from the US Geological Survey, the epicentre of the recent quake was 70 kilometres from the city of Elaziğ and about 625 kilometres east of Turkey's capital, Ankara. The earthquake toppled buildings and flattened homes, injuring at least 100 people and killing 41.

Turkey is criss-crossed by faults, produced by the African plate pressing into the Anatolian block. Most of the country is being pushed and squeezed to the west between the North and East Anatolian faults. The Elaziğ earthquake is thought to have occurred on the East Anatolian fault.

The chances that the recent quake could itself trigger a tremor in Istanbul are slim, says Ian Main, a seismologist at the University of Edinburgh, UK: "The stress changes at these distances are too small to expect a significant triggering effect."

Nonetheless, the sprawling metropolis of Istanbul, with nearly 13 million inhabitants, has not been hit by a major quake since 1766. A series of strong earthquakes has been progressing westwards along the North Anatolian fault ┄ most recently at Izmit in 1999 ┄ prompting scientists to worry that Istanbul is next in line.

According to Tom Parsons, a geophysicist with the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program in Menlo Park, California, there is a 30–60% chance of a magnitude 7 or greater quake close to Istanbul in the next 25 years.

Tobias Hergert of Karlsruhe University, Germany, and Oliver Heidbach of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam, also in Germany, published a study earlier this year¹ suggesting that the strain accumulating along the North Anatolian fault might be released during several earthquakes rather than in one large rupture of the whole seismic gap. But they add that Istanbul is still at risk of a magnitude 7 or greater earthquake, depending on which fault segment ruptures.

Enormous task

The 1999 Izmit earthquake was a stark reminder for the authorities in Istanbul of the need to prepare their city. Little had been done before that date to mitigate the effects of a potential tremor.

Since then, Istanbul's Metropolitan Municipality has commissioned an earthquake master plan for the city, known as the ISMEP (Istanbul Seismic Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness Project). The project's main goals are to improve emergency preparedness, reduce the risk to existing public facilities and enforce building codes.

Just over ten years on from the Izmit quake, Istanbul is now better prepared and has a better-informed population than many other cities in the world, says Parsons.

For example, the new terminal at Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen International airport is designed to withstand earthquakes of up to magnitude 8 and is said by its developers to be the world's largest seismically-isolated building. The local population has been educated through specially designed earthquake-awareness days, including the use of earthquake-simulator machines and emergency drills for school children. Mustafa Erdik, director of the Kandilli Observatory, says that since 1999, earthquake-code compliance has been much better and that there is a "sizeable effort to strengthen schools and hospitals against earthquakes".

But despite these positive steps, the city is becoming increasingly vulnerable to earthquake damage, and the enormity of the task facing the authorities is overwhelming. According to a paper in the journal Natural Hazards², Istanbul's overcrowding, faulty land-use planning and construction, inadequate infrastructure and services, and environmental degradation are all contributing to the problem.

Meanwhile, the latest earthquake has exposed Turkey's failure to construct sturdy homes in rural areas. Despite renewed attention falling on Istanbul in the wake of the Haiti and Chile earthquakes, the effects of the rupture in the East Anatolian fault show just how poorly prepared the rest of the country is for seismic hazards.

"With media attention and scientific focus currently on Istanbul, it tends to impress on everyone the notion that all is well everywhere else," says Polat Gülkan of the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, who warned of the risks to other regions of Turkey at a recent parliamentary hearing in Ankara on 24 February. "In this country, earthquake potential lurks in virtually every corner."

References
1. Hergert, T. & Heidbach, O. Nature Geosci. 3, 132-135 (2010).
2. Erdik, M. & Durukal, E. Nat. Hazards 44, 181-197 (2008).

news20100313nn2

[naturenews] from [nature.com]

[naturenews]
Published online 12 March 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.120 News
Should we be trying to save the dodo?

A quantitative way to decide whether to keep on conserving a species.
By Daniel Cressey

{{How do we know when a species really is as dead as a dodo?}
Science Photo Library}

Declaring a species extinct and so not worthy of conservation money is not a trivial matter. It's a decision that scientists working for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have to make when drawing up their Red List of Threatened Species, for example. Now, a team of Australian researchers are trying to bring a more rigorous approach to this area with the help of the dodo.

It may sound ridiculous to work out whether conservation dollars should be spent on the dodo (Raphus cucullatus), but the question illustrates a problem for biologists: determining when you should give up on a species.

Cut off conservation money too soon and you could drive a species teetering on the brink into extinction. Keep conserving an animal long after it has last been sighted and you risk wasting money that could keep another endangered animal in the game.

"Declaring extinction is a difficult decision with large risks and large uncertainties," says Tracy Rout, based at the University of Melbourne's School of Botany in Australia, who led the new study reported in Conservation Biology1. "There are many cases where species that have thought to have been extinct have been rediscovered — so-called Lazarus species."

Here, going, gone

The IUCN's Red List declares an animal extinct only "when there is no reasonable doubt that the last individual has died".

What this means in practice is unclear, says Rout. Her work sets out a framework for making this decision and applies it to three species: the still-with-us mountain pygmy possum (Burramys parvus), the possibly extinct ivory-billed woodpecker (Campephilus principalis) and dead-as-a-dodo R. cucullatus¹.

"In terms of funding allocations, decisions are currently made in an arbitrary way, varying from agency to agency and species to species," says Rout. "Our method would help make any implicit judgements of value more explicit."

{{The mountain pygmy possum — still worth saving.}
Biosphoto / J. L. Klein & M. L. Hubert / Still Pictures}

Rout and her colleagues outline a model that uses sightings of endangered species — either as the number of surveys that have failed to spot the species or the time since it was last seen — to calculate the probability it is extant and then applies this to a decision-making framework that weighs the cost of continued conservation with the cost of stopping prematurely.

The probability that the dodo lives on somewhere is about 3.07 x 10-6. According to the new model, it would only be worthwhile to spend money conserving the dodo if the value of the conservation management — the value of the species assigned by conservationists multiplied by the decrease in the probability of extinction — is more than 17 million times the cost of management and monitoring.

By contrast, the chances of the mountain pygmy possum being present on Mount Buller in Australia are around 0.55. As a previous study has valued this population at Aus$200 million–Aus$450 million (US$180 million–US$410 million), it would be optimal to conduct up to 66 more surveys for the animal without finding it before declaring it extinct. At the moment, these surveys cost around Aus$15,000 per year.

The case for the ivory-billed woodpecker is complicated by controversial claims that it was seen in 2004, 2005 and 2006. These triggered huge conservation spending (see 'Still looking for that woodpecker').

Using only the widely accepted sightings of the woodpecker, Rout calculates it would have been optimal to declare extinction in 1965. Using the more controversial recent sightings makes 2032 the year that the species should be declared extinct if there are no more seen before then.

Let's get quantitative

Rout's paper is indicative of a growing trend in some parts of the conservation field, says David Roberts, a conservation biologist at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, at the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK.

{{The ivory-billed woodpecker — a difficult case.}
J. Cancalosi / Ardea}

"At the moment you can look at the IUCN Red List criteria and all the others are quantitative, whereas declarations of extinction are very much qualitative. There's this huge level of uncertainty," says Roberts, who supplied Rout with some of the data on the ivory-billed woodpecker.

"There's a big move towards more incorporation of decision-making theory and economics into conservation decision-making," she adds. "It will at least make it more transparent why we're working on a particular species."

Andrew Solow, director of the Marine Policy Center at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, says that papers of this sort are beginning to make an impact on conservation practices. Solow, who co-authored a paper with Roberts on the dodo's extinction², adds, "The resources are scarce and any time you can allocate them better it's a good thing."

References
1. Rout, T. M. , Heinze, D. & McCarthy, M. A. Conserv. Biol. advance online publication doi:10.111/j.1523-1739.2010.01461.x (2010).
2. Roberts, D. L. & Solow, A. R. Nature 426, 245 (2003).

news20100313bbc

[One-Minute World News] from [BBC NEWS]

[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 04:17 GMT, Saturday, 13 March 2010
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News
Ivory and bluefin tuna top agenda at UN wildlife summit

{A further two African nations are bidding for ivory sales}

Sales of ivory and a possible ban on trading bluefin tuna top the agenda for the two-week CITES meeting that opens this weekend in Doha, Qatar.

CITES - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - will set a precedent if it votes to ban trading in a lucrative fish such as bluefin.

The US and EU back the proposal, but Japan is set against.

Conservation groups are also hoping for increased protection on sharks, coral, polar bears, lizards and amphibians.

African disunity

The ivory and tuna issues are both potentially controversial.

{{This is a key conservation moment - whether the governments here will vote for the conservation of bluefin tuna}
Dr Sue Lieberman
Pew Environment Group}

International ivory trading was banned in 1989.

But countries considered to have well-managed stocks of elephants and reliable systems for tracking tusks have three times been allowed to sell consignments from government stockpiles.

Zambia and Tanzania are now seeking permission for a further sale.

But other African nations led by Kenya and Mali want a 20-year ban on all ivory exports. They argue that the legal trade stimulates poaching, which has been on the rise in recent years.

"To permit any step towards further trade in ivory makes no sense whatsoever - it flies in the face of every basic conservation principle and is contrary to the agreement made at the last meeting," said Jason Bell-Leask from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw).

However, the organisation Traffic - which is charged with collecting data on illegal elephant killings and ivory smuggling - maintains there is no proof of a link.

Enlarge Image

Data from its Elephant Trade Information System (Etis) shows that the rate of seizures of illegal ivory began rising well in 2004, well before the last one-off legal ivory sale was authorised in 2007.

And the previous one-off sale, in 1999, co-incided with a fall in seizures.

Etis manager Tom Milliken argues that African governments wanting to stem the rising ivory tide would be better advised to step up enforcement efforts against poachers and traders.

And China, the principal market for illegal ivory, should live up to its promises to act against smuggling gangs, he says.

Otherwise, he says: "Arguments over the impacts of one-off sales will continue to divert attention away from the real problem: finding ways to stop the flow of illicit ivory at source."

Tuna battles

The chances of CITES voting to ban the international trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna increased markedly during the week when - after months of wrangling - the EU decided to give its support.

The bloc includes several nations with tuna fleets in the Mediterranean, the main fishing ground.

{{CITES EXPLAINED}
> Threatened organisms listed on three appendices depending on level of risk
> Appendix 1 - all international trade banned
> Appendix 2 - international trade monitored and regulated
> Appendix 3 - trade bans by individual governments, others asked to assist
> "Uplisting" - moving organism to a more protective appendix; "downlisting" - the reverse
> Conferences of the Parties (COPs) held every three years
> CITES administered by UN Environment Programme (Unep)}

Conservation groups argue that the ban is needed because governments involved in the industry have allowed overfishing to such an extent that the species' survival is in some doubt.

They also argue that a pause in fishing will eventually lead to higher catches.

"The goal is not to ban trade indefinitely, but to suspend international trade until the species recovers sufficiently to enable international trade to resume," said Sue Lieberman, director of international policy with the Pew Environment Group.

"This is a key conservation moment - whether the governments here will vote for the conservation of bluefin tuna, or will allow commercial fishery interests to prevail, further causing over-fishing and continued decline of this iconic species," she told BBC News from Doha.

Japan has indicated that it would opt out of a trade ban, as it is entitled to do under CITES rules.

But if all other tuna fishing countries went along with it, there would be no supply of tuna to import.

Conservation groups are urging the EU and US to make sure that other tuna fishing countries, particularly North African states bordering the Mediterranean, do not opt out.

Skin and teeth

The CITES meeting will also consider a US proposal to ban international trade in items originating from polar bears.

Rapid melting of Arctic sea ice in recent decades has placed the polar bear on the Red List of Threatened Species.

The delicate red and pink corals are highly prized by jewellers
About 2,000 items are traded internationally each year, including skin, skulls, teeth and claws.

Although this is not considered to be the major threat to the species' survival, the US feels that the trade ban would be a help, and would not intrude on the rights of Arctic indigenous peoples with a history of hunting polar bears for meat and skin.

Other proposals would see trade banned in a number of reptiles and amphibians, including three iguanas from Mexico and the critically endangered Luristan newt of Iran.

Four species of shark are also up for consideration, as are the red and pink Corallium corals from the Mediterranean that are used in the jewellery trade.


[Science & Environment]
Page last updated at 03:34 GMT, Saturday, 13 March 2010
By Pallab Ghosh
Science correspondent, BBC News
Obama Nasa plans 'catastrophic' say Moon astronauts

Former Nasa astronauts who went to the Moon have told the BBC of their dismay at President Barack Obama's decision to push back further Moon missions.

Jim Lovell, commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, said Mr Obama's decision would have "catastrophic consequences" for US space exploration.

The last man on the Moon, Eugene Cernan, said it was "disappointing".

Last month Mr Obama cancelled Nasa's Constellation Moon landings programme, approved by ex-President George W Bush.

Nasa still aims to send astronauts back to the Moon, but it is likely to take decades and some believe that it will never happen again.

'Moral leadership'

The astronauts spoke to the BBC at a private event at the Royal Society in London on Friday organised by the Foundation for Science and Technology.

{{It will have catastrophic consequences in our ability to explore space and the spin-offs we get from space technology}
Jim Lovell
Apollo 13 commander}

They were joined there by the first man on the Moon, Neil Armstrong.

As the last astronaut to return to the Apollo 17 lunar module in 1972, Cernan was the last man to set foot on the Moon.

"I'm quite disappointed that I'm still the last man on the Moon," he said. "I thought we'd have gone back long before now."

So why does he believe Americans should go back to the Moon?

{The proposed Ares-1 rocket has been cancelled by Mr Obama}

"I think America has a responsibility to maintain its leadership in technology and its moral leadership... to seek knowledge. Curiosity's the essence of human existence."

It is a view shared by fellow Apollo Astronaut Jim Lovell, the heroic commander of Apollo 13.

"Personally I think it will have catastrophic consequences in our ability to explore space and the spin-offs we get from space technology," he said.

"They haven't thought through the consequences."

Lunar dream alive

Although Cernan and Lovell expressed their dismay with President Obama's decision, Mr Armstrong tactfully avoided the subject.

When he set foot on the Moon in July 1969, it seemed as if humanity would soon colonise other worlds.

By 1994, when I interviewed him for the first time, he said: "The reality may have faded. But the dream is still there and it will come back in time."

But with the cancellation of Nasa's Constellation programme to return Americans to the moon by 2020, who is to inspire the next generation?

Nasa still aims to send astronauts back to the Moon, using Nasa to provide incentives and oversight to the private sector for launch services.

It is likely to take some time, however.

Until then we will have the epic tales of Armstrong, Lovell, Cernan and the rest of the Apollo astronaut corps to remind us that all things are possible - and despite the current pause in human spaceflight to other worlds, the dream is still there.

news20100313reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Michael Kahn
PRAGUE
Thu Mar 11, 2010 11:09am EST
Investors see pick up in CEE renewable financing

(Reuters) - Financing for renewable projects in the Central European region is picking up despite a murky regulatory landscape in some countries that scares off potential investors, fund managers and bankers said.

Credit remains tight but a return to profit for big banks and a better understanding of the renewable sector in the region is helping to boost financing, they told a two-day renewable energy financing conference ending on Thursday in Prague.

"The appetite from banks has changed rapidly because they have more visibility," Vivek Mittal, managing partner of Millennium Resource Strategies in London. "The dynamics of the sector have also become more clear."

Generous feed-in tariffs, European Union renewable targets and a need for new sources of energy make the region an attractive place for investors.

In 2009, for example, the Czech Republic ranked third in Europe in the number of new solar projects thanks to feed-in tariffs as high as 469 euros per megawatt hour.

"We see central and eastern Europe as a tremendous opportunity," said Daniel Von Preyss, managing director, private equity, at Impax Asset Management in London. "We have looked at the Czech Solar market, Poland's wind market and are looking with great interest in Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania."

Some investors and analysts are downbeat following a U.N. summit in Copenhagen in December which failed to set a deadline for a new legally-binding climate treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol in 2013.

But stimulus cash to re-ignite sagging economies will likely find its way into renewable projects in 2010 as new investors from outside Central Europe target the region.

Michael White, managing director at Prague-based Enercap which specializes in private equity investments in renewable energy projects in central and southeastern European, cited biomass as an "exciting" sector but said regulatory uncertainty would keep his fund out of certain countries.

"We are seeing new players coming in from Asia who are building up flagship projects as a beachhead for other projects in Europe," White said. "You will also start to see some of the insurance funds and pension funds starting to come into the (renewable) market."

Daniel Kockisch, a vice president at UniCredit Bank Austria noted banks that had retreated to core markets mainly in western Europe due to the financial crisis were now beginning to look eastward again.

Improvements in the private financing sector had also helped establish a healthy pipeline of wind projects in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, he added.

"What is very important for the region is the return of opportunistic lenders like commercial banks," Kockisch said. "I am quite confident they will start coming back and in general there are good opportunities to finance wind projects in the region over the next one or two years."

(Editing by James Jukwey)


[Green Business]
Fri Mar 12, 2010 12:29pm EST
Broadwind Energy posts wider Q4 loss, sees weak Q1 rev

(Reuters) - Broadwind Energy Inc reported a wider fourth-quarter loss, and said it expects sequentially lower first-quarter revenue, sending its shares down 20 percent.

The wind energy company, however, said revenue would likely trough in the first quarter.

For the latest fourth quarter, Broadwind reported a net loss of $92.6 million, or 96 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $12.4 million, or 13 cents a share, last year.

Excluding charges, the company posted a loss of 11 cents a share, unchanged from a year ago. Analysts were looking for a loss of 7 cents a share.

Sales slumped 58 percent to $32.9 million, which way below consensus estimates of $46.3 million.

Broadwind said weak demand and low capacity utilization led to significantly lower results in all operating segments.

Shares of the company fell 20 percent to $4.55, and were among the top percentage losers Friday morning on Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Adveith Nair in Bangalore; Editing by Ratul Ray Chaudhuri)


[Green Business]
OTTAWA
Fri Mar 12, 2010 2:41pm EST
British Columbia OKs 19 projects in clean power push

(Reuters) - British Columbia has given the green light to 19 private-sector clean energy projects that will generate enough power to supply nearly 218,000 homes in Canada's Pacific Coast province.

The approvals, announced late on Thursday by BC Hydro, the government-owned electricity utility, mark the first phase in the provincial government's long-delayed push to generate more green power.

Fourteen of the 19 proposals are 14 run-of-river hydroelectric projects, in which river water is diverted through turbines to produce power without the use of dams. The remainder are wind power projects.

Combined, the projects will generate more than 2,400 gigawatt hours of electricity annually.

Another 28 projects remain under consideration, said BC Hydro, which will announce additional awards in late March. The utility's target in the program is 5,000 gigawatt hours a year of clean power.

After four of its wind projects, with a combined capacity of 293 megawatts, got the green light, shares of tiny Finavera Renewable Inc soared 128.5 percent to 16 Canadian cents on the TSX Venture Exchange on Friday.

In contrast, shares of Plutonic Power Corp shed 4 percent after its Upper Toba Valley run-of-river project in a wilderness area on the Pacific Coast was selected.

Macquarie Capital Marks analyst Steve Harris said the market was likely surprised by Plutonic's decision to cut one of three planned facilities from Upper Toba Valley due to transmission constraint concerns.

Plutonic, whose project partner is GE Energy Financial Services, also said earlier this week that it had withdrawn its Bute Inlet proposal so that it could collect more data while advancing project studies and permit efforts.

Plutonic stock was down 14 Canadian cents at C$3.34 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday afternoon.

Innergex Renewable Energy Ltd had three run-of-river projects chosen. Innergex, whose stock rose 1.9 percent to C$12.39, holds a two-thirds stake of the projects and Ledcor Power Group Ltd the remainder.

Fraser Mackenzie analyst John Safrance raised his rating on Innergex stock to "strong buy" from "buy" and hiked his target price to C$10.55 from C$8.40, citing the company's growth prospects.

Capital Power Corp's Quality Wind project in northeastern British Columbia, which the company estimates will cost C$455 million to construct, was also chosen by BC Hydro. Commercial operation is expected by spring 2013, the company said.

Brookfield Renewable Power said it has been selected for a 40-year power purchase deal for its Kokish River hydroelectric project, being developed by Kwagis Power. The project has a planned start date of 2014.

Power purchase agreements, which will include the range of prices BC Hydro will pay for the power, will be submitted to the British Columbia Utilities Commission for review.

British Columbia has mandated that 90 percent of electricity generated in the province must come from clean or renewable sources by 2016. It also plans to achieve electricity self-sufficiency by 2016.

Green power developers have despaired at delays in the call for clean power, made in 2007. BC Hydro had been expected to announce winners last summer.

"We believe that BC Hydro's management of the call has been an embarrassment for the province," said analyst Harris in a note. "But the silver lining may be that it should set in motion a series of initiatives and reforms that are positive for (independent power producers) in B.C."

NaiKun Wind Energy Group Inc said its offshore wind project was not among the first wave of winners, but its proposal remains under consideration. Its shares fell 13 percent to 52 Canadian cents on TSX Venture on Friday.

NaiKun said its Hecate Strait project has won provincial environmental approval and that it is now working with the federal government and native Indian group Haida Nation to advance their reviews.

The company said it is also trying to diversify and reduce risk by acquiring electricity generating assets that are in advanced development. It said it is negotiating with multiple parties.

($1=$1.03 Canadian)

(Reporting by Susan Taylor; editing by Peter Galloway)

news20100313reut2

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
BUDAPEST/LONDON
Fri Mar 12, 2010 2:42pm EST
Hungary sells "used" CO2 permits, sparks EU concern

(Reuters) - Hungary is selling 2 million U.N.-backed carbon emissions permits which have already been surrendered by companies, it said on Friday, raising concern that their buyers could use them again to comply with the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme ETS.

The Environment Ministry said late on Thursday that it has signed an agreement to sell the permits to a trading firm which could probably resell them to Japan.

"The units are certified emission reductions (CERs) previously surrendered by Hungarian firms to comply with caps," the ministry's spokeswoman Boglarka Olt told Reuters.

She said the CERs are covered by the withdrawal of the same amount of AAUs (assigned amount units), credits assigned to governments, which firms are not allowed to use to comply with their caps under the ETS.

The European Commission has warned that CERs, once surrendered by firms to comply with their caps to a member state, can not be re-used for compliance later.

Jos Delbeke, the Commission deputy director general for environment said in a statement that he was concerned about government sales of such CERs even though such sales were possible under the rules of the Kyoto Protocol.

"However, European legislation does not allow for such CERs to be re-used for compliance in the EU ETS to avoid double counting of emission reductions," Delbeke said. "Furthermore, a company buying such CERs in good faith and for compliance use in the EU ETS could incur economic losses."

Olt said Hungary sold CERs because that was the instrument for which it saw demand. She said there were guarantees that the buyers would know that the CERs cannot return into the ETS.

"First, we had it in the contract that the buyer acknowledges that those CERs cannot return," she said. "Second, the EU has published the list of the withdrawn units, therefore it can be checked that they cannot be sold legally (in the ETS)."

Miles Austin, director of the Carbon Markets and Investors Association said Hungary's deal used a gap in EU regulations by selling CERs and covering it with AAUs which have a lower price.

"There is the risk that other countries might go to market and buy the AAUs and pocket the price difference," he told Reuters.

"This is the first instance of this happening," he said. "If this becomes a widespread practice it could double the volume of CERs available to the market which would have an effect on the CER price and therefore the (ETS trading unit) EUA price."

(Reporting by Nina Chestney in London/Sandor Peto in Budapest)


[Green Business]
CAIRO
Fri Mar 12, 2010 8:39am EST
Egypt to secure $430 mln loan for wind farm: agency

(Reuters) - Egypt is set to secure a $430 million loan from Japan to fund a 220-megawatt wind farm as it tries to boost its renewable energy output, the state news agency MENA said on Friday.

Egypt, an oil and gas producer, has been developing wind power along its eastern Red Sea coast. It aims to generate 12 percent of its power from wind and 20 percent from renewables overall by 2020.

The loan, inked this week, will be used to build a wind farm in Gebel el Zeit on the Gulf of Suez, the report said.

Officials say Egypt's combined oil and gas reserves will last it roughly three decades, pushing it to develop alternative energy sources, including nuclear and solar.

Last week Egypt said it would receive a $100 million loan from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to fund a 1,300 megawatt power plant in the Red Sea coastal town of Ain Sokhna, east of Cairo.

(Writing by Alexander Dziadosz; editing by James Jukwey)


[Green Business]
Mary Milliken
TORRANCE, California
Fri Mar 12, 2010 7:44pm EST
Honda drives toward home solar hydrogen refueling

(Reuters) - Coming not so soon and probably not to a house near you is the home solar hydrogen refueling station -- Honda Motor Co's latest idea in its drive to make hydrogen the fuel of choice for zero emission cars.

The Japanese auto giant believes hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles offer the best long-term alternative to fossil fuels and the company showed on Friday a refueling breakthrough that it says points to a home version down the road.

Most major automakers have spent billions of dollars in researching hydrogen-powered fuel cells, tempted by the idea of a car that uses no gasoline and emits only water vapor. But Honda is widely seen as the hydrogen leader, while others like General Motors put more effort into battery-powered electric vehicles like the upcoming Volt.

One of the big barriers to hydrogen car deployment is the lack of refueling infrastructure, leading Honda to bet that the future lies in combining a public station network with a more modest home option.

Honda's home option will comprise a solar-powered hydrogen refueling station using solar panels.

"Customers can choose how they interact with both of them based on their annual miles and their habits," said Stephen Ellis, fuel cell manager at the Honda's North American headquarters in Torrance, California.

'BIGGEST PROGRESS'

"The key thing to remember is that with five-minute refueling you are good for another 240 miles," Ellis added.

That range comes from the "fast-fill" public station, of which there are just a handful in Southern California, where Honda leases 15 FCX Clarity hydrogen-powered vehicles and is set to distribute more in coming months.

Eight hours of home solar refueling would guarantee a smaller range of 30 miles or about 10,000 miles (16,000 km per year -- enough for an average commuting car.

At the Los Angeles R&D center, engineers refueled the sleek FCX Clarity sedan with a new single-unit station connected to a solar array that replaces a two-unit system, cutting costs and improving efficiency by 25 percent.

"This is wonderful progress, the biggest progress," said Ikuya Yamashita, the chief engineer of the station.

The station uses a 6-kilowatt solar array, composed of 48 panels and thin film solar cells developed by a Honda subsidiary. It breaks down the water into hydrogen in what Honda calls a "virtually carbon-free energy cycle."

The FCX Clarity's hydrogen "stack" -- or the electricity generator -- is around the size of an attache case, tucked between the two front seats, and is a fifth of the stack size developed a decade ago.

The car is likely to be sold commercially around 2018 in the luxury large sedan category, while the solar hydrogen refueling system could move beyond the research stage and into the market-ready phase around 2015.

"A lot of this work is not necessarily for today's economic situation," said Ellis. "This is for tomorrow, when most people feel energy prices will be higher."

(Additional reporting by Poornima Gupta; Editing by Gary Hill)

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[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
Scott DiSavino
NEW YORK
Fri Mar 12, 2010 6:43pm EST
NY water plan could cost power generators billions

(Reuters) - New York environmental regulators this week released a plan to protect aquatic life in the state's rivers that could cost power generators billions to upgrade their facilities.

The plan, which still needs final approval, would affect most of the state's six nuclear power plants and several facilities powered by fossil fuels that use water for cooling. The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) wants the facilities to recycle and reuse the water in a closed-cycle cooling system rather than discharging the heated water into rivers.

One of the first plants to face the proposed regulations would be Entergy Corp's 1,910-MW Indian Point, located about 45 miles north of New York City where it draws water from the Hudson River. Entergy has already asked the DEC for a new water permit and requested that the federal government renew the license for both of its reactors.

The DEC, which is accepting comment on its proposal through May 9, said it would require closed-cycle systems -- like cooling towers -- unless "an operator can demonstrate that closed-cycle cooling technology cannot physically be implemented at a particular location."

In February, Entergy filed a report with the DEC that found it would be better to add new underwater screens to the plant's existing cooling water intake system rather than install expensive cooling towers.

The state however wants plants to use closed-cycle systems, which recirculate the water instead of discharging it after one use. The DEC said closed-cycle systems reduce the impact on aquatic life by more than 90 percent.

Like the other plants, Indian Point uses river water to condense the steam used to turn the turbines and generate electricity before returning the slightly heated water back to the river. The water used to make the steam remains in the plant.

Entergy said cooling towers, which can stand more than 600 feet tall and measure 300 feet in diameter, could not enter service before 2029 at an estimated cost of $1.5 billion to $2 billion.

The underwater screen meanwhile would take just three years to install and cost about $100 million.

Hence Entergy said the screens would better protect fish eggs and larvae over the 20-year period of a renewed Indian Point license, in large part, because they can be installed 12 to 15 years sooner than cooling towers. Entergy has said it hopes to get a draft water permit from the DEC in April that included approval for the screens.

Entergy is also waiting for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to decide on 20-year extensions of the reactors' original 40-year operating licenses, which expire in 2013 and 2015.

Entergy filed to renew both reactors' licenses in 2007. The NRC, which has made decisions on other renewals in 22 months without a hearing, has not said when it will decide on Indian Point.

Electricity traders noted contentious applications with hearings, such as Indian Point, can drag on for years.

The DEC plan would also affect other power plants in the state, including U.S. Power Generating's 1,290-megawatt Astoria, Mirant Corp's 1,139-MW Bowline, National Grid's 1,522-MW Northport, Oswego Harbor's 1,700 MW Oswego, TransCanada's 2,410-MW Ravenswood and Dynegy Inc's 1,200-MW Roseton.

(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)


[Green Business]
Fri Mar 12, 2010 2:46pm EST
Kenya strongly opposes resumption of ivory trade

NAIROBI, March 12 (Reuters ) - Kenya Friday underlined its strong opposition to any move to lift a ban on trading ivory ahead of a meeting on endangered species.

The Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) is due to meet on March 13 in Qatar.

A nine-year ban on ivory sales was agreed in 2007 under the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species.

Kenya relies heavily on tourism to earn foreign exchange and many visitors come to the country to visit its numerous game parks, and see its animals, among them a 35,000-strong heavily protected elephant population.

"Tourism accounts for 21 percent of the total foreign exchange earnings and 12 percent of GDP. Tourism resources must, therefore, be guarded fiercely, hence Kenya's relentless conservation efforts," President Mwai Kibaki said.

"I appeal to all friends of Kenya to support this call to save the African elephant and rhino from extinction," he added in a speech while commissioning an electric fence protecting Aberdare National Park in central Kenya.

Tanzania and Zambia, both with growing elephant populations, want to reclassify their populations, as a first step to resuming the trade.

Kenya is opposed to the ivory trade after losing a large number of its elephants to poaching in the 1980s.

Forestry Minister Noah Wekesa said 23 other countries supported Kenya's stand on the ban on ivory trade.

(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Jon Hemming)