[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
TerniEnergia to exceed 2009 solar targets
Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:19am EDT
By Svetlana Kovalyova
MILAN (Reuters) - Italian renewable energy company TerniEnergia is set to exceed its 2009 target for new solar installations and may review 2010 and 2011 goals aiming to expand in the rapidly growing market, its chairman told Reuters.
Photovoltaic (PV) installations which turn sunlight into power have mushroomed in Italy since 2007 when the government approved new incentives, among the most generous in Europe. Investors ranging from families to utilities and from banks to sports car maker Ferrari have piled into the sector.
TerniEnergia, a leading PV system integrator, has built and prepared for grid connection about 22 megawatt (MW) of PV capacity in Italy so far this year, its chairman Stefano Neri told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"We have already reached (annual) target ahead of time ... We still have other work to do in the final quarter," Neri said. "By the end of this year we will review the (2010 and 2011) targets, but surely we plan to increase our production in 2010."
Under its 2009-2011 industrial plan, TerniEnergia aimed to install 22 MW of PV capacity in 2009 and raise the new installed capacity targets to 29 MW next year and to 37 MW in 2011.
22 MW is about 4 percent of all PV installed capacity in Italy.
TerniEnergia said in a statement on Monday it has completed and tested a 3 MW peak capacity PV plant in Umbria, central Italy, one of the biggest in the country and able to produce 4 million kilowatt hours of power a year.
The company which has bought three small unlisted companies this month to implement industrial size PV plants with a total capacity of 13 MW in the southern region of Puglia in the first quarter of next year, plans to continue with the buying spree.
"Given demand that we see on the strongly expanding market, we have decided to buy companies which already have approved projects. This will allow us to speed up our production activity and increase the quantity of implemented projects," Neri said.
CREDIT CRUNCH EASING
The credit crunch which has practically frozen access to some forms of financing, such as leasing, from October last year has been easing and financing conditions in the Italian PV sector have improved in the past few months, he said.
Falling operating costs due to a sharp drop in solar panel prices also helped to facilitate access to funding, he added.
The PV sector operators want to know as soon as possible how the government would change the existing incentive scheme including a feed-in tariff which guarantees operators up to 0.49 euros per KWh of produced power for 20 years, Neri said.
"We would appreciate it if the indications of the new incentive scheme were given well in advance. It will give the company a chance to adjust its strategy," he said.
The current incentive scheme puts a 1,200 MW cap on capacity to be covered by incentives. Neri said he doubted the limit would be reached in 2010, as widely belived by sector operators, because of bureaucratic hurdles and grid connection delays.
Italy's PV sector, made up mostly of numerous small and unlisted project developers is likely to regroup in the next couple of years, with companies dealing with industrial-size projects consolidating around big players, while small companies would carry with household-size installations, he said.
(Editing by Keiron Henderson)
[Green Business]
Negotiators urged to speed up climate pact talks
Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:07am EDT
By Thin Lei Win and David Fogarty
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Delegates at the start of marathon climate talks in Thailand on Monday were told to speed up "painfully slow" negotiations as they struggle to settle on the outline of a tougher pact to fight global warming.
The Bangkok talks, which run until October 9, is the last major negotiating round before a gathering in Copenhagen in December that the United Nations has set as a deadline to seal a broad agreement on a pact to expand and replace the Kyoto Protocol.
"Time is not just pressing. It has almost run out," Yvo de Boer, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told delegates from about 180 countries.
"But in two weeks real progress can be made toward the goals that world leaders have set for the negotiations to break deadlocks and to cooperate toward concrete progress," he said.
Delegates at the talks are tasked with trying to streamline a draft legal text of a pact that would replace Kyoto. The main text, running to about 180 pages, is filled with blanks, options and alternative wording options.
The U.N.-led negotiations have become bogged down over arguments about rich nations' targets to cut emissions by 2020, financing for poorer nations to adapt to climate change and to curb their own greenhouse gas emissions and the best way to deliver and manage those funds.
"We've talked for long enough, the world expects actions," Connie Hedegaard, Denmark's minister of climate change and energy and host of the December 7-18 Copenhagen gathering, told delegates.
De Boer later told reporters the negotiating process so far had been painfully slow. "We must have a higher level of ambition in terms of emissions cuts by industrialized countries.
"In addition, we need to see more clarity here on how the process is going to make it possible for developing countries to engage," he said.
"DROWNING IN TEXT"
The United Nations, many developing nations and green groups have expressed frustration about the lack of progress during several negotiating rounds in the run-up to Copenhagen.
"The problem we have at the moment in these negotiations is that we are drowning in text," Tove Ryding of Greenpeace told reporters.
"What we need to see is late nights and fights. We need to see them sit there -- that's what these people do for a living -- they need to smell like sweat and coffee. If they don't do that, they're not actually at work."
De Boer spoke of progress at last week's U.N. climate change summit in New York but said a Copenhagen agreement must have five essential elements.
These included enhanced steps to help the most vulnerable nations adapt to climate change impacts, tougher emissions targets for rich nations, which are currently well below the 25-40 percent reductions from 1990 levels by 2020 recommended by the U.N. climate panel, and cash to help poorer countries cut their emissions.
Hedegaard said a picture was beginning to emerge from the puzzle of the climate text, but rapid progress was needed to refine it into a document with clear political choices.
Artur Runge-Metzger, head of the European Commission delegation, said final figures on finance would most likely be decided on the last night of the Copenhagen talks.
"Because you can only commit to figures if you know what kind of deal you are going to have and which direction are you going to go," he said.
De Boer said long-term financing to help poorer nations adapt to climate change and to slow the pace of their emissions growth should be in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year.
"I think the main worry for us here in Bangkok is that there's only 70 days left," said Runge-Metzger, referring to the start of the Copenhagen meeting. "There's so much work to be done."
(Editing by Alex Richardson)
[Green Business]
Denmark's KommuneKredit offers eco-tech bond
Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:06am EDT
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish municipal credit institution KommuneKredit will offer up to 400 million Danish crowns ($78.92 million) worth of a new 2012 zero-coupon bond based on a basket of 10 environmental technology shares, it said on Monday.
The bond will be issued at 105 percent of face value and redeemed at no less than face value or at a maximum to be determined based on an estimate of the potential growth in the underlying basket of shares, triple-A issuer KommuneKredit said in a statement.
The ceiling for appreciation of the bond, named "KommuneKredit Klima 2012," has indicatively been set at 32 percent, but will be fixed by the arranger Danske Bank based on market conditions, KommuneKredit said.
The maturity is October 30, 2012, it said.
The underlying shares are:
Spanish wind turbine maker Gamesa
Danish wind turbine maker Vestas
U.S. cable maker General Cable Corp
U.S. solar panel maker First Solar
Spanish wind power group Iberdrola Renovables
German solar company Solarworld AG
Spanish wind power developer Acciona Energia SA
Norwegian solar industry firm Renewable Energy Corp
U.S. solar technology firm SunPower Corp
U.S. network infrastructure supplier Quanta Services
(Reporting by John Acher; Editing by Victoria Main)
[Green Business]
TerniEnergia to exceed 2009 solar targets
Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:19am EDT
By Svetlana Kovalyova
MILAN (Reuters) - Italian renewable energy company TerniEnergia is set to exceed its 2009 target for new solar installations and may review 2010 and 2011 goals aiming to expand in the rapidly growing market, its chairman told Reuters.
Photovoltaic (PV) installations which turn sunlight into power have mushroomed in Italy since 2007 when the government approved new incentives, among the most generous in Europe. Investors ranging from families to utilities and from banks to sports car maker Ferrari have piled into the sector.
TerniEnergia, a leading PV system integrator, has built and prepared for grid connection about 22 megawatt (MW) of PV capacity in Italy so far this year, its chairman Stefano Neri told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"We have already reached (annual) target ahead of time ... We still have other work to do in the final quarter," Neri said. "By the end of this year we will review the (2010 and 2011) targets, but surely we plan to increase our production in 2010."
Under its 2009-2011 industrial plan, TerniEnergia aimed to install 22 MW of PV capacity in 2009 and raise the new installed capacity targets to 29 MW next year and to 37 MW in 2011.
22 MW is about 4 percent of all PV installed capacity in Italy.
TerniEnergia said in a statement on Monday it has completed and tested a 3 MW peak capacity PV plant in Umbria, central Italy, one of the biggest in the country and able to produce 4 million kilowatt hours of power a year.
The company which has bought three small unlisted companies this month to implement industrial size PV plants with a total capacity of 13 MW in the southern region of Puglia in the first quarter of next year, plans to continue with the buying spree.
"Given demand that we see on the strongly expanding market, we have decided to buy companies which already have approved projects. This will allow us to speed up our production activity and increase the quantity of implemented projects," Neri said.
CREDIT CRUNCH EASING
The credit crunch which has practically frozen access to some forms of financing, such as leasing, from October last year has been easing and financing conditions in the Italian PV sector have improved in the past few months, he said.
Falling operating costs due to a sharp drop in solar panel prices also helped to facilitate access to funding, he added.
The PV sector operators want to know as soon as possible how the government would change the existing incentive scheme including a feed-in tariff which guarantees operators up to 0.49 euros per KWh of produced power for 20 years, Neri said.
"We would appreciate it if the indications of the new incentive scheme were given well in advance. It will give the company a chance to adjust its strategy," he said.
The current incentive scheme puts a 1,200 MW cap on capacity to be covered by incentives. Neri said he doubted the limit would be reached in 2010, as widely belived by sector operators, because of bureaucratic hurdles and grid connection delays.
Italy's PV sector, made up mostly of numerous small and unlisted project developers is likely to regroup in the next couple of years, with companies dealing with industrial-size projects consolidating around big players, while small companies would carry with household-size installations, he said.
(Editing by Keiron Henderson)
[Green Business]
Negotiators urged to speed up climate pact talks
Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:07am EDT
By Thin Lei Win and David Fogarty
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Delegates at the start of marathon climate talks in Thailand on Monday were told to speed up "painfully slow" negotiations as they struggle to settle on the outline of a tougher pact to fight global warming.
The Bangkok talks, which run until October 9, is the last major negotiating round before a gathering in Copenhagen in December that the United Nations has set as a deadline to seal a broad agreement on a pact to expand and replace the Kyoto Protocol.
"Time is not just pressing. It has almost run out," Yvo de Boer, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told delegates from about 180 countries.
"But in two weeks real progress can be made toward the goals that world leaders have set for the negotiations to break deadlocks and to cooperate toward concrete progress," he said.
Delegates at the talks are tasked with trying to streamline a draft legal text of a pact that would replace Kyoto. The main text, running to about 180 pages, is filled with blanks, options and alternative wording options.
The U.N.-led negotiations have become bogged down over arguments about rich nations' targets to cut emissions by 2020, financing for poorer nations to adapt to climate change and to curb their own greenhouse gas emissions and the best way to deliver and manage those funds.
"We've talked for long enough, the world expects actions," Connie Hedegaard, Denmark's minister of climate change and energy and host of the December 7-18 Copenhagen gathering, told delegates.
De Boer later told reporters the negotiating process so far had been painfully slow. "We must have a higher level of ambition in terms of emissions cuts by industrialized countries.
"In addition, we need to see more clarity here on how the process is going to make it possible for developing countries to engage," he said.
"DROWNING IN TEXT"
The United Nations, many developing nations and green groups have expressed frustration about the lack of progress during several negotiating rounds in the run-up to Copenhagen.
"The problem we have at the moment in these negotiations is that we are drowning in text," Tove Ryding of Greenpeace told reporters.
"What we need to see is late nights and fights. We need to see them sit there -- that's what these people do for a living -- they need to smell like sweat and coffee. If they don't do that, they're not actually at work."
De Boer spoke of progress at last week's U.N. climate change summit in New York but said a Copenhagen agreement must have five essential elements.
These included enhanced steps to help the most vulnerable nations adapt to climate change impacts, tougher emissions targets for rich nations, which are currently well below the 25-40 percent reductions from 1990 levels by 2020 recommended by the U.N. climate panel, and cash to help poorer countries cut their emissions.
Hedegaard said a picture was beginning to emerge from the puzzle of the climate text, but rapid progress was needed to refine it into a document with clear political choices.
Artur Runge-Metzger, head of the European Commission delegation, said final figures on finance would most likely be decided on the last night of the Copenhagen talks.
"Because you can only commit to figures if you know what kind of deal you are going to have and which direction are you going to go," he said.
De Boer said long-term financing to help poorer nations adapt to climate change and to slow the pace of their emissions growth should be in the hundreds of billions of dollars per year.
"I think the main worry for us here in Bangkok is that there's only 70 days left," said Runge-Metzger, referring to the start of the Copenhagen meeting. "There's so much work to be done."
(Editing by Alex Richardson)
[Green Business]
Denmark's KommuneKredit offers eco-tech bond
Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:06am EDT
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Danish municipal credit institution KommuneKredit will offer up to 400 million Danish crowns ($78.92 million) worth of a new 2012 zero-coupon bond based on a basket of 10 environmental technology shares, it said on Monday.
The bond will be issued at 105 percent of face value and redeemed at no less than face value or at a maximum to be determined based on an estimate of the potential growth in the underlying basket of shares, triple-A issuer KommuneKredit said in a statement.
The ceiling for appreciation of the bond, named "KommuneKredit Klima 2012," has indicatively been set at 32 percent, but will be fixed by the arranger Danske Bank based on market conditions, KommuneKredit said.
The maturity is October 30, 2012, it said.
The underlying shares are:
Spanish wind turbine maker Gamesa
Danish wind turbine maker Vestas
U.S. cable maker General Cable Corp
U.S. solar panel maker First Solar
Spanish wind power group Iberdrola Renovables
German solar company Solarworld AG
Spanish wind power developer Acciona Energia SA
Norwegian solar industry firm Renewable Energy Corp
U.S. solar technology firm SunPower Corp
U.S. network infrastructure supplier Quanta Services
(Reporting by John Acher; Editing by Victoria Main)
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