news20100118reut1

[Top News] from [REUTERS]

[Green Business]
ABU DHABI
Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:02pm EST
Iran plans new renewable energy plants: minister
ABU DHABI (Reuters) - Opec member Iran plans to develop new renewable energy power plants over the next five years with capacity totaling 2,000 megawatts (MW) to meet energy demand, its deputy minister for electricity said on Sunday.

Abbas Aliabadi said Iran already has 8500 MW hydro power plants in operation and has installed 130 MW of wind turbines.

"Iran, though an oil exporting country, is determined to be an important partner in global efforts of human societies to achieve sustainable energy systems," he told a preparatory meeting of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) where even Israel was participating.

"The government of Iran has paved the way for private sector participation in developing renewable energy systems," he said.

The private sector has already signed contracts to install wind turbines as well as biomass systems with capacity of 600 MW and the ministry of energy is implementing 500 MW wind converters in the country, he said without naming any company.

(Reporting by Stanley Carvalho, editing by Jason Benham)


[Green Business]
LONDON
Sun Jan 17, 2010 10:39am EST
Solar power firm Engyco mulls IPO to raise funds
LONDON (Reuters) - Newly founded solar firm Engyco is considering a stock market listing as it seeks to raise cash to invest in solar parks in Europe, as a slew of other companies mull flotations on the London stock market.

Engyco, whose executive vice-chairman is Alexander Voigt, the founder of German solar firms Solon and Q-Cells, said it was considering a number of options for raising finance.

"This may include a listing of the company's shares on a recognized stock exchange," the firm, which is run from the Channel Island of Jersey, said on Sunday.

It has appointed Numis Securities and Ambrian Partners as advisers.

The Independent on Sunday reported Engyco was hoping to raise up to 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion). The company says on its website it is aiming to acquire 3 billion euros of assets within three years.

Meanwhile, in a sign that plans for initial public offerings on the London market are catching up with a recent flurry of IPO activity elsewhere, newspapers reported that travel firm Travelport, Sugar Puffs owner Big Bear Group and The Priory, the health clinic favored by celebrities, are all considering listings. The Sunday Times said hotel and airline reservations company Travelport would this week announce plans for a 1.8 billion pound ($2.94 billion) flotation to pay down debt taken on by owner, private equity group Blackstone.

New York-based Travelport, which posted third-quarter revenue of $570 million, declined to comment.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Erica Billingham)

($1=.6931 Euro)

($1=.6120 Pound)


[Green Business]
Mon Jan 18, 2010 3:29am EST
Camco to focus on expanding U.S. emission reduction ops
(Reuters) - UK-based carbon offset firm Camco International Ltd said it traded successfully in the three months ended December 2009 and that it would expand its U.S. emission reduction operations in the new year.

The company, which sells carbon offsets under the Kyoto Clean Development Mechanism, said it saw carbon issuance increasing in the coming months as the number of projects -- including coal-mine methane, waste-heat recovery and combined-cycle power plant projects -- that got first verification rose 80 percent since September.

"The Copenhagen summit resulted in a number of positive outcomes for our business. Furthermore, the latest developments in the USA present substantial business opportunities for the company which we will pursue during 2010," Chief Executive Scott McGregor said in a statement.

The proposed changes to the Clean Development Mechanism processes made at the Copenhagen summit, expected to take effect in the latter half of 2010, will bring better clarity around delivery and registration as well as shorter regulatory timelines, Camco said.

The company, which is expanding its U.S. operations in the agricultural sector, said it had strong cash position with cash balance of 28 million euros ($40.18 million) at December 30, 2009.

Shares of the company were up 6.6 percent at 16 pence at 0815 GMT (3:15 a.m. EST) Monday on the London Stock Exchange.

($1=.6968 Euro)

(Reporting by Aditi Samajpati in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)


[Green Business]
JoAnne Allen
WASHINGTON
Sun Jan 17, 2010 1:01pm EST
Beaches trapping some oil from Exxon Valdez spill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A lack of oxygen and nutrients below the surface of beaches in Alaska's Prince William Sound is slowing the dissipation of oil remaining from the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.

The team conducted field studies over the past three summers using geologic information and hydraulics to try to determine why patches of oil linger on the beaches 20 years after the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

The supertanker Exxon Valdez spilled more than 11 million gallons (50 million liters) of crude oil, blackening some 1,300 miles of Alaska's coastline. An estimated 20,000 gallons (90,920 liters) remain, the researchers said.

They found that the oil remaining was trapped between two layers of beach and sheltered from the elements, according to the study posted on the journal Nature Geoscience's website (www.nature.com/ngeo/index.html)

"The oil that is in the upper layer either gets flushed out or biodegraded. In the lower layer, we found out there's not enough fresh water exchange to cause any flushing," co-author Michel Boufadel of Temple University said in a telephone interview.

Boufadel also said oxygen levels in the lower layer were not high enough for the oil to disappear through natural biodegradation.

"Microorganisms that are indigenous in beaches are capable of breaking down the oil, of eating the oil, provided that they have oxygen to breathe and nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate," Boufadel said.

He said earlier research uncovered nutrient deficiency in the area. But his team was the first to detect the low oxygen levels and the two-layer beaches.

In the first five years after the accident, the oil was vanishing at a rate of 70 percent a year and calculations showed it would be gone within a few years, the researchers said.

About eight years ago, the disappearance rate slowed to 4 percent a year.

Boufadel's team is exploring ways to deliver oxygen and nutrients to the lower layer of beach in an effort to spur biodegrading of the remaining oil.

The study was funded by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council, established in 1991 when Exxon settled civil and criminal charges filed by the Alaska and the U.S. governments.

The council has administered the $900 million that Exxon paid to settle the state and federal civil cases from the disaster.

(Editing by Eric Beech)