[Top News] from [REUTERS]
[Green Business]
Gwladys Fouche
OSLO
Wed Jan 13, 2010 11:38am EST
Shell hunts for shale gas in Sweden
OSLO (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell is starting to drill for shale gas in Sweden and believes there may be enough to make the Scandinavian country self-sufficient in natural gas for a decade, it said on Wednesday.
The drilling in southern Sweden has attracted opposition from some local residents and green activists, who are worried about the environmental impact if shale gas deposits are exploited on a large scale.
"We are drilling the first well and expect to finish this month," Shell Sweden spokesman Henry Carlsson said, adding that three wells will be drilled by the end of March.
"It's a promising area," said Carlsson. "There could be enough gas to cover Sweden's gas needs for at least 10 years."
Full-scale production could happen within five to 10 years, he said.
Shale gas production is booming in the United States, where it accounted for about two-thirds of the growth in gas production in 2008. Shell said that Sweden and Ukraine are the only countries in Europe where it is drilling for shale gas.
Sweden -- which gets most of its electricity from nuclear generators and hydropower -- consumed about a billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2008, according to data from the Swedish Energy Agency.
A natural gas pipeline designed to bring Norwegian gas to southern Sweden and Denmark was scrapped last year due to weak demand amid the global economic crisis, leaving a potential market niche for Shell if it can develop shale gas resources.
ENVIRONMENT WORRIES
"We are concerned about the impact on the ground water," said Goeran Gustafson, a physics and maths teacher active in a green group which seeks to stop the project.
"When hydraulic drilling breaks off rocks, heavy metals and other dangerous substances may contaminate it," he told Reuters.
The group says it has collected names of about 6,000 people who oppose drilling activities but a legal action to stop the drilling failed last year, paving the way for Shell to conduct its exploratory wells programme.
Shell said it listened to the critics and said that it has changed drilling techniques in Sweden to make less noise.
"It's very important to us that we listen to their concerns," said Carlsson.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Keiron Henderson)
[Green Business]
Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN
Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:43pm EST
Germany moves toward trimming solar power incentives
BERLIN (Reuters) - The government, photovoltaic companies and consumer lobby groups moved closer on Wednesday toward an agreement on trimming state-mandated incentives for solar power to reflect a steeper overall slide in costs.
Although no decision was reached at the meeting, officials at the two rounds of hearings at the Environment Ministry in Berlin said they expected a decision on moderate reductions in the feed-in tariffs to be made soon.
"There's an agreement that the level of the support has to more closely track the speed of the expansion of photovoltaic power," said Holger Krawinkel, an energy expert for the federal consumer protection agency lobby who was at the talks.
"There are still divergent views on the concrete numbers. The Environment Ministry will evidently put forth a proposal early next week."
A spokeswoman for the Environment Ministry said the ministry would likely make a new proposal next week, which would then be discussed by the ruling parties. It was not clear if the next cut in feed-in tariffs would be July 1 or on January 1, 2011.
Any added reduction in the state-mandated fees that utilities pay for photovoltaic power are expected to be moderate to avoid damaging this growing sector and its thousands of jobs.
A senior government source told Reuters last month there would be "no radical changes" in the system that made Germany the world's leader in photovoltaic energy even though there was "over-promotion" of solar in some of the large-scale projects.
Industry analysts and stock markets have nevertheless been nervously watching the moves from Berlin, fearful that any steep cuts could hit the sector and prices.
"Clarity on the outcome of the talks is key and needed quickly as it will impact the companies' share prices. Also, it will be crucial whether the talks will result in a change of the EEG law or a one-off cut, as the former will take substantially longer to implement," said Theo Kitz, analyst at Merck Finck.
Germany is a world leader in green energy with a 15 percent share of all electricity produced and wants to double that to 30 percent by 2020. Germany's photovoltaic industry has boomed since the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) was created in 2000.
More than half the world's solar power is produced there and some 80,000 jobs have been created.
Utilities are obliged to pay 39 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity produced for 20 years for systems installed in 2010, which is down from 43 cents for systems installed in 2009.
The feed-in tariff has been falling by about 8 percent per year before dropping 10 percent in 2010.
The BSW solar industry association has offered a 25 percent cut spread out over a period of 12 months.
Solarworld chief executive Frank Asbeck and First-Solar managing director Stepan Hansen said after the meeting the talks were constructive. Also present were Q-Cells, Bosch Solar and Applied Materials.
(Additional reporting by Markus Wacket in Berlin and Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt; Editing by Mike Nesbit)
[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Wed Jan 13, 2010 2:49pm EST
U.S. envoy optimistic Senate will pass climate bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. climate negotiator said he hopes the U.S. Senate will pass a global warming bill in the first half of the year, but the country will have to work on alternatives if the legislation fails.
"I'm quite optimistic there will be action," Jonathan Pershing, the U.S. Deputy special climate change envoy, told a panel on Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"I don't think its a plausible scenario" that Congress would not pass a bill aiming to lower emissions of heat-trapping gases, but passage would be more likely over the next year than the next month, he said.
Democratic Senator John Kerry is working with independent Senator Joe Lieberman and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on a compromise climate bill that would include more incentives for nuclear energy and offshore drilling than a climate bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
At the recent climate summit in Copenhagen, Kerry left open the possibility of not including an emissions cap and trade market in the climate bill.
But the legislation's future is uncertain amid opposition from lawmakers in coal states and others who say a cap and trade market on emissions would raise energy costs.
"We will have to see how it plays out and we will have to start working on alternatives if it doesn't happen," Pershing said.
He did not say what the alternatives might be.
Pershing said the nonbinding Copenhagen Accord, signed by the United States, China, India, and other countries, put the ball in the court for governments to develop their plans to combat climate change.
The United States was working to get countries to pledge climate actions on two of the accord's appendixes, one for developed country emission targets for 2020 and one for the voluntary pledges of major developing countries, he said. The deadline for the pledges is January 31.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner)
[Green Business]
Gwladys Fouche
OSLO
Wed Jan 13, 2010 11:38am EST
Shell hunts for shale gas in Sweden
OSLO (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell is starting to drill for shale gas in Sweden and believes there may be enough to make the Scandinavian country self-sufficient in natural gas for a decade, it said on Wednesday.
The drilling in southern Sweden has attracted opposition from some local residents and green activists, who are worried about the environmental impact if shale gas deposits are exploited on a large scale.
"We are drilling the first well and expect to finish this month," Shell Sweden spokesman Henry Carlsson said, adding that three wells will be drilled by the end of March.
"It's a promising area," said Carlsson. "There could be enough gas to cover Sweden's gas needs for at least 10 years."
Full-scale production could happen within five to 10 years, he said.
Shale gas production is booming in the United States, where it accounted for about two-thirds of the growth in gas production in 2008. Shell said that Sweden and Ukraine are the only countries in Europe where it is drilling for shale gas.
Sweden -- which gets most of its electricity from nuclear generators and hydropower -- consumed about a billion cubic meters of natural gas in 2008, according to data from the Swedish Energy Agency.
A natural gas pipeline designed to bring Norwegian gas to southern Sweden and Denmark was scrapped last year due to weak demand amid the global economic crisis, leaving a potential market niche for Shell if it can develop shale gas resources.
ENVIRONMENT WORRIES
"We are concerned about the impact on the ground water," said Goeran Gustafson, a physics and maths teacher active in a green group which seeks to stop the project.
"When hydraulic drilling breaks off rocks, heavy metals and other dangerous substances may contaminate it," he told Reuters.
The group says it has collected names of about 6,000 people who oppose drilling activities but a legal action to stop the drilling failed last year, paving the way for Shell to conduct its exploratory wells programme.
Shell said it listened to the critics and said that it has changed drilling techniques in Sweden to make less noise.
"It's very important to us that we listen to their concerns," said Carlsson.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche; Editing by Keiron Henderson)
[Green Business]
Erik Kirschbaum
BERLIN
Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:43pm EST
Germany moves toward trimming solar power incentives
BERLIN (Reuters) - The government, photovoltaic companies and consumer lobby groups moved closer on Wednesday toward an agreement on trimming state-mandated incentives for solar power to reflect a steeper overall slide in costs.
Although no decision was reached at the meeting, officials at the two rounds of hearings at the Environment Ministry in Berlin said they expected a decision on moderate reductions in the feed-in tariffs to be made soon.
"There's an agreement that the level of the support has to more closely track the speed of the expansion of photovoltaic power," said Holger Krawinkel, an energy expert for the federal consumer protection agency lobby who was at the talks.
"There are still divergent views on the concrete numbers. The Environment Ministry will evidently put forth a proposal early next week."
A spokeswoman for the Environment Ministry said the ministry would likely make a new proposal next week, which would then be discussed by the ruling parties. It was not clear if the next cut in feed-in tariffs would be July 1 or on January 1, 2011.
Any added reduction in the state-mandated fees that utilities pay for photovoltaic power are expected to be moderate to avoid damaging this growing sector and its thousands of jobs.
A senior government source told Reuters last month there would be "no radical changes" in the system that made Germany the world's leader in photovoltaic energy even though there was "over-promotion" of solar in some of the large-scale projects.
Industry analysts and stock markets have nevertheless been nervously watching the moves from Berlin, fearful that any steep cuts could hit the sector and prices.
"Clarity on the outcome of the talks is key and needed quickly as it will impact the companies' share prices. Also, it will be crucial whether the talks will result in a change of the EEG law or a one-off cut, as the former will take substantially longer to implement," said Theo Kitz, analyst at Merck Finck.
Germany is a world leader in green energy with a 15 percent share of all electricity produced and wants to double that to 30 percent by 2020. Germany's photovoltaic industry has boomed since the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) was created in 2000.
More than half the world's solar power is produced there and some 80,000 jobs have been created.
Utilities are obliged to pay 39 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity produced for 20 years for systems installed in 2010, which is down from 43 cents for systems installed in 2009.
The feed-in tariff has been falling by about 8 percent per year before dropping 10 percent in 2010.
The BSW solar industry association has offered a 25 percent cut spread out over a period of 12 months.
Solarworld chief executive Frank Asbeck and First-Solar managing director Stepan Hansen said after the meeting the talks were constructive. Also present were Q-Cells, Bosch Solar and Applied Materials.
(Additional reporting by Markus Wacket in Berlin and Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt; Editing by Mike Nesbit)
[Green Business]
WASHINGTON
Wed Jan 13, 2010 2:49pm EST
U.S. envoy optimistic Senate will pass climate bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. climate negotiator said he hopes the U.S. Senate will pass a global warming bill in the first half of the year, but the country will have to work on alternatives if the legislation fails.
"I'm quite optimistic there will be action," Jonathan Pershing, the U.S. Deputy special climate change envoy, told a panel on Wednesday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"I don't think its a plausible scenario" that Congress would not pass a bill aiming to lower emissions of heat-trapping gases, but passage would be more likely over the next year than the next month, he said.
Democratic Senator John Kerry is working with independent Senator Joe Lieberman and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on a compromise climate bill that would include more incentives for nuclear energy and offshore drilling than a climate bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.
At the recent climate summit in Copenhagen, Kerry left open the possibility of not including an emissions cap and trade market in the climate bill.
But the legislation's future is uncertain amid opposition from lawmakers in coal states and others who say a cap and trade market on emissions would raise energy costs.
"We will have to see how it plays out and we will have to start working on alternatives if it doesn't happen," Pershing said.
He did not say what the alternatives might be.
Pershing said the nonbinding Copenhagen Accord, signed by the United States, China, India, and other countries, put the ball in the court for governments to develop their plans to combat climate change.
The United States was working to get countries to pledge climate actions on two of the accord's appendixes, one for developed country emission targets for 2020 and one for the voluntary pledges of major developing countries, he said. The deadline for the pledges is January 31.
(Reporting by Timothy Gardner)
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