Estonia to Retract Pledge on Wind Energy Subsidy Limits

Estonia will keep an annual cap on the volume of wind energy eligible for subsidies, retracting a pledge to a renewable energy lobby last year, to lower power costs and limit the amount of subsidized output, Economy Minister Juhan Parts said.

Wind energy subsidies will be capped at the current total output of 600 gigawatts per year in the amended electricity market legislation under consideration in Parliament, Parts said in an interview in Tallinn yesterday. In July, it agreed with the Estonian Renewable Energy Association to remove the ceiling in exchange for cutting the size of the support.

RWE's Renewables Unit Calls For More Reform of German Energy Policy

Germany urgently needs to press ahead with reforming its energy market, but a series of elections, including general elections in the autumn, could mean standstill for much of 2013, said utility RWE AG's (RWE.XE) renewable energies chief Thursday.

Speaking to journalists at the company's head office in Essen, Hans Buenting, managing director of RWE Innogy GmbH, said that the government's top priority in terms of energy policy this year should be a reform of the renewable energies law to help contain the spiraling costs of subsidizing "green" technologies like wind and solar power.

Senators introduce wind moratorium bill

State Sens. Robert Hartwell, D-Bennington, and Joseph Benning, R-Caledonia, say they will introduce a bill this legislative session that would establish a three-year moratorium on wind projects with a production capacity of more than 500 kilowatts.

Hartwell and Benning say they drafted the bill in response to increasing public pressure from their constituents who want to slow down the Vermont Public Service Board’s (PSB) permitting process for renewable energy developers, and to allow for more participation and consideration of municipal guidelines and time to assess health and environmental concerns raised by constituents.

Parliament adopts law increasing 'local content' for renewable energy plants

In an Oct. 16 interview with the Kyiv Post, Mykola Romaniuk, the pro-presidential Party of Regions lawmaker who proposed the law, argued the bill would stimulate the development of the renewable energy sector in Ukraine.

But the draft law was amended before the second reading. Initially, the law stipulated that all wind farms launched after Jan. 1, 2013 will have to have 30 percent of local content and those launched from Jan. 1, 2014 should have at least 50 percent of domestic goods and services used to develop their facilities.

Renewable energy laws in cross-hairs of conservative groups

Renewable energy advocates made an unsuccessful push last year to expand Missouri’s green power law and help lessen the state’s dependence on fossil fuels.

But the same groups may spend 2013 on defense, working to fend off a movement among conservative groups such as the Heartland Institute and Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform that seek to dismantle such mandates across the country.

Their tool for doing so is the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed group of mostly Republican state legislators, that adopted model legislation this fall — a blueprint for members to use to repeal renewable energy laws in their home states.

Parliament adopts law increasing 'local content' for renewable energy plants

In an Oct. 16 interview with the Kyiv Post, Mykola Romaniuk, the pro-presidential Party of Regions lawmaker who proposed the law, argued the bill would stimulate the development of the renewable energy sector in Ukraine.

But the draft law was amended before the second reading. Initially, the law stipulated that all wind farms launched after Jan. 1, 2013 will have to have 30 percent of local content and those launched from Jan. 1, 2014 should have at least 50 percent of domestic goods and services used to develop their facilities.

The energy bill: what’s the real cost?

Before the end of this month, the Coalition will publish a new Energy Bill, which sets out its strategy for UK ‘energy futures’. Paul Dorfman has an idea who is likely to reap the highest benefits and guess what? It's not you or me ...

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has been relentlessly optimistic about its Electricity Market Reform plans for the Energy Bill, despite strong and sustained criticism from a scientific advisory Committee on Climate Change, a Parliamentary Select Committee on Energy, and more recently, a House of Lords Working Group who have all concluded that the reforms are ‘unworkable’.

Future of Solar and incentives in US

There seems to be a bit of a dichotomy around solar energy in the marketplace at the moment. On the one hand, research suggests that consumers want more solar solutions with a recent YouGov survey saying that 72% of respondents still favoured solar power.  But on the other hand, deployment figures seem to suggest that people aren’t opting for solar.

Let’s take a look at the last 12 months. There is no doubt that the market has taken a heavy hit with deployment of solar PV at an all time low.  At the beginning of 2012 we saw solar PV deployment peak at an unprecedented 120,000 KW per week. By June 2012 this was tracking at under 20,000 KW per week and by w/c 25 November 2012 solar PV installations had fallen to a mere 3.8 MW (1130 installations) per week.  (Source: STA)

UK Lawmakers Reach 'Landmark Deal' On Renewable Energy Support

After months of haggling over the costs related to subsidizing renewable energy, the UK Energy and Finance ministries have hammered out an agreement that will triple the nation's support for clean energy.

The policy is expected to boost the share of renewables in the UK to 30% of the energy mix by 2020 - much higher than the 20% European Union target - creating thousands of green jobs in the process.

Britain's current target is mostly for wind - 31 gigawatts of planned offshore and onshore wind - which would bring renewables to 11% of the energy mix by 2020. Many worried that target would be unachievable with big subsidy cuts.

Poland's draft renewable bills would give greater support to large solar plants

Stanislaw Pietruszko, the head of the Photovoltaic Association of Poland (PVAP), says the country’s new renewable energy act could increase Poland’s solar capacity from 3MW to 400MW by the end of 2013.

Poland, which gets about 85% of its power from coal-fired plants, is poised to join Ukraine in offering some of Europe’s highest solar subsidies as its economy grows.

“The proposed rates are very good, higher than those in Germany,” Pietruszko says.

Additional powers in UK Govt's draft Energy Bill

The Government plans to introduce additional powers in its draft Energy Bill to provide certainty about the details of energy regulation that investors are looking for, the Energy Secretary has announced.

Addressing senior industry figures at an event hosted by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), Ed Davey confirmed that a new version of the Bill would be published next month. An early draft (307-page / 1.9MB PDF), made available for 'pre-legislative scrutiny' in May, has been criticised by the industry for leaving much of the detail of the Government's flagship Electricity Market Reform (EMR) programme to be covered by later secondary legislation.

A bill that will remove barriers for renewable natural gas

Assembly Bill 1900, authored by Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Los Angeles), a bill which removes barriers to the development of renewable natural gas (RNG) as a fuel in California and will save local rate-payers millions on their utility bills, was signed by Governor Brown today.

In conjunction with AB 2196 (joint authored by Assemblymen Gatto and Wesley Chesbro), AB 1900 will save the millions of Californians who get their power from municipal utilities hundreds-of-millions of dollars by protecting the municipal utilities’ contracts for biomethane.

Utilities on track to meet RE goals: California Public Utilities Commission

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) announced today that the state's largest utilities have met interim goals for renewable energy development mandated by state law, and are well on their way to getting a third of their power from non-fossil fuels by 2020. (Full Report)

The state's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) law requires that most providers of retail electrical power must average 20% renewable energy in the power they sell customers between 2011 and 2013, and 25% between 2014 and 2016. The CPUC says today that the state's three largest investor-owned utilities may well have met that interim goal.

New Jersey Senate pushes forward solar bill

The New Jersey state legislature has pushed forward a bill designed to help rejuvenate the state's struggling solar power sector, according to NJ Spotlight.

While states like Arizona and New Mexico have begun to emerge as strong centers for solar power, New Jersey quickly jumped up to become the second-largest solar market behind California through strong supportive policies.

Ukraine improves legal base for renewable energy investment

The State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine is continuing to improve the legislative and regulatory base to improve conditions to attract investment in renewable energy in Ukraine, Agency Head Mykola Pashkevych has said.

"We are constantly working on improving the legal base. In close cooperation with profile associations and international experts we are monitoring all of the latest trends in the development of technologies. First of all, we are systematically correcting all regulatory deficiencies to maximally simplify the work of investors," he said.

UK policy will fail to reach carbon targets, says IEA

The U.K.’s energy policies may fail to deliver nuclear power and renewables needed for the nation to meet its goals for reducing greenhouse gases, the International Energy Agency said. 

Britain’s new electricity generation capacity is coming mainly from natural gas fired plants, the Paris-based agency, which advises 28 nations, said today in a report. The government should spur an “efficient mix of new, cleaner generation, more efficient use of existing infrastructure and more flexible demand,” the IEA said.

Jordan's parliament adopts energy efficiency law

Arwa reported on last week’s parliamentary vote to shelve Jordan’s first nuclear reactor. Exploratory mining for uranium was also stopped. The program will surely resurrect once new feasibility analyses are complete, but against a backdrop of a pressurized economy, scarce water sources and corruption investigations, success is anyone’s guess.

The time is now for Jordan’s renewable proponents to demonstrate the viability of alternative energy. Take a page from regional legend David and Goliath, and slay the nuclear beast.