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.

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.

German Environment Minister plans to reform Renewable Energy Act

With a focus already on federal elections in September 2013, German Environment Minister Peter Altmaier wants to push a common legislative initiative with the goal to limit steadily rising energy costs for consumers and to better coordinate the further expansion of renewables in Germany. In a paper presented today, he proposes to reform the current renewable energy act (EEG). This, according to the minister, should be done in a transparent process by hearing stakeholders as well as the 16 Laender.

Germany must change its RE legislation to curb power price : RWE

Germany must change its renewable- energy legislation to curb power-price gains and guarantee security of supply, according to utility RWE AG (RWE) and European Union Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger.

Consumers can’t withstand more increases in electricity costs caused by the so-called EEG subsidy system, RWE Chief Executive Officer Peter Terium said today at a conference in Cologne. The system will also be unable to ensure supply security in the long term, he said.

New bill proposes to extend wind energy PTC, slash oil subsidies

A group of Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives has introduced new legislation that would extend a number of incentives for wind power and other forms of renewable energy while stripping subsidies for fossil fuels.

The bill - Investing to Modernize the Production of American Clean Energy and Technology (IMPACT Act) - introduced by Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Henry Waxman, D-Calif.; John Larson, D-Conn.; Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.; and Bill Pascrell Jr.; D-N.J. - proposes an eight-year extension to the production tax credit (PTC) for wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas, hydropower, and marine and hydrokinetic power production.

Notably, however, the bill specifies that if a renewable electricity standard or similar measure - such as the clean energy standard proposed most recently by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M. - were to become law, the PTC would be phased out within 12 months.

The end of clean energy subsidies?

The federal government has given generously to the clean energy industry over the last few years, funneling billions of dollars in grants, loans and tax breaks to renewable power sources like wind and solar, biofuels and electric vehicles. “Clean tech” has been good in return.

During the recession, it was one of the few sectors to add jobs. Costs of wind turbines and solar cells have fallen over the last five years, electricity from renewables has more than doubled, construction is under way on the country’s first new nuclear power plant in decades. And the United States remains an important player in the global clean energy market.

U.S. slaps new fees on Chinese solar panels

The U.S. Commerce Department has imposed new import fees on solar panels made in China, finding that the Chinese government is improperly giving subsidies to manufacturers of the panels there.

The Commerce Department said Tuesday it has found on a preliminary basis that Chinese solar panel makers have received government subsidies of 2.9 percent to 4.73 percent. Therefore the department said tariffs in the same proportions will be charged on Chinese panels imported into the U.S., depending on which company makes them.

Obama Budget Would Cut $40 Billion in Fossil-Fuel Credits

President Barack Obama, who pledged an “all of the above” energy strategy that included fossil fuels, renewed his proposal to cut more than $40 billion in tax breaks for oil, gas and coal producers in the next decade to spend more for conservation and alternate energy.

“We need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil by ending the subsidies for oil companies and doubling down on clean energy that generates jobs and strengthens our security,” Obama said today in a speech on at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia.

70% of Americans oppose federal subsidies for fossil fuels

A survey by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication shows that about 70% Americans oppose federal subsidies for the fossil fuel industry (coal, oil, and natural gas), including majorities of republicans, democrats, and independents.




This is good news for the Obama Administration, which is expected to repeal more than $4 billion a year in subsidies for the fossil fuel industry.

 Currently, the U.S. government provides about $10 billion a year in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry. 

Pakistan: National energy policy

Reportedly, recommendations have been made to PM to increase gas prices by 34 percent from January 2012, impose levy for next 15-20 years to build Rs100bn gas pipeline, keep existing fuel surcharges, transfer increase of gas prices on commercial sector to consumers, and use tax money to pay for subsidy to make imported gas affordable (Increase in gas tariff for all sectors proposed, local news, Dec. 29, 2011). The increase in gas prices and giving subsidy to energy mafia shows that PPP government has failed to devise a comprehensive energy policy. Due to government’s pro-energy mafia policies, the sector is profiteering at the cost of public and national interests. Pakistan therefore needs to adopt alternate energy to provide relief to public, sustain economy, generate jobs, reduce energy prices, end fuel subsidies, cut dependence on energy imports, decrease inflation, and control trade imbalances.

Indonesia: Govt considers new renewable energy policy

The government is mulling over a policy that, if taken forward, will require large energy consumers, including mining, oil and gas companies, to partly use renewable energy sources to boost efficiency in energy consumption.

The planned policy is not aimed at limiting the energy consumption of such companies, but rather at better managing the sustainability of future energy demands, according to the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s director general of renewable energy and energy conservation, Kardaya Warnika.