Archive for September, 2009
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Insiders believe that China is set to announce the launch of an emissions cap-and-trade scheme as early as the Copenhagen climate talks in December, according to a senior figure in the carbon market who is currently working closely with the Chinese government.
Speaking at The Carbon Show in London, Philippe Chauvancy a director at climate exchange BlueNext, commented that an announcement made last week to develop China’s first standard for voluntary emission reduction projects alongside the government-backed China Beijing Environmental Exchange, could in fact lay the foundations for a voluntary cap-and-trade scheme – Chinese officials on the whole are committed to the idea of a national cap-and-trade scheme and could move quickly over the next few months.
Leaders are meeting in Copenhagen in December to discuss a new international framework revolved around the current Kyoto Protocol – an important first step towards a truly global emission reduction regime – which is coming to the end of its first commitment period in 2012, and therefore opportunity for the Chinese and the Americans to make their statement on cap and trade schemes.
Mr. Chauvancy continues by saying that he is expecting the US to have a national cap-and-trade system up and running in the next two years, but is suggesting that China could beat the US to it, seeing as they have the money and the resources and the will to do it.
Therefore, widely held perceptions that China does not want to take action on climate change are now outdated, as the Chinese government is seen to be committed to tackling the issue.
Other delegates at The Carbon Show also agree that China is in a better position to roll out a carbon trading scheme quite quickly.
Source;
Emailed news @ businessgreen.com
http://www.businessgreen.com/business-green/news/2250315/china-cap-trade-announcement
Tags: Cap and trade, Change, Climate, Emissions, global, Reduce
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Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Northern Power Systems, a next-generation wind turbine company and manufacturer of the Northwind 100, has today announced their growing presence within Europe along with the appointment of Reinout Oussoren as European Managing Director as the company strengthens its commitment and better supports customers, and has also opened a European headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland.
Mr. Oussoren will bring more than 20 years commercial and operational leadership experience to Northern Power, having most recently been with GE Energy. Within his new role he will manage strategy, business development, sales, applications engineering and a growing network of premier development partners.
The new director is extremely pleased to be joining Northern Power Systems in a job where he will lead the establishment of a rapidly growing sales and support organisation throughout Europe. He also expressed that Northern Power has got enormous opportunities to place its next generation 100 kW turbines across Europe in a number of distributed generation applications.
Even before having a European office, Northern Power Systems had already received over euro 5 million (7.28 USD) in orders for its 100 kW turbines across Europe for example, turbines in the United Kingdom are being installed at sites including schools, hospitals and municipal facilities, and in Italy, turbines have been purchased singly and in pairs by independent power developers to taking advantage of the euro 0.30 (0.44 USD) per kWh Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) – which is limited to installations up to 200kW.
Source;
Greenbizdaily (twitter):- http://ow.ly/rRy5
Tags: Energy, Power, Turbine, Wind
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Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Ed Miliband delivered a speech at the Labour Party conference yesterday in Brighton, in which he encouraged all Labour councils to join the 10:10 climate change campaign, reports Environmental Expert.com. He urged them to pledge to cut their carbon emissions by 10% in 2010 to help in the fight against climate change.
He said he would work closely with the Local Government Association to get all Labour councils on board the scheme which has already received the backing of the whole of the cabinet, shadow cabinet and the Liberal Democrat front bench.
So far over 20,000 individuals have committed to the campaign along with 1,000 businesses.
Further information: http://www.utility-exchange.co.uk/2009/09/wimbledon-school-joins-1010-campaign/
Source: http://www.environmental-expert.com/resultEachArticle.aspx?cid=35902&codi=71426&level=0§ion=5
Tags: 10:10 Campaign, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change
Posted in energy-news | Comments Off
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Electrification company Ensto and energy firm Fortum have teamed up to develop a new type of recharging point for electric vehicles, where usability and safety were priorities in the development of the recharging point. Ensto which offers a wide variety of energy products and services is hoping to export the product into the growing electric vehicle markets, reports fortum.com.
Car manufacturers are continuing to develope electric cars, introducing new models of rechargeable cars to meet popular demand. Electrification of road traffic also becomes a requirement to a functioning recharging network, for example in the Nordic countries, electric cars can be recharged at home from the ordinary outlets intended for engine block heaters, however, recharging points still need to be installed in public places.
Ensto and Fortum’s fundamental design features for the new recharging point were; safety, ease of use, ease of installation in different areas, and the ability to modify functions. For example, where necessary, a GSM pay-by-cell-phone (mobile phone) technology function could be integrated into the recharging post, which could also be integrated with a parking meter function.
The Kaupinkallio parking garage in the Tapiola area of Espoo, Finland, will be the first to offer the new type of recharging posts and plan to have them up and running by the end of November.
Source;
www.fortum.com/ Press Releases (Ensto and Fortum developed a new recharging point for electric cars-29.9.2009)
Tags: Charging, Development, Electric, Energy, Vehicle
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Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
As reported by greenenergyuk.com Tata Motors European Technical Centre plc, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Motors in the UK, has received a £10 million loan from the UK government’s Automotive Assistance Programme (AAP). The loan will be used to develop and manufacture the Tata Indica Vista Electric Vehicle in the UK, and will also support the £25 million investment from Tata Motors to develop and manufacture electric vehicles in the UK.
Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC) was established by Tata Motors in September 2005 and is located in the UK West Midlands with nearly 180 employees – Steadily taking Tata vehicles towards achieving global standards, while engaged in advanced automotive technology and vehicle product development, the centre forms one of a consortium of companies in the West Midlands taking part in the UK Government’s Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator programme.
The UK’s Business Secretary Lord Mandelson stated that the government is determined to help the car industry exploit fully the opportunities being offered by green manufacturing.
Source article;
http://www.greenenergy.uk.com/Article.aspx?ARTICLE_ID=127
Tags: Business, Electric, Green, Vehicle
Posted in energy-news | Comments Off
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Energy company Spark is a great alternative to the “Big 6″ utility companies, delivering great customer service, lower prices, innovative benefits and greener energy, in particular to property managers and letting agents. With their consumer needs in mind Spark is about to introduce a new user friendly approach to calculating monthly Direct Debit payments – Profiled Direct Debit – and is perfect for a tenanted property.
A typical tenant is happy to pay for their gas and electricity by Direct Debit, however when they move out of a property it could result in receiving a rebate where you could challenge what did the energy supplier do with the money when they had it? or you get a huge moving out charge suggesting that you need not have set up paying by a Direct Debit scheme in the first place.
The new scheme would mean you still know how much you are paying in advance allowing you to budget accordingly, but your payments would be more in line with your actual usage, resulting in fewer nasty surprises when you move out. The monthly Direct Debits are set in advance for the year ahead – based on historical usage or industry estimates for your property – ensuring payments closely match the properties seasonal usage, instead of simply being 1/12th of the overall annual usage.
Source;
Sparkenergy.co.uk/ News/ (Introducing Profiled Direct Debit-25.09.09)
Tags: Electric, Energy, Gas, Supply, Utility
Posted in energy-news | Comments Off
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Ecotricity is an electricity company with a difference – dedicated to changing the way electricity is made by investing in clean forms of power generation like wind energy – combined with being the only green electricity company actually building new renewable energy sources.
Featured in a press release, Ecotricity have launched an energy debate in the District of Stroud by campaigning for 50% of Stroud’s energy needs to be sourced from clean, green energy from wind turbines, where they have already proven the viability of wind energy with one local turbine.
Ecotricity argue that just 16 windmills in the area would create enough energy to power 50% of Stroud’s homes, which ultimately would benefit the UK’s energy security.
Stoud5050 is a local campaign for local people, where Ecotricity is aiming for half of the district’s electricity to be completely renewable, actively contributing to the area and supported by local resident.
To find out more or to vote to make 50% of Stroud’s local energy green, visit www.stroud5050.org.
Tags: Eco, Energy, Power, renewable, Turbine
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Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
A survey by the Forum of Private Business (FPB) has revealed that many small businesses in the Midlands are optimistic about the future and are looking forward to things improving, reports thisisbusiness-eastmidlands.co.uk.
The survey found that over a third of small businesses in the Midlands were expecting an improvement in trade over the forthcoming year. In fact as many as 19% were already reporting increased orders and sales.
Source: http://www.thisisbusiness-eastmidlands.co.uk/news/FPB-flags-guarded-optimism-Midlands-small-firms/article-1378549-detail/article.html
Tags: Small Business
Posted in energy-news | Comments Off
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
According to Reuters news yesterday – Italy signed a nuclear cooperation deal with The United States that would enable U.S. companies to help build a number of nuclear power stations across Italy, thus putting an end to a 22-year ban initiated by the Italian government. As the only group of eight industrialised nations without nuclear power, Italy had rejected it in a 1987 referendum following the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine.
U.S. Energy Secretary, Steven Chu explained that Italy has restarted its nuclear energy infrastructure, incorporating aggressive goals and very admirable goals, by decreasing its carbon emissions through nuclear and renewable energy, and through improvements and efficiency.
Mr. Chu continued by saying companies like General Electric and Toshiba Corp’s Westinghouse unit will be able to bid on projects in Italy, which it hopes will be issued mid-February, determining the location of the facilities.
Italy is planning to rebuild the energy sector and produce 25% of power from nuclear plants, helping to reduce Italy’s heavy dependency on fossil fuel imports as well as reduce its carbon emissions.
Source;
News @ newenergyfinance.com
http://www.reuters.com/article/governmentFilingsNews/idUSN2916990820090929?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sendNuclearHeadlines
Tags: Efficiency, Energy, Power, Reduce
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Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
A new tool from Google will be introduced to the public today as it goes on trial, reports BBC News Online. Google Wave combines email, instant messaging and wiki-style editing.
Google describes the tool as “how email would look if it were invented today”. They say it will revolutionise how people communicate online.
From 1600 BST today 100,000 invited users will be able to nominate 5 other people to “join the Wave”. Among the functions of the tool include real time typing meaning that people can see a comment being written and have an answer or comment ready before the other person has even finished their comment.
The conversations, unlike instant messenger, can continue even once everyone is logged out and anyone involved in the conversation can read the whole strand in full at a later date. The messages can even be edited at any point by those taking part in the conversation. In fact, Google now writes all its design documents in Wave.
It’s also easy to share photos in Wave. They can just be dragged from the desktop into the Wave platform.
Google Wave will run in most browsers but it doesn’t run in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Google says that anyone using internet explorer will have to download a plug-in called Chrome Frame. However Microsoft does not recommend using this as they say it will compromise security.
However, Google say they have tried hard to make Wave work with internet explorer but with internet explorer still being the main browser everyone uses, it may affect the take up of the Wave.
Google report that over a million people have expressed an interest in the Wave platform and it will get a full launch next year.
Source and further information: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8280864.stm
Tags: Google, Microsoft
Posted in energy-news | Comments Off
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