These concessions are expected to eventually yield additional hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues.

The Chilean geothermal market is at its nascent stages, with only one major project underway, developed by Italian utility Enel.  However, other geothermal companies such as Ram Power, Magma Energy and Ormat have been looking into geothermal resources in Central and South America.

Chile, with its 4,300 mile long mountain range, provides many interesting locations for energy exploration.

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The funding support, coming in the form of subsidies and loan guarantees, will accelerate over the years, eventually reaching €290 million/year by 2014.  The program aims to attract an additional €2 billion from private investors and other research groups.

France’s extensive use of nuclear-fired plants has contributed to the country’s claim to 90% low carbon electricity.  However, President Sarkozy’s administration is furthering efforts to develop renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.  The new funding will also support sustainable transportation initiatives and smart grid technology developments.

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After a 2 ½ year-long environmental review, the Beacon Solar Energy Project will be constructed on a 2,012 acre plot of former farmland.  Solar thermal plants generate electricity by using long trays of parabolic mirror to reflect the sun’s rays and heat a tube of liquid.  The super-heated liquid then creates stem to fire a turbine which generates electricity.

“I hope this is the first of many more large-scale solar projects we will permit.  This is exactly the type of project we want to see,” said an Energy Commission member.

However, the Beacon project still has more hurdles to overcome, including environmental concerns about impact on limited water supplies and vulnerable wildlife.  Beacon must also secure a contract to sell the electricity they generate.  The project supporters are optimistic about obtaining this type of contract, considering California’s utilities are required to purchase 20% of the electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

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Corn-based ethanol has been criticized as an energy-intensive fuel source with a very large carbon footprint.  Competition between corn crops grown for food and crops grown for fuel production has been a major concern.

Cellulosic ethanol, on the other hand, can be made from just about any crop or plant matter that has a high concentration of cellulose, which means that waste crops, stalks, leaves and husks can be turned into fuel.  Technology developments and a drop in the price of necessary enzymes for the fuel conversion process has helped cellulosic ethanol production more economical, and therefore more practical as a major-scale substitution for gasoline-based liquid fuels.

Besides providing a major boost to the Brazilian cellulosic ethanol industry, these deals will allow the smaller companies to access broader markets and sources of capital.  The partnerships also demonstrate continued interest of Big Oil in “next-generation” biofuels as the wave of the future.

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Chinese officials recently announced plans to decrease rare earth shipments by 72%, causing anxiety amongst global clean tech firms. However, it will reportedly offer access to restricted resources to companies that move operations to China.

Many companies are already picking up and moving to the region because of the attractiveness of low labor costs and proximity to Asia’s fast-growing renewables sector. Many analysts expect this moving trend to speed up as clean tech firms take precautions for potential limitations on rare earth exports that are essential to production.

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Over 2,000 steel mill, cement works and other energy-intensive factories have been ordered to close down by the end of September.  This announcement comes on the heels of another made by the powerful National Development and Reform Commission last week, which forced 22 provinces across China to stop providing discounted electricity to energy-intensive industries such as aluminum production.

Energy efficiency has become increasingly important in Chinese economic planning.  The nation’s current five-year plan targets 20% less energy usage per unit of economic output this year compared with 2005.

However, high industry output since last winter has driven China’s energy consumption to sky-high levels, producing the single largest surge ever of greenhouse gases by a single country.  According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), China surpassed the United States last year to become the world’s largest consumer of energy after becoming top global carbon emitter in 2006.  These rankings, combined with continued high expectations for economic growth, lead many to doubt China’s ability to meet its stated energy intensity goals.

Nevertheless, China is forging ahead with plans for major new investment in energy efficiency, including $15 billion into energy efficient vehicles.  $8 billion of this proposed funding would be set aside for development into pure energy efficiency techniques.  The remaining funding will be funneled towards infrastructure construction, potentially including electric vehicle charging station.

China is currently pushing to put 4 million eco-friendly vehicles on its roads by 2012.

Read more about energy efficiency here and proposed vehicle investments here

Renewables

• Total renewable power capacity in China reached 226GW in 2009, representing 1/4 of the nation’s total.  The government is calling for a total of 500GW of renewable power capacity by 2020, or about 1/3 of total power capacity.
• Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) for Chinese utilities require 8% of all capacity and 3% of power to be generated from non-hydro renewables by 2020.
• Revisions to the 2005 Renewable Energy Law will require increased cooperation between new renewables and the grid to ensure the generated power is transmitted efficiently.  The revisions also strengthened the Ministry of Finance’s renewable energy fund, which collects a tax on all electric power sales.

Wind

• Chinese wind power in particular grew thirty times over between 2005-2009.   China is now just behind the U.S. in total installed wind capacity.  Its turbine manufacturing industry grew to the world’s largest in 4 years.  The government has amended the wind power Feed-in-Tariff, and aims for 150GW of new installations by 2020.

Solar

• The “Golden Sun” program, introduced in 2009, will provide generous subsidies for solar PV installations.  Currently 300 projects have been proposed, totaling nearly $2.9 billion in investment.

Nuclear

• China has expanded its pledge to achieve 15% of all primary energy from “non-fossil fuel sources” by 2020.  This expanded directive will allow nuclear power to be included in the total accounting.

Carbon

• New carbon intensity targets were announced in Dec 2009, which aim to reduce the carbon intensity of GDP by 40-45% by 2020 relative to 2005 levels.

Energy Efficiency

• The 5 Year Plan for 2006-2010 aims to increase energy efficiency by 20%, including pumps, fans, boilers and the production of materials like steel and cement.

Read the full article here ….

Greece’s  €12 billion investment plan includes urban improvement projects, new natural gas pipelines and storage facilities in northern Greece.  The government hopes to attract a total of €22 billion in external private investment in the coming decade.  Environment Minister Tina Birbili hopes the program will “decisively contribute to face recession and lead to dynamic economic growth.”

Although Greece has ample wind and solar resources, renewable energy contributed only 4% of the nation’s electricity generation in 2009.  However, by 2020 Greece has pledged to ramp up renewables’ share to 40% of its total electrical output.

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Panasonic has placed an Y820bn ($9.4bn, €7.2bn, £6bn) bet on the future of green energy by offering to buy out minority shareholders in two subsidiaries specialising in lithium-ion batteries, solar cells and other environmental technology.

The Japanese electronics group, which is seeking to reduce its reliance on more conventional products such as televisions and refrigerators, on Thursday said it would seek to acquire all the shares it does not already own in Sanyo and Panasonic Electric Works.

It currently owns just over 50 per cent of both companies.

The move is part of an effort by Panasonic and by other Japanese electronics manufacturers to carve out new market niches as profit margins shrink in older businesses and foreign competitors, such as Samsungof South Korea, grab market share with lower prices and increasingly high-quality products.

Panasonic spent Y400bn last year to buy control of Sanyo from an investment consortium led by Goldman Sachs, which had bailed out then-struggling Sanyo in 2006…….

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