CARBON
IN THE NEWS
WEEK
33 2012
ARU welcome Carbon
Trade Exchange as new partner
Australian Rugby Union
today announced the Carbon Trade Exchange would become an official partner of
the Gold Coast Sevens – Fever Pitch tournament in October and would also assist
in offsetting the upcoming Bledisloe Cup Test in Sydney this weekend. The new
partnership follows ARU and the Carbon Trade Exchange working together with ARU
partners Qantas and Lexus last year to offset the Qantas Wallabies campaign in
New Zealand. The new partnership will deliver Carbon Trade Exchange signage at
the upcoming Gold Coast Sevens – Fever Pitch event in October and will see the
organisation assist ARU in delivering an environmentally friendly Test on
Saturday 18 August. ARU Managing Director and CEO, John O’Neill AO, welcomed
the new partnership and said he was pleased Carbon Trade Exchange chose to
increase its association with Rugby. “Last year was the first time ARU and the
Carbon Trade Exchange had worked together and I am glad they have decided to
build on the environmentally friendly outcomes delivered last year,” Mr O’Neill
said. To read this article in full click
here
Wind energy produces
energy equal to 11 nuclear power plants in the U.S.
According to the
report, the wind energy projects that are active in the U.S. now produce the
same amount of energy as 11 nuclear power plants when combined as a whole. This
milestone was reached through a surge in new projects beginning in 2008. These
projects quickly brought wind energy into the limelight and highlighted the
economic potential for this particular form of sustainable energy. Since 2008,
government support for wind energy projects has spiked. While politics may
threaten to slow the pace of these projects and the financial support they have
been receiving, the AWEA expects wind energy to continue playing a significant
role in the country’s future. The report shows that current projects account
for more than 50,000 megawatts of electricity. This is enough electricity to
keep more than 13 million homes – roughly the populations of Nevada, Colorado,
Alabama, Virginia, and Wisconsin combine – powered. To read this article in
full click
here
Carbon-neutral fuel
produced from carbon dioxide
A UK firm claims it is
using carbon dioxide to manufacture carbon-neutral fuel for use in vehicles.
The project by Air
Fuel Synthesis (AFS) involves a process using renewable electricity to capture
carbon dioxide and water vapour from the atmosphere and hydrogen from water,
which is then converted into fuel. The company claims it could be an
alternative to synthetic fossil fuels. David Still, Chairman of the company
said: “The technology can add to new or existing renewable energy projects,
especially where the energy is stranded, where there is a premium for secure
liquid fuels for existing vehicles or for reducing carbon emissions.” To read
this article in full click
here
Uruguay Is Going
Green, Diversifying Its Energy Mix
Uruguay is quickly
turning into a leader in Latin America in terms of using its wind resources to
fuel the economy. And it is using the revenue stream from carbon credits to
catalyze the investment, the World Bank announced today. A 10 MW wind farm
built at Sierra de los Caracoles in Maldonado (eastern Uruguay) became the
second wind power project in Uruguay to earn Certified Emission Reductions,
commonly known as carbon credits, through the project's registration with the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on August
8. The project will generate around 180,000 carbon credits during its first
crediting period of seven years. These will be purchased by the World Bank's
Spanish Carbon Fund, bringing in an important revenue stream to the project. The
wind farm is located in one of the most promising areas for wind farm
development, where the wind averages 9 meters per second, and it is part of the
Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining of Uruguay ambitious plan to have 1,000
MW of wind capacity installed by 2015. To read this article in full click
here
German Bank to Invest
€100 billion in Renewable Energy
Germany’s government run, national infrastructure
bank KfW Bankengruppe has just announced that it will increase its investment
in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects to €100 billion over the
next five years. It already expects to report an environment quota of 36
percent in 2012, up from 32 percent last years; but this figure will increase
by a lot more as the new capital is invested in projects. Dr. Ulrich Schröder,
the chief executive of KfW, has said that the increase in investment is only
the first part of a five year plan which will see the bank at the centre of
Germany’s transition away from nuclear power to other sources of renewable
energy, as it looks to slash its greenhouse gas emissions. “In implementing the project of the century,
the energy turnaround, KfW has taken responsibility as a promotional bank. In
the next five years we intend to extend loans totalling €100bn for renewable
energies and energy efficiency.” To read this article in full click
here
Scottish renewables
investment tops £2.8bn
Scotland's status as one of the world's leading
renewable energy markets was again underlined last week, after new figures
revealed the sector has attracted more than £2.8bn of capital investment since
the start of 2009. The figures from industry group Scottish Renewables were
released on Friday and confirm a three-year surge of investment across a range
of different technologies, including onshore and offshore wind farms, marine
energy arrays, solar panels, hydro-electric systems and biofuel and biomass
generators. As expected, onshore wind farm developments dominate the market
with £1.6bn of investment leading to 1.1GW of new capacity between the end of
2008 and the end of 2010. However, they also reveal that £589m was invested in
offshore wind farms resulting in 190MW of capacity, while solar installations
drove £206m of investment, hydro-power led to more than £100m of investment,
and biofuel technologies attracted more than £200m. To read this article in
full click
here
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