Chinese Firms are not exactly renowned for their Environmental Credentials and the weak regulations in African Countries does not give them an incentive to be so.Concerns were raised about the impact of a Chinese Ore Mine in the forests of Gabon.With lax oversight and easily corruptible administration,the Damage is already Done before it can be Stopped.Africa countries in general are ruled by Undemocratic, Corrupt rulers which are willing to go along with Environmental Degradation in return for Bribes.
the administration had done nothing.Instead of setting out a Renewable Energy Standard or a Feed in Tariff Policy,the President seems busier in giving speeches and photo-ops.The result has been that USA is lagging far behind Europe and China in the Green Energy area.Deutche Bank Asset Management which invests $6-7 billion out of its $700 Billion corpus in the Green Sector,has made a scathing attack on the lack of US Federal Support for Green Industry.The Bank said it would totally bypass US in making Green Investments and concentrate its energies on China and Europe.Solar Companies are already outsourcing Green Jobs to Mexico and China. US Companies are already recognizing China as a Leader in the Clean Technology Area .
Nuclear Energy currently accounts for 21% of the electricity supply and would be replaced by renewable sources by that timeframe.However utilities which have a huge amount to lose want the reactors to stay.They are using the common language of anti-Green lobbies that it would lead to Job Losses and Energy Insecurity.They don’t think that Renewable Energy can replace the cheap Nuclear Power.This is the same argument being used by the opponents of California’s AB32 Law.Like the Solar Feed in Tariff Controversy earlier in the year,this fight too promises to be an interesting one though I think the Nuclear Lobby will lose.
Ontario had ample opportunity to learn from past experience and its Renewable Energy Subsidy Policy is on the whole quite good.However one part of the FIT program which gave a very generous 80.2c/KwH to micro installations of solar projects under 10 KW was faulty.It led to 160 MW of project applications which were ground mounted with very high production as they used trackers.There was no discrimination between roof and ground mounted micro installations leading to this problem.Note its not possible to install trackers on roofs which can increase the energy by 30-35%.The large number of applications were not factored in by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) which proposed to retroactively cut those tariffs by 27% for ground plants.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Technology is akin to putting Lipstick on a Pig (read Coal Power Plants).This Technology which has been hyped as the Green Answer to Coal’s Dirty Polluting Ways has never been proven on a commercial scale .Note the British Government promising CCS with every new Coal Plant.Despite numerous large pilot projects,the Technology remains immature.Even China which gets 80% of its electricity from Coal Power Plants and is the biggest emitter of GHGs,remains skeptical of this technology.
TSMC has made a smart entry into the Solar Energy space through investments into CIGs technology.Beside investing in a solar fab in Taiwan using Technology from CIGs startup Stion,it has also bought a 20% equity stake in Taiwan’s largest crystalline solar cell producer Motech.Now TSMC is further upping its Green Investments through a NT $5.5 [...]