BluDanuBlog

No thanks to the Lege.
It’s not exactly a mega-project, but Renewable Energy Focus is reporting that Tessera Solar has signed a power purchase agreement with CPS Energy and will build a 27MW solar project in West Texas. The project will use 1,080 SunCatcher mirror dishes driving Stirling engines, with the first units expected to come online by the end of 2010.

The latest annual World Market Update from Danish wind energy consultants BTM Consult ApS reports 42% growth in wind turbine capacity from 2007 to 2008, for a cumulative worldwide total of 122,000 MW. The report predicts 8.6% growth for the sector in 2009 despite the ongoing economic crisis, rising to an average of 15.7% annually through 2013. Wind power currently provides 1.3% of the world’s electricity. This figure is predicted to rise to 8% by 2018.

Germany’s Enertrag AG has begun work in Dauerthal, northeast of Berlin near the Polish border, on a “hybrid” wind power plant that will produce electricity and hydrogen. With a total generating capacity of 6 MW, the plant will supply the grid and use any excess power for hydrolysis to produce hydrogen for fuel and energy storage. The facility will also feature a combined heat and power plant fueled by biogas and hydrogen produced on-site. The plant is scheduled to come on-line in 2010.

The Spanish Ministry of Industry reports that approvals for new solar photovoltaic projects rose in Q2/2009 after having dropped sharply in the first quarter. The total capacity of newly approved projects is 130 MW, up from 88.7 MW for Q1.

The legislation governing Spain’s feed-in tariff system provides for adjustments based on quarterly approvals of rooftop and stand-alone installations. Since new approvals in the latter category amounted to 95 MW, slightly above the adjustment threshold of 94.5 MW, the new tariff for stand-alone PV installations will drop from 30.7 eurocents to 29.9 cents per kWh.

The European Parliament has amended the 2002 Energy Performance of Buildings Directive to require that all buildings built after 2018 produce as much energy as they consume on-site, averaged over the course of the year, through enhanced efficiency and use of technology such as solar panels and heat pumps.

The amendment, which must be implemented in national law by member state legislatures, also calls for increased financial support for energy efficiency measures and sets standards to upgrade the energy performance of existing buildings.

A February 2009 U.S. Commercial Service Industry Sector Analysis (register to download) taps biomass as the renewable energy source with the greatest potential in the Czech Republic. The country currently gets 5.6% of its energy from renewable sources (official target for 2020: 13%), mostly hydroelectric with relatively little growth potential. Although solar photovoltaic saw strong expansion in 2008, the report does not consider solar a high-potential sector due to expiring subsidies. Wind is also experiencing strong growth, with a number of major projects in the pipeline.

Germany’s new Energy Conservation Ordinance (EnEV), which takes effect this October, permits energy generated on-site from renewable sources to be offset against a building’s energy consumption for code compliance purposes. The new regulation is expected to further boost interest in rooftop solar installations, already widespread thanks to Germany’s feed-in tariff system, especially in combination with new subsidies in the Renewable Energy Law. Critics maintain that the changes will promote electric heating systems and heat pumps at the expense of conservation, thus inadvertently leading to even higher electric power consumption in winter.
The new EnEV is based on comparison of a building’s energy consumption to a “reference building” with specified insulation values and equipment including a solar thermal hot-water system.
Although the website of the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs does have an English section, information on the new conservation standards is only available in German so far.