PV Tech: China's 2014 Solar Installs Could Total 10.5 GW to 12 GW
In January 2013 the National Energy Administration (NEA) of China officially announced an annual target of a minimum of 10 GW of solar PV power generation capacity to be installed between 2013 through 2015. The same year, China installed an impressive 13 GW -- not only more than any other country in a single year ever before, but also exceeding by 3 GW the official target.
The National Energy Administration’s announcement to aim for 8 GW of distributed solar PV in 2014 was met with some skepticism by the Chinese solar PV industry, due to the fact that in 2013. out of a total 13 GW installed, only 800 MW of projects were considered "distributed," thus the NEA aimed for a tenfold increase in a single year.
However, given the prevailing administrative, financial, technical, and operational complexity of distributed solar PV compared with large-scale ground-mounted projects, it did not come as a surprise that in the first nine months of 2014 distributed solar installations fell very short of its expectations. According to NEA figures, between Q1 and Q3, just 2.45 GW of utility-scale and 1.34 GW of distributed solar PV projects were realized.
Bloomberg: German Utility RWE Won’t Rule Out EON-Style Split, CFO Says
RWE AG, Germany’s second-largest utility, hasn’t ruled out following larger competitor EON SE’s example and breaking itself up in response to the country’s unprecedented switch to wind and solar power.
The company must reduce debt before thinking about how to structure itself, and no decision is imminent, but splitting the power generation unit and the business that supplies customers is possible, RWE Chief Financial Officer Bernhard Guenther said in an interview.
“The reasons for not doing it are all of a nature that might change over time,” he said at company headquarters in Essen last week.
Washington Post: In State of the Union Address, Obama Draws Line on Climate
“No challenge... poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change. 2014 was the planet’s warmest year on record. Now, one year doesn’t make a trend, but this does: fourteen of the fifteen warmest years on record have all fallen in the first fifteen years of this century.”
President Barack Obama struck a defiant pose on the environment in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, signaling a willingness to battle with Congress to keep his initiatives on climate and energy policy on track.
Bloomberg Opinion: Will Obama Go Nuclear?
Nuclear energy is suddenly fashionable, as new companies are looking to supplant the world's large, uranium-fueled nuclear reactors with kinds that use different fuels and coolants or perhaps even replace fission with fusion.
Yet these next-generation nuclear companies still need government help. The federal government is the only entity that has the real estate, money and technical expertise the companies need to help their technologies mature. And they will eventually need licensing from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That leads to the obvious question: Will President Barack Obama go nuclear?
Guardian: Shareholders Challenge BP to Confront Climate Change Risk
Oil giant BP is being challenged to confront the risk that climate change may pose to its future in a shareholder resolution published on Wednesday.
Pension funds controlling hundreds of billions of pounds are among the 150 investors demanding the company tests whether its business model is compatible with the international community’s pledge to limit global warming to 2 degrees C.
The same shareholder resolution, which includes a ban on corporate bonuses for climate-harming activities, has been tabled with Shell, and both will be voted on at forthcoming annual meetings.