Reuters: TerraForm, SunEdison Cancel Brazil Power Deal Worth $3.45B
Renewable energy company TerraForm Global Inc. is pulling out of an agreement to take control of projects accounting for 2,200 megawatts of generation capacity due to adverse market conditions in Brazil, companies involved in the deal said on Tuesday.
TerraForm, a unit of U.S.-based SunEdison Inc., was negotiating to take control of generation assets from Brazilian renewable energy company Renova Energia SA in a share swap valued at 13.4 billion reais ($3.45 billion).
Gizmodo: Paris Is Covered in Fake Ads That Mock the Climate Talks' Corporate Sponsors
U.K.-based activist group Brandalism has peppered the streets of Paris with 600 fake outdoor ads meant to expose the hypocrisy of COP21 Climate Conference corporate sponsors.
The fake, unauthorized outdoor ads were strategically placed around Paris this past weekend, and were made to look nearly identical to the originals.
The ads were prepared by an impressive array of artists, a team that includes Neta Harari, Jimmy Cauty, Banksy-collaborator Paul Insect, Escif, and Kennard Phillips. In all, some 82 artists contributed from 19 different countries.
Guardian: U.K. Becomes Only G7 Country to Increase Fossil-Fuel Subsidies
The U.K. is alone among G7 nations in dramatically increasing its fossil-fuel subsidies, despite an earlier pledge to phase them out, a new report has found.
The revelation will embarrass ministers who want to take a leading role at a crunch U.N. climate change summit in Paris in December, but who have been sharply cutting support for green energy at home.
The report from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and Oil Change International found that as a whole, G20 nations are responsible for $452B (£297B) a year in subsidies for fossil-fuel production. The G20, which meets on Sunday in Turkey, pledged in 2009 to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies.
Pacific Standard: Where Should All the Coal Miners Go?
Hillary Clinton's briefing on her plan calls for "federal investments that help people to find good jobs without having to move." Realistically, however, economic development is a slow process. It takes time for local governments to woo new industries, and for companies to make the decision to relocate and build new facilities.
If coal country does manage to reinvent itself, as former industrial towns like Cleveland and Pittsburgh have successfully done, it's unlikely to happen quickly enough to provide jobs for most of today's coal miners. And if the economy of American coal country is utterly decimated by the shuttering of the coal industry, there won't be any local employers hiring, no matter what kind of retraining coal miners receive.
PV Magazine: Louisiana's Largest Utility Puts the Brakes on Solar
It is usually best to save unpopular news until a major holiday. In Louisiana, a state with a history of brazen political corruption and dominance by the oil and gas industry, this is a time-honored method of limiting public outcry.
Last Wednesday, the day before the Thanksgiving holiday, Entergy Louisiana informed state regulators that it would close its net metering program. The utility says that solar installations in its service area had reached a capacity exceeding 0.5% of its peak load, the level at which it is allowed to shut off the program.