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Friday, October 17, 2014

Global Investment in Renewable Energy France

Continuing with our list from December 2011 (archive) next up we have France

Renewable sources such as biomass and hydro participate to a significant extent of France’s energy mix. However, France is developing policies aimed at a more diversified mix which includes increasing wind and photovoltaic electricity, solar energy for heat and biofuels. France also has the second largest potential in the European Union in terms of wind energy and a very good potential in terms of solar and geothermal energy.

Learn more about renewable energy in France here.

Policies

Here are a few of France’s renewable energy policy plans (for more info, please click here):

Tax Credits – In 2005, tax credits were set up (50% since 2006) for equipments using renewable energy source. This is now called the sustainable development tax credit regime and is extended to 2012.

General Tax on Polluting Activities – Operators who incorporate levels of biofuels inferior to the anticipated national objectives must acquit, according to the 2005 Financial Law a supplementary payment of General Tax on polluting activities. The rate of the tax decreases according to the amount of biofuels put on the market.

Motives

France faces an energy import dependency close to average EU levels, with the majority of imports being oil.

The share of gas, also imported, has been steadily increasing in recent years.

Electricity production in France is dominated by nuclear energy which amounts approximately to 77% (2007).

Renewable Energy Availability

The level of production of large-scale and small-scale hydropower installations combined to represent 59,712 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of the total 64,439 GWh.

The second and third principal sources are biowaste (1,671 GWh) and solid biomass (1,371 GWh).

Solar power demonstrates an average annual growth of 90% (between 1997 and 2004), and for onshore wind power this figure is 58%.

Stay tuned for the final country coming up!

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about renewable energy - Knowledge Is Power! For more information go to www.endeavorscorp.com or write to us at info@endeavorscorp.com if you have questions or want to get involved. Have a green day!

Sources: EREC, EREC, EREC, Europa, Bloomberg New Energy Finance and United Nations Environment Programme (2011)

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Global Investment in Renewable Energy Italy

Next up on our list of countries with the largest reported investments in renewable energy in 2010 is Italy

The most important renewable energy source in Italy is hydropower which contributes to roughly 16.6% of total gross electricity production of the country. Italy also has large geothermal resources, both high and low temperature. Italy is considered the most important producer of geothermal electricity in Europe.

Policies

Here are some ways that Italy is trying to increase development in regards to renewable energy:

Italy plans on moving towards a feed-in tariff-based renewable energy rebate scheme, similar to successful models implemented in Germany and Spain.

The government is developing a national building law that will ensure that solar thermal installations are installed in new and refurbished buildings.

Introduced new provisions for renewable power generators. Small generators (up to 1 megawatts) will have the choice between selling their green certificates on the market and receiving a feed-in tariff.

Italy’s Targets for Renewable Energy by 2020 - MW totally installed

Learn more!

Motives

Italy relies on others to provide 86% of its energy needs, leaving it very dependent on imports and causing a shift towards using more renewable sources.

Italy’s own supplies of natural gas have fallen sharply over the past decade and covered only around 12% of consumption in 2008.

Renewable Energy Availability

Italy has long been Europe’s leader in geothermal power, using steam produced by hot rocks several kilometers below the ground.

Larderello’s turbines produced 5.5 terawatt hours last year.

Enel, Italy’s state-controlled power company, will construct a five-megawatt solar-thermal plant that uses innovative technology.

Take a look at how the USA and China compare to Italy!

Stay tuned for more countries coming up!

Sources: EREC, EREC, Economist, Economist, Invitalia, Bloomberg New Energy Finance and United Nations Environment Programme (2011)

Monday, September 29, 2014

Global Investment in Renewable Energy Czech Republic

The final country on our list of the largest reported investments in renewable energy in 2010 is the Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic, renewable energy is supported through either a guaranteed feed-in tariff or a green bonus paid on top of the market price. System operators are free to choose either option. Furthermore, renewable energy is promoted through several subsidies and an exemption from the tax on income gained from the sale of electricity from renewable sources.

Policies

Here are a few of Czech Republic’s renewable energy policies (click here for more information):

Tax exemption – No income tax is foreseen neither in the year of putting in operation renewable electricity plants nor for the following 5 years.

EU Structural Funds – From 2007, investors in renewable electricity production had the opportunity to obtain aid from the EU’s Structural Funds via the Operational Programmes. The Operational Programme (OP) for 2007-2013 focused, amongst other things, on the construction and restoration of plants using RES.

Motives

The share of renewable energy sources has been increasing, although still below EU average.

Coal is the main energy source for electricity production. The second most important source is nuclear power.

The share of renewable energy sources has also been increasing, although still below EU average.

Renewable Energy Availability

Click to see larger image
and for more information.

Gross electricity production from hydro amounted to 2,090 gigawatt-hours while the total installed capacity amounted to 1,031 megawatts.

Gross electricity production from biomass amounted to 968 gigawatt-hours in 2007 (with an annual increment of 237 gigawatt-hours).

Wind plants produced 125.11 gigawatt-hours in 2007. By the end of 2007, 113.8 megawatts of wind power had been installed in the Czech Republic. In 2007, 10 projects with a total capacity of 70.3 megawatts were put into operation.

To learn about the other countries on this list please see our blog archive or take a look at our GREENcyclopedia for much more!

Res-Legal, EREC, EREC, EREC, Endeavorscorp, Bloomberg New Energy Finance and United Nations Environment Programme (2011)