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The world's first solar-powered airport is no longer paying for electricity

Last year, we brought you news of the first airport in the world to run on 100 percent energy, and now Cochin International Airport in southern India has hit a major milestone: it's stopped paying for its electricity altogether, and actually contributes energy back to the grid thanks to the tens of thousands of solar panels spread across the site.

The first of those panels was installed three years ago, but it was only last year that Cochin Airport got serious about renewable energy, commissioning German firm Bosch to turn unused wasteland near one of the terminals into a huge solar power plant. Now that investment is finally starting to pay off.

"We wanted to be independent of the electricity utility grid," Jose Thomas, the airport's general manager, told CNNMoney. The airport uses 48,000-50,000 kilowatts of power every day, and the 45 acres of photovoltaic cells installed on the site can now take that strain and then some.There are now plans to extend the solar farm out even further to supply power to the larger international terminal currently under construction.

Other major players in the industry are taking note – the large swathes of unused land at most airports make them particularly suitable for projects of this kind. Indian Civil Aviation Minister, Ashok Gajapathi Raju, has visited Cochin and said he wants to use the same approach at other airports in the country, and representatives from Liberia and South Africa have also been to Cochin to check out the solar-powered airport in person.

Cochin is India's seventh busiest airport, but Kolkata International Airport, near the eastern border, is even busier, and it wants to build a similar solar plant covering 70 acres of land. If the plan goes through, it could see the airport reduce its energy bill by a third.

The innovations at Cochin and Kolkata have been helped by the growing economic viability of solar power in India - the price has now dropped to a similar level to coal, which makes it a genuine alternative on small and large scales.

Some estimations suggest solar energy will actually be cheaper than coal in India by 2020, and the Indian government is keen to bring more solar power into the grid as it looks to provide stable, round-the-clock electricity for its 1.3-billion population. In part, that's due to the environmental benefits of solar, which are particularly pertinent in a country that's home to 13 of the world's 20 most polluted cities.

As for Cochin International Airport, the site's management team thinks it'll soon be paying back some of the 620 million rupees (US$9.2 million) it cost to put the solar panel installations in place, thanks to the excess energy it's selling; and that's before you get to the 300,000 metric tonnes of carbon emissions it's estimated they'll save compared with coal power over the next 25 years.

Things are looking pretty great over at Cochin right now - rest of the world, take note.

http://www.sciencealert.com/the-world-s-first-solar-powered-airport-is-no-longer-paying-for-its-electricity

The world's first solar-powered airport is no longer paying for electricity Last year, we brought you news of the first airport in the world to run on 100 percent solar energy, and now Cochin International Airport in southern India has hit a major milestone : it's stopped paying for its electricity altogether, and actually...

US Coal Production Falls To Lowest Levels Since 1986

The US has seen its production levels fall to their lowest levels since 1986, dropping 10% in 2015 as part of a longer downward-trend.

Figures published by the US Information Administration (EIA) earlier this month show that coal production has continued to decline since 2008, and in 2015 only reached (an expected) 900 million short tons (MMst), 10% lower than just the year before, and the lowest level since 1986, nearly 30 years prior.

Specifically, production from the Appalachian Basin fell the most in 2015, but lower natural gas prices and lower international demand for American coal is behind the country’s declining coal production figures.

Across America’s five major coal producing basins, the largest decline can be seen to be in the Central Appalachian Basin, due primarily to “difficult mining geology and high operating costs.” Specifically, production in the Central Appalachian Basin was 40% below its annual average (determined over 2010-2014).

The Northern Appalachian Basin, Rocky Mountain region, and Powder River Basin all saw their own production figures fall by between 10% and 20%.

Offsetting the trend somewhat, the Illinois Basin saw 8% higher production levels in 2015 over its annual average.

The majority of America’s coal production is filtered through to electricity generation (though coal exports also declined in 2015, especially to major coal export destinations such as Europe and China). However, with the decline in gas prices and the increase in renewable energy generation capacity, the demand for coal-generated electricity is slipping. In 2014, coal generated 39% of the country’s electricity, with natural gas generating 27% and renewables only generating 7%. With a bumper 2015, America’s renewable energy industry installed a lot of capacity — capacity that will only continue to grow in 2016 — which will have an almost one-for-one impact on coal’s generating and production figures when the EIA releases its 2015 statistics in the coming months.

http://cleantechnica.com/2016/01/13/us-coal-production-falls-lowest-levels-since-1986/

Fresh Climate Data Confirms 2015 Is Unlike Any Other Year in Human History
Over the past few days, a bevy of data has come together to tell a familiar yet shocking story: Humans have profoundly altered the planet’s life-support system, with 2015 increasingly likely to be an exclamation point on recent trends.

On Monday, scientists at Britain’s national weather service, the Met Office, said our planet will finish this year more than one degree Celsius warmer than preindustrial levels for the first time. That figure is halfway to the line in the sand that scientists say represents “dangerous” climate change and global leaders have committed to avoid—an ominous milestone.

This year’s global heat wave—about two-tenths of a degree warmer than 2014, a massive leap when averaged over the entire planet—can be blamed most immediately on an exceptionally strong El Niño but wouldn’t exist without decades of heat-trapping emissions from fossil fuel burning. Separate data released on Monday by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed the current El Niño, a periodic warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean, has now tied 1997 for the strongest event ever measured, at least on a weekly basis.

"We've had similar natural events in the past, yet this is the first time we are set to reach the 1 degree marker and it's clear that it is human influence driving our modern climate into uncharted territory," said Stephen Belcher, director of the Met Office’s Hadley Centre in a statement.
More:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/11/10/huge_el_nino_pushes_climate_toward_records.html

Clean energy defies fossil fuel price crash to attract record $329bn global investment in 2015

2015 was also the highest ever for installation of renewable power capacity, with 64GW of wind and 57GW of commissioned during the year, an increase of nearly 30% over 2014.
Clean energy investment surged in China, Africa, the US, Latin America and India in 2015, driving the world total to its highest ever figure, of $328.9bn, up 4% from 2014’s revised $315.9bn and beating the previous record, set in 2011 by 3%.

The latest figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance show dollar investment globally growing in 2015 to nearly six times its 2004 total and a new record of one third of a trillion dollars (see chart on page 3), despite four influences that might have been expected to restrain it.

These were: further declines in the cost of solar photovoltaics, meaning that more capacity could be installed for the same price; the strength of the US currency, reducing the dollar value of non-dollar investment; the continued weakness of the European economy, formerly the powerhouse of renewable energy investment; and perhaps most significantly, the plunge in fossil fuel commodity prices.

Over the 18 months to the end of 2015, the price of Brent crude plunged 67% from $112.36 to $37.28 per barrel, international steam coal delivered to the north west Europe hub dropped 35% from $73.70 to $47.60 per tonne. Natural gas in the US fell 48% on the Henry Hub index from $4.42 to $2.31 per million British Thermal Units.

Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said: “These figures are a stunning riposte to all those who expected clean energy investment to stall on falling oil and gas prices. They highlight the improving cost-competitiveness of solar and wind power, driven in part by the move by many countries to reverse-auction new capacity rather than providing advantageous tariffs, a shift that has put producers under continuing price pressure.

“Wind and solar power are now being adopted in many developing countries as a natural and substantial part of the generation mix: they can be produced more cheaply than often high wholesale power prices; they reduce a country’s exposure to expected future fossil fuel prices; and above all they can be built very quickly to meet unfulfilled demand for electricity. And it is very hard to see these trends going backwards, in the light of December’s Paris Climate Agreement.”

Looking at the figures in detail, the biggest piece of the $328.9bn invested in clean energy in 2015 was asset finance of utility-scale projects such as wind farms, solar parks, biomass and waste-to-energy plants and small hydro-electric schemes. This totalled $199bn in 2015, up 6% on the previous year.[1]

The biggest projects financed last year included a string of large offshore wind arrays in the North Sea and off the coast of China. These included the UK’s 580MW Race Bank and 336MW Galloper, with estimated costs of $2.9bn and $2.3bn respectively, Germany’s 402MW Veja Mate, at $2.1bn, and China’s Longyuan Haian Jiangjiasha and Datang & Jiangsu Binhai, each of 300MW and $850m.

The biggest financing in onshore wind was of the 1.6GW Nafin Mexico portfolio, for an estimated $2.2bn. For solar PV, it was the Silver State South project, at 294MW and about $744m, and for solar thermal or CSP, it was the NOORo portfolio in Morocco, at 350MW and around $1.8bn. The largest biomass project funded was the 330MW Klabin Ortiguera plant in Brazil, at about $921m, and the largest geothermal one was Guris Efeler in Turkey, at 170MW and an estimated $717m.

After asset finance, the next largest piece of clean energy investment was spending on rooftop and other small-scale solar projects. This totaled $67.4bn in 2015, up 12% on the previous year, with Japan by far the biggest market, followed by the US and China.

Preliminary indications are that, thanks to this utility-scale and small-scale activity, both wind and solar PV saw around 30% more capacity installed worldwide in 2015 than in 2014. The wind total for last year is likely to end up at around 64GW, with that for solar just behind at about 57GW. This combined total of 121GW will have made up around half of the net capacity added in all generation technologies (fossil fuel, nuclear and renewable) globally in 2015.

Public market investment in clean energy companies was $14.4bn last year, down 27% from 2014 but in line with the 10-year average. Top deals included a $750m secondary share issue by electric car maker Tesla Motors, and a $688m initial public offering by TerraForm Global, a US-based ‘yieldco’ owning renewable energy projects in emerging markets.

Venture capital and private equity investors pumped $5.6bn into specialist clean energy firms in 2015, up 17% on the 2014 total but still far below the $12.2bn peak of 2008. The biggest VC/PE deal of last year was $500m for Chinese electric vehicle company NextEV.

There was $20bn of asset finance in clean energy technologies such as smart grid and utility-scale battery storage, representing an 11% rise on 2014, the latest in an unbroken series of annual increases over the past nine years. The final category of clean energy investment, government and corporate research and development spending, totaled $28.3bn in 2015, up just 1%. This figure provides a benchmark for any surge in spending in the wake of announcements at COP21 in Paris by consortia of governments and private investors, led by Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.

National trends

China was again by far the largest investor in clean energy in 2015, increasing its dominance with a 17% increase to $110.5bn, as its government spurred on wind and solar development to meet electricity demand, limit reliance on polluting coal-fired power stations and create international champions.

Second was the US, which invested $56bn, up 8% on the previous year and the strongest figure since the era of the ‘green stimulus’ policies in 2011. Money-raising by quoted ‘yieldcos’, plus solid growth in investment in new solar and wind projects, supported the US total.

Europe again saw lower investment in 2015, at $58.5bn, down 18% on 2014 and its weakest figure since 2006. The UK was by far the strongest market, with investment up 24% to $23.4bn. Germany invested $10.6bn, down 42% on a move to less generous support for solar and, in wind, uncertainty about how a new auction system will work from 2017. France saw an even bigger fall in investment, of 53% to $2.9bn.

Brazil’s clean energy investment slipped 10% to $7.5bn in 2015, while India’s gained 23% to $10.9bn, the highest since 2011 but a far cry for the figures needed to implement the Modi government’s ambitious plans. Japan saw investment rise 3% to $43.6bn, on the back of a continuing PV boom. In Canada, clean energy investment fell 43% to $4.1bn, while in Australia, it edged up 16% to $2.9bn.

A number of “new markets” together committed tens of billions of dollars to clean energy last year. These include Mexico ($4.2bn, up 114%), Chile ($3.5bn, up 157%), South Africa ($4.5bn, up 329%) and Morocco ($2bn, up from almost zero in 2014).

Africa and the Middle East are two regions with big potential for clean energy, given their growing populations, plentiful solar and wind resources and, in many African countries, low rates of electricity access. In 2015, these regions combined saw investment of $13.4bn, up 54% on the previous year.

Note: Following minor revisions to prior year totals to reflect additional deal information, Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s historical series for global clean energy investment is: $61.9bn in 2004, $88bn in 2005, $128.3bn in 2006, $174.9bn in 2007, $205.6bn in 2008, $207.3bn in 2009, $273.7bn in 2010, $318.3bn in 2011, $297bn in 2012, $271.9bn in 2013, $315.9bn in 2014 and $328.9bn in 2015.
http://about.bnef.com/press-releases/clean-energy-defies-fossil-fuel-price-crash-to-attract-record-329bn-global-investment-in-2015/

DEWA attracts huge interest for its Phase III 800 MW solar PV tender

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has attracted a large group of international developers for its much-anticipated Phase III 800 MW ( ) tender, the Middle East Solar Industry Association (MESIA) announced on December 9th, 2015
Solar IPP heavyweights such Engie-Marubeni, SunEdison, ACWA Power, EDF-Nebras, FRV-Masdar, as well as Al-Fanar-Building Energy lead the list of international consortia that have submitted their qualifications as part of the RFQ phase of this tender.
Leading solar PV panel manufacturers such as Jinko Solar (with RWE) and REC Solar (with Viverdis) have also jumped into the competition. New entrants such as M+W & Stumpf Energy, Tetratech and Acciona-Swicorp are also throwing their names into the hat.
Unlike last year's 100 MW prequalification round, DEWA has set very stringent qualification criteria for this 800 MW tender, both technical and financial, to reflect the strategic nature of this landmark project. DEWA is expected to take a 60% share in the project company.
Whereas 49 companies submitted RFQ documents for last year's Phase II tender (200 MW), it is believed that around 20 companies have submitted responses for the Phase III tender.
This reflects the fact that Phase III is much more ambitious and large-scale, with only a handful of companies being able to satisfy the criteria set by DEWA.
The RFP round of this tender is expected to be unveiled in early 2016.

http://www.solarserver.com/solar-magazine/solar-news/current/2015/kw50/dewa-attracts-huge-interest-for-its-phase-iii-800-mw-solar-pv-tender.html