The US Department of Commerce has opened an investigation into whether solar modules imported from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are circumventing duties. California-based panel assembler Auxin Solar filed a petition in February, alleging imports from these countries use components from China, allowing the Chinese components to avoid duties. The four countries account for over half the US' non-Chinese solar cell imports, according to engineering services group Clean Energy Associates. Because it could mean retroactive tariffs, the probe will slow solar growth before the case is even decided, industry groups say.
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UN carbon market sticks to clean cooking reversal rules
UN carbon market sticks to clean cooking reversal rules
Berlin, 18 September (Argus) — Experts tasked to work on methodologies for the new UN-regulated Paris agreement crediting mechanism (Pacm) are sticking to their controversial decision to require clean cooking activities to contribute some of the credits they generate to a buffer for reversals. Holding clean cooking activities accountable for the non-permanence of emissions reductions is in line with the latest science on this matter, to which Pacm is committed, Pacm's methodological expert panel said in an information note published on UN climate arm the UNFCCC's website on Friday. The buffer pool requirements have been strongly criticised by project developers, prompting Pacm's supervisory body to ask the panel for clarification. Project developers argue that clean cooking activities will be made economically unviable under the non-permanence requirements, on top of other methodology criteria that have been strongly tightened compared with Pacm predecessor the clean development mechanism (CDM) and the voluntary carbon market. Pacm clean cooking projects will be more expensive and this may lead to a shift towards other activities — either non-clean cooking within Pacm or clean cooking outside Pacm, the expert panel said in the information note. Contributing to the reversal risk buffer pool account could reduce the number of Pacm credits — so-called A6.4ERs — issued to activity participants by around 6pc in a charcoal-to-electricity activity under a 10pc reversal reduction scenario, or by around 60pc in a fuelwood-efficiency activity and assuming a 50pc reversal reduction scenario. But the central benefit of accounting for reversal risk is the "preservation of the environmental integrity of the Article 6.4 mechanism as a whole", the panel said, referring to the article of the Paris climate agreement governing the mechanism. The expert panel also proposed alternatives to a buffer pool contribution, while emphasising that they might require changes to the Article 6.4 rules. The issue is likely to be debated at the UN Cop 31 climate conference in Turkey in November. Alternatives include exempting mitigation contribution units — A6.4ERs whose emissions savings remain in the host country — from a buffer contribution. But this would create a different level of substantive claims between units, the experts cautioned. Or other activity types that are not subject to reversal risks could be required to make buffer pool contributions for clean cooking activities, perhaps as a bridging measure, or to allow clean cooking activities that are nested under a jurisdictional carbon crediting activity — mainly Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation — to be exempted. The panel recommended a list of natural reversal risk factors for different regions, nations and sub-nations, mirroring the Pacm factors for the fraction of non-renewable biomass. For Asia-Pacific, the wildfire risk factor has been put at 2.1pc, and the risk factor for all other natural reversal risks at 24.6pc. For Latin America and the Caribbean, the factors are 7.1pc and 24.9pc, respectively, and for sub-Saharan Africa they are 0.2pc and 12.3pc. Proposed national reversal risk factors vary greatly. The expert panel last week recommended two clean cooking methodology drafts to the supervisory body for the latter's next meeting — the CLEAR methodology submitted by the Clean Cooking and Climate Consortium, and a legacy CDM clean cooking methodology update focused on fuel-switching. Should the supervisory body adopt the two methodologies at its October meeting, this would bring the total number of Pacm methodologies to five, all passed this year. A range of further methodology proposals are under discussion but will not be adopted before next year. By Chloe Jardine Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Territorial risks cloud Mexico’s Centauro expansion
Territorial risks cloud Mexico’s Centauro expansion
Mexico City, 18 September (Argus) — Territorial risks threaten to delay the second phase of Mexico's Centauro del Norte natural gas pipeline, designed to bring cheaper US Permian basin gas to northwestern power plants, while disparate metrics obscure its rate of progress. Grupo Carso is building the $1.43bn, approximately 442km (275-mile) pipeline across Baja California and Sonora states. The project will supply two of state-owned utility CFE's newest combined-cycle power plants and add generation capacity in a region facing grid constraints. The 72km first phase runs from an interconnection with Sempra's Rosarito pipeline near Mexicali to San Luis Rio Colorado, connecting the new plants to existing infrastructure. Mexicali's 641MW Gonzalez Ortega plant began commercial operations in May. CFE is also developing the 648MW San Luis Rio Colorado plant. Construction of the 365km second phase is not scheduled to begin until early 2027, with completion targeted for December 2028, but market sources doubt that schedule can be met. The expansion would receive Permian gas primarily through the Samalayuca-Sasabe pipeline system and northern cross-border hubs connected to west Texas supplies. The second phase presents territorial risks that engineering alone cannot resolve, Carlos Alberto Torres, a former official at state-owned Pemex, told Argus . These include its proximity to the El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar biosphere reserve, consultations with Tohono O'odham communities along the Sonoyta-Caborca corridor, rights of way across agricultural land near Caborca and Altar, and security conditions affecting workers and contractors. None has been confirmed as currently blocking the project, Torres said, but each could delay construction. Uncertainty has been compounded by the different scopes used to report progress. The energy ministry's 15-year hydrocarbons development plan, released on 7 September, put overall project progress at 7.12pc. Carso filings, meanwhile, showed progress rising from 47pc at the end of the first quarter to 77pc as of 30 June, likely referring only to the first phase. Those figures measure execution of a $47.85mn contract held by Carso subsidiary CICSA rather than the entire project. Carso's filings also vary in describing Centauro as either a two- or three-phase project. Carso has not responded to Argus requests for clarification, while the energy ministry's plan provides little detail beyond funding. "The question is not whether there is money, it is whether we are budgeting for territorial and regulatory risk with the same rigor as capex," Torres said. By James Young Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Hungary ready to join European power balancing markets
Hungary ready to join European power balancing markets
London, 18 September (Argus) — All technical, market and regulatory preparations are in place for Hungary to join European automatic and manual frequency restoration reserve platforms Picasso and Mari on 1 October, transmission system operator (TSO) Mavir said on Friday. Integrating Hungary into Picasso and Mari is unlikely to affect wholesale electricity prices directly, market participants told Argus . But it could affect the volatility of imbalance prices and revenue for Hungarian battery energy storage system (Bess) operators. The cost of imbalance reflects the cost of matching power generation and demand in real time. Imbalance costs are incurred by producers and consumers when their demand or production is unexpectedly lower or higher than scheduled. Currently, Hungarian imbalance prices are set by bids from domestic balancing market participants only. TSOs participating in regional balancing systems input bids from their market and an algorithm activates balancing capacity — upward and downward revisions in demand and generation. The aim is to balance the system most efficiently across all markets, taking into account transmission capacity constraints. In the case of Picasso, the algorithm determines the cross-border marginal price (CBMP) every four seconds, which TSOs use to derive the 15-minute imbalance settlement costs they charge to users. Since neighbouring Slovenia joined Picasso in July, "imbalance prices are becoming quite hard to predict", market participants told Argus . The Slovenian imbalance settlement price exceeded €13,000/MWh during a region-wide heatwave on 7 July, according to market operator Borzen. In this case, a single settlement period could "pose a material financial threat" to smaller producers, especially "unstable" weather-dependent renewables. But TSOs have different methodologies to derive the imbalance settlement prices from the CBMP. Mavir has opted for a volume-weighted average rather than marginal pricing, to avoid a "four-second spike" setting the 15-minute settlement, market participants told Argus . Opening the balancing market to competition Hungary's entry into Picasso could expose the country's Bess operators to greater competition for balancing market revenue. Hungarian batteries will have to bid against Slovak Bess, which can bid lower as they pay lower grid fees, market participants told Argus . But potentially lower revenue from the balancing market after joining Picasso is unlikely to threaten Bess buildout. Developers are aware that the market will inevitably become saturated as more and more batteries come on line, market participants told Argus . Hungary has one of the most volatile intraday markets in the EU, making it an attractive market for Bess, which can profit from intra-day arbitrages. Hungary had 984MW of Bess capacity installed at the beginning of September, up from just 146MW at the end of last year. Operational Picasso members include most of western and central Europe including neighbouring Slovenia, Austria and Slovakia. Romania and Croatia are set to join in the second quarter of 2027, according to the latest Picasso ascension roadmap, published in February. By Jessamy Guest Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Cautious optimism on German decarbonisation
Cautious optimism on German decarbonisation
Berlin, 18 September (Argus) — German government officials have voiced cautious optimism about financing the country's industrial decarbonisation, as the economy ministry this week disclosed the results of its €5bn ($5.7bn) tender for carbon contracts for difference. Germany's government is advancing in its aim to get more private capital involved in the green transformation, finance ministry official Anna Klabunde said at an industry event in Gelsenkirchen this week. Klabunde, who is head of the ministry's sustainability, decarbonisation and carbon pricing unit, flagged the three new programmes launched or planned by the government's "Germany fund", under the auspices of state-held bank KfW, that are designed to make it easier for private-sector investors to get involved. The first of the programmes is an investment loan scheme for energy supply, aimed at district heating and cooling networks. The second is a hedging instrument for "industries in transition". Both were launched last month, with German turbine manufacturer Enercon already making use of the new hedging instrument for its €1bn green loan syndicated guarantee facility, arranged with banks including KfW. The third scheme has not yet been launched. It targets the construction sector and aims to push private investments in residential construction. Half of all applications for state guarantees in the industry-heavy German state of North Rhine-Westphalia are for transformation projects such as biogas plants or electrolysers, auditing firm PWC director Rainer Holtmann said at this week's event. The firm audits and manages state guarantees for loans on behalf of the economy ministry. But it is difficult to arrange state guarantees for hydrogen or steel projects, given the lack of "expectations", Holtmann said. Such projects are considered loss-making businesses that will be dependent on subsidies for the foreseeable future. Hydrogen projects will typically need 100pc equity, Holtmann said. Financing for steel is difficult too, and there is massive competition from areas such as the armament industry, which promises better returns in the short term, Holtmann said. German research institute Oeko Institut's Felix Matthes called for a more encompassing approach. Germany needs a hydrogen strategy and a carbon capture and storage (CCS) strategy, and sufficient funding, he said. The cost gap for transformation projects will not be bridged through insurance instruments alone or the EU emissions trading system (ETS) price, Matthes said. He pointed out how the UK, a country with a "different attitude to the financial markets", supports its green hydrogen industry. Klabunde suggested there might be a case for extending to other sectors Germany's "inter-temporal" funding mechanism for its hydrogen core grid — through which the state broadly advances the investment costs. And she defended the government's much-criticised decision to shift billions of euros from Germany's climate transformation fund to the general budget. Finance minister Lars Klingbeil has said the changes were necessary owing to budgetary constraints, but Klabunde clarified that they were also carried out as part of an overall focus on raising efficiency and enabling the most emissions reductions at the lowest costs. Many European states do not even have such a fund, she said. Green lead markets — another much-debated support mechanism for industrial decarbonisation — can be "hard work" as they must be implemented at the European level, economy ministry official Verena Lauber said. Lauber leads the ministry's decarbonisation funding programmes unit. Local content rules planned under the European Commission's proposed Industrial Accelerator Act would only come in 2030, which would be too late for "many", think-tank the Jacques Delors Centre senior policy fellow Philipp Jaeger said. North Rhine-Westphalia's junior economy minister, Silke Krebs, voiced her "joy" at the plans for public green procurement mooted by the EU, and stressed that "we continue with confidence and hope that everything will fit together". North Rhine-Westphalia is actively driving forward Germany's hydrogen starter grid. The "key" problem facing the state's industrial decarbonisation is that "the timelines no longer match" on areas such as CCS, along with the voices placing doubt on the need for decarbonisation in the first place, Krebs warned. There is always a risk that policy makers cave in, crashing EU ETS prices, research institute Wuppertal Institut's Lukas Hermwille said. This makes the restrained reaction of the EU ETS to the commission's revision proposal in July all the more remarkable, he said. It shows how market participants had correctly anticipated and priced in the "waning credibility", Hermwille said. It is precisely the massive delays in infrastructure deployment that made ETS adjustments necessary, Jaeger said, stressing that the delays were not expected 2-3 years ago. And the lack of a Europe-wide consensus on decarbonisation and ensuing political insecurity make investment decisions more difficult, Jaeger said. Germany's government is also working on a carbon management strategy and a long-term negative emissions strategy, which are expected to be presented by the end of this month. By Chloe Jardine Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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