Florida may vote on solar purchase deals
A proposal to lift Florida's ban on power purchase agreements with third-party solar companies could be on next year's election ballot.
The ballot initiative, introduced by the Floridians for Solar Choice in December 2014, seeks to expand distributed solar capacity by amending the state's constitution. If passed, the ballot initiative would give ratepayers the option to buy power directly from third-party owners of solar installations no larger than 2MW. Under current laws, ratepayers are limited to purchasing power from utilities only.
The Florida attorney general's office has forwarded the initiative language to the state Supreme Court for review, a key step before it can qualify for the ballot, the group said on 24 April.
Developers such as Solar City and SunEdison have been unable to expand into the Florida residential market under the state's existing regulatory structure. Passage of the ballot initiative would allow the companies to cover the upfront installation costs of the solar system, and then sell associated generation directly to the ratepayer or back into the grid.
The ballot measure contains a provision that bars electricity utilities from imposing new fees or usage charges for solar system owners to access to the grid.
The initiative gained more than 70,000 signatures required to reach the Supreme Court, and will need 600,000 more signatures by February 2016 to get on the November 2016 ballot.
Florida regulators are looking at the future of solar generation in the state. The Public Service Commission last week asked stakeholders, including utilities, to provide recommendations by 23 June for integration of new solar capacity.
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UK government consults on delaying heat pump scheme
UK government consults on delaying heat pump scheme
London, 14 March (Argus) — The UK government today launched a consultation on delaying the introduction of its clean heat market mechanism (CHMM) heat pump incentive scheme by a year to 1 April 2025. The government has proposed cancelling the first year of the scheme — 1 April 2024-31 March 2025 — then continuing the scheme from the second year. "The government wants to provide industry with further time to prepare their businesses, and for more consumers to take up heat pumps before introducing the CHMM scheme," it said. The scheme will oblige heating appliance manufacturers to gradually increase the percentage of their sales made up of low-carbon appliances such as heat pumps, or acquire credits if they fall below a given threshold. In its present form, manufacturers must generate or acquire credits equivalent to 4pc of sales during the first year of the scheme and 6pc in the second year. Targets for subsequent years have yet to be set, but the government intends to increase the percentage to reach a goal of 600,000 heat pump installations per year by 2028. Industry associations and utilities last month called for the government to retain the scheme after reports that it was considering dropping or modifying it. And junior energy minister Lord Callanan last week defended the scheme in parliament. "We will be implementing it because it is an essential part of meeting that 600,000 target and, of course, our carbon budgets," he said. The consultation will be open until 9 May, so any change decided by the government would take effect after the scheme begins. By Rhys Talbot Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Green growth a focus for Azerbaijan: Cop 29 president
Green growth a focus for Azerbaijan: Cop 29 president
London, 14 March (Argus) — "Green growth is a priority for Azerbaijan", although the country will continue to deliver gas to customers, president-designate of the UN Cop 29 climate summit Mukhtar Babayev said at the Financial Times Climate Capital Live conference today. Azerbaijan is an oil and gas producer, and a member of the Opec+ alliance. Cop 29 is set to take place in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 11-22 November. "We will continue to deliver the gas to our customers", but at the same time will pursue a "green agenda", Babayev said. Azerbaijan plans to export "over 24bn m³" of gas in 2024, with half of planned deliveries this year earmarked for Europe, energy minister Parviz Shahbazov said earlier this year. Azerbaijan is a "vulnerable country" in terms of climate change, Babayev said, noting water shortages and land degradation. "Azerbaijan has already turned the economy to the green direction", he added. Azerbaijan's state-owned Socar in late December said that it would establish a unit, Socar Green, to focus on driving the country's renewable energy portfolio. The country has a goal to produce 30pc of its power needs from renewable sources by 2030. And Azerbaijan may "reconsider possibly" updating its nationally determined contribution (NDC) — or climate plan — according to Babayev. He emphasised that Cop 29 was a chance for all countries to announce "upgraded NDCs", although the next round of updates under the five-yearly cycle is not due until Cop 30, in 2025. Cop 30 will take place in Brazil. Azerbaijan under its current NDC has set a target to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40pc by 2050, from a baseline year of 1990, contingent to international financial support and technology transfer. Earlier this month, Azerbaijan joined the Global Methane Pledge group of countries that have promised to cut emissions of the greenhouse gas (GHG) by 30pc by 2030. "Climate finance is one of the priorities" for Cop 29, Babayev said. The Cop 29 team has "already started to negotiate with different financial institutes, countries… trying to prepare ourselves to start the negotiations on the text", he added. The topic of climate finance is likely to take centre stage at this year's Cop, as countries must decide on a new finance goal . By Georgia Gratton Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Q&A: LNG-to-H2 a pragmatic path to decarbonise shipping
Q&A: LNG-to-H2 a pragmatic path to decarbonise shipping
Singapore, 14 March (Argus) — Australian project developer Pilbara Clean Fuels (PCF) and marine fuels firm Oceania Marine Energy are working with classification society RINA on an "end-to-end" low-carbon LNG production and marine bunkering project at Port Hedland in Western Australia that provides a path to zero emissions for the adoption of LNG as a marine fuel. Argus spoke to RINA technical director Antonios Trakakis and head of decarbonisation and innovation Jan-Paul de Wilde, as well as PCF managing director Robert Malabar, about their project and the overall outlook for maritime decarbonisation on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Maritime 2024 conference and exhibition in Singapore. Edited highlights follow. RINA is developing a concept for a new dry-bulk ship design with an innovative LNG marine fuel system involving pre-combustion carbon removal and hydrogen production for the Pilbara to Asia dry-bulk trade route. Why have you chosen to pursue this technology to meet upcoming International Maritime Organisation (IMO) targets? Trakakis: In shipping, what we've been always trying to do is find solutions based on what we have on hand. In our solution we start with LNG, which offers an immediate reduction in GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions. We have arrived at an innovative ship design running on LNG which achieves 10pc less fuel consumption compared to the state of the art dual-fuelled ship of today, which is substantial. And yet at less cost, so we do more with less. The [IMO] regulation does not invite us to invest in green fuel to find which green fuel we're going to choose. The regulation requires from us to start immediately the reduction of CO2 emissions. If you run on LNG, if you leave aside the methane slip, on a tank-to-wake basis then the GHG savings of LNG are 26-27pc compared with fuel oil. Malabar: Switching to LNG from fuel oil gets you compliant with IMO's requirements to 2030-35. So why do anything more immediately? How does your design provide a pathway for achieving deeper GHG emissions cuts beyond 2035? Malabar: Combining low-carbon LNG with onboard hydrogen production through steam methane reforming and carbon capture provides a pathway for dry bulk shipping to comply with IMO 2023 GHG regulations, and also achieve a path to the IMO net zero by 2050 target. We would gradually add blue hydrogen produced onboard to the fuel mix of the vessel. Our design comes with flexibility. If the trajectory [of the IMO GHG reduction targets] does change then the proportion of hydrogen fuel can be increased earlier. Trakakis: Our technique employs pre-combustion carbon capture, in that we break the molecule of methane, we preserve the carbon atom as CO2 which we then liquefy and store onboard for disposal onshore, then we use the hydrogen directly onboard as a fuel. So our process is a carbon capture technique. We're the first ones to introduce and this has been introduced now in a ship design, and we hope soon to see ships built with this. But we want to stress that the use of hydrogen production onboard is not needed before 2035. Has there been interest in your vessel design from others in the industry? Trakakis: We have confirmed interest from a prominent Greek owner Maran Dry, Angelicoussis Group and we see that this concept has been adopted by Chinese yards and South Korean yards, with a lot of interest from Chinese yards especially. We hope that by June we'll have the design of many bulk carriers and tankers. What are your thoughts on some of the other alternative marine fuels being pursued like green methanol and green ammonia? Trakakis: For us, there is not enough green energy to justify the hype in green fuels [e-fuels like ammonia and methanol]. There is also not the will to sustain the cost of green fuels, which will be the most expensive solution. All the green energy currently produced on earth is just enough to produce green ammonia and methanol for shipping. Do we really believe that all the green energy on earth will be used for shipping? We also can't deny that green ammonia and methanol present large safety risks. Biofuels is a good solution but will play mostly a role for existing ships, and we don't expect biofuels to be available in the quantities we need going forward, as there's going to be huge competition with other industries. Decarbonisation is not only a problem of shipping, which is only around 3pc of total emissions. It's a global problem. What are the others going to do? I don't hear other industries talking about ammonia and methanol. Cement, fertiliser, steel, power are going to hugely depend on carbon capture. Does your vessel design technology present a lower safety risk compared with using methanol or ammonia? Trakakis: Absolutely Malabar: From the oil and gas perspective, the way they deal with more hazardous material is to minimise the time you actually have it, minimise the inventory of it, hence we produce hydrogen onboard as you need it and use it almost immediately. How important is it that the industry develops a global mechanism to close the cost gap between conventional and alternative fuels, maybe through a carbon tax on shipping? De Wilde: I think costs are the elephant in the room here. We're always talking about technical solutions and I think they're already there. There are no insurmountable regulatory and technical issues. As soon as there's money on the table, things will decarbonise as soon as we want to. All the money has to be raised either through levies or taxes to close the price gap with traditional fuels. What role can classification societies like RINA play in building collaboration within the maritime sector? De Wilde: RINA is principally a classification society. But the role of classification societies goes beyond survey and certification of ships nowadays and our customers are expecting a bit more from us. In that role we're also actively participating in finding solutions, so hence our engagement with other industry partners. We have to propose pragmatic solutions, not just solutions that work on paper but solutions that are immediately workable. We have to stress that the choice of fuel is eventually up to the shipping industry as a whole. What we're doing in this context is promoting pragmatic and immediately available solutions. But we as RINA are not in a position to push any solutions to the industry. By Lauren Moffitt Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Integration key to maritime decarbonisation: APM
Integration key to maritime decarbonisation: APM
Singapore, 14 March (Argus) — Collective and integration in value chain efforts are critical in the push for maritime decarbonisation beyond legislation alone, said keynote panellists at the Asia Pacific Maritime (APM) 2024 conference in Singapore. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) aims to develop and scale up a safe and efficient, multi-fuel bunkering at Singapore's ports, while urging all registered ships registered to "participate in design of ships to mitigate risks", said the MPA's assistant chief executive (industry and transformation) Kenneth Lim on 13 March. It would be good for industry stakeholders involved in alternative marine fuels use to "document down what you have learnt, what are some of the gaps, and if there are design issues, operational issues or procedural issues. Then it is a value chain effort to come together to solve some of these problems or challenges," he said. Demand for alternative marine fuel in Singapore is expected to increase on higher biofuel consumption and growing use of bio-methanol for bunkering. The MPA announced a short-listed 11 design proposals for electric harbour craft on 23 February , progressing towards the industry's goal to hit net zero emissions for this sector by 2030. Other key issues facing the industry are safety training for seafarers and new ways of thinking of lifecycle assessments, said Denmark's Mærsk Mc-Kinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping's chief technology officer (Energy and Fuels) Torben Norgaard. The maritime industry needs to translate decarbonisation into an opportunity for global economies to "enable new ways of thinking about natural resources", he added. The importance of energy efficiency and methods like shipboard carbon capture are some ways to move the decarbonisation solutions forward, said Singapore-based Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation's chief technology officer Sanjay Kuttan. "We [also] need to start thinking of circularity and circular economy. The ability for shipping to use green steel and recycled steel in ship building process will also contribute to decarbonisation," said Kuttan. Collaboration, transparency and sharing of new knowledge among key stakeholders in this sector is vital in creating a more resilient maritime industry to reach decarbonisation targets, said the UK's Sustainable Shipping Initiative's head of decarbonisation Andreea Miu. What is needed is an open mind to realise the complexities of the shipping industry and that "there is no single solution, no single risk mitigation framework that will work for everyone… or single fuel", she added. "We need to operate in a manner that is safe, inclusive, diverse, accessible, reliable, transparent, affordable, fuel efficient, respectful, low carbon, adaptable and, last but not least, resilient to shocks and disruptions," Miu concluded. By Cassia Teo Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.