100% Renewables for all Apple installations

Apple company’s goal is to power all its corporate offices, retail stores, and data centers entirely with energy from renewable sources – solar, wind, micro-hydro, and geothermal. It has just received permission from the City Council of Claremont, North Carolina, to build a third solar array near its Maiden data center. Apple’s initial investment in the 100-acre, 17.5 MW solar farm is $55 million.

Apple Builds More Solar in NC, Reaches for ‘All Renewables’ Goal
By Linda Hardesty in Energy Manager Today 11July 2014
Apple’s 2014 Environmental Responsibility Report, covering fiscal year 2013, says the company’s goal is to power all Apple corporate offices, retail stores, and data centersentirely with energy from renewable sources – solar, wind, micro-hydro, and geothermal.
Earlier this month, Apple received permission from the City Council of Claremont, NC, to build a third solar array near its Maiden, NC, data center. Apple’s initial investment in the 100-acre, 17.5 MW solar farm is $55 million, according to the Hickory Record.
The new solar farm will be the third such installation to provide energy to the nearby data center.
The company’s environmental report states: “We’re investing in our own Apple onsite energy production, including solar, directed biogas fuel cells, and micro-hydro, as well as establishing relationships with third-party energy suppliers to source renewable energy.”
Apple’s sustainability report also states the company is building a new corporate building in Cupertino, Calif., that will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy sources.
Apple’s Vice President of Environmental Initiatives Lisa Jackson told Wired that 120 of the company’s retail stores are powered by renewable energy, including its flagship stores in Palo Alto, Chicago and New York.
The company will have to convert its other 135 stores in the US to renewables to reach its goal of 100 percent green energy. And some of those stores are leased in shopping malls, which makes it harder to control the energy source. In addition, Apple has another couple hundred retail stores worldwide.
Apple has made an environmental commitment to power 100 percent of its facilities with renewables, and it recently ranked second on the EPA’s Green Power Partner list of companies using on-site green power. Jackson told Wired that the company has reached 94 percent of its goal to use 100 percent renewables.
Apple has garnered particular praise for its use of renewables to power its data centers. Earlier this month, Apple led in a Greenpeace report, which evaluated Internet companies on their use of renewables.

Source: http://www.energymanagertoday.com/

Renewable Energy Focus for ASEAN Power Week

More than 120 international experts will be present in Kuala Lumpur for the ASEAN Power Week 10-12 September to present and discuss various issues in the power generation industry, focusing on strategic and technical power issues and challenges, the continued growth of the renewable and alternative energy sectors and the financial marketplace within power generation. Coming to Kuala Lumpur are POWER-GEN Asia, Renewable Energy World Asia and the newly created POWER-GEN Asia Financial Forum. Read More

International Power Generation Experts to Meet in Kuala Lumpur for  ASEAN Power Week

Connecting Asia’s Power Professionals 10-12 September 2014 KLCC, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

More than 120 international experts will be present in Kuala Lumpur for the ASEAN Power Week to present and discuss various issues in the power generation industry, focusing on strategic and technical power issues and challenges, the continued growth of the renewable and alternative energy sectors and the financial marketplace within power generation.

ASEAN Power Week, with its three events comprises of the largest and most comprehensive conference and exhibition for the power generation industry within South-East Asia, and is supported among others by the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water (KeTTHA),

Sustainable Energy Development Authority of Malaysia (SEDA) and the Malaysian Convention & Exhibition Bureau (MyCEB).The three major events under ASEAN Power Week, coming to Kuala Lumpur on 10-12 September 2014 are POWER-GEN Asia, Renewable Energy World Asia and the newly created POWER-GEN Asia Financial Forum

As the region’s premier conference and exhibition for all aspects of the power generation industry, POWER-GEN Asia, part of the ASEAN Power Week, celebrates its 22nd annual gathering with a comprehensive conference programme for the conventional power generation industry.

The co-located events are Renewable Energy World Asia, which once again brings together professionals and industry experts from the renewable energy industry, and the inaugural POWER-GEN Asia Financial Forum, which is designed to provide corporate-level project developers and financiers an exclusive venue to learn, network and do business.

The combined preliminary conference programme includes over 120 international experts across 7 conference tracks, covering strategic and technical topics for the conventional power sector and issues relating to the explosive growth of renewable and alternative energies in the region, as well as focusing on all aspects of financing for all types of power infrastructure development.

This year’s Opening Keynote Session, taking place on Wednesday 10 September 2014 at 9am, welcomes high-profile speakers, such as Mr. Hwang-Jik Lee, Executive Vice President & CEO, Boiler Business Group, Doosan Heavy Industries & Constructions Co., Ltd., Korea (South), as well as invited representatives from Tenaga Nasional Berhad and the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water. Further speakers to be confirmed shortly.

On Thursday 11 September 2014 at 14:00 the Plenary Panel Discussion will take place under the topic of “Delivering Asia’s Sustainable Power Growth: The Strategic and Technology Challenge”. This plenary panel discussion brings together experienced power industry  professionals from a variety of disciplines, willing to share their views and speculate on how the electricity sector will meet the challenges ahead and what the industry will look like in 2020.

This session will be moderated by Mark Hutchinson, IHS Energy Managing Director, based in Singapore. Panelists include:

• • Datuk Ir. Ahmad Fauzi Bin Hasan, Chief Executive Officer, Energy Commission, Malaysia
• • Datuk Torstein Dale Sjøtveit, Chief Executive Officer, Sarawak Energy Berhad, Malaysia
• • Mr. Wouter Van Wersch, Senior Vice President East Asia Pacific & President Alstom

Singapore – Alstom International Senior Vice President Asia Pacific – Alstom Power Sales

& Marketing

In addition to the Opening Keynote and Plenary Panel Discussion, the Conference Programme for ASEAN Power Week will take place over 3 days and feature 7 tracks in total running concurrently. Track topics include Trends and Planning, Clean and Flexible Operation; Power Plant Technologies; Operation, Optimization & Servicing; Finance and Planning; plus the two Renewable Energy World Asia conference tracks and POWER-GEN Asia Financial Forum track.

Event Director, Dr. Heather Johnstone, said, “Since 2009, we have co-located Renewable Energy World Asia with our highly-respected POWER-GEN Asia event, leading the way in recognizing the growing importance of renewable energies in South-East Asia and their contribution to the region’s power mix. This year, we are excited to be evolving our South-East offerings even further with the launch of the POWER-GEN Financial Forum, where financiers and developers will come together to discuss and debate the key financial issues faced when investing in and developing power projects in the region.”

Source: http://www.aseanpowerweek.com/

Time for Multinationals to Invest in Renewables

Renewables will never break through economically and will remain perpetually dependent on subsidies. There are technologies which could have serious long term potential such as geothermal and tidal power but major investment is needed to bring costs down. Somewhere in this mix is the transformative step which will lift the cost barrier and reshape the market. It is time for multinationals to step in, says Nick Butler in the Financial Times. Read More

Nick Butler in the Financial Times 13 July 2014

Why are renewables moving so slowly? Of course the output of renewable energy is growing in absolute terms and in terms of market share in most countries in the world. But the growth starts from a very low base. On the International Energy Agency’s latest numbers, renewables provide just 13 per cent of total global energy needs at the moment, and will provide only 18 per cent by 2035. If traditional biomass is excluded the figures are 7 per cent and 14 per cent.

The problem is cost. Electricity produced from offshore wind and solar costs somewhere between 50 and 100 per cent more per MW/hr than power from natural gas and, with some variations, will continue to do so for the next decade unless one makes the assumption that gas prices are going to increase. Onshore wind is cheaper and in the US in particular is the closest of all the renewables to being competitive without subsidies.

Some of these costs are falling but not by enough. Solar in particular is seeing some cost reductions but the costs of other renewables are stubbornly high. The result is that the sector remains a subsidy dependent business. Reliance on subsidies creates a public policy risk, particularly if climate change slips down the political agenda. The second problem is that the need for subsidies is growing. International market prices for gas and coal in particular are falling – driven down by the impact of US shale gas production, a general excess of supply and limited demand growth. And there is no prospect, even in the European Union, of a carbon price on the scale necessary to make renewables competitive.

As a result of all this, investment in renewables is slipping. The IEA’s projection that almost a third of global electricity will be generated by renewables by 2035 looks very optimistic.

Relative prices are not the only problem. The renewables sector is fragmented. Supply is predominantly local, adding to the risks of changes in public policy. Most of the small companies involved have too little capital to invest seriously in the science and technology which could transform particular systems or, in the case of advances in storage which I wrote about a few weeks ago, the market as a whole.

“Small” is inherently attractive to many advocates of renewables but what the business needs is size and breadth. It is time to create a renewables multinational – or better still, three or four. What could multinationals do that small local companies can’t achieve?

First they could spread risk geographically. If you work in 10 or 40 countries – or even 100 countries as the real multinationals do – it would reduce the risks of subsidies being cut in any particular jurisdiction.

Multinationals could also spread risk by investing in a range of different technologies – from wind, to solar to biofuels and so on. In that way it would be possible to keep up with advances across the sector and to avoid the constraints of placing all one’s bets on a single prospect. Next there are potential economies of scale, for instance in manufacturing, and the potential for standardisation. And perhaps most important of all a renewables multinational would be more likely to have the financial capacity, and sufficient investor confidence, to invest in research and development.

As things stand renewables will never break through economically and will remain perpetually dependent on subsidies. Solar technology is improving but it is hard to see much progress in the basic efficiency of offshore wind. There are technologies which could have serious long term potential such as geothermal and tidal power but major investment is needed to bring costs down. And then there are the changes in grid and storage technology. Somewhere in this mix is the transformative step which will lift the cost barrier and reshape the market. Given the scale of the global energy market the prize is very big.

Can this be done? Could a renewables multinational be created? The answer must be yes.

Companies such as Exxon, Shell and BP have all dabbled in renewables, often to the point of realising that the business is too small and unprofitable to be of commercial interest when there are more immediate opportunities in their traditional oil and gas business. In such circumstances it is hard for any renewables project to compete for capital. But all the energy majors retain an interest in the sector even if their current philosophy is to wait for a second mover advantage – i.e. to buy in when others have worked through the initial risks and problems. So some new thinking is needed.

Ten years ago when I worked at BP we came up with the idea of creating a renewables multinational by combining BP’s alternative energy business with that of Shell as part of a wider combination of the two companies. The overall deal, as described in John Browne’s book Beyond Business, never happened but I think this specific idea remains valid, and of course need not be limited to those two companies. A multinational could also be created by the combination of some of the more successful companies in the renewables sector, or by a set of determined external investors.

Multinationals tend to be much disliked by the green lobby, but are in fact the most powerful agents of global change ever invented. They can develop technology, both internally and by working with universities and smaller businesses. And they can then bring that technology to market across the world with a speed and reach which can’t be matched by smaller entities. Many see multinationals as being too powerful but in this case their influence is exactly what is required to push governments to shift policy – not towards more subsidies but in the direction of enabling steps which could make the industry more economically viable such as investment in new grids which can limited the problem of intermittency and through the funding of scientific research.

Nick Butler is Visiting Professor and Chair of the Kings Policy Institute at Kings College London.

Nick Butler is an investor in, and an adviser to a number of companies and institutions in the energy business. The views expressed are solely those of Mr Butler. This material is not intended to provide and should not be relied upon for investment advice or recommendations. Readers are urged to seek professional advice before making any investment.

Source: http://blogs.ft.com/nick-butler/2014/07/13/its-time-for-a-renewables-multinational/