GWPF | 22 June 2015

Energy Minister Calls Renewable Energy A Threat To National Security

1) Greece Turns To Coal, Calls Renewable Energy A Threat To National Security – PV Magazine, 19 June 2015

2) Poland’s Next Government May Op-Out Of EU Decarbonisation Plan – Bloomberg, 22 June 2015

3) Germany’s Energy Crisis Deepens: Majority Of Planned Power Plants In Doubt – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 June 2015

4) ‘Capitalists Should Thank Heaven For Green Socialism’ – The American Interest, 20 June 2015

5) American Politicians Try To Kill Britain’s Shale Revolution – BBC News, 20 June 2015

6) Fraser Nelson: The Tories Must Seize The Chance To Rethink Climate Policy – The Daily Telegraph, 19 June 2015

7) And Finally: There Is No Renewable Energy Revolution In China – Carbon Counter, 17 June 2015

Greece’s energy minister Lafazanis said that [the coal-fired power plant] Ptolemaida V is required since renewable power plants are intermittent and endanger the country’s energy security. In May, Lafazanis sent a letter to the European Commission asking permission to operate the Ptolemaida III, a separate coal plant that is shut down due to its very old technology that pollutes the environment enormously. One of Lafazanis arguments was “the economic crisis in Greece, which makes the need for keeping the cost of energy for households’ heating as low as possible.” –Ilias Tsagas, PV Magazine, 19 June 2015

Poland’s leading opposition party is seeking to negotiate exemptions from the European Union’s rules on reducing carbon emissions because the nation’s energy security and economic development depends on coal. Law & Justice, which opinion polls show winning October’s general election, has vowed to toughen Poland’s stance on climate issues to protect the nation’s $526 billion economy, which relies on coal for about 90 percent of its electricity. “The strategy that we’re planning for the economy rejects the dogma of de-carbonization,” Piotr Naimski, in charge of energy policy at Law & Justice, said in an interview last week. –Maciej Martewicz, Bloomberg, 22 June 2015

While the economic pressure on existing co-generation and conventional power plants is increasing, new power plant construction in Germany is facing a deepening crisis. Around 53 percent of all planned power plants lack secure investments. “If current policies continue as before, there will be no new, modern power plants built in Germany. There is simply no incentives for investment, even if policy makers always stress that they want to change that,” said Hildegard Müller, the president of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW). —Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 June 2015

Argentina and Venezuela should, based on their natural resource endowments, be among the most prosperous countries in the world. Toxic political cultures are making these countries poorer every day, and as their economies deteriorate their authoritarian populist leaders turn to ever more ugly and less effective policies. Capitalists around the world should thank heaven for both countries. By demonstrating the costs of economic quackery, Argentina and Venezuela do more for the cause of global capitalism than the Koch brothers could ever dream of. —The American Interest, 20 June 2015

A US environmental group has written to Lancashire County Council urging it to refuse permission to allow test drilling for fracking. The letter, signed by 850 elected officials in New York State, comes days before the council decides whether to approve test drilling at two locations. The letter rejected the fracking industry’s case that it would bring jobs and prosperity. —BBC News, 20 June 2015

The obvious opening for new British energy policy is after the United Nations climate conference in Paris in November. It’s likely to be a fiasco: India and China are highly unlikely to sign up to any legally binding target to cut down on emissions. There is little chance of a new Kyoto Treaty, given the abject failure of the last one. So it will be time for a new conversation – and George Osborne has already started it. The Climate Change Act was written by Ed Miliband; we’ve been playing by his rules ever since. Yet it gives the government the power to set a new target, if there have been “significant developments” in scientific knowledge or European policy. There have been developments aplenty. It’s time, in short, for a rethink – and for the Conservatives to come up with their own ideas on energy. David Cameron and George Osborne have just defeated Ed Miliband electorally; now they have to defeat him intellectually. It should be a far easier task. –Fraser Nelson, The Daily Telegraph, 19 June 2015

Over the last decade China’s primary energy consumption grew by 1398 million tonnes of equivalent (Mtoe). The annual average increase then was 140 Mtoe. That’s the context for judging the growth of wind and solar in China: 140 Mtoe of (mostly coal) energy added per year for the last decade. How does China’s world leading wind and solar build out compare with this? In total, China got 42.4 Mtoe from wind and solar in 2014. In other words, the total production of energy from wind and solar energy is less than one third of a year’s of growth in primary energy consumption. —Carbon Counter, 17 June 2015

1) Greece Turns To Coal, Calls Renewable Energy A Threat To National Security
PV Magazine, 19 June 2015

Ilias Tsagas

Greek energy minister warns that renewable energy is a threat to national security.

[…] The new government’s policy shift away from renewable energies “is very clear” said Psomas. “All [the new government] is concerned with is how to promote power generation from fossil fuels e.g. new lignite power stations, new gas pipes and explanatory drilling for oil. So far, it has shown no interest at all for renewables energy” Psomas added.

Since the end of January, when a new coalition government between a far left party and a populist right party came to power, the new government is at war with many of  Greece’s environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The subject of the stormy relationship is the Greek government’s decision to give the final go ahead at Ptolemaida V, a 660 MW new power plant that burns lignite. […]

Energy minister Lafazanis answers that Ptolemaida V [is] required since renewable power plants are intermittent and endanger the country’s energy security.

In May, Lafazanis sent a letter to the European Commission asking permission to operate the Ptolemaida III, a separate coal plant that is shut down due to its very old technology that pollutes the environment enormously. One of Lafazanis arguments was “the economic crisis in Greece, which makes the need for keeping the cost of energy for households’ heating as low as possible.”

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2) Poland’s Next Government May Op-Out Of EU Decarbonisation Plan
Bloomberg, 22 June 2015

Maciej Martewicz

Poland’s leading opposition party is seeking to negotiate exemptions from the European Union’s rules on reducing carbon emissions because the nation’s energy security and economic development depends on coal.

Law & Justice, which opinion polls show winning October’s general election, has vowed to toughen Poland’s stance on climate issues to protect the nation’s $526 billion economy, which relies on coal for about 90 percent of its electricity. While the current government has been critical of EU emissions goals, it didn’t veto last year’s move toward stricter curbs on discharging heat-trapping carbon dioxide.

“The strategy that we’re planning for the economy rejects the dogma of de-carbonization,” Piotr Naimski, in charge of energy policy at Law & Justice, said in an interview last week. “The role of coal in Poland’s economy fully deserves to receive special treatment.”

Poland will negotiate hard to win “respect” from EU partners for its stance on coal, which Naimski said mirrors the special exceptions, or “opt-outs,” from the bloc’s rules won by a number of other member nations. The country treats development of its coal deposits as a keystone of its energy security in a region dependent on Russian oil and gas imports.

“Nobody is thinking of leaving the EU, but there is an idea to again look at Poland’s unique situation,” he said.

‘Functional Link’

The 28-nation EU’s regulatory arm seeks to propose in July a draft law detailing how to implement last year’s agreement to curb emissions by 40 percent by 2030 from 1990s levels.

Law & Justice wants to help Poland’s coal industry, which has racked up 800 million zloty ($217 million) of losses in the first four months of 2015, by strengthening ties between state-owned mines and profitable power companies. It wants to build 6-8 gigawatts of mostly coal-fueled plants by 2020, including units already under construction.

“There should be a link between the producer of coal and the power generator, with the marketable product being electricity and not necessarily” the fossil fuel from which it’s produced, Naimski said. “This functional link can be reached through long-term supply contracts or capital ties.”

Poland must over time reduce coal production, the biggest in the EU at 70.5 million tons last year, while trimming the industry’s employment to ensure profitability, he said. State mines need 5 billion zloty in investment to turn a profit, the former deputy economy minister said in Warsaw.

Full story

3) Germany’s Energy Crisis Deepens: Majority Of Planned Power Plants In Doubt
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 20 June 2015

While the economic pressure on existing co-generation and conventional power plants is increasing, new power plant construction in Germany is facing a deepening crisis. Around 53 percent of all planned power plants lack secure investments.

In total 74 large-scale power plant projects with approximately 33,000 megawatts of installed capacity are in planning, have been approved or are under construction. 39 projects, however, are in doubt. Last year, in comparison, there were 32 projects and in 2013 there were 22 projects that were considered unsafe.

“If current policies continue as before, there will be no new, modern power plants built in Germany. There is simply no incentives for investment, even if policy makers always stress that they want to change that. The opposite is the case with regards existing plans, “said Hildegard Müller, the president of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW).

This problem is aggravated by the fact that the share of power plants that can produce electricity around the clock will fall sharply in the coming years.

Full story (in German)

4) ‘Capitalists Should Thank Heaven For Green Socialism’
The American Interest, 20 June 2015

U.S. company PBF is buying the Chalmette oil refinery, a “joint venture” between Exxon Mobil and Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), Venezuela’s state-owned oil company. The sale appears to be, at least in part, an attempt by Venezuela to round up some cash quickly, after the country spent large amounts of its reserves in recent months.

As the FT puts it, “The deal, while modest in size, should offer some minor reprieve to Venezuela’s battered coffers.”

But a sale like this doesn’t paint a pretty picture for the country’s future, no matter what short-term relief it might bring. As we saw with Greece a few months ago, selling off fixed assets is a one-off move that indicates a country is in long-term trouble. Venezula’s economy has been in a downward spiral for a while now. This exchange indicates that its chances of pulling out of that spiral are getting increasingly slim. That’s a tragic prospect for a country that should be much richer than it is, as we’ve noted before:

In reality, Argentina and Venezuela should, based on their natural resource endowments, be among the most prosperous countries in the world. Toxic political cultures are making these countries poorer every day, and as their economies deteriorate their authoritarian populist leaders turn to ever more ugly and less effective policies. Capitalists around the world should thank heaven for both countries. By demonstrating the costs of economic quackery, Argentina and Venezuela do more for the cause of global capitalism than the Koch brothers could ever dream of. Who knew that President Kirchner would be so effective at making the world a safer place for Scrooge McDuck and friends?

Full story

Reminder: Venezuela climate conference slams capitalism

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela is hosting a meeting that’s meant to be a unique chance for environmental activists from around the world to talk with senior government negotiators ahead of the next round of global climate talks. But the United Nations-sanctioned conference has been marred by logistical mishaps. And some groups say they’re concerned the host government is using the meeting as a platform for anti-capitalist decrees.

5) American Politicians Try To Kill Britain’s Shale Revolution
BBC News, 20 June 2015

A US environmental group has written to Lancashire County Council urging it to refuse permission to allow test drilling for fracking.

The letter, signed by 850 elected officials in New York State, comes days before the council decides whether to approve test drilling at two locations.

New York’s state lawmakers outlawed the process in December.

Cuadrilla, the energy firm behind the proposed drilling, said the US group had no knowledge of the case.

In a statement, a spokesman for the energy firm said: “These officials from New York State have no knowledge of Cuadrilla’s applications or of the regulatory controls in the UK and should not be interfering in the democratic process and decisions which will be made by the elected representatives of the people of Lancashire.”

The letter comes after Lancashire’s senior planning officer on Monday recommended granting a licence for drilling at one of two sites.

The county council begins four days of debate on Tuesday to discuss an application by Cuadrilla to extract shale gas at Little Plumpton and Roseacre Wood.

Planning officers recommend approval for the application for test fracking at Little Plumpton but a refusal for Roseacre Wood.

Full story

6) Fraser Nelson: The Tories Must Seize The Chance To Rethink Climate Policy
The Daily Telegraph, 19 June 2015

David Cameron and George Osborne have just defeated Ed Miliband electorally; now they have to defeat his climate & energy policy.

When Benedictine monks first arrived to restore Pluscarden Abbey, a beautiful ruin in northeast Scotland, they faced a battle against the elements. It had no roof, let alone heating, and even when restored to its medieval glory it cost a fortune to keep warm. But when I visited last month, I learned that a miracle has happened. A biomass boiler has arrived, tucked away next to the organ, with a subsidy scheme that turns cost into profit. For every £1 spent in woodchip, the monks receive £4 in subsidy. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but nothing is more mysterious than the financing of green energy.

The economics will be familiar to any wily aristocrat with a ballroom to heat. The boiler is expensive, but the cost is recovered in about five years; and subsidies are guaranteed for 20 years. Owning an eco-boiler is as close as you get to a licence to print money. “Every stately home I know is now like a sauna in winter, with windows wide open,” one Conservative peer tells me. Little wonder the Pope is so enthusiastic about the environmental agenda; it’s saving monasteries. But for George Osborne, all this makes less sense. The Chancellor senses an expensive problem, in need of a conservative solution.

Just two months ago, the Tories could not have hoped to do much. They expected to either lose the election, or be forced into another coalition with the Liberal Democrats, whose enthusiasm for the green agenda precluded serious Tory reform in the last parliament. So they didn’t bother coming up with a modern environmental policy, given the negligible chance of being able to implement one.
Lord Cooper, Cameron’s former chief strategist, put the chances of outright Tory victory at 0.5 per cent, which gives a sense of how little they prepared for one. Now, majority has emerged – but a proper Conservative agenda has not.

We heard some rumblings yesterday: Amber Rudd, the new Climate Change Secretary, has decided to stop subsidising new onshore wind farms from next year. She is in a position to apply a common sense test to much of what was signed off by Ed Davey, her Lib Dem predecessor. But like so many Tory ministers she has not, yet, worked out what she will do instead. She intends to take the summer to come up with a proper Tory plan, after taking stock of what we have learned in the last five years.

Plenty has changed. The climate debate, so long polarised between zealots and deniers, has cooled. It is now (just about) possible to question the wisdom of an environmentalist policy without being denounced as a global warming denier. This applies to scientists, too: global temperatures have not been warming significantly for about 17 years now, encouraging a closer look at climate variability. The fracking revolution in the United States mean its natural gas prices have fallen to less then the average in Europe. As a result, heavy industry (and jobs) are flooding back to former rustbelt states. The scientific consensus has not changed: the planet is warming and mankind is, at least in part, responsible. Action is certainly needed. But how to help, without hurting too much? […]

The Chancellor is all too aware of this. When he was asked about British shale in Prime Minister’s questions this week, he spoke of two considerations: to respect “environmental standards” while making sure not to “condemn our country to higher energy bills and not as many jobs”. This is a crucial caveat, and could be the basis for a new Conservative environmental policy. Insisting upon proper care for the environment, while taking care not to inflict too much financial pain on employers, or on households. It would be a sensible, conservative compromise.

The obvious opening for new British energy policy is after the United Nations climate conference in Paris in November. It’s likely to be a fiasco: India and China are highly unlikely to sign up to any legally binding target to cut down on emissions. And why should they? Millions remain in abject poverty in those countries; why slow down growth? Advances in technology mean that energy is becoming greener all the time. The United States was condemned by environmentalists for refusing to ratify the Kyoto Treaty, yet ended up yet ended up lowering its carbon emissions more than any other country. Not by taxing its poor out of the sky, but by leading the world in the development of shale gas.

There is little chance of a new Kyoto Treaty, given the abject failure of the last one. So it will be time for a new conversation – and George Osborne has already started it. In his 2011 Tory conference speech he suggested that Britain would cut carbon emissions “no slower but also no faster than our fellow countries in Europe”. This can be seen as an Osborne Doctrine; a sensible idea, but strikingly different to the 2008 Climate Change Act, which committed Britain to eye-wateringly carbon reduction target no matter what happened overseas.

The Act was written by Ed Miliband; we’ve been playing by his rules ever since. Yet it gives the government the power to set a new target, if there have been “significant developments” in scientific knowledge or European policy. There have been developments aplenty: the shale revolution means that global energy market has changed almost beyond recognition. As Germany realises, to its cost. Several pieces of research have questioned whether climate sensitivity to carbon dioxide emissions is quite as tight as the government originally assumed.

It’s time, in short, for a rethink – and for the Conservatives to come up with their own ideas on energy. David Cameron and George Osborne have just defeated Ed Miliband electorally; now they have to defeat him intellectually. It should be a far easier task.

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7) And Finally: There Is No Renewable Energy Revolution In China
Carbon Counter, 17 June 2015

Last year China installed more new wind and solar capacity than any country in history. This is a fact, and it has led some to talk of China being a “renewables powerhouse” and of there being a “renewables revolution”.

But out of context this fact can be much less impressive than it really is.

Let me put it into context using the most recent data from BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy.

Over the last decade China’s primary energy consumption grew by 1398 million tonnes of equivalent (Mtoe). Though,if history is a guide this figure will eventually be revised upwards.

The annual average increase then was 140 Mtoe. For a comparison, Britain’s annual primary energy consumption was 188 Mtoe last year.

China’s growth rate was actually higher in the early 2010s, but has slowed recently (probably due to a worsening economic situation).

But that’s the context for judging the growth of wind and solar in China: 140 Mtoe of (mostly coal) energy added per year for the last decade.

How does China’s world leading wind and solar build out compare with this?

In total, China got 42.4 Mtoe from wind and solar in 2014. In other words, the total production of energy from wind and solar energy is less than one third of a year’s of growth in primary energy consumption. […]

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