A new $68 million initiative was announced today in Massachusetts to promote the use of photovoltaic solar power in the state. The state said the Commonwealth Solar Initiative is expected to result in 27 megawatts of additional installations over the next four years. Read more here.
South Africa is excluding corn based biofuels from their energy plan to ensure it doesn’t affect food security. The plan takes effect in 2008 and continues through 2013 with fuel blending targets of 8% for ethanol and 2% for biodiesel. South Africa is looking to use soybean and rapeseed for biodiesel feedstock and sugar cane and sugar beet for ethanol feedstock. Read more here.
In the proposed legislation, producers of ethanol will get up to $0.10 (Cdn) per liter and biodiesel producers will receive up to $0.20 per liter beginning in April 2008. Additionally, there is a requirement for 5% of gasoline sold to be renewable come 2010. This latest proposal is in addition to a $500 million (Cdn) fund announced earlier this Fall to help fund biofuel production pilot plants, as well as two multi-million dollar funds tied to farming and feedstock production. Interesting stat: Producers only need to have production capacity of 5 million liters for ethanol and 3 million liters for biodiesel to be elible. Read more here.
As thousands meet in Bali for the UN Climate Change conferfence, rain-forest-rich countries are hoping to cash in on the billion dollar global carbon credit market. Countries, like Indonesia and Brazil, are making their case for why preventing deforestation should count as a carbon credit. If so, protecting these lands would likely be far less expensive then much more complicated carbon sequestration projects. Interesting quote: “The key for us, with respect to carbon trading and offset projects, is that they have to be verifiable. They have to be real, and they have to be long-lasting.” Nancy McFadden, PG&E. Read more here.
Australia’s new prime minister immediately signed documents to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The previous conservative led government refused to sign on. This leaves the United States as the only developed country that has not signed on. Interesting stat: Environmental think tank, the Climate Institute estimates Australia’s GDP would fall only 0.1% if it aimed to reduce emissions 20% by 2020. Read more here.
