Historical Government support for wind energy in Sweden – 2010

The following is a look back at the market for wind energy in 2010 and describes the outlooks and targets set at the time. In 2003, Sweden introduced a tradable green certificate support system, which gives producers of renewable electricity (wind, small hydro, biomass based CHP) economic support for every MWh they produce. The current […]

Energy Efficiency in Canada – a historical overview

Government investment in energy efficiency and low carbon technologies has been surpassed by investments in wind, solar, other renewables and biofuels, with only 6% of investment being directed towards this sector between 2005 and 2010. A CAD 1.5 billion trust fund is available for clean air and climate change initiatives including energy efficient projects that […]

Energy Efficiency in the United States – a historical overview

Government investment in energy efficiency and low carbon technologies has been surpassed by investments in wind, solar and biofuels, with only 9% of investment being directed towards this sector between 2005 and 2010. Only other renewables received less funding at 6% of total investment. Federal At the federal level, the economic downturn in 2008 and […]

Maximising the environmental benefits of offshore wind

The environmental benefits of wind energy as a clean source of electricity with no emissions of greenhouse gases or local air pollution and the benefits in terms of security of supply are widely recognised, and the overwhelming majority of Europeans have a very positive attitude to wind energy. The avoidance of water consumption compared to […]

Issues facing wind energy

Storage To resolve intermittency issues, several storage technologies are being investigated: mechanical, chemical and electromagnet. So far, large scale, low cost storage technologies with a fast response rate are not commercially available. Capacity credit Wind cannot be turned on at will, so it is not dispatchable. The relatively low capacity credit of wind power, which […]

The Venezuelan Coal Sector

Venezuela remains highly dependent on oil revenues, which account for roughly 80% of export earnings, more than 50% of the federal budget revenues and around 30% of GDP. In 2007, the government announced plans for a nationalisation programme covering oil field, telecoms, electricity and banking as part of Chavez’s pre-election promise that ‘everything that was […]

Orimulsion

Although natural bitumen and extra-heavy oil occur worldwide, a single extraordinary deposit in each category is dominant. These are sometimes called the Fourth Fossil Fuel. The 1.2 trillion barrels of extra-heavy crude oil deposit of the Orinoco Oil Belt, a part of the Eastern Venezuela basin, represent nearly 90% of the known extra-heavy oil in […]

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