Enel Green Power, acting through its subsidiary Enel Green Power Chile, and Empresa Nacional de Electricidad SA (Endesa Chile) have signed a long-term agreement for around 25 years of energy supply and sale of green certificates connected to a geothermal project and a photovoltaic project in Chile, as well as for around 20 years of energy supply and sale of green certificates connected to a wind power project in Chile. The contract for an estimated total value of up to U.S. $3.5 billion will enable Enel Green Power Chile to develop three plants with a total installed capacity of approximately 300 MW, which will require around 800 million U.S. dollars of investment.- When EPA releases the final Clean Power Plan this summer, regulators and industry will move to consider compliance options in earnest. While opponents contend that these options will be limited and costly, the track record of EPA regulations allowing for market-based compliance suggests otherwise. This report looks at outcomes under prior EPA rules, finding that when regulations allow for market-based compliance, efficient and active markets develop rapidly and industry responds with innovations that reduce compliance costs. Given the structure of the proposed CPP and the status of current markets for advanced energy technologies and services available as compliance options, the report predicts that the CPP will elicit a similarly robust market response.
- Calling it a “win-win” that will benefit both the economy and environment, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has announced its strong support for HR 3001 – legislation introduced in Congress by Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) that will allow the General Services Administration (GSA) to enter into 30-year renewable energy power purchase agreements (PPA). The GSA is an independent agency which manages and supports the basic functioning of the federal government, including procurement. Under current law, only the U.S. military can enter into power purchase agreements for longer than 10 years. Earlier this year, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) introduced similar legislation.
- The Minister for Energy and Mines Dr. Antonio Isa Conde, Vice Minister of Energy Ernesto Vilalta, Secretary of State and Vice-President of the National Council for Climate Change Omar Ramirez, and other high-ranking governmental officials met recently with Worldwatch’s Alexander Ochs, Director of Climate and Energy at Worldwatch to review the new study, “Harnessing the Dominican Republic’s Sustainable Energy Resources“. According to the report, transitioning to an electricity system powered 85 percent by renewables can decrease the average cost of electricity in the Dominican Republic by 40 percent by 2030 compared to 2010.
