In Case you Missed Them- Some stories that made the news...

By Greenicles Admin

UK Government Loses Bid to Cut Solar Subsidies

The last week in March was a very good one for businesses and home owners in the UK who generate power from solar panels as the government lost its third and final legal battle at the courts regarding the feed-in-tariff (FiT) incentives scheme. The Supreme Court rejected the government’s bid to cut the pay outs by half. This means that many thousands of people will receive higher payments for generating their energy using solar panels. The FiT scheme pays out 43p per kWh generated by home owners and businesses for 25 years. The government’s botched plan was to reduce this to 21p per kWh. This landmark ruling has been welcomed by top industry players who hold the government accountable for the chaos the sector has been in recent months.
The government has since accepted the verdict and is committed to restore confidence in the rich solar energy sector. It has also announced its ambition to provide enough electricity for 4 million homes using solar energy by 2020.


Nigeria Signs New pro-Renewable Energy Regulations

After decades of ineffective policies and large-scale neglect, the power sector in Africa’s second largest economy has received a major boost. A few weeks ago, the Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission signed 2 landmark regulations; the Independent Electricity Distribution Network (IEDN) and Embedded Generation 2012. This, according to a government whitepaper, is to encourage investment and efficiency in the country’s starving power sector. These new policies will now enable local and state governments as well as private investors to generate and distribute electricity without recourse to the national grid. This definitely opens up Nigeria’s electricity market to small, medium and large scale renewable energy technology options.




Denmark Targets 100% Renewable Energy by 2050

The legislative arm of Denmark’s government has passed the most ambitious renewable energy plan ever; a legally binding commitment to generate 100% of the country’s energy needs from renewable energy sources by 2050. The plan is to realise 50% by 2020 and all of its total energy needs, including electricity, heating, transport and industry, by 2050. The predicted rise in fossil fuel prices and unstable and wobbly crude oil market is the main reason for this. With this, the Danish government believes its people will be insulated from the adverse effects of being dependent on expensive, imported and highly polluting fossil oil and gas.




Chile’s Steaming up with Geothermal

Presently, Chile is one of the most booming countries in electricity generation from geothermal resources. Its position in the Pacific Ring of Fire makes it a hot cake for development of underground heat resources. In the past few weeks, three new exploration concessions have been awarded to Enel Green Power; the pioneering company in geothermal exploration in Chile. The project includes a geothermal power plant of 50MW capacity to generate 375GWh electricity per annum.