The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the single largest action ever taken to mitigate the impacts of climate change in the United States. The federal government is deploying hundreds of billions of dollars to marshal economic and industrial policies in support of clean energy and to accelerate economy-wide decarbonization. But President Biden signing this bill into law is only the beginning.
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SENER recently published the Programa de Desarrollo del Sistema Eléctrico Nacional (PRODESEN) 2022–36 or the National Electric System Development Plan 2022–36, with an emphasis on DG, BES and smart grids. Under PRODESEN 2022–36, SENER plans to add over 56 GW of generation capacity, including 9 GW (16 per cent) of DG capacity, and 4.6 GW (8.2 per cent) of BES capacity. About 40 per cent of the total planned capacity will be based on clean energy sources.
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When taking office in late 2021, the German government announced plans to pass sweeping energy sector reforms in 2022. The energy crisis that erupted after the Russian invasion of Ukraine accelerated this legislation process further and necessitated additional efforts to safeguard supply security and cutting dependence on natural gas from Russia. This article summarises the ongoing rapid changes and dynamics of Germany’s energy sector.
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On 1 June, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued a new set of green guidelines. These lay out detailed expectations for banks and insurance companies to identify, monitor, prevent and control their environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks. Policymakers in China have been showing a growing interest in green finance. Traditionally, policies in the area have mainly focused on encouraging financial flows into supporting green, non-polluting and low-carbon businesses.
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The Council on June 27 adopted its negotiating positions (general approaches) on two legislative proposals that tackle the energy aspects of the EU’s climate transition under the ‘Fit for 55’ package: the renewable energies directive and the energy efficiency directive. The agreements pave the way for the Council to start negotiations with the European Parliament.
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In November 2020, the European Commission presented an EU-wide strategy for offshore wind. The strategy includes both the Commission’s vision and targets for offshore wind in Europe, as well as non- binding guidance for European member states on how to reach their individual national goals and contribute to achieving the EU ́s overarching targets for the uptake of offshore wind. The strategy defines a non-binding volume target of 300 GW by 2050, with a subtarget of 60 GW by 2030 for the whole of the EU.
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The Australian federal election was held on 21 May 2022. The Labor Party, led by Anthony Albanese, defeated the Liberal-National Coalition, led by Scott Morrison. Without a carbon market, federal and state governments have since sought to incentivise renewables through subsidies and the establishment of several green funds and schemes. The new Labor government plans to continue this approach.
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At a time when energy prices are skyrocketing, here’s some good news for residents in 11 Eastern states: according to a new report out recently, RGGI, a regional power plant program, is working to lower electricity bills for households and businesses by billions of dollars and improve cost of living through investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, electrification, and other measures that are also cutting pollution and cleaning up our air.
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Progression of variable renewable energy, electric vehicle, and smart microgrid among the ASEAN Member States is facilitated through policy mapping. AMS have concrete policies and targets for variable renewable energy as part of their existing renewables implementation frameworks; solar power is expected to be a significant contributor to the total renewables generation.
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This companion policy report provides California policymakers with no-regrets actions to implement reliability insights from the technical analysis. The recommendations show how the state can mitigate risks from deploying resources too slowly, and reduce air pollution impacts of legacy natural gas power plants, while expanding resource diversity and regional coordination to improve reliability.
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Belgium has made notable progress on deploying offshore wind and increasing the share of electric vehicles. However, fossil fuels still dominate the country’s energy mix, a dependence that is expected to increase. All sectors have considerable work ahead of them to meet Belgium’s targets for increasing the share of renewables, lowering energy demand and reducing emissions.
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The EPP2040 places an emphasis on increasing renewable electricity generation to drive the energy transition, especially on solar PV and offshore wind. It includes targets for solar PV capacity of 5-7 GW by 2030 and 10-16 GW by 2040, and for Poland to have 1 million prosumers using distributed renewables (mainly PV) by 2030. Although the EPP2040 was released in February 2021, it does not reflect the reality of PV deployment in Poland.
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New York has become the top community solar market in the U.S., with more than one gigawatt (GW) of community solar installed and operational—enough to provide clean energy to more than 200,000 homes across the state. And much more is on the way: New York also has the largest pipeline in the nation with over 700 projects totaling 2.3 GW, enough to power an additional 400,000 homes.
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The climate and clean energy provisions Congress is discussing would catalyze the deployment of clean energy technologies, resulting in significant reductions in oil and natural gas demand. The findings from Energy Innovation’s modeling underscore the role the climate and clean energy provisions Congress is now considering could have in securing U.S. energy independence and supporting its allies while also growing its economy and cutting its emissions.
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Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) is seeking to implement a direct power purchase agreement (DPPA) pilot scheme which, for the first time, will enable renewable energy generators to directly sell clean electricity to private offtakers under virtual or synthetic PPAs. Under current electricity regulations in Vietnam, Electricity Vietnam (EVN) has a statutory monopoly over the transmission, distribution, wholesale and retail of electricity and is also the sole offtaker in the market.
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The Government of South Africa has ambitious plans to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy. But are current policy settings sufficient to achieve these objectives? The renewable energy sector currently contributes only a small share of total electricity generation in South Africa: in 2019 wind and solar accounted for 3% and 1% of total generation, respectively. Installed capacity increased tenfold in as many years, from 0.9 gigawatts (GW) in 2011 to 9.6 GW in 2020.
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On 1 January 2022, the revised Guidelines of the European Commission on State aid for climate, environmental protection and energy (CEEAG) entered into force, extending the scope of the previous Guidelines to new areas in order to achieve the goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050. The CEEAG adapt the conditions which must be met and the processes which must be followed for the Commission to consider state support compatible with EU State aid rules.
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SolarPower Europe has published their Position Paper with feedback on the amendment of the Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII), following up to their previous recommendations for REDII in May 2021. This new position paper outlines seven key recommendations for REDIII.
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This is Council of European Energy Regulators’ (CEER) Second Paper on Unsupported Renewable Energy Systems (RES). It presents an updated assessment of the status quo of formally supported RES installation in Europe. A first CEER paper (C19-RES-64-04a) on the topic was published in May 2020.
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A landmark Net Zero Strategy setting out how the UK will secure 440,000 well-paid jobs and unlock £90 billion in investment in 2030 on its path to ending its contribution to climate change by 2050 has been unveiled by the UK government on October 19, 2021. Building on the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan, the UK Net Zero Strategy sets out a comprehensive economy-wide plan for how British businesses and consumers will be supported in making the transition to clean energy and green technology.
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