In Benin, Solar-Powered Irrigation Pollutes Less and Produces More

In Benin, Solar-Powered Irrigation Pollutes Less and Produces More

http://www.good.is/post/in-benin-solar-powered-irrigation-pollutes-less-and-produces-more/

� by Sarah Laskow

� December 15, 2011 � 3:00 pm PST

In 2007, the nonprofit Solar Electric Light Fund began helping women�s
collectives in the west African nation of Benin water their vegetable
gardens using solar power. The system they used was simple enough:
solar-powered water pumps, paired with drip irrigation. Each of these
two technologies have been shown to improve the lives of people living
in poverty, off the grid. But few people had ever tried combining them.

�Neither of them were particularly innovative in their own right, but
bringing them together truly was,� says Bob Freling, SELF�s executive
director. �I found precious few examples of solar drip irrigation.
Frankly, it was puzzling, because it seemed like a perfect fit.�

This technological innovation means the women�s collectives can keep
producing crops during the region�s six-month dry season, provide
greater food security to their families, and start thinking about
sending their kids to school. It also could help communities survive
and adapt to climate change. The project is now expanding: At least
eight more villages in Benin will start using the solar irrigation
systems.

Drip irrigation delivers water directly to plant roots, increasing
crop yields and using 40 to 80 percent less water than traditional
irrigation systems. It�s particularly well suited for dry places, like
the semi-arid Sahel region of which Benin is part. But it also
requires power inputs, which can be hard to come by in off-the-grid
communities. When SELF began working on the project, one of the
pioneers of drip irrigation, Dov Pasternak, was working to spread the
irrigation technology across west Africa. Pasternak had designed a
vegetable garden that used diesel generators to pump water into the
irrigation system, but Freling says �That was going to be a non-
starter for us.�

Although Pasternak was skeptical of the affordability and longevity of
solar systems, he agreed to work with SELF, and soon, Freling says,
became "a die-hard believer in solar." The system installed in the
pilot villages pumps water into a holding tank from a surface stream
in one and from an underground source in the other. Gravity pulls the
water to the plants, a mix of vegetables like tomatoes, carrots, okra,
and cabbage. Because it�s powered by the sun, the system self-
regulates: more water goes to the plants when it�s sunny, which is
when they�re most thirsty.

Since the beginning of the pilot program, SELF has worked with
researchers at Stanford�s Center for Food Security and the Environment
to monitor the impacts of the program on the communities using the
irrigation systems. The women involved the project document their
plantings, their haul from the gardens, the portion they feed to their
families, and the portion they sell. Already, the women report that
they�re better able to provide for their families: Women growing
vegetables with the technology fed their families 3 to 5 more servings
of vegetables each day during the project's first year. The women in
the project use the extra income to buy staples for their families,
and the community as a whole benefits from the increased availability
of vegetables during the dry seasons.

While SELF installs solar irrigation systems in additional villages,
monitoring of the pilot villages will continue to measure the long-
term impacts of the project. �Are people actually able to make longer
term investments? Beyond that initial boost, are they on a path to
growth and reinvestment that could be long lasting?� says Jennifer
Burney, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at San
Diego who is affiliated with the Stanford food security center.

The pilot is the first step in a larger vision of bringing solar power
to households, clinics, schools and business centers in the district.
SELF started with the gardens, because the local communities said that
was where their need was greatest. But some day, solar power could
electrify the entire district of Kalal�44 villages with a total
population of more than 100,000 people. While the garden project has
shown short-term impacts, it could help improve communities'
resilience to climate change in the long run. The same agricultural
problems that faced these villages to begin with�poor yields and
infrequent rains�will likely get worse in the decades to come. The
solar irrigation systems not only keep down emissions while
encouraging development, they provide the tools to tackle climate
challenges they could face in the future.
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Analysis: No stopping big hydro projects, despite Lao veto/Reuters

Analysis: No stopping big hydro projects, despite Lao veto

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/14/us-dams-idUSTRE7BD0GN20111214
By Niluksi Koswanage

KUALA LUMPUR | Wed Dec 14, 2011 8:56am EST

(Reuters) - A surge in mega-hydropower projects across the world in
the coming decade will only be affected marginally by last week's
decision to delay building a large dam across the Mekong, Southeast
Asia's longest river.

Hydropower remains a proven way to produce electricity on a large
scale, and some governments are extremely reluctant to opt for
alternatives such as nuclear. But last week's decision could mean
there will be increased focus on minimizing environmental and social
costs of new hydro projects, analysts say.

Laos suspended the $3.5 billion Xayaburi dam project on the lower
Mekong, awaiting a study into the environmental impact of the river,
the world's largest inland fishery.

The 1,260-megawatt project has been hugely controversial and
underlined growing global concerns that mega-dams were a damaging and
outdated way of generating power. Protests from India to Brazil and
Malaysia to China have called for a halt to massive building programs.

"The decision is certainly a game changer in the lower Mekong," said
Marc Goichot, who works for environmental group WWF's Greater Mekong
program on sustainable hydropower.

"We hope this decision will have influence in the rest of Asia," he
told Reuters in an e-mail from the Lao capital Vientiane.

But he added it was hard to pinpoint whether the decision was related
to environmental concerns or something else. In September, Myanmar
scrapped a $3.6 billion Chinese-led mega-dam across the Irrawaddy
River also after environmental worries, but the decision was
additionally seen as an attempt by its government to distance itself
from Beijing.

"(Last week's) decision also raises the risk profile of these projects
for investors, which will undoubtedly scare some investors away or
make them more hesitant to fund mainstream dams in the future," said
Aviva Imhof, campaigns director at International Rivers, an NGO which
opposes large hydropower dams.

"Unfortunately, it's unlikely that the decision will affect dams (now)
being built in other parts of Asia or even on tributaries of the
Mekong river," she said.

The World Bank, a major hydropower investor, says the social and
environmental costs of such projects have to be addressed and resolved
at the planning stage -- a failure to do so can sharply increase the
impact.

Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia share the lower reaches of the
Mekong.

Concern has grown after China completed a series of dams on the upper
reaches, with more planned, causing lower flows during the wet season
and greater flows during droughts, Imhof said.

The Chinese dams also block sediment flowing downstream, causing
massive erosion and affecting productivity of floodplain agriculture
and in the Mekong Delta, she told Reuters in an e-mail.

The Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydropower plant at 22.5
gigawatts when it reaches full capacity, is a symbol of China's quest
for energy and is also a taste of what is to come.

A total of 1.25 million people were displaced over 16 years for the
Three Gorges dam, leading to widespread criticism and protests. Many
blamed the project for widespread drought earlier this year in
downstream areas of the Yangtze River.

COAL UNFASHIONABLE, NUCLEAR A WORRY

With countries trying to limit greenhouse gas emissions from coal and
other fossil-fuel based power plants, and questions over nuclear
power, China and the world's other energy-hungry nations are turning
to hydro in a big way.

China wants to raise installed power capacity by 470 gigawatts (GW) to
1,437 GW by 2015 -- the largest in the world. At least 110 gigawatts
of the new capacity will be from hydro power -- equivalent to five
Three Gorges hydropower projects. Current hydropower capacity is 216
GW, also the world's largest.

Earlier this year, the country said it has committed 400 billion yuan
($62 billion) to build four hydropower stations that would contribute
43 GW by 2015, to be built by China Three Gorges Corp.

Longer-term plans call for China to reach 450 GW of hydropower
capacity by 2030. That will involve tapping the largely untouched
Tibetan plateau, the source of major rivers that feed nations
downstream.

This has triggered distrust at home and in Southeast Asia and a test
case will be if China gives the go-ahead in the coming weeks to a
series of dams on the Nu, or Salween, river that flows through
China's Yunnan province and then Myanmar and Thailand.

India, which generates 18 percent of its electricity from hydropower,
is implementing a large-hydro plan totaling 50 GW, or roughly
Australia's total generating capacity. Government data shows that
India has potential hydropower capacity of 148.7 GW, with 33.9 GW
developed and a further 14.6 GW on the way.

But India's hydropower program has also been dogged by protests,
especially a decades-long project along the Narmada river in central
India. The scheme proposes 30 dams, with two large dams built and a
third under construction for power and large-scale irrigation.

In the northeast state of Arunachal Pradesh, a planned 11 GW dam on
the Siang river has run into environmental problems and objections
from neighboring China. The government is looking to build it further
downstream and, if completed, it would be India's largest hydropower
dam.

"Hydropower has issues of resettlement, which is the most serious, it
has issues of biodiversity conservation," said Pradipto Ghosh, former
top civil servant in the environment ministry, and member of the prime
minister's panel on climate change.

"But the point is that hydropower is very much part of the energy mix
and it will continue to remain part of the energy mix," he told Reuters.

"We have to address these issues," he said. "The way that hydropower
projects are now designed and implemented is a far cry from how they
were back in the 1950s."

MALAYSIAN PROTESTS

Malaysia, which generates most of its power with fossil fuels, is
pushing ahead with a huge hydropower program in Sarawak state on
Borneo island that is displacing indigenous communities, disrupting
river flows and triggering deep anger.

The 2.4 GW Bakun dam, which started generating power this year, is by
far the nation's most controversial project with more than 100 cases
still pending in Malaysia's courts. The dam was first proposed in
1960s and shelved twice.

It is the second highest concrete faced rockfill dam in the world at
207 meters high (680 feet), with a reservoir roughly the size of
Singapore.

Much of the power will feed an industrial zone with another 12 dams to
be built to feed industries such as smelters and solar panel
manufacturers.

"The building of these monuments of corruption will be a key issue
that we will bring up in the upcoming elections. I believe the
unhappiness among the local tribal communities is growing," said Baru
Bian, a land rights lawyer in Sarawak.

"I think if the people of Sarawak can appreciate how international
pressure has forced Laos to delay the Mekong dam project ... there is
a possibility of stopping these projects," Bian, who is also an
opposition politician with Anwar Ibrahim's People's Justice Party,
told Reuters.

FULL CAPACITY

But a senior government official with knowledge of the Sarawak's
hydropower plans denied the concerns of local communities have been
ignored.

"We would not proceed if there is a big risk and so far there has not
been any major risk," the official said. "We expect the opposition to
use the Laos issue to campaign for stopping the dams. But it is a
completely different scenario in Laos."

The International Energy Agency says the technical potential for
hydropower globally is five times current production based on 2008 data.

It said China had developed 24 percent of its potential, the United
States 16 percent and Brazil 25 percent and that by 2050, global
hydropower generation could nearly double.

For China, India, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo and others,
that means more dam developments in a world where nations are under
pressure to cut fossil fuel emissions. Brazil approved the 11.2 GW
Belo Monte dam, the world's third largest, in June, while the DRC and
South Africa last month signed a deal for a multi-billion dollar
project.

"I think eventually there will be real problems. The whole hydropower
sector is now in full gear and at full capacity to expand as fast as
it can," said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and
Environmental Affairs, which monitors China's water supplies.

"We are pressing to the very corners of our territory. If they
continue at this speed, quite soon they are going to finish the
damming of all our major rivers and at that time, the whole industry
will hit a wall," he said.

(Additional reporting by David Stanway in Beijing, Frank Jack Daniel
in New Delhi, Biswajyoti Das in Guwahati and David Fogarty in
Singapore; Writing by David Fogarty; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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Commentary: Helping the Poor by Helping the Rich?

Helping the Poor by Helping the Rich?
Huffington Post & International Rivers
December 13, 2011
www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/7057 and http://huff.to/uLMYVz

Most of the world's poorest people lack access to basic services such as
clean water and electricity. The World Bank and the Group of 20 are now
proposing a new strategy to scale up infrastructure investment in
developing countries. They pay lip service to the needs of the poor, and
promote subsidies for large private projects such as the proposed Inga
Dam on the Congo River. A new report from Christian Aid demonstrates
that a more promising approach to reducing poverty and protecting the
climate is possible.

More than one billion people neither have access to clean water nor
modern energy. The situation is particularly precarious in sub-Saharan
Africa, where 70 percent of the population – and a much higher
percentage of rural people - have no access to electricity and clean
water supply. Over the past 50 years, centralized water and power
projects have largely bypassed these population groups.

Over the past two months, the powerful Group of 20, the World Bank and
other development banks have produced three reports on how to tackle the
infrastructure needs of the poor. (Unlike in the past, they have not
consulted civil society - let alone poor people - on this challenge. The
G20 simply outsourced the task to a high-level panel of experts,
primarily from the private sector.) The three reports all make similar
suggestions:

The banks propose to focus support on big, complex projects such as
large dams, transmission lines and transport networks that can modernize
and transform whole regions. The World Bank for example announces that
it will concentrate on "fewer, but more transformational projects." The
Green Climate Fund plans to support transformational projects with
billions of dollars, and the Bank clearly tries to position itself as a
recipient of such support. Yet the new infrastructure strategies do not
aim to transform the global economy into a low-carbon enterprise, but
rather define "transformation" as increasing access to markets and
accelerating growth.

The second pillar of the new strategy is to strengthen support for
private infrastructure investments. The authors propose to expand the
use of public guarantees for private investments, to make public funds
"directly available to the private sector," and to soften the
regulations that may discourage private enterprises from investing. The
World Bank for example announces that it will "align" its own safeguard
policies and work on "reforming labor and land regulation" in Africa.
And even though the strategy papers acknowledge that 10-30 percent of
project values are lost to corruption and mismanagement, they all
propose to make procurement rules, which aim to cut down on corrupt
practices, more flexible.

The new documents only pay lip service to poverty reduction,
environmental protection, and climate change. The G20 report for example
includes a list of six criteria, according to which development banks
should prioritize future infrastructure projects. The criteria list
factors such as regional integration and attractiveness for private
investors, but don't mention poverty or the environment. As my colleague
Doug Norlen at Pacific Environment has observed, the report contains 184
mentions of the word "private," but only seven references to "poor" or
"poverty." If the new approach proposed by the World Bank and the G20
promotes transformation, it is the transformation of aid into corporate
welfare.

One project that is used again and again to illustrate the new approach:
the Inga Dam on the Congo River. This example is telling. Its first
stage - the Inga 1 and 2 dams - have turned into an expensive white
elephant that hardly provides any benefits to the poor. Even the
rehabilitation that the World Bank is currently funding has turned into
a bottomless pit of mismanagement. The future stages of the Inga scheme
foresee the construction of hydropower dams with a capacity of 3,500 or
even 40,000 megawatts. In a country where only 6 percent of the
population have access to electricity, their outputs are primarily
destined to serve the needs of mining companies and urban centers in far
away places such as South Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.

The new World Bank report, astoundingly, claims that "large
infrastructure projects have often been successful in making project
affected people the beneficiaries of the project displacing them." Yet
in the case of the Inga 1 and 2 dams, just like in many other such
projects, the affected communities still fight to get compensated for
their lands decades after their displacement.

Luckily, there is a better way. As the International Energy Agency
found, 70 percent of rural areas in Africa are best served not by big,
centralized projects, but by mini-grids or off-grid solutions. Africa
has a huge potential of renewable energy sources such as wind, micro
hydro, solar and geothermal power. This potential has so far been hardly
tapped, and its exploitation is rapidly becoming cheaper.

Based on this potential, a new report by the British charity Christian
Aid documents, Africa has "a big opportunity to leapfrog and transition
to a low-carbon path and at the same time still expand access to energy
services." The Green Climate Fund, Christian Aid argues, should include
a "leapfrog fund" that can support access to clean energy and
sustainable development at the same time. While the World Bank and the
G20 propose a failed model of top-down development and corporate
welfare, the Christian Aid report shows that technologies exist that can
be scaled up, reduce energy poverty and protect the climate at the same
time.

Peter Bosshard is the policy director of International Rivers. He blogs
at www.internationalrivers.org/en/blog/peter-bosshard and tweets
@PeterBosshard.
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East African Countries Drive Geothermal Development

http://www.afribiz.info/content/east-african-countries-drive-geothermal-development

East African Countries Drive Geothermal Development

United Nations climate talks ended last week in South Africa and the
United States and China played chicken on who would take the lead in
stewarding the environment well while also driving economic
development.[1][2] Quietly, Kenya has signed major deals just this
year that will see the opening of at least three plants that will grow
Kenya�s geothermal capacity to 514 megawatts (MW) by 2014. By 2030,
Kenya aims for geothermal energy to make up 5000 MW of the total
15,000 MW of power the country will produce to meet growing demand �
an estimated $16 billion investment.[3] Imagine that, an African
country driving the uptake of clean and renewable energy.

Experts estimate that Kenya has the potential to generate 7,000 MW to
10,000 MW. The country began developing geothermal in the 1980s and
currently produces about 209 MW. In 2008, the country set its
geothermal power goal in the Vision 2030 strategic plan.[4] Since that
time Kenya has aggressively grown geothermal with the 36 MW expansion
of the 48 MW Olkaria III, the construction of the 280 MW Olkaria IV,
and the drilling of the 1,600 MW Menengai field.

Contrary to what the Wall Street Journal reported on December 6, Kenya
is not the only African country developing geothermal energy.[5] Kenya
lies within the East African Rift System that runs 6,500km from
Tunisia to Mozambique. In a recent conversation with Dr. Meseret
Zemedkun of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), she
explained that some countries in the East African region are looking
to complement their current hydropower capacity, while others like
Eritrea and Djibouti are looking for primary renewable energy sources.
[6] Ethiopia has drilled a pilot 7 MW plant. Eritrea is conducting
detailed exploration. Djibouti is drilling wells, and Uganda and
Rwanda are conducting semi-detailed and detailed exploration.

According to Dr. Zemedkun, �[African] countries are very keen to
develop their resources.� She cited the high availability rate of
geothermal compared to hydropower � 90-95 percent versus 50-55
percent. Changes in weather impact the availability of hydropower
whereas geothermal energy is not impacted by changes in weather.
Furthermore, enhanced technology is reducing the unit price of
geothermal energy, increasing its accessibility to African countries.

Dr. Zemedkun is currently driving the African Rift Geothermal Project,
an initiative that brings together several African countries in
working to build their geothermal capacity.[7] It also helps reduce
the risks of exploration through exploration studies, site selection,
and surface exploration. UNEP partners with the World Bank in this
work, leveraging its risk mitigation fund to further the exploration
of geothermal energy.

I am excited about the work Kenya is doing to develop its geothermal
energy capacity. Its leadership has also kickstarted the exploration
of geothermal energy in other countries along the East African Rift
System. Hopefully, the US and China will figure out a way to do their
part and contribute to the preservation of this earth while meeting
the economic needs of their citizens.

Featured image is geothermal well at Menengai Crater by Suileman
Mbatiah.

Notes

[1] ABN Digital, Mitigating Effects of Climate Change in Africa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-UBR6o2r74&feature=g-user

[2] New York Times, At Climate Talks A Familiar Standoff Emerges
Between the United States and China: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/science/earth/at-climate-talks-a-familiar-standoff-emerges-between-the-united-states-and-china.html?_r=1

[3] Geothermal Development Company, Investment Highlights: http://www.gdc.co.ke/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=192&Itemid=164

[4] Vision 2030: http://www.vision2030.go.ke/

[5] Wall Street Journal, Power out of Africa, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204346104576638553875004940.html

[6] United Nations Environment Program: http://www.unep.org/

[7] UNEP African Rift Geothermal Project, Tapping into the Geothermal
Energy to Power the Region beyond Kenya: http://www.unep.org/newscentre/default.aspx?DocumentID=2653&ArticleID=8847
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One-year consultant position at International Rivers

Dear all,

International Rivers is currently seeking a Consultant to the China Program who has experience working on environmental issues in China, possesses solid research, writing and communication skills, and is a Chinese native speaker. The consultant will be an integral part of the China Program, communicate with International Rivers' staff and partners, and contribute to print and web publications. The position will be full-time and will be based in Beijing. Travel within China will be required for 10-20% of the time.

The deadline for applications is January 9, 2012.
The full consultant description can be found here: http://www.internationalrivers.org/en/node/7055.

Best wishes,
Katy

--
Katy Yan
International Rivers | 国际河流
Office: 510.848.1155 x317
Skype: katyyan85
Follow us on Twitter, Weibo and Facebook

Save China's Rivers | Climate Change and Dams | Blog

**Good planets are hard to find -- please consider the environment before printing this email.**

Africa’s Solar Energy Moment

Africa�s Solar Energy Moment

http://resourceinvestingnews.com/27758-africa-solar-energy-abengoa.html

Mon, Dec 12, 2011
Feature Articles
Post by James Wellstead, Resource Reporter
By James Wellstead � Exclusive to Resource Investing News

While falling solar panel prices have been sinking the ships of some
solar producers, emerging markets utilities are finding attractive
cost incentives in building solar into their grids as prices of solar
panels have fallen by 40 percent in the past year alone.

African countries in particular, alongside a number of other emerging
market economies, appear to be the saving grace of clean energy
markets. Ernst and Young recently reported in its Renewable Energy
Country Attractiveness Index that as American and Western European
markets have been besieged by a �perfect storm� of political and
economic uncertainty, emerging energy consumers in markets like North
Africa, the Middle East and South East Asia now represent the
immediate future for renewable energy.

While legal and political support persist as stumbling blocks for a
variety of African countries, the region�s physical geography, minimal
existing grid infrastructure and the persistence of energy poverty of
its collective citizens offer powerful arguments in favor of Africa
becoming a solar-stronghold in both grid-integrated generation and
small-scale, decentralized applications.

Africa�s solar potential

Home to some of the best geographical conditions on earth for solar
power production, solar energy developers are finding fertile ground
in Africa�s sunbelts. Contrasted against its abundant sunshine,
however, is a dramatic scarcity of energy production which has left
some 587 million people across the continent without access to
electricity, according to the International Energy Association.

While the majority of electricity production in Africa is currently
supplied from fossil fuel sources (particularly coal and oil and gas),
solar remains highly competitive as a grid production source. Despite
its relative abundance of fossil-fuel energy resources, the continent
has long grappled with its ability to establish sufficient electricity
infrastructure to supply its own inhabitants.

Some 85 percent of that 587 million without access to electricity are
people living in rural areas. To these groups, solar (despite its cost
premium in developed economies) is actually quite cost competitive.
David Nickols, Managing Director of WSP Future Energy, recently said
in a Wall Street Journal interview that rural people who get their
power from diesel generators pay about US $1 per kilowatt hour,
compared with just US $0.20/kwh for solar photovoltaic power.

�Because renewables [in Africa] are compared against decentralized
diesel generators off-grid, the financials for renewables may well
look attractive,� said Nickols.

With the abundance of solar panel supply currently flooding world
markets, now is a particularly opportune time for low income markets
like those in sub-Saharan Africa to look to solar as a practical
electricity solution. To date, the majority of solar energy projects
in Africa have been small scale systems for homes where South Africa
and Kenya, with 11,000 kWp and 3,600 kWp respectively, are the most
developed markets.

But more recently, a number of countries have begun to fund and
develop large-scale solar installations set to support grid
development of local markets, as well as supply neighbouring European
markets. The following are a few of the most recent large-scale
projects.

Namibia

On the sunny southwest coast of the continent, Namibia is looking to
duplicate its mineral sector success within its solar energy sector.
Recently, the nation of 2 million, which relies heavily upon coal
imports from South Africa, has announced a new 25 year power purchase
agreement with a group of Washington, DC-based investors which would
see the government purchasing electricity from a 500 megawatt (MW)
solar plant near its capital, Windhoek.

The ground mounted solar photovoltaic power project will cost between
US $1.6 and $2 billion for its initial engineering and construction
costs, the project could double in production output (to 1 gigawatt)
from the addition of wind generation additions.

Africa Energy Corp., the group leading the project, is headed by Jigar
Shah (also the head of Virgin mogul Richard Branson�s Carbon War Room)
and was created specifically to finance the project. The project will
commence in January of 2012 and will take about two years to complete.

Morocco

With a distance of only 8 miles separating the country from Spain,
Morocco is probably the best example of the external opportunities for
African solar power producers. Recently, the World Bank approved a US
$297 million loan to finance the country�s Ouarzazate Concentrated
Solar Power Plant Project which will have a 500 MW capacity, with the
potential to expand to 2,000 MW by 2020.

This project is also the testing ground for the much larger US $530
billion renewable energy Desertec Industrial Initiative which seeks to
provide 100 percent of North Africa and the Middle East�s power supply
by 2050, as well as 15 percent of Europe�s electricity supply.
Desertec�s next solar development will include a smaller 150 MW solar
project in Egypt.

The Ouarzazate project is also a case study in the cost savings
African countries can offer. Similar sized projects in the United
States, such as BrightSource Energy�s 370-megawatt Ivanpah project,
received a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy
this past April.

South Africa

Home to the 2011 Durban round of International Climate Change
Conference, South Africa�s Department of Energy recently announced
that it has awarded Spanish renewable energy developer Abengoa the
rights to build two concentrating solar power (CSP) farms in South
Africa. The deal is one of a number of projects recently approved
under a government tender which totaled 1,416 MW of CSP, solar
photovoltaic and wind projects.

With US $1.3 billion in investments, the two CSP developments (the 50
MW Khi Solar One and 100 MW KaXu Solar One) will be the first CSP
facilities in South Africa. The projects will contribute towards South
Africa�s target of building 17,800 MW of renewable energy capacity by
2030.

Long reliant upon coal to provide upwards of 90 percent of the
country�s electricity, South Africa is looking keen to see itself as
an African leader into a new era of renewable energy.

Securities Disclosure: I, James Wellstead, hold no direct investment
interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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Gansu tightens control of hydropower projects on environmental concerns

Gansu tightens control of hydropower projects on environmental concerns
China Business Newswire
December 6, 2011

http://www.hydroworld.com/index/display/news_display.1556615756.html

West China's Gansu Province, one of the country's driest regions, has
introduced policies aimed at better regulating small-scale hydropower
projects to protect fresh water resources, according to a policy
statement issued by the Gansu provincial government Dec. 5.

According to the statement, effective Dec. 1 all planned hydropower
plants with installed capacity ranging from five to 250 megawatts (MW)
must receive approval from the Gansu arm of the National Development and
Reform Commission (NDRC) before breaking ground.

Additionally, projects with les than five MW of installed capacity need
to obtain approval from municipal NDRC offices, the policy said,
stressing that hydropower operating licenses were not transferrable.

The latest regulations are aimed at protecting scarce water resources
and farmers from potentially harmful hydropower project development, the
Gansu provincial government said.

Calls to the Gansu NDRC for further comment went unanswered.

Tian Zhongxing, director of hydropower development with the Ministry of
Water Resources (MWR), told the China Small Hydropower Projects Forum in
Beijing Oct. 12 that a number of small-scale hydropower projects have
damaged the environment and affected downstream irrigation systems,
noting that the MWR has sent representatives to Gansu this year to
investigate a number of such incidents.

Gansu has 1,077 cubic meters of fresh water per person, roughly half of
the national average, according to the Gansu arm of the MWR.

By the end of 2010 Gansu housed 1.68 gigawatts (GW) of hydropower
installed capacity, according to provincial MWR statistics.

-WV
Copyright 2011 Interfax News AgencyAll Rights Reserved
China Business Newswire
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