News

• Debt-financed deal to double US residential solar installations

  08 September 2011

  SolarCity has secured $344 million in financing for a project to install solar panels on US military housing from US Renewables Group (USRG) in a deal backed by a Department of Energy (DOE) loan guarantee.

• Industry pressure and politics blamed for Obama's smog rule delay

  07 September 2011

  The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will abandon its pursuit of stricter smog standards at the direction of President Barack Obama and in what environmentalists and some legislators decried as a cave-in to industry.

• Solar PV edging towards grid parity in Europe

  06 September 2011

  Solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation will be grid competitive in parts of Europe as early as 2013, and across key European markets by the end of the decade, according to an industry association report – making the technology more attractive to investors.

• Biomass energy fuelling developing country land-grab – IIED

  06 September 2011

  Increasing use of biomass for energy generation is leading investors to buy plantation land in poor countries, putting at risk the livelihoods and food security of some of the world's most vulnerable people, according to a report by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

• Clean-tech funds have $27m at stake in Solyndra bankruptcy

  06 September 2011

  Some renowned clean-tech investment funds are owed money by Solyndra, the California-based manufacturer of cylindrical solar photovoltaic cells, which today filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

• Climate Bonds Initiative adds four veterans to advisory panel

  06 September 2011

  The Climate Bonds Initiative, which is hoping to catalyse the climate or 'green' bond market, has added four environmental finance industry veterans to its board.

• Sweden ex-PM spearheads global reforestation effort

  06 September 2011

  A former prime minister of Sweden has helped launch a global initiative to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020.

• First trades complete in replacement SO2 and NOx market

  05 September 2011

  The new sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions markets started humming last week, with the first trades brokered under the replacement programme established by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

• Insurers unprepared for climate risk

  02 September 2011

  The vast majority of insurers are unprepared to handle climate risks even though they acknowledge the impact of climate change on extreme weather events, according to a report by investor coalition Ceres.

• Belgian industry invests in nuclear, gas

  01 September 2011

  Belgian energy company Electrabel has signed an agreement with a consortium of Belgian industrial energy users to invest in thermal and nuclear energy production capacity. The agreement should allow heavy users of energy to rely on their own electricity supply instead of buying more expensive energy from utility suppliers.