Autoconsumo aguarda decreto-lei mas já é possível

Edifícios e Energia
O decreto-lei para o auto-consumo está a ser ultimado e a sua fase de circulação “ocorrerá dentro de poucos meses”, estando prevista a criação de três novos enquadramentos legais: autoconsumo sem ligação de potência à rede, com ligação de potência à rede e em sistemas isolados da RESP (redes do Sistema Eléctrico de Serviço Público). Enquanto isso, a aprovação de projectos de autoconsumo, em paralelo com a rede, até 1MW é já possível. A informação foi anunciada hoje em comunicado pela Associação Portuguesa de Empresas do Sector Fotovoltaico (APESF), depois de uma reunião na última terça-feira com a  Direcção Geral de Energia e Geologia (DGEG) para debater o estado actual do sector.

Japan Plans Low-Interest Loans for Rooftop Solar

Businessweek
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry plans to provide low-interest loans to companies that borrow residential rooftop space for solar power generation, the Nikkei newspaper reported today.
The ministry plans to make loans available through government financial institutions such as Development Bank of Japan Inc., the newspaper cited Trade Minister Toshimitsu Motegi as saying. Motegi will announce the plan tomorrow in a meeting on industrial competitiveness, according to the paper.
Under the proposal, companies will sell electricity generated from solar panels set up on homeowners’ rooftop spaces, according to the paper. Homeowners will receive 10,000 yen ($97) to 20,000 yen a year for renting out their roofs, it said.

Germany to start subsidies for solar power storage systems in May 2013

SolarServer
The German solar industry welcomes the federal government's announcement that it will support battery systems to accompany solar photovoltaic (PV) generation beginning in May 2013. Germany will subsidize the purchase of new battery storage systems with up to EUR 660 (USD 870) per kWp. In the first year the KfW banking group will provide EUR 25 million (USD 33 million) in funding. (...) The new subsidies also specify that solar energy systems combined with subsidized storage must reduce their output to 60% for the entire payment period. This will allow plant operators to help avoiding production peaks.

World's 'Most Attractive' Incentives Will Bump Japan's Solar Status

SolarIndustryMag.com
The Japanese photovoltaic market is set to grow by 120% this year, with more than 5 GW of new capacity expected, according to a new report from IMS Research (part of IHS Inc.). Benefiting from the world's most attractive PV incentive policy, Japan's solar market is currently booming, with installations expected to exceed 1 GW in the first quarter alone, causing it to become the second largest market in 2013.
Japan's PV market currently benefits from a feed-in tariff (FIT) paying up to 42 yen/kWh [0.42€/kWh at today's exchange rate], even though this rate is likely to be reduced by approximately 10% beginning April 1.
"At 42 yen, Japan's FIT is by far the most attractive globally - overly generous, perhaps, which could lead to overheating of the market," explains Ash Sharma, senior director of solar research at IHS.
"And while a 10 percent reduction in tariffs is widely expected by industry players, this will have little effect on both internal rates of return and market demand," Sharma continues. "Furthermore, many systems that have already applied for the higher FIT are able to benefit from this rate of 42 yen, even if they are installed after April 1."
The report reveals that installations are estimated at over 1 GW in the first quarter of 2013 - the final quarter of Japan's fiscal year - and forecast to exceed 5 GW for the whole of 2013. This would see Japan leapfrog ahead of Germany, Italy and the U.S. to become the world's second largest PV market.

German government to introduce new subsidies for solar energy storage

SolarServer
The German Federal Ministry of the Environment has announced that new incentives for energy storage systems for solar photovoltaic (PV) installations will begin in February 2013.
The three-year subsidy program will have a EUR 50 million (USD 67 million) budget and will be available for PV systems with a capacity smaller than 30 kW, providing a grant of EUR 800 (USD 1,080) per kWh of storage. No additional certification will be needed, and self-consumed solar power will not be eligible for participation in the nation's feed-in tariff.

France launches rescue plan for solar power industry

Reuters
France has doubled its capacity target for photovoltaic power generation and offered more financial support to small solar power farms that use European-made panels in a bid to rescue the country's ailing solar industry. Energy Minister Delphine Batho announced the measures, which are expected to spur investments worth more than 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion), during a visit to a solar panel factory in Western France.
The Socialist government is seeking to rescue an industry which has lost about 15,000 jobs in the last two years, after the previous conservative government tried to dampen a speculative bubble in new solar power installations. In 2012 the industry employed 18,000 people, down from 32,500 in 2010.
(...) France will also add a bonus of up to 10 percent on the subsidy for feed-in-tariffs paid to generators of solar power through consumers' power bills for small solar farms using panels made in the 30 countries of the European Economic Area (EEA). (...) Batho acknowledged the government was taking the risk of having its "Made in Europe" bonus challenged by foreign competitors in international trade courts. "In terms of legal risk, I don't think there is one at the European level. But at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) level, it would take years (to challenge it), so the government did well," Bal said.

Germany Added Record Solar Panels in 2012 Even as Subsidies Cut

Bloomberg
Renewable-energy developers in Germany, the world’s biggest solar market, added a record number of panels last year even after subsidies were cut back. Solar installations climbed to 7,634 megawatts, up 2 percent from 7,485 megawatts in 2011, according to figures from the Bundesnetzagentur grid regulator and the Environment Ministry. That was more than double the government’s maximum target of 3,500 megawatts. (...) “More than 80 percent of installations came in the first nine months,” he said today by phone. Environment Minister Peter Altmaier expects developers to add 4,000 megawatts to 4,500 megawatts this year, Strube said.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has cut solar-power subsidies to reduce the burden on consumer electricity bills of Germany’s renewable-energy expansion. Still, the above-market tariffs remain at levels that allow developers to profit, while component prices have continued to drop amid an oversupply.

Energia Governo chega a acordo com operadores de parques eólicos para redução de subsídios

Expresso.pt
O Governo anunciou hoje que chegou a um acordo de princípio com operadores de parques eólicos cobertos por legislação anterior a 2005 para reduzir o valor dos subsídios atribuídos, numa poupança estimada em 140 milhões até 2020. O acordo alcançado abrange mais de 70 por cento da "potência eólica elegível", havendo, do lado do Governo, uma "forte convicção de que será possível obter a adesão voluntária da quase totalidade da potência elegível".
Segundo comunicado do Ministério da Economia e do Emprego, "os produtores eólicos aderem a um regime em que efetuam pagamentos ao Sistema Elétrico Nacional destinados à diminuição das tarifas para os consumidores e a abater o défice tarifário", ficando "vinculados a um sistema de preços máximos e mínimos durante um período de cinco a sete anos após o fim da atual tarifa bonificada que recebem"-

Japan approves renewable subsidies in shift from nuclear power

Reuters
Japan approved on Monday incentives for renewable energy that could unleash billions of dollars in clean-energy investment and help the world's third-biggest economy shift away from a reliance on nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster. (...) Nuclear power accounted for almost 30 percent of Japan's electricity supply before an earthquake and tsunami on March 11 last year triggered the Fukushima disaster. Near Sendai on Japan's northeast cost, which was devastated by the earthquake and tsunami, memories of power cuts are fresh, prompting a drive for self-sufficiency."People had to queue for hours several times a week to charge their cell phones during the blackouts, which lasted for up to three weeks," said Naoaki Ando, the manager of an office near Sendai of Sekisui House, Japan's biggest home builder.
(...) The scheme requires Japanese utilities to buy electricity from renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal at pre-set premiums for up to 20 years. Costs will be passed on to consumers through higher bills. Utilities will pay 42 yen (53 U.S. cents) per kilowatt hour (kWh) for solar-generated electricity, double the tariff offered in Germany and more than three times that paid in China.
Wind power will be subsidised at least 23.1 yen per kwh, compared with as low as 4.87 euro cents (6 U.S. cents) in Germany.

PV Feed-in tariff dispute continues in German government

SolarServer
The German federal and state governments have failed to come to a compromise on solar photovoltaic (PV) feed-in tariff reductions during an official government arbitration session, which will now continue on June 27th, 2012. (...) Analysts have noted that while the Bundesrat may hope to change certain provisions of the cuts, including timing, the overall scope of the cuts are unlikely to change.

The division over the feed-in tariff cuts falls both upon party and state lines. While left parties including Social-Democrats, Greens and The Left are opposed to the cuts, these parties form a minority in the current government. Additional opposition has come from inside Chancellor Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its sister party in Bavaria, the CSU.

Unlikely Firms Jump Onto Solar Power Bandwagon

Japan Real Time
When Japan’s government decided last month that big power utilities would have to buy electricity from renewable sources at around double current retail rates, many unlikely companies jumped on the renewable energy bandwagon in the hopes of a quick profit. The major Osaka-based wool maker Japan Wool Textile Co., for instance, said it would shut its 15-hectare loss-making golf course by the end of September to build a 10-MW solar farm on the land. (...) Other companies have similar ideas.

Czech Constitutional Court backs state over solar clampdown

Czech Position
The Czech Constitutional Court has ruled that the government was fully within its rights to slap a retroactive tax on solar power plant investors to curb a solar boom in the country. (...) The main feature of the retrospective government step to put a brake on the costly solar boom was a 26 percent tax on profits from solar plants which were connected to the overall power network in 2009 and 2010. (...) It added that the effects of the government’s blanked action could nonetheless have had a serious impact on some solar investors, such as small producers who had taken out high interest bank loans on the basis of a planned fast return on the investment. The boom was party sparked by a sharp fall in the price of solar panels while long-term guaranteed Czech prices for solar-produced power remained at previous high levels. This produced a stampede to set up solar power plants in the country before the government belatedly began to count the cost of the investment fever on electricity users and the government as it tried to cushion the effects on consumers.

France drafts rules for 10% FIT bonus for PV products made in Europe

SolarServer
The French Department of Ecology for Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing has drafted a rule to create a 10% bonus to the nation's feed-in tariff (FIT) for use of solar photovoltaic (PV) components produced in the European Economic Area (EEA) [which also includes Norway]. (...) The regulation specifies that at least 2/3 of the PV production processes for crystalline silicon technology from silicon ingots to PV modules must be performed in the EEA to qualify for the bonus. (...) This would mean that both the slicing of wafers and processing of wafers to cells, or the slicing of wafers and assembling of cells into modules, or alternately the processing of wafers to cells and assembly of cells into modules, must take place in EEA member states.
The rule did not mention thin-film PV modules, and is scheduled to take effect from January 1st, 2013.

Thousands march as political cracks appear in German FIT plan

Recharge
Backed by Germany’s largest trade union, thousands of people marched to Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate today in protest at impending cuts to the country’s solar feed-in tariff (FIT). The protest highlights the political resonance of the issue and comes amid a growing schism within Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government. The Bavaria-based Christian Social Union (CSU) – the sister party to Merkel’s own Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – is breaking away from a plan that would impose a new round of FIT cuts from 9 March.
Sunny Bavaria has reaped huge economic benefits from Germany’s generous solar support. In particular, CSU parliamentarians oppose the swiftness with which the FIT cuts would be imposed – they were only announced in late February – as well as a measure that would see all support eradicated for arrays larger than 10MW.

German Government to cut PV feed-in tariffs by up to 30 percent

SolarServer
Germany's Minister of Economics Philipp Rösler (Liberal Party) and the German Minister for the Environment, Norbert Röttgen (Christian Democratic Party) , according to media reports and information from government and industry sources plan to reduce the solar PV feed-in tariff by 20 to 30%.
According to the new plans the originally scheduled tariff cut in July will be pre-drawn to April 1st, 2012. In addition the new feed-in tariff is intended to be limited to a maximum of 90 percent.

Suspende com efeitos imediatos a atribuição de potências de injeção na Rede Elétrica de Serviço Público

Diário da República
As orientações de política energética previstas no Programa do XIX Governo Constitucional apontam para a necessidade de ponderar e reavaliar o enquadramento legal da produção de eletricidade em regime especial, designadamente a partir de recursos endógenos renováveis e de tecnologias de produção combinada de calor e de eletricidade, tarefa que obriga a um estudo aprofundado e a uma criteriosa harmonização dos diversos interesses a considerar.
Entretanto, a evolução verificada no mercado, com a retração da procura, e a implementação das medidas dos Memorandos de Entendimento acordados com o Fundo Monetário Internacional, a Comissão Europeia e o Banco Central Europeu, apontam para a necessidade de moderar desde já as intenções de novos investidores que se perfilam para apresentarem pedidos de informação prévia de forma a permitir a receção e entrega de energia elétrica proveniente de novos centros eletroprodutores (...)Entende o Governo, por isso, que existe a necessidade de suspender, com efeitos imediatos, a atribuição de potências de injeção na Rede Elétrica de Serviço Público (RESP) (...) ainda que ressalvando a possibilidade de poderem vir a ser excecionados casos de relevante interesse público, em termos a regulamentar por resolução do Conselho de Ministros.

Governo suspende novas injecções de energia na RESP

Portal Ambiente Online
Por decisão do Conselho de Ministros, foi suspensa - com efeitos imediatos - a atribuição de potências de injecção na Rede Eléctrica de Serviço Público (RESP), ressalvando a possibilidade de poderem ser excepcionados casos de relevante interesse público, em situações a regulamentar por resolução do CM. (...) O Estado decidiu acabar com seis contratos de investimento e de concessão de benefícios fiscais, devido a incumprimento. Itarion Solar, Lda e Agni Inc - Desenvolvimento de Sistemas para Energias Alternativas, S.A. Estão entre o lote, estas ligadas às renováveis.
Destaque também para a criação da Comissão Reguladora para a Segurança das Instalações Nucleares - que funcionará junto da Secretaria-Geral do Ministério da Educação e Ciência. A criação do regulador vem na sequência da transposição da Diretiva n.º 2009/71/Euratom, que estabelece um regime para a segurança das instalações nucleares.

Governo reduz tarifa de electricidade paga a microprodutores

Dinheiro Digital
A tarifa paga aos produtores domésticos de electricidade com base em energia solar fotovoltaica vai baixar quatro cêntimos em 2012, segundo uma portaria publicada hoje em Diário da República. A legislação aplicável ao regime de microgeração previa uma diminuição anual desta tarifa em 2 cêntimos, mas o Governo foi mais longe, para reduzir o impacto nas contas públicas.
A portaria que fixa o regime remuneratório a aplicar aos microprodutores (instalações com potência máxima de ligação de 3,68 kW) invoca o memorando de entendimento com a troika e "a evolução, entretanto, verificada nos mercados" para justificar a redução das tarifas de referência. O memorando previa que a promoção de energias renováveis se mantivesse, mas limitando "os sobrecustos associados à produção de electricidade nos regimes ordinário e especial [em que se inserem os micro e miniprodutores]".
Assim, a tarifa a pagar aos microprodutores em 2012, que devia ser fixada em 0,36 euros por kilowatt/hora, é reduzida para 0,326 euros nos primeiros oito anos de produção e para 0,185 euros nos setes anos seguintes. A quota anual de potência instalada que pode beneficiar desta tarifa passa de 25 para 10 megawatts.
No caso dos miniprodutores, ou seja, unidades que produzem entre 5,75 e 250 quilowatts/hora (como fábricas e edifícios de escritórios), outra portaria estipula que a tarifa de referência, que era de 0,25 euros, passa para 0,215 euros, prevendo-se uma redução anual de 14% no preço a pagar a estes produtores, o dobro do que estava previsto.

Merkel suggests cutting solar subsidies further

Reuters
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday solar energy subsidies should be reduced, and it could make more sense in the future to draw solar energy from places like Greece, where the sun shined longer. Merkel said that while wind energy seemed on track to becoming commercially viable in Germany, this did not seem the case for solar energy.(...) [C]ash-strapped euro zone governments, grappling with debt crises and fragile economic growth, are reducing their support in order to bring down production costs and make the industry more competitive. Merkel said it was not rational for so many subsidies to go toward a sector which ultimately produced little energy.

China to double solar capacity by year end: report

Reuters
China will double its solar capacity to around 2GW by the end of the year as the world's largest solar-panel maker ramps up domestic installation, a local paper said on Saturday citing a government-linked think tank.
To encourage the construction of more solar power plants, the [National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC)] has set unified benchmark grid feed-in power tariffs for solar projects for the first time ever earlier this month.
The rates, set at 1 yuan for each kWh, were higher than many of those that were proposed and accepted by state-owned solar-power developers in China's previous official tenders, which ranged from 0.73 to 0.99 yuan for each kWh last year.
The solar feed-in tariff (...) could drop below 0.80 yuan (12.5 cents) for each kilowatt-hour (kWh) by 2015, which would be on par with conventional coal-fired power tariffs by that time, according to s report by the Energy Research Institute.
The report also said China was expected to produce 90,000 tonnes of polysilicon this year, representing 80 percent of its domestic demand.