China aims to halve subsidy budget for new solar plants in 2020 By Bloomberg | Jan. 23, 2020, 8:51 a.m. | Share: 📷 China proposed to halve its subsidy budget for new solar power projects this year to 1.5 billion yuan ($216 million) as the government steers its renewable energy sector away from a reliance on financial support.A total of 1 billion yuan will be allocated to large solar projects through a competitive auction process, and the remainder will be for residential solar systems, the National Energy Administration said in a statement Thursday. The overall amount compares with 3 billion yuan planned in 2019.The industry has braced for a cut in subsidies as manufacturing costs decline and China pushes for renewable energy to compete economically with conventional power sources such as coal and natural gas. It seeks to end national subsidies for new onshore wind farms from 2021 and offshore projects a year later.The NEA is seeking feedback on the proposal, which is part of its clean energy policy for this year. Regional authorities are also asked to submit by mid-March their plans for subsidy-free solar and wind power projects, which can be approved and begin construction.A government researcher forecast in December that 1.75 billion yuan of solar subsidies will be allocated in 2020. Finalizing the policy this early in the year could help capacity additions recover in the world’s biggest market to more than 40 gigawatts, according to the China Photovoltaic Industry Association.The 2019 policy wasn’t announced until July last year, creating uncertainty for developers and caused installations to slump almost 37 per cent to 28 gigawatts from a year ago, BloombergNEF estimated.© 2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Gas exports have a dirty secret: a carbon footprint rivaling coal’s By Bloomberg | Jan. 23, 2020, 8:38 a.m. | Share: � �Freeport LNG, which began exporting gas from its Texas facility last fall, plans to reduce its emissions by over 90 per cent relative to other plants. Image: Freeport LNG In May, while President Donald Trump toured a new $10 billion plant designed to prepare natural gas for export, he made a vow. Such facilities would be good for the environment, he said, or they won’t get approved.The president has greenlit 11 projects so far, bringing the U.S. total to 18. Environmentalists once touted the fuel, nicknamed “freedom gas” by the Trump administration, as a better energy alternative, but an analysis shows the plants’ potential carbon dioxide emissions rival those of coal. The DOB's Energy Excellence Awards (EEAs) identify and highlight the essential work that companies are doing to meet industry challenges in project execution, innovation, export capabilities and environmental performance. Nominate a colleague or company today. The deadline is January 31, 2020 .LEARN MORE Not all the export terminals are completed and in use, but if they were, simply operating them could spew 78 million tons of CO2 into the air every year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from environmental filings. That’s comparable to the emissions of 24 coal plants, or 18 gigawatts of coal-fired power—more than Kentucky’s entire coal fleet. And those numbers don’t account for the harm caused by transporting the gas from wellheads to processing facilities and then overseas, which can be significant.“The emissions from these projects can’t be squared with the sorts of drastic, drastic reductions we need in order to avoid catastrophic climate change,” says Nathan Matthews, a senior Sierra Club attorney.As long as natural gas stays in the pipeline, emissions remain relatively low. But the sprawling terminals that export the fuel use ozone-depleting refrigerants to supercool it into liquid form, called LNG. They also belch toxic gases such as sulfur dioxide and burn off excess methane, a greenhouse gas more immediately destructive to the atmosphere than CO2.Proponents of exporting natural gas, including government officials, argue that it will help wean other countries off coal, and that additional emissions here are offset by lower emissions abroad. But natural gas’s role in global warming is complicated. While the fuel has been key to reducing U.S. emissions as it displaces coal-fired power, the electricity industry’s growing dependence on it has nevertheless “offset some of the climate gains from this coal decline,” according to the Rhodium Group.With the effects of climate change already supercharging wildfires and flooding some coastal communities, the surprise that emissions from LNG terminals rival those of coal plants is not a pleasant one.The surge in U.S. gas production has incentivized the build out of other fossil-fuel infrastructure, such as petrochemical plants and pipelines. If all of them are built, they could add more than 500 million tons of carbon emissions annually by 2030, according to a study published in Environmental Research Letters.“Industrial emissions such as these, that increase, can move us further away from climate goals,” says Avi Zevin, senior attorney at the New York University School of Law's Institute for Policy Integrity, which did its own study of LNG. “Operation of LNG terminals produces billions of dollars of climate damages every year, which have to be added to the damages from emissions of the transported gas that will ultimately be combusted.”The six export terminals currently in operation aren’t yet running at full capacity. At current operating levels, their maximum potential CO ₂ emissions are equivalent to those of 5.2 coal-fired plants, according to Bloomberg calculations.The plant in Hackberry, Louisiana, that Trump celebrated last spring, Sempra Energy’s Cameron LNG terminal, has one of the largest potential carbon footprints in the analysis — 37 per cent higher than the average of 18 facilities Bloomberg reviewed. The biggest potential polluter is Venture Global’s Plaquemines facility, also in Louisiana, whose emissions could be 58% higher than the average of all facilities. Sempra declined to comment, and Venture Global did not respond to emails or calls requesting comment.A 2016 federal assessment of the Cameron plant said it would spew a maximum of nine million tons of CO ₂ a year once it’s fully operational. That’s 328,000 tons of the pollutant for every one million tons of gas exported, according to Bloomberg calculations.Other plants have significantly smaller footprints. Annova LNG’s Brownsville terminal in Texas would emit just 59,000 tons of carbon dioxide for every one million tons of gas it exports, largely because it plans to use renewable energy rather than gas turbines to power the plant and has designed the facility to capture and recycle excess gas instead of releasing it into the atmosphere. “Annova LNG plans to be the lowest-carbon-emitting LNG export facility in the U.S. as part of its sustainability commitment,” the company said in a statement.Freeport LNG, which began exporting gas from its Texas facility last fall, plans to reduce its emissions “by over 90 per cent relative to other plants,” by using electric-drive motors instead of combustion turbines, CEO Michael Smith said in a Jan. 17 statementThe reasons for the wide differences among plants are unclear, but some facilities generate their own electricity from natural gas rather than pulling it from a regional grid. That’s why, ultimately, Cheniere Energy Inc. sees a greater emissions intensity from its Louisiana terminal vs. the grid-reliant Texas facility, the company says. As of 2018, actual emissions from Cheniere’s two plants in Louisiana and Texas were lower than estimated in their environmental filings, according to EPA records. Both facilities are in the process of being expanded.“We’ve produced our LNG efficiently, lowering our emissions intensity,” said Fiji George, Cheniere’s director of climate and sustainability .LNG customer sThe biggest customers for U.S. LNG are South Korea, Japan and—until recently—China. But global demand is softening. Some of the planned export terminals may never be built. Six of the 18 approved plants are already operating, and four are under construction. “China and India would have to grow much faster than they are currently to justify all of this LNG that is being sanctioned,” says Akos Losz, a nonresident fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. The U.S. build-out will require “lots of additional demand, and we’re not seeing that materializing.”The LNG Sakura liquefied natural gas tanker sits berthed at Tokyo Gas Co.'s Negishi LNG terminal in Yokohama, Japan, on Monday, May 21, 2018. Tokyo Gas received Japan's first LNG shipment from Dominion Energy's Cove Point project today, the company said in statement.Trade tensions have dimmed prospects for U.S. exports. China, one of the world’s biggest LNG importers, has cut purchases of American LNG by more than 80 per cent since 2017. It’s unclear what effect the recent “phase one” trade deal between the U.S. and China will have on shipments.The federal agency charged with approving the projects, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, argues that higher carbon emissions in the U.S. must be weighed against the potential for lower emissions abroad. “The impacts from greenhouse gas emissions are the same no matter where the facility is located,” FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee said in a statement. “LNG exports shouldn’t be compared to domestic emissions but looked at in the context of how they help address greenhouse gas emissions globally.”To be sure, LNG offers many environmental benefits compared with coal, which emits more particulate matter, leaves behind toxic waste, and contributes to acid rain. LNG’s lifecycle emissions—the amount of pollution generated from the moment the gas is pumped to the time it’s consumed—are also generally lower. A 2019 U.S. Energy Department report found that LNG exports to Europe and Asia generated lower lifecycle emissions than locally mined coal used for power generation.There is an exception. If the amount of methane leaked during gas production and transportation exceeds 3.1 per cent over a 20-year period, LNG’s lifecycle emissions become comparable to those of locally mined coal, according to the agency.A 2018 report published in the journal Nature found that leaks across the U.S. now total 2.3 per cent of oil and natural gas production. In the Permian basin, the world’s highest-producing oil field, the largest producers are burning off methane at a rate of 5.1 per cent, according to Rystad Energy. FERC’s environmental reviews rely heavily on data and estimates supplied by developers. The agency almost never rejects applications due to environmental concerns. Last year, the commission announced plans to open an office in Houston dedicated to expediting approvals of LNG infrastructure, doubling down on the Trump administration’s commitment to gas exports.© 2020 Bloomberg L.P.

CARBON & SUSTAINABILITY RENEWABLES U.K. has a plan to harness its land to hit net zero emissions By Bloomberg | Jan. 23, 2020, 10:42 a.m. | Share: 📷 The U.K. has a plan on how to use its land to hit its goal of zeroing out greenhouse-gas emissions by the middle of the century. It’ll will require a total transformation in the way farmers, land managers and consumers operate to work.Greenhouse gas emissions from land use and agriculture in Britain haven’t fallen at the same rate as other industries over the last three decades. To reach net zero by 2050, emissions coming from the way land is used must be slashed by 64per cent, according to the first in-depth study of the issue published by the Committee on Climate Change, a panel advising the government on environmental issues.Sweeping changes will be required across the U.K. economy to meet the government’s ambitious net-zero goal, which has been enshrined in law. Agriculture makes up about 12 per cent of the nation’s emissions and won’t be able to avoid that transformation.The report released Thursday by the nation’s independent climate change adviser maps out possible routes for lawmakers to cut emissions. Those include tree planting, low-carbon farming, restoring peatlands, stimulating bioenergy crops, reducing food waste and changing diets.Should the ruling Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government take on all the advice, the measures would cost about 1.4 billion pounds ($1.8 billion) a year. The net social benefit could be as much as 4 billion pounds a year, the committee said. As a comparison, the U.K. currently pays in 3.3 billion pounds a year into the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy in 2018.“This is a report of how you do it,” John Gummer, chair of the CCC, said in a briefing. “This is a key moment because we are now moving from good hearted determination, commitments, electoral discussions to delivery. It now has to fall to the government to supply the means. ”Trees, Trees and More Tree sPlanting new forests and restoring old ones has become a major focal point for climate mitigation and is seen as an easy political win in the U.K. During the last general election, all major parties made commitments for some form of reforestation program. The CCC said the U.K. should increase land covered by forests to at least 17 per cent by 2050, up from 13per cent now. That would still be well short of the average across the European Union of 33 per cent.For the U.K., this means planting as many as 120 million broad-leaf or conifer trees every year until in the 2050s. That could serve as the nation’s contribution to the World Economic Forum's initiative to plant 1 trillion trees around the world by 2030, which was announced earlier this week in Davos, Switzerland.Farmers and land managers aren’t likely to do this on their own. The committee suggests using existing market instruments to give incentives for planting programs. Those could include a kind of feed-in tariff, like the mechanism that underpinned the boom in renewable capacity, or a carbon trading facility. Both of those could be funded by a levy on greenhouse gas polluters, the body suggested .Cutting It Ou tSlashing farm-related emissions shouldn’t come at the expense of producing less food or importing more from countries with looser regulations, the CCC said. To effectively cut harmful farming emissions such as methane and ammonia, the U.K. should encourage the use of controlled-release fertilizers, which produce fewer harmful pollutants over time. It also could sharpen regulation of livestock health and look at ways that selective breeding in cattle can reduce methane. Those policies along with more low-carbon fuels could save the equivalent of 10 million tons of carbon dioxide by 2050 .Bio-Energy Crop sNew policies should accelerate and expand the growth of bio-energy crops to about 23,000 hectares every year to 2050, the panel said. Carbon pricing could be used to ensure long-term supply, and biomass facilities should commit to sourcing a certain proportion of their raw materials from the U.K. instead of importing them from abroad. Lawmakers should also help with the use of biomass as a fuel with carbon, capture and storage.“This government is talking quite a green game, but people are waiting to see what it means in terms of actual policy,” Jonathan Marshall, head of analysis at the of Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit, said in an interview. “There will be more freedom to reallocate money, such as the sum spent on the Common Agricultural Policy. That wouldn’t have been possible inside the EU, but it will become possible after Brexit. ”Other highlights from the report :Restore at least 50 per cent of upland peat and 25 per cent of lowland peat to reduce emissions by five million tons of CO2 equivalent by 2050Reduce by 20 per cent the 13.6 million tons of annual U.K. food waste and cut the consumption of beef, lamb and dairy by at around 20 per cent per person© 2020 Bloomberg L.P.