Straight Talk with Chukwudi Obi

ACWA Power has signed two long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Ethiopia’s state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power for the generation of 250MWac of solar power  in the nation. ACWA will sell the power at a price of US$0.02.526/kWh – what was billed as a record low for Africa back in September – over the course of 20 years, while implementation agreements were also signed with the Government of Ethiopia. The project developer hailed the agreements as a first of their kind for an Ethiopian utility. Photo Credit: CleanTecnica Letters of Intent were exchanged between ACWA and Ethiopia’s finance ministry in October this year, following ACWA landing contracts within the first round of auctions under Ethiopia’s solar programme. ACWA fended off stiff competition from 12 pre-qualified bidders within the auction process. Paddy Padmanathan, chief executive at ACWA, said the agreements signified the confidence the nation has in its ability to support its renewables ambiti...

 ŠKODA AUTO Volkswagen India Private Limited has commissioned one of the largest solar-power rooftop systems in India at its plant in Chakan, Pune. Together with its partner Amp Energy, the car manufacturer has installed a total of 25,770 photovoltaic panels. The installation will cover up to 15 per cent of the site’s annual electricity requirements, and the panels have a maximum output of 8.5 megawatts. India is one of the top solar power markets in the world.  Photo Credit: Volkswagen  chukwudiobi74@gmail.com 08030902410, www.facebook.com/chukwudi obi.33, @sonsnid741, 5564abf3 Join Club080 and get enormous discount and offers on breast enhancers, mobile phones, air-times, free ATM etc www.club080.com/makemoni Make money tweeting. Do you have website or blog/ make more money from your blog http://nairapp.com/index.php?rp=823 Buy luxury Swiss grade watches Wishwatch : http://saveouridentity.blogspot.com/2014/08/swiss-watches-for-sale.html

At a site in the Western Desert, some 650 km south of Cairo, one of the world’s largest and most ambitious solar energy projects is underway. The Benban Solar Park will produce enough electricity to power one million homes. But more than that, it is part of a whole new strategy for infrastructure projects that will see the Egyptian government start to work closely with private enterprise. It is expected to go live in 2019, at which point it will house 32 power stations across a 37km2 site, and will be capable of generating 1,650 megawatts of electricity. This will go a long way toward Egypt hitting its goal of having 20% of its energy needs met by renewables. But the effect it will have on the economic fabric and policy-making strategies of the country are equally significant. Egypt is heavily reliant on fossil fuels and almost all the country’s power facilities have been built and owned by the government. The government also runs a series of costly fuel subsidy schemes, whic...

India has proposed incentives worth 885 billion rupees ($12.4 billion) to encourage power plants to install equipment to curb emissions and to develop infrastructure for electric vehicles (EVs), according to a government statement. The bulk of the money, 835 billion rupees, would be aimed at curbing sulphur emissions from power plants, with the rest devoted to development of EV infrastructure in 70 cities over five years ending 2025, the statement said. The proposal by India's power ministry to its finance commission is in addition to an existing proposal that envisages installation costs for emission-cutting equipment to be passed on to consumers. The ministry's plans come against the backdrop of a utilities sector under financial stress, with loans from mostly state-run lenders turning sour or requiring restructuring, according to an Assocham-Grant Thorton report this month. The Association of power producers, an industry group that represents private companies suc...

Environmentalists are fighting in the United States of America are fighting a solar farm project that would help Georgetown University dramatically reduce its Greenhouse Gas emissions. These environmentalists argue that the project, which involves razing about 210 acres of trees in rural Charles County,  could endanger the area’s birds and lead to runoff that would put tributaries to the Chesapeake Bay at risk. Officials at Origis Energy, the solar company hired by Georgetown insist that they are prioritizing the safety of the Bay adding that “trade-offs are necessary” in renewable energy projects. Reductions in greenhouse emissions from the solar panels, they maintain, would be equivalent to planting hundreds of thousands of trees. “Green projects do not destroy green resources. If you destroy what is saving our climate in the name of fighting climate change, the effort is hollow.” said Linda Redding, an accountant from La Plata who is part of a determined group of environme...

Google has recently signed its first green deal in Asia, a solar project to be built above fishing ponds in Taiwan.  Building solar projects over water is becoming more common in Asia due to population density and competition for available land. Worldwide, the floating solar market is expected to reach 400 gigawatts, according to World bank.  The Google project development team has not yet decided how the solar panels will be situated above the water, according to a company spokeswoman, but the company is currently focused on poles that would have solar panels hoisted on top of them, a concept known as a "canopy" system.  Google's fishing pond project may differ from many water-based solar efforts that use structures like pontoons to float the solar panels directly on the water. While it is possible to float solar panels directly on the surface of fish farms — it has been done on projects overseas.  Shade has been presented as a key benefit of floating pho...