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Politics : Politics of Energy -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Brumar89 who wrote (70223)5/26/2016 1:05:21 PM
From: Brumar891 Recommendation

Recommended By
TimF

  Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 86355
 
No Bloomberg, Germany Did Not Get All Its Power From Renewables
May 26, 2016

By Paul Homewood

h/t Stewgreen



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-16/germany-just-got-almost-all-of-its-power-from-renewable-energy

Bloomberg ran this headline last week:

  • Wind, solar, biomass and hydro met demand on Sunday afternoon

  • Angela Merkel’s Energiewende is squeezing coal and gas margins

Clean power supplied almost all of Germany’s power demand for the first time on Sunday, marking a milestone for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “Energiewende” policy to boost renewables while phasing out nuclear and fossil fuels.

Solar and wind power peaked at 2 p.m. local time on Sunday, allowing renewables to supply 45.5 gigawatts as demand was 45.8 gigawatts, according to provisional data by Agora Energiewende, a research institute in Berlin. Power prices turned negative during several 15-minute periods yesterday, dropping as low as minus 50 euros ($57) a megawatt-hour, according to data from Epex Spot.



Germany’s power supply by hourSource: Agora Energiewende

Countries around Europe are building increasing amounts of renewable capacity in order to reduce their carbon emissions and boost supply security. Last year Denmark’s wind farms supplied 140 percent of demand, while the U.K. had no coal-fired power stations meeting electricity demand for about four hours on May 10 as a result of plant breakdowns.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-16/germany-just-got-almost-all-of-its-power-from-renewable-energy

Which is all very interesting because the claim is totally untrue. As the graph from Agora now shows, renewables peaked at 10 GW or more below total demand.



https://www.agora-energiewende.de/en/topics/-agothem-/Produkt/produkt/76/Agorameter/

Indeed, Agora themselves have since apologised for their error:



https://www.agora-energiewende.de/en/press/agoranews/news-detail/news/why-there-was-not-100-percent-power-consumption-from-renewable-energies-on-whit-sunday-after-all/News/detail/

I wonder when Bloomberg will run headlines about their false claims?

But perhaps more interesting are some of the other points made in their report, such as:

Events like this highlight that eventually we may need to start curtailing because of market-wide oversupply,” said Monne Depraetere, an analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “In the long-run, that may provide a case to build technologies that can manage this oversupply — for example more interconnectors or energy storage.”

Renewables were only able to meet demand because of Germany’s strong export capability, the analyst said. Even when solar and wind peaked, conventional power plants were still supplying 7.7 gigawatts.

Merkel’s unprecedented shift to clean energy has squeezed margins at coal and gas plants while driving up costs for consumers in Europe’s biggest power market. The increased flows of clean energy have also put pressure on the grid to the point that the country is considering excluding certain regions from future onshore wind power auctions if local grids are already struggling to keep up with large volumes of renewable energy supplies.

“If Germany was an island, with no export cables, this would be technically impossible because you always need to have some thermal generation running as a back up supply for when the wind or solar drops off,” Depraetere said.

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2016/05/26/no-bloomberg-germany-did-not-get-all-its-power-from-renewables/



To: Brumar89 who wrote (70223)5/26/2016 1:47:04 PM
From: Brumar89  Respond to of 86355
 
China Green Energy Firms Have Record Debt Due as Yingli Defaults

May 26, 2016

By Paul Homewood



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-13/china-green-energy-firms-have-record-debt-due-as-yingli-defaults

More evidence from Bloomberg of the financial consequences of the worldwide glut of solar panels:

China’s clean-energy firms face record bond maturities this year, just as investor confidence was shaken by the default of a company that had been the world’s top solar-panel manufacturer.

Renewable companies must repay 28.8 billion yuan ($4.4 billion) of bonds over the rest of the year, more than any other previous annual repayments, according to Bloomberg-compiled data. A venture of Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., the top producer of panels until 2014, missed payments on 1.76 billion yuan of its notes. That brings the number of companies that defaulted on bonds to four, involving $1.8 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

Overcapacity still plagues the industry after years of aggressive expansion that left the sector with 105 billion yuan of outstanding bonds. While President Xi Jinping has vowed to reduce pollution that’s a byproduct of a 30-year economic boom, the number of solar and wind-power generating plants in the nation lagged behind production of equipment.

“Companies in the upstream sector are still suffering from excess supply,” said Li Ning, general manager of the fixed income department at Western Securities Co. in Beijing. “Downstream companies, such as electricity providers, in the renewable energy industry have better credit profiles because of government support.”

Yingli’s venture Baoding Tianwei Yingli New Energy Resources Co. failed to make payments on Thursday for two separate five-year bonds, according to statements posted on the website of ChinaBond. One of the two notes was originally in default in October and holders had sought repayment by May 12.

In his only public comment on the matter, founder and Chairman Miao Liansheng maintained that Yingli is working to negotiate a debt resolution and plans to sell assets. The 60-year-old former soldier had an estimated wealth of 14 billion yuan in 2007, according to a ranking by Hurun Report Inc. Solar module production began in 2003 with 3 megawatts of capacity, which grew in the next three years to 100 megawatts. Over the next 10 years, production rose 40-fold to 4,000 megawatts. Listings followed in New York and Berlin in 2007.

“Our major creditors have been helpful,” Miao said on a conference call on Wednesday. “We strongly believe that we will achieve a successful transition.”

Solar-cell maker Shanghai Chaori Solar Energy Science & Technology Co., was the first company to default on onshore notes March, 2014. Suntech Power Holdings Co. and LDK Solar Co. missed obligations on offshore bonds.

There are signs investors are getting wary. Clean energy companies only managed to sell 7.9 billion yuan of bonds this year, 14 percent less than the same period last year

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-13/china-green-energy-firms-have-record-debt-due-as-yingli-defaults

Just as we have seen with the steel industry, when there is overcapacity, solar panels get dumped at uneconomic prices. Once this excess capacity is shut down, or higher demand mops it up, the price of solar will rise.

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2016/05/26/china-green-energy-firms-have-record-debt-due-as-yingli-defaults/