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Europe has set a target that 32% of its energy should come from renewables by 2030, up from 17.5% today. Corporates are and can play an even bigger role in meeting this target. Thousands of key corporate buyers – including from the steel, aluminium, ICT, and chemicals industries – and clean energy suppliers, are meeting in Amsterdam at the RE-Source 2019 event – for a two-day conference to discuss how to accelerate efforts to source more renewable energy.

The last weeks have seen an abundance of significant solar and wind sourcing agreements from major corporates around the world. Google announced its largest corporate renewable purchase in history, including nearly 800 MW of new renewable energy in Europe. Amazon recently unveiled plans to reach 100% renewable energy by 2030.

The Airports Council International (ACI Europe) also announced at the event a new partnership with the RE-Source Platform to accelerate the clean energy transition of the airport industry and help it achieve its 2050 net zero commitment. In addition, the RE-Source Platform received a €500,000 grant from Google.org to fund further the development of new renewable energy purchasing models, provide training and resources for consumers, and enable more widespread access to clean power.

Corporate sourcing of renewables has risen rapidly in Europe, with 7.5 GW of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) deals signed over the past five years, and 1.6 GW worth of deals in 2019 alone. More European countries are engaging in PPA deals: 13 countries have inked PPAs in 2019 so far. Commercial and industrial on-site corporate sourcing accounted for 3.4 GW in 2018 and is expected to grow considerably in the next decade.

Industrial and commercial consumers account for more than half of Europe’s energy consumption today. Powering these corporate consumers with renewable energy could deliver both significant reductions in CO2 emissions and make European industries more competitive due to the rapidly falling cost of renewables.

According to a recent study from the European Commission, if EU-based corporate buyers committed to sourcing renewable electricity to meet 30% of their total electricity demand by 2030, the EU renewable energy sector would generate more than €750bn in gross added value and over 220,000 new jobs.

Governments can play their part in facilitating more companies to source renewables, by removing administrative hurdles for corporate renewable PPAs, and on-site and direct investments in renewable energy generation that exist throughout Europe. Under the new Renewable Energy Directive, European governments now have the duty to remove these barriers. Currently, only two of the draft National Energy and Climate Plans for 2030 even mention PPAs and none comply with the agreed legislation.

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Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV), part of Abdul Latif Jameel Energy and a leading global developer of renewable utility-scale projects, has announced the financial close for Potrero Solar (296 MW dc), the Company’s second solar farm in Mexico.

FRV reached financial close last March with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Banco Nacional de Comercio Exterior (Bancomext), and it is expected that the plant which began construction in late May, will be completed by mid- 2020.

Potrero Solar is FRV’s first project in Mexico to be financed before having any of its products (energy, CELs or capacity) committed in the tender schemes, and one of the largest merchant PV projects worldwide. It is also one of the world’s largest PV projects to use bifacial technology. Once operational, the plant will trade the electricity generated as well as the associated clean energy certificates at the country’s energy market.

With an approximate area of 700 ha, Potrero Solar will be located in Lagos de Moreno, in the state of Jalisco, and will use bifacial PV modules, a new technology that has the ability to capture both direct sunlight from both the front and reflected light from the rear side.

The solar power farm will generate around 700 GWh of clean energy each year, enough to supply around 350,000 average Mexican homes and reduce the emission of 345,000 T/year of CO2. In addition, Potrero, which will be built by a consortium formed by multinationals Power China and Prodiel under an EPC contract, will boost the economic development of the local community including the potential of around 1,500 jobs during its construction phase.

Fernando Salinas, Managing Director of FRV Mexico and Central America, highlights: “Mexico is a country that offers numerous opportunities for both FRV and international investors, due to its favorable market and weather conditions for renewable energy projects. Potrero’s financial close marks a milestone as the largest bifacial plant in the world and FRV’s first fully merchant project in Mexico. By carrying out this flagship project that will lead the way for other large-scale bifacial PV plants and that is also one of the largest PV merchant projects worldwide, FRV demonstrates its leadership once again and its ability to be a spearhead in the wider renewable energy industry.”

Bancomext assures that “Potrero Solar has all the features a financial institution looks for during a transaction: an experienced, highly professional sponsor, high-quality technology, an EPC provider with a well-proven track-record and a solid financial structure. With this project, Bancomext reaffirms its leading position in the Mexican market, supporting renewable energies under the ‘spot market price’ scheme and fostering job creation in the country during the construction and operation phases.”

Fady Jameel, Deputy President and Vice Chairman of Abdul Latif Jameel, said: “At Abdul Latif Jameel Energy, we are delighted to move forward to the next phase of the Potrero project. Potrero confirms FRV’s positioning as one of the leaders in the global renewable energy sector and further reinforces our long-term commitment to Mexico’s drive for clean energy. Mexico is a strong and promising market for FRV and Abdul Latif Jameel Energy, and we look forward to seeing Potrero spearhead the development of the sector in the country and further afield.”

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Offshore wind East Anglia One

Iberdrola has hooked up the East Anglia One offshore wind farm to the British electricity grid. It is building the facilities in the North Sea, around 50 km from the coast of the county of Suffolk, in the United Kingdom, and it is scheduled to go into operation next year.

The first of 102 wind turbines, the so-called WTG E19, has already supplied clean power to the land substation in Burstall. Its subsidiary, ScottishPower Renewables, which installed 25 turbines on the site this summer, will gradually connect them to the grid.

With an investment of approximately 2.5 MM£ and covering an area of 300 km2, East Anglia One is one of the largest scale projects being developed by Iberdrola and the biggest renewable initiative ever developed by a Spanish company.

Once commissioned in 2020, it will be the world’s biggest wind farm, with an installed capacity of 714 MW that will supply 630,000 British homes with clean energy.

The construction of East Anglia One is driving the offshore power industry in Europe, providing jobs for more than 1,300 people in several countries – Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates – and is crucial to several sectors, such as the naval industry. The project has been a great driving force in Spain, since Iberdrola has used local companies like Navantia, Windar and Siemens-Gamesa for the development of many of the essential components of the wind farm.

Technical specifications ofeast anglia one

  • 102 Siemens Gamesa wind turbines make up the wind farm, each with a capacity of 7 MW. Once installed, they will have a total height of 167 m.
  • A marine substation (Andalusia II), manufactured by Navantia in Puerto Real (Cádiz), will be responsible for receiving the electricity produced by the wind turbines and transforming the voltage so it can be sent to the coast through two undersea cables, each around 85 km long.
  • These cables are joined to a further six underground cables measuring around 37 km and running from Bawdsey to the new land-based transformer in Burstall, which connects the offshore wind farm to the national grid.
  • Of the 102 jacket-type foundations, Navantia has manufactured 42 in Fene (Spain) and Windar has built the pilot cables in Avilés (Asturias). The other 60 foundations were manufactured by Lamprell in the United Arab Emirates and by Harland & Wolff in Belfast.

 

Iberdrola, steadfast commitment to offshore wind power

Over the next few years, Iberdrola will redouble its investment in offshore wind production, developing a project portfolio with over 10,000 MW. This growth focuses on three main areas: the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the United States.

Clean power generated by offshore wind farms are the cornerstone of the company’s strategy, which expects to allocate 39% of the 34 MM€ earmarked for the 2018-2022 period to this type of generation: 13.26 MM€.

The group is currently operating two offshore wind farms: West of Duddon Sands, which went into service in the North Sea in 2014, and Wikinger, in the German waters of the Baltic Sea, which has been operational since December 2017.

In the United States, Iberdrola is in the process of building the biggest offshore wind farm in that country: Vineyard Wind. Just off the coast of Massachusetts, it will produce 800 MW of power to cover the energy needs of a million homes.

In Germany, in April 2018, the company was awarded contracts to build two new plants in the Baltic Sea, with a total of 486 MW of power: Baltic Eagle and Wikinger South.

In addition to these new plants, the Sant Brieuc Wind Farm, which is located in French waters, is scheduled to be commissioned in 2022. It will have 496 MW of installed power and will be located just off the coast of French Brittany, 20 km offshore.

Once these projects are operating in late 2022, the company will have installed 2,000 MW of offshore wind power, after which it will add a further 1,000.

Iberdrola is seizing this excellent opportunity for growth, with ambitious objectives for new wind generation facilities in the United Kingdom and the United States for the next few years: 30,000 MW for 2030 in the former and 25,000 MW in the latter, each with different timelines.

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Installed capacity of renewable power in Colombia is expected to rise from 2% in 2018 to 14% in 2025, with a further rise to 21% by 2030. Renewable capacity in the country is slated to increase fivefold to reach 5.9 GW at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.4%. This growth can be attributed to new government policies facilitating funds for renewable energy projects, energy efficiency measures and announcement of renewable energy auctions in 2018, says GlobalData.

However, GlobalData’s latest report, “Colombia Power Market Outlook to 2030, Update 2019 – Market Trends, Regulations and Competitive Landscape, also reveals that the country’s coal-based capacity will increase by 43% between 2018 and 2030 to reach 2.4GW while gas-based power will contribute 14% of total capacity.

Renewable energy and energy efficiency projects will handle the demand side management in the near future. The country’s onshore wind capacity is expected to increase from 19.5 MW in 2018 to 3.4 GW in 2030, representing the country’s largest growth among its renewable sources. PV capacity is expected to reach 1.7 GW in 2030 from 172.6 MW in 2019 at 23% CAGR, while the biopower segment will see growth of 7% CAGR to reach 719 MW. To date, Colombia does not have any installed geothermal capacity but it is expected to have 50 MW installed by 2024, leading to 115 MW capacity in 2030 growing at 15% CAGR.”

Colombia’s Generation and Transmission Expansion Plan 2015-2029 is expected to accommodate high volumes of renewable energy in the near future. The anticipated grid expansion and modernization of 4.2GW to 6.7GW, which is aimed to support 1GW coal and 1.5 GW hydro, will involve huge investment in grid infrastructure industry. This, in turn, is likely to open up new markets for energy storage and energy efficiency systems to enable steady supply of power when adequate renewable energy is unavailable.

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Iberdrola continues to move forward with its renewables strategy in Spain with four new photovoltaic projects, with an installed capacity of 250 megawatts (MW), already submitted for official approval in Castilla-La Mancha, as stated in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and the Official Journals of the Castilla-La Mancha regional government.

Two of the projects, Romeral and Olmedilla, each with a capacity of 50 MW, are located in Cuenca province, in the towns of Uclés and Valverdejo, respectively. In Toledo province, Iberdrola is planning the Barcience photovoltaic plant (50 MW) in Bargas; and in Ciudad Real province, it will develop a unique project in the municipality of Puertollano, with a capacity of 100 MW.

Puertollano II combines several innovative elements, both in the technology used and the storage capacity of this renewable project:

  • The installation will have bifacial panels, which will allow for greater production, as they have two light-sensitive surfaces, providing a longer service life;
  • The plant has been designed with daisy-chained inverters to improve performance and permit greater use of the surface area;
  • The project will have a storage system that will make the plant more manageable and optimise the control strategies. The battery system (with a power of 5 MW) will have a storage capacity of 20 MWh.
  • The start of the development of these projects increases the MW that Iberdrola has under construction and awaiting approval in Spain to more than 2,200: 75% of the capacity the company plans to install by 2022.

Plan to relaunch clean energy in Spain

These actions are part of the company’s commitment to strengthening its investment in clean energy generation in Spain, with the installation of 3,000 new MW up to 2022, 52% more than its current wind and solar capacity. Up to 2030, the forecasts point to the installation of 10,000 new MW. The plan will create jobs for 20,000 people.

Iberdrola is committed to leading the transition towards a completely carbon-free economy by promoting renewable energies and speeding up its investment in Spain, where it intends to spend 8.000 M€ between 2018 and 2022.

Iberdrola is the most prolific producer of wind power in Spain, with an installed capacity of 5,770 MW, while its total installed renewable capacity, including both wind and hydroelectric power, is 15,828 MW. The company operates renewables with a capacity of 2,229 MW in Castilla-La Mancha, mainly wind power, making it the autonomous region with the second highest total of ‘green’ MW installed by Iberdrola.

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Corporations signed contracts to purchase 8.6 GW of clean energy in 2019 through July. This is up from 7.2 GW at the same time last year. Overall, 2019 is on pace to be bigger than 2018 for corporate PPAs globally. The U.S. made up 69% of this activity – it is by far the biggest market globally.

U.S. corporations bought 5.95 GW of clean energy in 2019, closing in on the 2018 total. Companies are once again flocking to Texas – historically the largest corporate procurement market in the country – where 40% of the activity in 2019 has occurred. Companies are signing solar PPAs in ERCOT to take advantage of peak pricing during the hot summer months, which greatly improves the economics on a deal.

Just 1 GW of deals in the U.S. have come from green tariffs with regulated utilities. It is likely we won’t reach the 2.6 GW seen in all of 2018. This may be a result of buyer apprehension, as several companies have been involved in highly publicized legal battles with regulated utilities over clean energy buying. Companies are instead favoring the virtual PPA model, which has made up 82% of all U.S. deals in 2019.

RE100 members will need to buy an extra 189 TWh of clean power in 2030 to hit targets. Despite 33 new companies joining the RE100 in 2019 through July, for a total of 191 signatories, Bloomberg NEF forecasts the group collectively facing a shortfall of 189 TWh in 2030 – 1 TWh less than its previous forecast. Existing RE100 members signed deals for an estimated 7.8 TWh of clean electricity, outpacing the demand from new signatories overall. Should these companies meet their 189 TWh shortfall through solar and wind PPAs, BNEF estimates it would catalyze an additional 94 GW of renewables build, leading to $97bn of new investment.

Corporations have purchased just 950 MW of clean energy through PPAs in Europe, Middle East and Africa in 2019. The Nordics, which typically sets the pace for the region, has seen just 300 MW of deals, though several solar PPAs in Sweden are the first of their kind. There is excitement in new European markets like Poland and France, and a groundbreaking deal was signed by an oil and gas company in Oman, but otherwise the region continues to be underwhelming as a whole.

China is on the verge of rolling out game-changing policies for corporate procurement. Policymakers are set to implement two key policies. The first is a renewable portfolio standard, mandating that corporations meet a percentage of their load with renewables. The second is a prosumer model, allowing companies to sell excess generation from their own clean energy projects to neighboring sources of demand. Both mechanisms will create more corporate demand and give companies flexibility in how they procure renewables in China.

Source: Bloomberg NEF

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The in-depth study, which analyses hydrogen’s current state of play and offers guidance on its future development, is being launched by Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director, alongside Mr Hiroshige Seko, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, on the occasion of the meeting of G20 energy and environment ministers in Karuizawa, Japan.

Hydrogen can help to tackle various critical energy challenges, including helping to store the variable output from renewables like solar PV and wind to better match demand. It offers ways to decarbonise a range of sectors (including long-haul transport, chemicals, and iron and steel) where it is proving difficult to meaningfully reduce emissions. It can also help to improve air quality and strengthen energy security.

A wide variety of fuels are able to produce hydrogen, including renewables, nuclear, natural gas, coal and oil. Hydrogen can be transported as a gas by pipelines or in liquid form by ships, much like liquefied natural gas (LNG). It can also be transformed into electricity and methane to power homes and feed industry, and into fuels for cars, trucks, ships and planes.

To build on this momentum, the IEA report offers seven key recommendations to help governments, companies and other stakeholders to scale up hydrogen projects around the world. These include four areas:

  • Making industrial ports the nerve centres for scaling up the use of clean hydrogen;
  • Building on existing infrastructure, such as natural gas pipelines;
  • Expanding the use of hydrogen in transport by using it to power cars, trucks and buses that run on key routes;
  • Launching the hydrogen trade’s first international shipping routes.

 

The report notes that hydrogen still faces significant challenges. Producing hydrogen from low-carbon energy is costly at the moment, the development of hydrogen infrastructure is slow and holding back widespread adoption, and some regulations currently limit the development of a clean hydrogen industry.

Today, hydrogen is already being used on an industrial scale, but it is almost entirely supplied from natural gas and coal. Its production, mainly for the chemicals and refining industries, is responsible for 830 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. That’s the equivalent of the annual carbon emissions of the United Kingdom and Indonesia combined.

Reducing emissions from existing hydrogen production is a challenge but also represents an opportunity to increase the scale of clean hydrogen worldwide. One approach is to capture and store or utilise the CO2 from hydrogen production from fossil fuels. There are currently several industrial facilities around the world that use this process, and more are in the pipeline, but a much greater number is required to make a significant impact.

Another approach is for industries to secure greater supplies of hydrogen from clean electricity. In the past two decades, more than 200 projects have started operation to convert electricity and water into hydrogen to reduce emissions.

Expanding the use of clean hydrogen in other sectors – such as cars, trucks, steel and heating buildings – is another important challenge. There are currently around 11,200 hydrogen-powered cars on the road worldwide. Existing government targets call for that number to increase dramatically to 2.5M by 2030.

Policy makers need to make sure market conditions are well adapted for reaching such ambitious goals. The recent successes of solar PV, wind, batteries and electric vehicles have shown that policy and technology innovation have the power to build global clean energy industries.

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Global clean energy investment, 2004 to 1H 2019, $ billion

The first half of 2019 saw a 39% slowdown in renewable energy investment in the world’s biggest market, China, to $28.800 M$, the lowest figure for any half-year period since 2013, according to the latest figures from BloombergNEF (BNEF).

 

The other highlight of global clean energy investment in 1H 2019 was the financing of multibillion-dollar projects in two relatively new markets – a solar thermal and photovoltaic complex in Dubai, at 950MW and 4.200 M$, and two offshore wind arrays in the sea off Taiwan, at 640MW and 900MW and an estimated combined cost of 5.700 M$.

The Dubai deal in late March, for the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum IV project, is the biggest financing ever seen in the solar sector. It involves 2.600 M$ of debt from 10 Chinese, Gulf and Western banks, plus 1.600 M$ of equity from Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Saudi-based developer ACWA Power and equity partner Silk Road Fund of China.

The two Taiwanese offshore wind projects, Wpd Yunlin Yunneng and Ørsted Greater Changhua, involve European developers, investors and banks, as well as local players. Offshore wind activity is broadening its geographical focus, from Europe’s North Sea and China’s coastline, toward new markets such as Taiwan, the U.S. East Coast, India and Vietnam.

BNEF’s figures for clean energy investment in the first half of 2019 show mixed fortunes for the world’s major markets. The “big three” of China, the U.S. and Europe all showed falls, but with the U.S. down a modest 6% at 23.600 M$ and Europe down 4% at 22.200 M$ compared to 1H 2018, far less than China’s 39% setback.

Breaking global clean energy investment down by type of transaction, asset finance of utility-scale generation projects such as wind farms and solar parks was down 24% at 85.6 M$, due in large part to the China factor. Financing of small-scale solar systems of less than 1MW was up 32% at 23.7 M$ in the first half of this year.

Investment in specialist clean energy companies via public markets was 37% higher at 5.600 M$, helped by two big equity raisings for electric vehicle makers – an $863 M$ secondary issue for Tesla, and a 650 M$ convertible issue for China-based NIO.

Venture capital and private equity funding of clean energy companies in 1H 2019 was down 2% at 4.700 M$. There were three exceptionally large deals, however: $1 billion each for Swedish battery company Northvolt and U.S. electric vehicle battery charging specialist Lucid Motors, and 700 M$ for another U.S. EV player, Rivian Automotive.

Source: BNEF

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The International Energy Agency’s latest and most comprehensive assessment of clean energy transition finds that the vast majority of technologies and sectors are failing to keep pace with long-term goals. Of the 45 energy technologies and sectors assessed in the IEA’s latest Tracking Clean Energy Progress (TCEP), only 7 are on track with the IEA’s Sustainable Development Scenario (SDS). The SDS represents a pathway to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, deliver universal energy access and significantly reduce air pollution.

These latest findings follow an IEA assessment published in March showing that energy-related CO2 emissions worldwide rose by 1.7% in 2018 to a historic high of 33 billion tonnes.

Some clean energy technologies showed major progress last year, according to the new TCEP analysis. Energy storage is now “on track” as new installations doubled, led by Korea, China, the United States and Germany. Electric vehicles had another record year, with global sales hitting 2 million in 2018. China accounted for more than half of total sales.

Solar PV remains on track with a 31% increase in generation – representing the largest absolute growth in generation among renewable sources. But annual capacity additions of solar PV and renewable power as a whole levelled off in 2018, raising concerns about meeting long-term climate goals.

This year’s analysis expands coverage to include flaring and methane emissions from oil and gas operations, which are responsible for around 7% of the energy sector’s greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Despite some positive developments over the past year, current technology deployment rates, policy ambition and industry efforts are still falling well short.

The buildings sector also remains off track, with emissions rising again in 2018 to an all-time high. This was the result of several factors, including extreme weather that raised energy demand for heating and cooling. Another concerning development was the slowdown in fuel economy improvements around the world as car buyers continued to purchase bigger vehicles.

Given the urgency and scale of actions needed for clean energy transitions around the world, this year’s TCEP features much greater emphasis on recommended actions for governments, industry and other key actors in the global energy system. The analysis also includes in-depth analysis on how to address more than 100 key innovation gaps across all sectors and technologies.

TCEP provides a comprehensive, rigorous and up-to-date expert analysis of clean energy transitions across a full range of technologies and sectors. It draws on the IEA’s unique understanding of markets, modelling and energy statistics to track and assess progress on technology deployment and performance, investment, policy, and innovation. It also draws on the IEA’s extensive global technology network, totalling 6,000 researchers across nearly 40 Technology Collaboration Programmes.

TCEP is part of the IEA’s broader efforts on tracking energy transitions and key indicators to help inform decision makers on where to focus innovation, investment and policy attention to achieve climate and sustainable development goals.

Source: IEA

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MIREC WEEK 2019, Mexico’s leading clean energy congress and exhibition, will take place alongside a period of changes and new business opportunities within the country’s renewable energy sector as a result of a new administration coming to power at the end of 2018. After the cancellation of the 4th Long-Term Auction and large transmission projects, the government is expected to announce alternative plans to keep Mexico’s renewable energy goals on track, as well as the continued development of transmission infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the industry is currently waiting on the details of the government’s strategy for the development of renewable energy in the country. The AMLO administration has recently reasserted its commitment to the development of renewables, and some of their mentioned plans include the enhancing of Distributed Generation, the installation of EV solar charging stations, the modernization of CFE’s hydroelectric power plants and the development of research, technology and human resources in the sector.

All these changes represent challenges and will bring new opportunities for the renewable energy market. During a recent breakfast briefing hosted by the MIREC WEEK team in Mexico City, the latest updates in the Mexican renewable energy industry were addressed and discussed. The discussion mainly covered the alternatives that the new administration has to meet the growing demand in the country, the continuity of the development of the Wholesale Electricity Market and the crucial role that the private sector must perform in order to achieve its ambitious clean energy goals.

Against this backdrop, MIREC WEEK 2019 will celebrate its 9th anniversary in Mexico City at the World Trade Center from 20-22 May. The award winning event is firmly established as the leading platform for dialogue, knowledge and discussion about the challenges and opportunities in Mexico’s renewable energy market. This year the congress will address a broad range of topics including financing and investment, corporate energy use, distributed generation, energy storage, asset management and O&M and clean energy business strategies under the new AMLO administration.
The event will feature more than 300 high-level speakers from Mexico and across the globe providing 50 hours of expert analysis and content, providing business intelligence for decision-making in a shifting market.
An expected audience of 3,000 participants will attend the exhibition and congress, comprised of energy professionals, national and international investors, technology suppliers and project developers.

MIREC WEEK 2019 is sponsored by global leaders in renewable energy, including Huawei, CPS America, GCL, Longi Solar, Sungrow, Talesun, Alion Energy, Arctech Solar, BayWa r.e. Renewable Energy, Gamesa, Iusasol, Jema, Phono Solar, Soltec, Trunsun Solar, Nextracker, Cesime Solar, Pöyry and Solarig, among others.

Source: MIREC WEEK

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