Plans to reduce rising emissions from global shipping have faltered at a key international meeting.
The International Maritime Organization delayed a decision to raise the cost of ships' fuel and use the money to help poor nations tackle climate change.
Delegates from developing countries complained that rich nations had reneged on other promises.
Environmental groups criticised the lack of progress, saying that the world could not afford to wait any longer.
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., March 9, 2009 – SolFocus today announced an agreement which dramatically expands its installation of solar Concentrator Photovoltaic (CPV) technology in the country of Greece. Originally announced in November 2008 as a 1.6MWp1 deployment between SolFocus and Samaras Group, this new agreement increases the size of the project to 10MWp in recognition of the distinct financial and energy generation advantages for CPV in the geographic region. This expanded agreement involves a joint effort between SolFocus, Samaras Group, and its engineering company Concept. Over the past four months, the partners have investigated several sites and begun engineering plans for the installation.
"The swift expansion of this project resulted from the favorable political, economic, and energy generation environment that exists in Greece for commercial solar technologies," said Mark Crowley, chief executive officer and president of SolFocus. "2009 is truly the beginning of CPV commercialization and Greece is a front-runner. We expect that CPV will follow a similar growth path in other high-sun regions over the next several years."
Spanning multiple sites in Greece, the deployment will have the capacity to produce 10MWp of power using the SolFocus 1100S system. The SF-1100S, launched in November 2008, offers high conversion efficiencies that are typically 30-50 percent greater than traditional photovoltaic (PV) panels and provides the highest energy generation potential per area of land.
"The Samaras Group is confident that we can accomplish such a significant project expansion with the continued partnership of SolFocus," said Dimitrios Samaras, president of Samaras Group. "SolFocus systems are easy to scale, reliable in the field, and amazingly efficient. We look forward to proving the strength of CPV through the results of this installation."
Deploying solar solutions such as the SolFocus systems is important to the environment. The first year of production alone will prevent the release of 17,500 tons of CO2 emissions into the environment. The installation will begin in the summer of 2009 with the first delivery of power expected in the fall.
The SolFocus CPV design employs a system of reflective optics to concentrate sunlight 500 times onto small, highly efficient solar cells. The SolFocus 1100S uses approximately 1/1,000th of the active, expensive solar cell material used by traditional PV panels. In addition, the cells used in SolFocus CPV systems have over twice the efficiency of traditional silicon cells. In a solar-rich country like Greece, such efficiency can accelerate the trajectory for solar energy to reach cost parity with fossil fuels.
The SolFocus mission is to enable solar energy generation at a Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) competitive with traditional fossil fuel sources. To achieve this goal, SolFocus has developed leading concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) technology which combines high-efficiency solar cells (approaching 40%) and advanced optics to provide solar energy solutions which are scalable, dependable, and capable of delivering on the promise of clean, low-cost, renewable energy. SolFocus is headquartered in Mountain View, California with European operations headquartered in Madrid, Spain, and manufacturing in Mesa, Arizona as well as with manufacturing partners in India and China.
Το 1ο Συνέδριο Πράσινης Επιχειρηματικότητας διοργανώνουν στις 6 Μαρτίου το ΕΒΕΑ και η Action Communications Hellas σε συνεργασία με τη βρετανική εφημερίδα Financial Times και το επιχειρηματικό portal EMEA Business Monitor. Στόχος του συνεδρίου, το οποίο τελεί υπό την αιγίδα του Επιτρόπου της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης για το Περιβάλλον, κ. Σταύρου Δήμα, είναι να αναδείξει την ανάγκη προώθησης ενός νέου αναπτυξιακού μοντέλου, που θα διασφαλίζει την ευημερία και την εξέλιξη των επιχειρήσεων, κάτι το οποίο έχουν αποδείξει, εξάλλου, οι πρόσφατες εξελίξεις στην παγκόσμια οικονομία. Ήδη έχουν ληφθεί διάφορες πρωτοβουλίες τόσο στον ιδιωτικό, όσο και στο δημόσιο τομέα, κυρίως στις ΗΠΑ και τη Βρετανία -σταδιακά πλέον και την Ελλάδα- με τις επιχειρήσεις να εφαρμόζουν καινοτόμες πρακτικές, φιλικές προς το περιβάλλον με σκοπό την αειφόρο ανάπτυξη και την τόνωση της αγοράς.
Το 1st Green Business Congress αποσκοπεί στην ανάδειξη των επιχειρηματικών και πολιτικών πρωτοβουλιών που «επενδύουν» στο μέλλον, με σεβασμό στο περιβάλλον και την παρουσίαση των πρακτικών των εταιρειών που πρωτοστατούν στον τομέα της πράσινης επιχειρηματικότητας. Επιπλέον, φιλοδοξεί να «ανοίξει» ένα γόνιμο διάλογο του επιχειρηματικού κόσμου με εκπροσώπους ευρωπαϊκών, κρατικών και τοπικών φορέων, με σκοπό να συμβάλλει στη διαμόρφωση του νέου μοντέλου βιώσιμης και αειφόρου ανάπτυξης που θα αποτελέσει τη διέξοδο από τη σημερινή κρίση. Στο συνέδριο, θα πάρουν μέρος εκπρόσωποι του επιχειρηματικού και πολιτικού κόσμου, καθώς και μέλη Μη Κυβερνητικών Οργανώσεων. Οι ομιλητές θα έχουν την ευκαιρία να εκφράσουν τις απόψεις τους, εστιάζοντας στις εξής θεματικές ενότητες: Α) Πράσινη Επιχειρηματικότητα και Διεθνής κρίση, Β) Επιτυχημένες Πρακτικές Πράσινης Επιχειρηματικότητας, γ) Η Πόλη του Αύριο - Πράσινη Κοινωνία.
Accounting from above
SOMETIMES it is worth looking at the big picture. That is the idea behind monitoring greenhouse gases from space. In January the Japanese space agency, JAXA, launched Ibuki, the first satellite dedicated to monitoring carbon dioxide and methane. Later this month the American space agency, NASA, is due to launch the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO), which is also designed to monitor carbon dioxide.
The new satellites will work as carbon accountants by keeping a close eye on how the Earth breathes and returning regular audits.Ibuki, which means “breath” in Japanese, orbits the Earth approximately every 100 minutes at an average altitude of 667km. It will gather data from 56,000 points around the globe with two detectors. One is a spectrometer that measures sunlight reflected from the Earth’s surface. Both carbon dioxide and methane absorb energy from sunlight and both leave a unique signature that can be measured to detect changes in intensity. JAXA says Ibuki can detect carbon-dioxide changes of around one part per million, which is akin to detecting the change in salinity produced by four drops of salt water in a 200-litre bathtub of water. The second detector takes readings of clouds and other aerosols in the Earth’s atmosphere that can reflect or absorb radiation.
OCO will similarly study carbon dioxide and also oxygen signatures in reflected sunlight. It will fly at an average altitude of 705km and orbit the Earth about every 99 minutes. Once launched, OCO will form part of a loose group of American satellites called the “A-train”. These carry instruments that complement one another in helping to provide a fuller picture of the Earth’s carbon and water.
With the additional data that the satellites provide, researchers hope finally to shed light on the Earth’s complicated carbon cycle. The concentration maps produced by Ibuki and OCO will help in understanding where carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere and where it gets absorbed. Today, most big man-made carbon-dioxide emitters, such as a large power station, are known about and their outputs are measured. But there are global phenomena, such as forest fires, where the carbon-dioxide contributions are not fully understood. There are also some ecosystems, such as the boreal forests of Canada and Siberia and the Amazon rainforest, which are huge absorbers of carbon dioxide, but which are changing rapidly because of temperature increases and deforestation.
From The Economist print edition
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