Biden sets 2035 floating wind farm goal
President Joe Biden's administration will push the offshore wind sector into deeper waters, establishing a new goal for projects using floating turbines over the next 13 years.
The US by 2035 will strive to add 15,000MW of floating offshore wind capacity, enough to power more than 5mn households, the US Department of the Interior said today.
Reaching the milestone would avoid around 26mn metric tonnes/yr of CO2 emissions, according to Interior's estimates.
The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will advance wind lease areas for projects in deeper waters to fulfill the objective, beginning with a previously announced auction for territory off the California coast before the end of the year.
The new target expands on Biden's existing goal for 30,000MW of offshore wind by 2030. The 2030 goal will rely mostly on projects with fixed-bottom turbines suitable for relatively shallow waters. In contrast, developers are depending on floating turbines to establish projects in areas with deeper waters, which includes the US west coast.
While California, Oregon and Washington have all committed to 100pc carbon-free electricity by 2045 at the latest, offshore wind has less of a foothold on the west coast as a result of engineering challenges and cost concerns. Projects in the northeastern US account for most of the country's offshore wind pipeline because they rely on the fixed turbines, rather than the more expensive, floating turbines needed in the Pacific's deeper waters.
US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said her department has "a leasing strategy" but declined to elaborate on areas other than the west coast and Gulf of Maine — regions already highlighted by BOEM — that regulators could ultimately target for leases.
The administration will support the 15,000MW aspiration from several angles. The first is an extension of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) "Energy Earthshot" program, designed to advance newer clean technologies — including hydrogen, long-duration energy storage, geothermal and carbon capture and sequestration — by breaking down technology and cost barriers.
Through that initiative, the administration endeavors to cut costs for floating turbine technology by over 70pc by 2035, bringing it down to $45/MWh, through a combination of research, demonstration projects and technology improvements, as well as building out domestic supply chain and transmission infrastructure.
The floating wind "earthshot" will be a cross-sector collaboration between DOE, Interior, the US Department of Commerce and US Department of Transportation.
DOE will also invest $50mn into research, development and demonstration projects, with portions of the funding from last year's infrastructure bill. That research will touch on various aspects of the industry, ranging from utility-scale projects to port upgrades to wildlife protection measures.
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Brazil’s carbon market will not start before 2030
Brazil’s carbon market will not start before 2030
New York, 24 September (Argus) — Brazil's carbon trading market will not be fully implemented in this decade, according to think tank Centro Brasil no Clima. The creation of the carbon market is a long process that starts with passing a law to create a carbon market. But environmental groups and others have criticized Brazil's carbon market bill that the lower house approved at the end of last year as too complex. The senate has yet to set a timeline to debate the lower house's proposal but is expected to make significant changes to the bill, meaning that it will need to return to the lower legislature for a final round of voting. Still, there is a growing expectation in the public and private sectors that the bill will pass ahead of the UN's Cop 29 climate conference later this year. The think tank estimates that the implementation phase of the carbon market would take around 5-6 years under the current draft bill. The preparation and legal framework for the creation of the market may take from 1-2 years. Pilot testing and initial rollout of the carbon market would take around a year. The submission of monitoring plans and emissions reporting would also be completed within 1-2 years after the pilot testing. But there is no clarity on a deadline for the phase that involves testing of the market with a full allocation of carbon credits, said William Wills, technical director at the think tank. Only 25pc of the emissions produced in Brazil will be cover in the carbon market, he said. This includes emissions from energy, waste and industries, but the agriculture sector, which accounted for 27pc of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced in the country in 2022, will be excluded. Brazil's largest source of GHG emissions comes from land use change and forestry, accounting for 48pc of emissions in the same period. By Jacqueline Echevarria Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
US-led offset idea earns more corporate support
US-led offset idea earns more corporate support
New York, 24 September (Argus) — More companies registered support today for a US-backed carbon offsetting initiative that is hoping to steer funds toward the decarbonization of developing countries' power sectors. The Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA) — a project of the US State Department and two philanthropies, the Bezos Earth Fund and the Rockefeller Foundation — said that 19 companies support the general idea of the initiative, that "high-integrity carbon credits" can support "an accelerated and just clean energy transition." As part of an announcement tied to Climate Week NYC, 14 companies, including some that had previously not registered interest, signed onto a letter saying they were committed to working with the ETA as the initiative advances. The letter notes, however, that the companies are not pledging any "obligation of funding" for the initiative, which has an unclear timeline for getting projects up-and-running. The ETA previously set plans for formally launch this past April but instead said then that it would spend this year "building" on a framework for projects released last year . The ETA is hoping to create a "jurisdictional-scale" carbon crediting standard, steering funds toward efforts such as accelerating the retirement of coal-fired power plants, building new renewable generation, and improving the electric grid in developing countries. The idea is that buyers would be able to finance offset projects with more tangible climate benefits, hopefully avoiding the reputational risks associated with much of the voluntary carbon market. Prices for some major nature-based carbon offsets have fallen over the past year, as concerns about their integrity have deterred prospective buyers . The initiative's goals for this year are working to build "a community of buyers and sellers," said Nat Keohane, president of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions think tank at the Xpansiv Climate Week Summit on Monday. Chile, the Dominican Republic, and Nigeria have expressed interest in serving as ETA pilot countries, while the Philippines this year signed on as an observer country rather than as a direct participant. Ahead of the UN's Cop 29 climate summit this year in Azerbaijan, the ETA wants to demonstrate the progress interested countries have been able to make and to collaborate with the World Bank on economic analysis and modeling to understand what future projects and investment plans might look like, Keohane said. Winrock International, which runs the American Carbon Registry, was tasked by the ETA last year with developing a standard and methodology for crediting emissions reductions. Keohane expects that to be out "next year," he said at the event. Winrock did not immediately respond to requests for comment for more clarity on its timeline. "There are also some other crediting standards coming out, and ETA will be evaluating those against the criteria that we put out in our framework last year," Keohane said. By Cole Martin Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Leaders call for fast-tracking renewable projects
Leaders call for fast-tracking renewable projects
New York, 24 September (Argus) — Countries need to fast track permitting processes for renewable projects and build more transmission infrastructure to meet the goal of tripling global renewable capacity by 2030, leaders said at the Global Renewables summit today. At the UN's Cop 28 climate summit in Dubai last year, countries agreed to take action to triple global renewable energy capacity from 2022 levels by 2030 and to double energy efficiency. Almost a year later, there are major barriers that are impeding investment needed to boost a faster expansion of renewables. "We must double down on implementation," European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said at the event in New York, New York. Permitting has become a major barrier for developers to build their renewable and transmissions projects within the timeframes originally set, leading to delays and rising costs. This is turn creates uncertainty for investors interested in providing funds for the development of projects and expecting returns, speakers said. Countries' nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to reduce greenhouse emissions not only need to show their renewable capacity targets but also their electricity grid goals that allow the flow of renewable electricity and accelerate the growth of renewable capacity, Cop 28's president Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said. Sorting out these bottlenecks with the proper regulations and policies will create certainty for investors and attract more project financing, leaders agreed. This year's Cop 29 will focus on speeding the delivery of goals set at Cop 28 as well as expanding and adding new solutions for the integration of renewables. Cop 29 president-designate from Azerbaijan Mukhtar Babayev said that they hope countries back a pledge to increase global energy storage capacity to 1.5GW by 2030 and to add or refurbish more than 80mn km (49mn miles) of electricity grids by 2040. By Jacqueline Echevarria Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Carbon ‘market structure’ next phase: ICVCM
Carbon ‘market structure’ next phase: ICVCM
New York, 24 September (Argus) — The Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM) is broadening its focus and plans to offer guidance around improving "market structure," the chair of the private sector initiative said this week. The group is "going to turn to market structure issues," bringing key players from the still relatively small voluntary carbon market together to examine what would be needed to supporter a larger, more liquid market, ICVCM chair Annette Nazareth said at the Xpansiv Climate Week Summit, a Climate Week NYC side event. The council currently assesses carbon offset project types and carbon crediting programs, which has allowed for the sale this year of credits labeled as meeting the group's "core carbon principles" for project quality. The group has sought to standardize the largely unregulated market, potentially boosting trust among prospective corporate buyers that are worried about the reputational and legal risks of funding offset projects that might reduce emissions less than they claim. ICVCM said Nazareth was referring to previously announced "continuous improvement work programs," which involve studying issues that could feature in the next edition of the group's core carbon principles rulebook that is due for implementation in 2-3 years. Some of these study groups are underway, including ones on how to align projects with national climate commitments and strengthen requirements around the permanence of emissions reductions, while others are set to start later this year. Some topics Nazareth mentioned could make the market — which is largely an over-the-counter one today — less opaque for prospective buyers. She said there was interest in looking at encouraging price transparency and trade reporting, better integration of data, and addressing the fragmentation of carbon registries to allow for more "interoperability" and potentially encouraging a "meta-registry." Other topics on the ICVCM's agenda involve equity concerns, such as setting best practices around disclosing and sharing revenues with local communities and also making it easier for small developers to access funds for starting up projects. "Do we need to create databases on the performance of project developers? Would it help to have some sort of platform where lenders and project developers can find each other? There's a lot of interesting things that we could look at," Nazareth said. Proponents of more guidance, which has come over the last year from various private groups and from regulators like the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, hope that clearer standards will assuage doubts about the market and scale up investments in climate change mitigation projects. But there is still deep disagreement about the ultimate role of carbon offsets, which some environmental groups fear is deterring companies from reducing emissions within their own operations. The Science Based Targets Initiative, a private sector group that assesses corporate climate goals, said earlier this year that companies can meet its standards even if they use carbon credits to offset emissions from their supply chain, but the group later backtracked and said it was still debating the issue. By Cole Martin Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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