Renewable energy Archives - Page 6 of 20

OUR Selects Bidder For Solar Facility

May 11, 2016 Webmaster

Andrew Wheatley

Jamaicans could be on track to benefit following the successful completion of the most recent electricity-generation procurement process managed by the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR).

The process saw the selection of Eight Rivers Energy Company Limited (EREC) as the preferred bidder to build, own and operate a 33.1 MW solar photovoltaic power-generation facility at Paradise Park, Westmoreland. The proposed price (all-in tariff) is 8.54 US cents/kWh.

This latest OUR-managed project is the most competitive renewable energy procurement project to date and is in keeping with the trend in the reduction in the price of energy from renewable sources. This bid is significantly cheaper than the tariffs proposed for the projects which were selected from a similar competitive procurement commenced in 2012 and based on wind turbine and solar technologies. The 37MW project has so far met all its deadlines, with the evaluations being completed by the OUR on April 26, 2016 and the highest-ranked bidders being notified of the evaluation results on May 6, 2016.

“The OUR is pleased with the proposed all-in tariff of 8.54 US cents/kWh, which we believe has set the pricing bar for future renewable projects,” said Albert Gordon, director general of the OUR.

Commenting on the project, Minister of Science Energy and Technology Dr Andrew Wheatley noted that the project executed by the OUR “marks the lowest cost ever for solar power in Jamaica, and also advances Government’s major policy objective, namely, the diversification of Jamaica’s energy supply mix to reduce cost and dependence on imported oil”.

The next step in the project requires EREC to finalise the various project agreements. If they fail in this regard, the OUR would move to the bidder(s) next in line.

The Gleaner

Alternative Energy Confrence Crude Oil Electricity Energy Saving Government Jobs News Oil Solar Energy

Holness Optimistic Ja Will Become Gas Hub For Caribbean

May 5, 2016 Webmaster

Holness Ricardo Makyn

Washington, DC:

Prime Minister Andrew Holness is optimistic that Jamaica will become the hub for gas in the Caribbean and promises that his government will be strategic in its efforts to diversify the country’s energy sector.

“Renewables will have to feature in a far greater way in our energy mix. The falling oil prices give us a window of opportunity to bring in new technology, to bring in new investors,” he said yesterday during an interview with Jamaican journalists at the US Caribbean Central American Energy Summit in Washington, DC. The summit was held at the Department of State.

“The emphasis (will be) on diversification in ensuring that we are the hub that will reduce our exposure to volatility,” he said.

Holness, along with other regional leaders, met with United States Vice President Joseph Biden yesterday morning for a Caribbean Heads of Delegation meeting. He said the exchange has given him some insight into how other countries in the region are using alternative energy for their electricity, water, and transportation sectors.

“I think we will have to look more closely at our transportation sector, particularly the JUTC (Jamaican Urban Transit Company), which are fairly heavy users of oil and heavy fuel, to see how best we can get energy efficiency from diversifying their fuel use,” he said.

BURDEN FOR JAMAICA

The prime minister noted that energy has been a burden for Jamaica for many years, but he believes that several initiatives implemented by Biden and US President Barack Obama over the years have contributed to finding solutions to the problem. Obama reinforced his administration’s commitment to assist the region with exploring clean-energy solutions when he launched the Task Force on US Caribbean and Central American Energy Security during his visit to Jamaica in April 2015. Just a few months prior to the launch of the task force, Biden hosted the first US Caribbean Central American Energy Summit.

The US has provided clean-energy finance for countries such as Jamaica through the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the USAID. The US-owned BMR Energy is also currently building a 34-megawatt greenfield wind farm in St Elizabeth valued at US$90 million.

“What we have said at these seminars is that Jamaica is open for investments in the energy sector,” said Holness.

The prime minister said discussions with Biden went very well as they reviewed progress made in the local energy sector last year and discussed plans for this year. He noted that there are some imperatives that the Jamaican population would have to become aware of such as the strong global movement towards clean energy.

“What is clear is that there is great appreciation for what we have done as it relates to our regulations, making it attractive for investments in the energy sector to come to Jamaica,” he said.

nadine.wilson-harris@gleanerjm.com

The Gleaner

Alternative Energy Climate Change Confrence Crude Oil Electricity Energy Saving Government Solar Energy

Turning point for energy security in the Caribbean

May 2, 2016 Webmaster

The wind farm at Wigton, in St Elizabeth

Caribbean countries have quietly started a green revolution and are now leading the way for other small island developing states in the global effort to limit the rise of global temperature to 1.5 degrees Celsius. While challenges remain, five months after the historic climate agreement in Paris, they remain committed to saving energy and investing in renewables.

Some may argue that at a time when oil prices are low, there are incentives to slow this effort down. But, on the contrary, this is the time to take advantage of the savings and move further on their ambitious vision for the future. And that is precisely what they hope to do at this week’s US-Caribbean-Central American Energy Summit, hosted by US Vice-President Joe Biden.

The Caribbean finds itself at a turning point. The road ahead won’t be short: despite a substantial push for clean energy, renewables still contribute less than 10 per cent of electricity production in the Caribbean.

Ever since last year’s first summit, commitments have translated into concrete actions from leaders. They have played a major role in promoting clean energy development, energy efficiency and climate resilience throughout the region. With the support of regional and international institutions, such as Caricon and the World Bank, Caribbean countries have started a transition to clean-energy alternatives.

Solar power continues to expand as technology improves and production costs plummet. Wind energy is also growing as production has become more commercially viable and technology can now better manage the unpredictability of wind and solar resources.

Eastern Caribbean countries are breaking down barriers to all renewables and are even actively exploring geothermal energy as a way to power their country in a reliable, clean and cost-effective manner. Exploratory drilling and preparatory work is happening in Dominica, Grenada, Monserrat, St Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

It is important that these transitions to renewable energy go hand in hand with efforts to improve efficiency and reduce cost. Caribbean governments know the importance of reducing inefficiencies by modernising electricity distribution companies and grid systems, and through simple measures such as making buildings more energy efficient and using high-efficiency air conditioners and LED light bulbs.

This is particularly crucial in the Caribbean, where many countries spend more than five per cent of their income in oil imports but still cannot fully satisfy demand. The uncertainty around the future for oil prices and of concessional oil financing make it even more important for small Caribbean economies to diversify their sources of energy.

Gains in energy efficiency help the private sector develop and become more competitive. Even with current low oil prices, electricity prices around the region average over US$ 0.25 per kWh – about three to four times more than what is paid in the US or other developed countries.

For small, tourism-dependent islands like Barbados, where air conditioning alone accounts for 48 per cent of hotel electricity consumption, continued gains in energy efficiency will help businesses cut costs and make the hotel industry more competitive.

At a time of global economic slowdown, this is a powerful example of how green energy can strengthen budgets, stimulate economies and unleash sustainable growth.

The private sector can also play an important role in developing the energy sector, through public-private partnerships (PPP). In Dominica and St Lucia, the World Bank is working with the government in helping de-risk power generation investments, develop bankable PPP deals and attract qualified private sector developers. In Jamaica, a 36-megawatt wind farm has received US$63 million in funding from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and other donors.

Increasingly, small island states are being confronted with extreme weather events and with the rise in sea level, it makes it more and more important to invest in energy resilience to ensure that infrastructure and systems are robust and well protected when natural disasters occur.

Caricom, together with the World Bank Group, the United States and others, have been working on establishing a regional one-stop shop to provide greater access to information on technical resources, streamline financing, and improve coordination and transparency.

At this year’s summit, leaders have an important opportunity to build on the momentum. Progress on this front holds great promise for the region. By transforming into a model of renewable energy, the Caribbean can show the world how to generate green growth that is sustainable and supportive of the poor and vulnerable.

Jorge Familiar is World Bank Vice-President for Latin America and the Caribbean

The Jamaica Observer

Alternative Energy Climate Change Electricity Energy Saving News Solar Energy

How low will solar prices go?

April 27, 2016 Webmaster

If the Peru and Mexico auctions are any indication, Latin American markets are establishing a new, and very low, normal for solar prices. Peru recently awarded a solar power purchase agreement (PPA) at $47.98/MWh to Enel Green Power (EGP), making headlines as the lowest PPA on record. But just weeks later, EGP beat its own a record in Mexico’s auction with a PPA price of $35.44/MWh for solar PV, and an average price for all awardees of $50.77/MWh for wind and solar.

What’s pushing these prices down, and how long will it last? Developers are likely making a few key assumptions:

1) Commodity prices are falling — 80 per cent since 2008, according to data from IRENA — and are expected to continue dropping, so modules will be cheaper;

2) Energy Performance Certificate costs are likely to fall as renewable energy penetration increases throughout the region; and

3) The quality of resources is very good in these markets, increasing the effectiveness of solar technologies so developers can get more bang for their buck.

While solar costs are indeed falling, it’s the jaw-droppingly low price bids by EGP that are making headlines. They are building massive installations, much larger than in the past, and economies of scale are helping to push down the prices. Access to funds at highly competitive rates from organisations such as the European Investment Bank has also enabled EGP to bid aggressively.

“Our prices were the most competitive but in line with those submitted by other international operators taking part in the auction,” said Carlo Zorzoli, EGP’s head of Latin America.

EGP has won 1,172 megawatts of solar PV in Latin America in 2016 alone. That, in itself, is noteworthy; perhaps more noteworthy is that they believe they can build profitable projects across a portfolio of tightly priced PPAs.

It’s hard, and perhaps not even desirable, for other developers to compete with EGP’s low bids, but there are other players in these markets bidding at or very near to Enel’s winning prices. Companies eager to make a footprint in the market are coming in at or below cost, according to industry analysts, potentially with internal rates of return in the single digits – a reality they are willing to face to gain a strong foothold in these young markets with enormous potential.

A favourable regulatory environment will continue to be vital in attracting serious developers and maintaining low prices. Peru’s regulator, Osinergmin, required very high bid bonds for their RFP — $50,000/MW — and tied the PPA price to the US dollar, which could prevent results similar to the frenzied bids and current situation in Brazil.

Mexico also allowed developers to bid in pesos indexed to the US dollar, which offered more economic certainty.

Peru’s next request for proposal is couple of years off, but Mexico has one coming up in August, and many expect to see even lower prices.

However, when it comes to other Latin American markets, while prices may be relatively low, they aren’t expected to break records, particularly in Argentina where many unknown factors loom. Broadly, however, the theme is clear: Latin America is opening up, competition is fierce and — at least as far as pricing is concerned — it’s a race to the bottom.

Jamaica Observer

Alternative Energy Electricity Energy Saving Government News Solar Energy

Electricity net billing resumes April 11 — Energy ministry

April 10, 2016 Webmaster

KINGSTON, Jamaica – Customers of Jamaica Public Service (JPS) will again be able to apply for licences to sell their excess electricity generated from renewable energy sources to the grid as of April 11, 2016.

Minister of Science Energy & Technology (MSET) Dr Andrew Wheatley today announced that the Office of Utilities Regulation (OUR) will resume accepting applications on behalf of the ministry for net billing under similar terms as the previously-concluded net billing pilot project until the details of a permanent programme are finalised.

According to a release from the ministry, the decision to continue the programme came out of an agreement reached on April 7 with the OUR and JPS.

All parties agreed that it was in the best interest of all concerned that the net billing programme be resumed so as to strengthen the development of the renewable energy sector in accordance with the National Energy Policy, the release said.

The two-year pilot programme was extended to May 2015, as the system peak demand threshold for net billing was not met. As at March 2015, 351 applications were received, 311 of which were granted licences, the ministry said.

Alternative Energy Climate Change Electricity Energy Saving Government News Solar Energy

Developing nations became top investors in renewables in 2015 — UN

March 29, 2016 Webmaster

PARIS, France (AFP) — Investment in renewable energy hit a record US$286 billion (256 billion euros) in 2015, more than half of which came from developing countries for the first time, according to a UN report released Thursday.

All told, new money put into solar, wind, biofuels and other cleaner energy technologies has exceeded US$2.3 trillion since 2004, when total investment was less than US$50 billion, it said.

“Renewables are becoming ever more central to our low-carbon lifestyles,” said Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, which co-wrote the report.

“Importantly, for the first time in 2015, renewables investments were higher in developing countries than developed.”

That shift was led by China and India, both of which have invested heavily in clean energy even as their juggernaut economies continue to be mainly powered by carbon-intensive fossil fuels.

Renewables added more to global energy generation capacity in 2015 than all other technologies combined, including nuclear, coal, gas and mega-hydro projects of more than 50 megawatts.

Despite rock-bottom fossil fuel prices, new clean energy capacity — even excluding nuclear—- outstripped new coal and gas by more than 100 per cent, said the report, Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2016.

The rapid transition to renewables, especially in developing and emerging economies, is “helped by sharply reduced costs, and by the benefits of local power production over reliance on imported commodities”, said Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which co-launched the report.

As in previous years, the growth in clean energy in 2015 was dominated by solar photovoltaics and wind, which together added 118 gigawatts in generating capacity, nearly a quarter more than the year before.

Wind contributed 62GW and photovoltaics 56 GW, with more modest inputs coming from biomass, geothermal, solar thermal and ‘waste-to-power’, in which waste products are recycled.

The fact that renewables far exceeded conventional energy for new capacity in 2015 shows that a “structural change is underway”, the report said.

But the ultimate goal of a “carbon neutral” global economy enshrined by the world’s nations at UN climate talks in Paris in December is still a distant prospect.

Excluding major hydro projects, renewables still only account for 16 per cent of the world’s total power capacity, even if that figure has consistently climbed by double digits in recent years.

Plummeting costs

Actual electricity generated is even less — barely 10 per cent.

“Despite the ambitious signals from COP21 and the growing capacity of new, installed renewable energy, there is still a long way to go,” said Udo Steffens, president of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.

The Paris Agreement inked at the 195-nation ‘COP21’ talks vowed to cap global warming at below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), a goal that scientists say will require a wholesale shift away from fossil fuels.

Much of the record-breaking investment in clean energy last year came from China, which spent nearly US$103 billion (92 billion euros), 17 per cent more than in 2014 and 36 per cent of the world total.

India was a distant second, spending US$10.2 billion, followed by South Africa (US$4.5 billion), Mexico (US$4 billion) and Chile (US$3.4 billion).

Morocco, Turkey and Uruguay filled out the list of nations, investing at least US$1 billion.

Overall, developing countries poured 17 times more money into clean energy last year than in 2004.

Jamaica Observer

Electricity JPS LNG News Oil

JPS Gets Green Light To Build 190MW Plant

March 29, 2016 Webmaster

The oil-fired JPS power plant in Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine is to be replaced with a gas-fired plant.

Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) says the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) has approved the construction of the 190-megawatt gas-fired power plant at Old Harbour Bay, St Catherine.

The Office of Utilities Regulation and the Electricity Sector Enterprise Team have also given formal approval of the power purchase agreement for the new facility, the power utility said.

JPS President and CEO Kelly Tomblin said the utility was now finalising details of the project with equipment supplier General Electric Corp, and engineering procurement and construction company Power China. The latter company has been contracted to build the plant.

The arrangements for the project are to be finalised within the next two weeks.

JPS’ disclosure of the project approval follows its weekend announcement, via a posting on its website, that it had finalised an agreement with New Fortress Energy to supply the Old Harbour plant with natural gas.

“We are now at an advanced stage in relation to closing the financing of the project, which we expect to be completed by the end of April,” said the JPS chief executive.

New Fortress is also the utility’s gas supply partner for the power plant at Bogue in Montego Bay.

The Old Harbour plant will be a brand new facility. Once built, JPS plans to dismantle the current oil-fired plant at Old Harbour and return the site to brownfield status.

“We anticipate that this new power plant will be generating electricity at below 13 US cents per kWh when it comes on line, which is remarkable, given the necessity to build new infrastructure and bear the transportation and other logistic costs,” Kelly said.

The timelines for the project were laid out during last November’s public consultations on the environmental impact assessment report.

JPS said yesterday that there are no changes to the timeline for site preparation for the liquefied natural gas plant, which is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2016, giving the utility just days to hit that deadline.

Construction will begin by the second quarter and the plant’s commissioning is expected by July 2018.

JPS entered into a memorandum of understanding in December 2015 with a Chinese company, now identified as Power China to build the 190, megawatt plant.

The Chinese company replaced the Spanish engineering and renewable energy firm Abengoa, which filed for bankruptcy protection just days after striking a deal with JPS.

The Jamaican utility reaffirmed on Wednesday that the 190MW project is expected to cost around US$300 million.

The gas component, which includes development of a terminal and pipelines to the JPS plant, is a separate project to be undertaken by New Fortress. The arrangement is similar to that agreed for the Bogue plant.

JPS also already had dealings with General Electric, which is converting the diesel-fired Bogue plant to a combined cycle operation to burn either diesel or LNG.

The conversion is costing JPS US$22.74 million or about $2.7 billion, and is scheduled to wrap up by midyear.

Gleaner

Alternative Energy Climate Change Electricity Energy Saving Government News Solar Energy

CCIC leading region’s response to changing climate

March 15, 2016 Webmaster

SINCE its inception in 2014, the Caribbean Climate Innovation Centre (CCIC) programme has been leading the way in developing a regionally integrated approach to solving the Caribbean’s climate, energy, and resource challenges.

The CCIC programme aims to assist Caribbean island states to adapt to and mitigate the impact of climate change by empowering each territory to create clean technologies and businesses, and strengthening several critical areas.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Everton Hanson says that the centre is taking an entrepreneurship approach to addressing the issues.

“The purpose of this project is to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem that will foster growth-oriented entrepreneurs and profitable businesses that address climate change mitigation and adaptation,” he explains.

The CCIC, which was established as a Consortium, is jointly managed by two of the Caribbean’s foremost scientific institutions — the Scientific Research Council (SRC), based in Jamaica, and the Caribbean Industrial Research Institute (CARIRI) situated in Trinidad and Tobago.

Both islands have active CCIC programmes and function as the project’s primary ‘country hubs’. These hubs are responsible for administering financing, management, and support service delivery regionally.

Locally, the CCIC project is housed at the offices of the SRC located at Hope Gardens in Kingston.

The programme, which emphasises the need for a unified response to developing climate change solutions, has 12 established country hubs in several other Caribbean Community (Caricom) states: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname.

The CCIC model was developed in collaboration with local stakeholders and addresses the gaps across five priority areas: solar energy, water management, sustainable agribusiness, resource use and efficiency, and energy efficiency.

The CCIC also offers services that assist entrepreneurs in developing business models for their products and services. Among these are technology commercialisation; market development; mentoring and training; networking, as well as business incubation support, and identifying and developing local, regional and international market opportunities.

A key feature of the programme is that it facilitates the testing and prototyping of proposed innovations, and provides technical support and information on contemporary green technology.

So far the bold initiative has met with success, instituting innovative activities in its goal of supporting companies from the nascent stage to an advanced stage of development. This has been accomplished through the staging of boot camps and accelerator programmes, among other activities.

One of its more notable programmes, the Proof of Concept (PoC) competition held in 2015, invites innovators to present designs and concepts for products which can be transformed into viable businesses.

Over 300 innovators from 13 Caribbean countries applied for grant funding through the competition, with 11 winners selected from the pool of applicants.

The successful participants, who were awarded grants ranging from US$10,000 to $50,000, came from Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, St Lucia, and Belize.

Additionally, the PoC winners benefited from several capacity-building exercises facilitated by CCIC and CARIRI, including mentorship, training and technical assistance in business incubator activities.

The CCIC in Jamaica recently hosted the Caribbean Green Tech Start up Boot Camp, which ran from February 26 to 28. Over 70 innovators and entrepreneurs from across the Caribbean participated in the interactive three-day workshop, which challenged them to refine their concepts, transforming them into viable, sustainable businesses.

Executive Director of the SRC, Dr Cliff Riley, points out that with the project is an important initiative as it directly addresses problems associated with climate change while stimulating economic development.

“It is a project for the entire region to build capacity and to ensure that innovative ideas and products can be translated into viable businesses,” he notes.

The programme was developed under the World Bank’s global partnership development programme, InfoDev, and is being implemented under its Climate Technology Programme.

The Caribbean component of the Climate Innovation Centre (CIC) is one of seven CICs established across the world. Other countries with CICs are Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa, Vietnam, Morocco, and Ghana.

The CCIP programme is one of three components of the World Bank/InfoDev Entrepreneurship Programme for Innovation in the Caribbean and is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency.

Jamaica Observer

Alternative Energy Climate Change Energy Saving Government News Oil

Jamaica To Do Its Share Of Climate Change Mitigation

March 3, 2016 Webmaster

Jamaica is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 1.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year by 2030 as part of its global commitment to take climate change mitigation action.

To bring this about, the island – as reflected in its nine-page Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) document to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change – has undertaken to implement energy policies that ensure that the island uses energy wisely and aggressively to pursue opportunities for conservation and efficiency has a modernised and expanded energy infrastructure that enhances energy-generation capacity and ensures that energy supplies are safely, reliably, and affordably transported to homes, communities, and the productive sectors on a sustainable basis, and achieves its energy resource potential through the development of renewable energy sources by increasing their share in its primary energy mix of 20 per cent by 2030.

Such policies are also to ensure that government agencies and ministries are models and leaders in energy conservation and environmental stewardship and that the island has a well-defined and established governance, institutional, legal, and regulatory framework.

Private Industry Support

Fully implemented energy polices need, too, to ensure that private industry embraces “efficiency and ecological stewardship to advance international competitiveness and to move towards a green economy”, the document said.

Realising Nationally Determined Contributions is essential if the target of the climate deal, brokered in Paris in December, is to be reached.

That agreement – to which Jamaica is a party – looks to hold “the increase in the global average temperatures to well below two degrees above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels”.

New Activities

It is against this background that Jamaica is continuing its own mitigation efforts.

“Certain new activities have started up again under the memorandum of understanding we had with the Americans, for example, particularly around natural gas, that will allow us to have much more efficient plants …” a source from the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment, and Climate Change told The Gleaner at the start of the year.

“Natural gas generation, generally speaking, can be made to respond very well to changes in demand … . For example, if you have a solar plant and production dips, it is relatively easy for you to ramp up the production of electricity from a natural gas plant,” the source added.

There are also other efforts afoot.

“Recognising that energy is not just electricity, it is also transport, some of the work we will be doing in respect of sector planning will involve a closer look at transportation and transportation efficiency and how we can reduce the amount of oil consumed there,” the source noted.

Further, to achieve 20 per cent renewables in the island’s energy mix, the source said, “You can increase the amount of renewables or decrease the amount of other fuels in the mix. There, you are talking efficiency measures and the Government is looking at efficiency in a number of respects.”

The Gleaner

Alternative Energy Climate Change Electricity Energy Saving News Solar Energy

Warren Buffett: Solar and Wind Could ‘Erode the Economics of the Incumbent Utility’

March 1, 2016 Webmaster

In his annual investor letter, Buffett addresses the new set of risks faced by electric utilities.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says that renewable energy and efficiency are pushing utilities beyond a “sloppy” operational model and into a more competitive environment.

In his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Buffett outlined the risks posed by distributed generation to traditional power companies. Berkshire Hathaway, a multinational holding company worth nearly $200 billion, owns 10 energy companies, including three large electric utilities serving territories across 11 Midwestern and Western U.S. states.

The business of electricity is entering a period of uncertainty, wrote Buffett.

“In its electric utility business, our Berkshire Hathaway Energy (“BHE”) operates within a changing economic model. Historically, the survival of a local electric company did not depend on its efficiency. In fact, a ‘sloppy’ operation could do just fine financially,” wrote Buffett. “That’s because utilities were usually the sole supplier of a needed product and were allowed to price at a level that gave them a prescribed return upon the capital they employed.”

“That’s all changing,” he wrote. Sloppiness is no longer an option.

More and more regulated power companies are facing a world where third parties, like solar service providers, can compete with them directly on cost. (Although Buffett stresses that the only reason for this competition is because of federal subsidies.)

“Today, society has decided that federally-subsidized wind and solar generation is in our country’s long-term interest. Federal tax credits are used to implement this policy, support that makes renewables price-competitive in certain geographies. Those tax credits, or other government-mandated help for renewables, may eventually erode the economics of the incumbent utility, particularly if it is a high-cost operator,” wrote Buffett.

The Investment guru assured investors that Berkshire Hathaway’s utilities will remain competitive because of their adoption of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and increased focus on operational efficiency.

“BHE’s long-established emphasis on efficiency — even when the company didn’t need it to attain authorized earnings — leaves us particularly competitive in today’s market (and, more important, in tomorrow’s as well),” wrote Buffett.

Berkshire Hathaway Energy has poured $16 billion into renewables in recent years, according to Buffett. The company’s electricity portfolio now consists of 7 percent wind and 6 percent solar. The company also plans to increase its investments in large-scale renewable energy projects in support of international climate goals. “We’re not done,” wrote Buffett.

Buffett did not mention state policies like net metering, which his utilities have strongly opposed. Berkshire’s power companies, particularly NV Energy in Nevada, have been heavily criticized and even demonized by the solar industry for fighting to get rid of net metering.

Some argue that Buffett and SolarCity Chairman Elon Musk are locked in a battle over the future of solar energy. Both believe in the promise of the technology; however, Buffett thinks centralized solar power plants are the most economic choice, while Musk thinks rooftop solar will dominate.

Whatever the dominant model — distributed or centralized — Buffett believes his utilities will ride the transition.

“None of these problems, however, is crucial to Berkshire’s long-term well-being,” he wrote. Many other companies in Berkshire’s portfolio have adapted to change in the past. “And we will continue to do so.”

Greentech Media

1 … 4 5 6 7 8 … 20