Latin America Report: 'Time Is Not On Our Side,' Says U.N. Chief

Renewable Energy World Editors
June 21, 2012 | 7 Comments

The United Nations Earth Summit kicked off this week in Rio de Janeiro, but even before its conclusion, the highly anticipated Rio+20 gathering was beset by a lack of specific goals and a failure to draw world leaders like American President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon struck a particularly harsh tone during his opening speech in which he implored world leaders to move beyond mere discussions and loose agreements and toward real action on sustainability. "It's time for all of us to think globally and long term, beginning here now in Rio, for time is not on our side," he said.

A pre-summit draft document expected to be adopted on Friday has been widely criticized as overly vague and lacking real teeth. The broad agreement isn’t expected to usher in the type of fundamental changes organizers had sought. Most experts agree that the event is a victim of poor timing, stuck between a sagging economy, a debt crisis in Europe and a tense presidential election in the United States. But the event has drawn the type of grassroots enthusiasm that helped make it a landmark happening in the same location 20 years ago.

MORE FROM RIO

Dispatch From Rio+20: "Sustainable Energy for All" is the main theme for this week's Rio+20 United Nations gathering in Brazil. The challenge of making energy both accessible and sustainable has grown more complicated in the past year or so, and also more exciting. These are tough times for coal and other high-carbon sources of energy, while the news about clean energy is more promising.

How G20 Nations Measure Up: As world leaders from industrial giants and developing nations attend the Rio+20 Earth Summit, the Natural Resources Defense Council used the opportunity to examine how G20 nations are faring on both renewable generation and clean energy investment.

IN THE NEWS

Uruguay Boosts Wind Power Estimates to 1,000 MW by 2015: Uruguay increased the amount of wind-powered electricity it plans to bring online in coming years, saying it wants to capitalize on cheap turbine prices.

Cooking Oil Powers Canada-Mexico Flight: Air Canada became the latest in a lengthening list of airlines that have experimented with running their airliners on biofuels during regular passenger flights. In this case, the aircraft was an Airbus A319 traveling from Toronto to Mexico City. It was tanked up with a 50/50 mix of regular aviation fuel and biofuel made from recycled cooking oil.

Brazil Top in Region for Clean Energy Opportunity: Brazil topped an index of best clean energy opportunities among 26 Latin American and Caribbean countries, the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter- American Development Bank and Bloomberg New Energy Finance said.

Shell Scraps Brazilian Biofuels Plan: A biofuels company set up by Shell in Brazil has scrapped controversial plans to source sugar cane from land widely considered to have been stolen from an indigenous tribe. The move follows a vociferous campaign by the Indians in question, backed by Survival International.

$185 Million OK’d for Peru Solar Projects: The US-based Overseas Private Investment Corporation has approved $185m for two 20-MW solar projects in Peru.

Hydro and Latin America: Hydropower is the world's largest source of renewable energy. In Latin America, it is the main source of power generation, accounting for roughly 65 percent of all electricity generated. Altogether, Latin America's installed hydropower capacity totaled 153 GW at the end of 2010.

Vestas Inks Deal in Nicaragua: Vestas has signed an order for a total capacity of 39.6 MW consisting of 22 units of the V100-1.8 MW turbine for the Alba Rivas wind plant in Nicaragua.

ON THE HORIZON

UAE Company Targets Brazil Market: United Arab Emirates investment-and-development company Mubadala Development Co. is targeting large companies in Brazil to set up cooperation projects in the renewable-energy area, the director of a Mubadala unit said Wednesday.

A Trip To “Climate-Mart”: The world leader in production of solar water heaters, Himin, of China, plans to open 50,000 stores worldwide in five years, with about 5,000 of them in Brazil. Called "climate marts", the stores will sell equipment, such as heaters and air conditioners, and products for personal use, like solar-powered radios, lamps and toys.

Loan for Wind Farms in Brazil: Iberdrola and Brazilian consortium Neoenergia will sign 10 loans for €300 million ($381.3 million) with Banco Nacional do Desenvolvimento Economico y Social (BNDES) and with Banco do Brasil to build wind farms in Brazil.

Etrion Solar Update: Etrion is negotiating its first power purchase agreement to construct a 5 megawatt solar power project with expected project realization in 2013. In addition, Etrion is pursuing other opportunities to provide solar electricity to mining companies with varying energy requirements located throughout the country and expects additional power purchase agreements to be signed before the end of the year.

Pacific Hydro Chile to Build 108 MW Wind Farm: The Chilean unit of Australian renewable energy company Pacific Hydro Ltd, Pacific Hydro Chile, has filed an environmental declaration for a 108-MW wind plant in the Coquimbo region, 168 miles north of Chile's capital Santiago.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Latin America Lures Renewable Energy

“If you're not in a renewable project in Latin America and you’re a private equity investor, it's a little strange.”

George Osorio, New York-based private equity firm Conduit Capital

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7 Comments

R TENNANT
June 23, 2012

dennis-baker..a carbon-controlled hydrogen economy could also be based on using fossil fuels for running a hybrid pumped hydro storage plant with a hydro reservoir-connected pipeline reclaiming saltwater, sewage and stack gases... Van-Port Sterilizers Inc

dennis baker
June 23, 2012

the fundamental problem is most everyone is a fossil fuel industry puppet. the rest are classified as Straw Men. others are jealous of the ones whom are capable of free thought and envision solutions without doctorates, or degrees. The industry puppets disregard everything not owned by the industry! In fact your all full of shit

R TENNANT
June 22, 2012

Any definition of 'clean' energy must also include carbon-controlled fossil energy. Consider also that both population control and our standard of living is dependent on the cost of energy being continually driven down, not up, and, that resource development and use can also result in waste conversions suitable for making human and natural ecosystems more productive. First-Last is on the money except that such a plan is likely akin to putting the cart before the horse without first developing cost-effective energy storage devices

first last
June 22, 2012

Most of these alleged green energy projects are focused on utility scale grid operations - with dubious ROIs, massive debt-finance, transient FITs, and a plethora of other known but un-mitigated and un-addressed risks. Instead of focusing on mega-plants - perhaps the solar industry should focus on the agricultural and rural areas with grid-connected community based solar installations. The scale is considerably smaller - with the associated drop in risk and single project debt-based finance - but is eminently as scalable as utility grids. This has the added benefit of providing farmers a new sustainable and all-year long crop with considerably lower risk - harvesting the sun - not to mention the potential for poverty alleviation. This is merely changing the game from a centralized farm to a distributed farm model. NREL recently published a report on Community Solar Energy projects - A Guide to Community Solar: Utility, Private, and Non-profit Project Development This report offers an excellent menu of alternatives to the mega-grid attempts to eat the proverbial elephant in a single bite. LINK http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/54570.pdf

k parcell
June 22, 2012

The fundamental problem with the international energy agenda is that cheap energy is what enables us to eat the world alive, as illustrated by the fact that consumption of all raw materials - not just fossil fuels - rises and falls with energy prices. We must lower carbon emissions by increasing transformation to renewables, but we also must couple this transformation to a new vision of a sustainable marketplace, not just a sustainable-energy future. And we know that this vision will not come from the top and that we must instead build the world of the future from the bottom-up. http://reconomy.net

Gene Masters
June 22, 2012

As usual not a single mention about the biggest factor that will have the biggest impact on our and our descendents lives - ie what do we want to do collectively about our massive global population increases. It must be on the agenda to at least consider ways of positively incentivising us all to have smaller families etc and accept that all this frittering around the edges (on clean energy etc) is meaningless when the population is expected to rise by about 30% in the next 20 years all of whom quite rightly will expect to have an equal share of the worlds resources. By the way clean energy is critical but is only a small factor comapred with the elephant in the room.

dennis baker
June 21, 2012

The primary source of GHG is fossil fuel burning electrical generating facilities. http://dingo.care2.com/pictures/causes/uploads/2012/01/GHG-emitters-2010.jpg 7 Billion humans generate vast quantities of excrement. I believe this excrement is capable of providing all human electrical demands. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiolysis Right now hydrogen is perceived as a negative by product, of Nuclear Energy, when it should be the product, as the Pentagon has considered. reference info Request for Information (RFI) on Deployable Reactor Technologies ... DARPA-SN-10-37@darpa.mil https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=d0792af88a6a4484b3aa9d0dfeaaf553&... Large scale conversions sites are intended to replace fossil fuel powered electrical facilities the Primary Source of Carbon Emissions. http://www.populist.com/99.12.krebs.blob.html In what officials now say was a mistaken strategy to reduce the waste's volume, organic chemicals were added years ago which were being bombarded by radiation fields, resulting in unwanted hydrogen. The hydrogen was then emitted in huge releases that official studies call burps, causing "waste-bergs," chunks of waste floating on the surface, to roll over. Dennis Baker 106-998 Creston Avenue Penticton BC V2A1P9 cell phone 250-462-3796 Phone / Fax 778-476-2633 dennisbaker2003@hotmail.com #dennisearlbaker

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Renewable Energy World Editors

Renewable Energy World's network editors help deliver the most comprehensive news coverage of the renewable energy industries. Based in the U.S. and the UK, the team is comprised of editors from Pennwell Corporation's myriad of publications...