You want to know where the global commodities markets are heading in the coming years? Then it’s probably best that you remember a single word: China.

I have a dream that one day throughout the whole world, renewable energy sources will take [...]]]>

I have a dream, a common dream of the people devoting to renewable energy source around the world, that for the blue sky and white cloud of the later generations, qualified products are used to realize renewable energy substitution.

I have a dream that one day throughout the whole world, renewable energy sources will take the dominant position.

I have a dream that one day my entire country fellows, even the global citizens, know about solar energy and make full use of it.

I have a dream that one day solar industry will be as advanced as IT industry, as mature as electric home appliances industry, and as large-scaled and automatic as automobile industry.

I have a dream that one day the sky will be much bluer, the water will be more limpid; our homeland will be full of sunshine, tranquil with no war.”

– Huang Ming

This quotation really touched me. I found it endearingly Chinese and idealistic (not mutually exclusive.)

The world faces a massive challenge, a common challenge, to channel the power of the sun, wind, and sky, into resources to power our modern lives.

This photo shows Huang Ming in January 2011, when he accepted the CCTV China economic innovation prize.

Huang Ming earned the 2011 Right Livelihood Honorary Award:

“… for his outstanding success in the development and mass-deployment of cutting-edge technologies for harnessing solar energy, thereby showing how dynamic emerging economies can contribute to resolving the global crisis of anthropogenic climate change.”

Here’s his bio:

Huang Ming is a visionary, dedicated, and passionate entrepreneur and change-maker in the field of solar thermal energy. He set up the Solar Valley in Dezhou as a national and global example for solar as a realistic alternative to fossil and nuclear energy and rising CO2 emissions. In 2005, Huang Ming was instrumental in getting the Renewable Energy Law passed in China, thus building a strong case for his country to take a leading role in preventing growing climate chaos.

Huang Ming was born on March 10th 1958. He worked as an engineer at the Petroleum Research Institute of Dezhou. After the birth of his daughter, he became worried about the living environment of her and other children because of the pollution. He started his career in the solar energy field secretly, without quitting his job at the institute, because he needed to fund his initial solar research by his salary.

I like that keep-your-day-job-while-you-scheme strategy, something I hear about more often from bloggers-turned-solopreneurs than onetime engineers at Chinese government institutions!

Parque Eólico Totoral

On Ruta 5 Norte between Los Vilos and La Serena, you can see these turbines at the top of the hill.

Built by Norwegian developer SN [...]]]> Our trip to Chile’s IV Region has brought us up close and personal with Chile’s most high-profile wind energy projects.

On Ruta 5 Norte between Los Vilos and La Serena, you can see these turbines at the top of the hill.

Built by Norwegian developer SN Power, it contains 23 125m wind turbines, and generates 46MW of electricity. The project required an investment of $140,000,000 and opened in January 2010. The developers submitted the Declaración de Impacto Ambiental in 2007, and the project was approved in 2008.

The wind farm’s economic viability depends on carbon credits. The operation of this site implies a reduction of 65,000 tons of CO2 per year, which is equivalent to eliminating 15,000 cars from the streets of a city like Santiago. (Note: I am not sure if any plants were actually taken off the grid in response to the construction of this site. My guess is that this project adds extra electricity to the SIC, alongside electricity generated by other power plants – coal-fired, hydro, etc. Let me know if you have more information about this.)

I saw a Vestas truck driving around the property, suggests that these are Vestas turbines.

The scene was so dramatic that it made me wish that I had a fancy camera on hand to capture these images, instead of just my iPod Touch.

Here’s a map of Chile’s IV Region. (Click it twice to see a bigger version.)

115 MW Ovalle Project

In the September 23 edition of El Día, La Serena’s regional paper, I read that Ovalle will have the biggest wind farm in South America. More than 20 wind turbine towers will be installed on the coast of the jurisdiction to generate clean energy. 115MW will be entered into the SIC. The developer, an American company called Pattern AEI,  has been studying sites in this area since 2008, has determined that this site has the best wind in the zone. The company has held citizen consultations and has pledged to improve the roads in the area, which will benefit all residents.

100 MW Vestas Project in Limari 

From the Press Release: 

Vestas has started the construction of a fully owned wind project for 100 MW in Chile, the Talinay Oriente (‘Talinay East’) Wind Power Plant, which will be located in northern Chile in the Limari Province. This project, which will be constructed with the Vestas 2 MW platform, will at its completion be the largest wind power plant in Chile.

Vestas acquired full ownership of Talinay Oriente from a local developer. This is a strategic environmental decision following the Vestas principle “As green as it gets” and the company’s goal to continue increasing the share of renewable energy sources used to cover Vestas’ energy consumption worldwide and in the countries where Vestas operates, while contributing to reducing the carbon footprint. [more]

Barrick’s Parque Eólico Punta Colorado 

This wind farm is on the northern edge of the IV Region, in an area that is full of mines and some villages but otherwise a bit desolate.

Barrick is one of the world’s largest mining companies. The company invested $70 million in the 242- hectare site near the village of La Higuera. The first phase includes 10 turbines, and the complete project will include 18 turbines, and contribute 36MW into the SIC.

The slogan, “Un aporte de la mineria a las energias renovables en Chile” translates to “a contribution from the mining industry to the renewable energies in Chile.” The copywriter in me notes that this wording emphasizes the corporate social responsibility and public relations aspects of the project.

We got a lot closer to these turbines than those at Totoral. So pretty against the bright blue sky and rolling clouds.

For more information about Chile’s renewable energy laws and electrical grids, read this post: Chile’s Renewable and Non-Conventional Energy (ERNC) Law: Translation and Notes. 

I found this brilliant paragraph by Matthew Nordan, whose bio reads “I’m a venture capital investor at Venrock focused on [...]]]> Yesterday I wrote about failure, and how it could be one of the keys to success. This connects to the recent controversy over Solyndra’s failure, as well as to energy and innovation in general.

Solyndra headquarters. photo via totalsolarenergy.co.uk

I found this brilliant paragraph by Matthew Nordan, whose bio reads “I’m a venture capital investor at Venrock focused on energy and environmental technologies. Earlier, I co-founded and led Lux Research and forecasted technology futures at Forrester. I really do live and breathe this stuff.”

Failure is a fact of life in venture investing – and energy innovation. VCs provide capital to high-risk businesses that can’t be funded any other way. Most venture investments either fail completely or deliver mediocre returns. Cases like Solyndra come with the territory, and they say no more about all the other VC-backed energy start-ups than Webvan said about Amazon: The whole point is to risk failure, because you have to take on many (informed, balanced, and uncorrelated!) bets for a shot at a big outcome. Those outcomes, in turn, pay for the failures many times over – while improving lives and creating jobs. There’s a legitimate argument about whether taxpayer money should be deployed in this pursuit, but to treat even a very costly cratering like this one as anything other than de rigeur seems silly. [more]

Below are some several excerpts from reports about Solyndra’s failure.

First, the company’s original announcement. Emphasis mine. Solyndra Suspends Operations to Evaluate Reorganization Options

August 31, 2011 – Solyndra LLC, the American manufacturer of innovative cylindrical solar systems for commercial rooftops today announced that global economic and solar industry market conditions have forced the Company to suspend its manufacturing operations. Solyndra intends to file a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code while it evaluates options, including a sale of the business and licensing of its advanced CIGS technology and manufacturing expertise. As a result of the suspension of operations approximately 1,100 full-time and temporary employees are being laid off effective immediately.

I think it’s interesting that the press release emphasizes the macroeconomic nature of the problem, as well as the specific shutdown of manufacturing operations, since other operations could continue.

But this won’t be easy. This Greentech Media post distills Solyndra’s situation into a clever subhead: For sale: factory. In Fremont. Little used. IP portfolio as well. Serious inquiries only. Here are my favorite lines:

Any potential acquirer would also inherit a titanic-sized bookkeeping and public relations headache. Solyndra has received more than $1 billion from VC partners and over $535 million in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy. Congressional opponents of green policies like Michigan Congressional Representative Fred Upton regularly hold up Solyndra as an example of why the U.S. shouldn’t support green energy policies.

The only green jobs that have been created, one wag told me today, have been ones for accountants and bankruptcy attorneys. [more]

Well, Obama and other politicians do always tout “green jobs,” and accountants and bankruptcy attorneys need work, right?

Solyndra’s failure has become a political football, which is a valid debate but not without some misconceptions. In  a Washington Post piece, “Five myths about the Solyndra collapse,” Brad Plumer writes: 

 the fact that China hurls money at solar isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since cheaper solar prices can benefit the United States too. The Energy Department seems to have recognized that going toe-to-toe with China on direct subsidies may be futile and is instead trying to focus on complementary efforts to bolster innovation, through programs like its Sunshot Initiative. Also, for all China’s subsidy frenzy, the United States still exported$1.9 billion of solar products last year and actually has a trade surplus in solar with China. [more]

Also, a lot of the controversy has focused on the loan guarantees that the Obama Administration gave to Solyndra. Bryan Walsh, writing for TIME’s Ecocentric blog, says the Solyndra “Scandal” is Washington Business as Usual.

My response: meh. TIME’s Michael Grunwald has covered this from the start, and while he’s unhappy—to say the least—with executives at Solyndra for misleading the government on its financial health, the solar industry more broadly is doing well, thanks in part to the money the Obama Administration has channeled towards more successful companies. And it’s worth noting that in addition to government loan guarantees, Solyndra also scored over $1 billion in private capital—including from GOP-friendly investors like the Walton family of Wal-Mart. Solyndra turned out to be a bad investment—the company failed in part because it made the wrong bet on solar technology, failing to foresee that silicon prices would drop drastically. Bad investments are a part of business, especially a cutting-edge industry like renewable energy, and failure is a necessary ingredient for innovation. (Just ask the famously fired Steve Jobs.) The idea that the collapse of one solar company discredits the entire solar industry is absurd. [more]

What do you think? What does Solyndra’s failure mean for the future of solar energy in America and beyond? 

SinoLatin Capital is the first advisory and principal investments firm focusing exclusively on transactions between Latin America & China.

With dozens of graphs, this report outlines the market for energy and commodities that connects China [...]]]> I just read this detailed report from SINOLATIN CAPITAL - ENERGY: WHY CHINA AND LATIN AMERICA? 

SinoLatin Capital is the first advisory and principal investments firm focusing exclusively on transactions between Latin America & China.

With dozens of graphs, this report outlines the market for energy and commodities that connects China and Latin America. In short, China has a great demand for energy and commodities, and depends on imports to meet these needs. China is cash-rich, and has been investing more and more in the Latin America, especially to import oil, copper, iron, soybeans, and other soybeans.

I found slides #48-50 especially interesting, since these give a brief overview of the market for wind and solar energy in China and Latin America.

Here is my summary of these slides:

The worldwide capacity of wind turbines is currently 196Gw. 38Gw of this was added last year, and 18Gw of that was in China. Only 1.2% of these new installations were in Latin America. Chinese equipment is smaller, and a lot cheaper, and it is possible to get financing from from China Development Bank (CDB) and Export-Import Bank (Exim).

China currently controls 40% of the world solar energy market (up from 0% in 2005.)

Key considerations for new wind and solar projects include:

- Do you have a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)?

- How far away is the grid?

If you’re at all interested in China-Latin America trade, I highly recommend reading the whole report. (Thanks T for the link!)

In a meeting with several senior professors of mechanical engineering, I learned that “heat exchanger” translates to intercambiador de calor, and stretched my brain to explain concentrated solar power technology in semi-intelligent Spanish.

Slightly more sophisticated [...]]]> Lately I have been talking a lot about heat, and thinking about the language we use to describe heat.

In a meeting with several senior professors of mechanical engineering, I learned that “heat exchanger” translates to intercambiador de calor, and stretched my brain to explain concentrated solar power technology in semi-intelligent Spanish.

Slightly more sophisticated than my explanation in Chinese: “mirror, mirror, mirror, mirror” [while gesturing a bunch of flat things on the table and finding a taller object like a beer bottle to place in the middle of the mirrors] “and then those mirrors point the heat into this machine thing and it makes electricity” [gesticulating the motion of a turbine; my hands are better at explaining mechanics than my childlike Chinese vocabulary.]

I took this picture of San Francisco's City Hall on July 5, 2011 - an unusually warm summer day in the city. Nope, City Hall is not a heat exchanger, but it could be a useful "manipulative" (I learned that word my new-age 4th grade math class) to explain how one works. Just imagine a field of mirrors covering the entire parking lot, concentrating all the heat into a turbine in the dome. Not that the City of San Francisco would retrofit such an iconic building in that way. Details...

Amended 8.22.11: If you’re interested in real pictures and more technical descriptions of this technology, check out this photoessay from the Gunther Portfolio: Chevron BrightSource Solar-to-Steam Demonstration Plant Trials Underway.

Anyways, today I found some much more beautiful expressions of how heat affects people, in a New York Times feature called

Hot Type: Poems for Summer

These two poems are my favorites from the section.

COME LIVE WITH ME

 

Heat exists as energy in transit,

something spontaneous, volatile, elementary,

“something which may be transferred from one body

to another” (James Clerk Maxwell, “Theory of Heat”).

Notice how it moves from an object with a high

temperature to an object with a lower one,

a process of thermal contact, the sun

burning through the coldest morning sky.

 

Heat increases and flows across boundaries.

It is ancient, fluctuating, vibrational,

like these summer days that are so combustible

and these nights when stars enlighten the skies.

 

I remember the time you touched me near the stove

and the flames sparked in my body, love.

 

— EDWARD HIRSCH, author

of “The Living Fire: New and

Selected Poems”

I love how Edward Hirsch uses dictionary and textbook definitions of heat before jumping into a more intimate description of his own inner heat for his love.

I think the next poem is meant to be read out loud! I like the way it rhymes.

HEAT

 

When I was little, young men like my uncles would croon.

Walking on the street or doing chores, a baritone groan:

 

Blue Skies. The blue of the night meets the gold of the day.

Body and Soul, Ramona, Ballerina, Too-ra-loo-ra-lay.

 

I asked my mother, why did the uncles sing like that?

Her three-syllable answer puzzled me: They’re in heat.

 

I remember it today as the young guy driving his van

With sound system blasting stops at a light, windows down.

 

We want to sound hot and magnetic. Or warm and charming —

Even the folk singer singing a song about global warming.

 

Folk music? All music is folk music, said a great musician:

I never heard a horse sing. (But they do play percussion.)

 

The souls deepest in hell don’t burn, they’re frozen in ice.

You’re full of hot air is an insult. But hot breath can be nice.

 

Your mother, color, class, region all co-author your drama:

Culture. A jerk politician can make hay in Oklahoma

 

By saying he doesn’t believe in Darwin, or climate change.

Let’s take a kayak to Nyack. Or be more at home on the range.

 

Vote for you, sigh for you, die for you. Is this the counterfoil

To sweetest music? Entropy, energy. Dead life come back as oil

 

To enable movement, music, power and light, heat, racket.

Cigarette lipstick traces, you know how we do, an airplane ticket.

 

Cool or hot music, cold calculation or comfort. Ancestral voice

Of pride or need: keening meaning — will we die of all this?

 

— ROBERT PINSKY, author, most recently, of “Gulf Music”

and editor of the anthology “Essential Pleasures”

 

If you’re interested in the laws that regulate and incentivize renewable and non-conventional energy in Chile, read on!

I’ve If you read my blog for the fun travel photos (you know who you are ) please feel free to skip this rather nerdy post and go straight to My 7 Links.

If you’re interested in the laws that regulate and incentivize renewable and non-conventional energy in Chile, read on!

I’ve recently landed in Chile to work on a solar energy project, and one of my tasks is to learn about the legislation that guides this emerging industry. On March 20, 2008, President Michelle Bachelet signed Law 20.257 to encourage the development of renewable energy in Chile.

Photo of wind turbines in Coyhaique by Amanda Maxwell, Latin America Advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Amanda's blog ( http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/amaxwell/ ) is an incredible resource for anyone researching renewable energy in Latin America.

I translated the first page of the law from Spanish to English. The full text (in Spanish) is here: Ley_ERNC_LEY-20257.

Quick disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and it’s been almost six years since I took a Spanish class, and the following translation is based on my initial read of the law. However, I think that translating it has been a useful exercise, and I’d like to share it with anyone that’s interested.  The indented boxes below are notes to explain some technical terms in the text.

–

Introduction of Modifications to the General Law of Electrical Services, with Respect to the Generation of Electrical Energy from Sources of Energy that are Renewable and Non-Conventional

April 1, 2008

This law obligates the companies that generate electricity, with a capacity of more than 200 MW, to make sure that 10% of the energy sold comes from renewable and unconventional sources or from hydroelectric plants with less than 40,000 KW. This energy must be produced or procured, starting from January 1, 2010.

This law will apply to the generators that supply energy to the  Sistema Interconectado Central (SIC) and the Sistema Interconectado del Norte Grande (SING).

“Power generation in Chile is organized around four grid systems: 1) Sistema Interconectado del Norte Grande (SING), the northern grid, which accounts for about 19% of national generation; 2) the Central Interconnected System (SIC), the central region’s grid, which accounts for 68.5% of national generation and serves 93% of Chile’s population; 3) the Aysén Grid in southern Chile (0.3% of total generation); and 4) the Magallanes Grid, also in southern Chile (0.8% of total generation).” (Source: Global Energy Network Institute)

Chile's SIC Electrical Grid. The SING is in Chile's northernmost regions, which are not shown on this map. Source: GENI

This law signals that the percentage required of the electricity companies will increase gradually: 5% from 2010-2014, then +0.5% each year stating in 2015, until it reaches 10% in 2024.

The generators that fail to comply with this obligation will have to pay a charge of 0.4 UTM per megawatt hour (MWh) that does not meet the standard, and this will increase to 0.6 UTM in the cases of companies that continually fail to comply with the requirement.

UTM stands for Unidad Tributaria Mensual. According to Wikipedia it is a unit used in Chile for taxes and fines, which is updated based on inflation. It was created on December 31, 1944. Initially it was used by the Chilean tax authorities for fines and payscales, but since then its use has been extended to the payment of fines, debts, customs duties, and more. A chart showing its value every month for every year on record is here.

It is further provided that such charges arising from the breach of a distribution intended to end users (of the distributors whose suppliers have complied with the requirement) will help to establish a system of incentives that encourages competition in the electricity market.

The law indicates that the label “renewable and non-conventional energy (ERNC)” will correspond to small hydroelectric centers (with a capacity of less than 20 MW), and to projects that utilize energy from biomass, hydraulics, geothermal, solar, wind, tidal, and others.

The law goes on to describe modifications to specific articles, and I decided against translating that part.  The full text (in Spanish) is here: Ley_ERNC_LEY-20257.

–

President Sebastian Piñera just nominated a new Minister of Energy, Fernando Echeverría. In his new role. Echeverría plans to double the production of energy in the next ten years to meet Chile’s skyrocketing energy demand, lower the costs of energy, and strongly increase the participation of ERNC in the electrical grid. Read more here in La Tercera.

–

Excerpt from Obama to Piñera: Make Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency the Base Case Scenario for Building Chile’s Energy Future. By Doug Sims, NRDC. March 17, 2011.

The conventional thinking about energy in Chile is that new coal, gigantic dams and nuclear are the only possible base case scenario given expected increasing demand requirements over the next 20 years.  This way of thinking pushes renewables, or “non-conventional renewable energy” (defined under Chilean law to include wind, solar, geothermal and other renewables but to exclude large dams over 20MW) to the margins – right now the goal for renewables is a pretty anemic 10% of annual generation by 2024.

But this is exactly the wrong way to think about Chile’s energy future given its world class renewable resources, its potential to reduce energy demand and intensity through efficiency measures and the declining cost curves and improving performance of renewable technologies, solar in particular.  In addition to a solar resource that exceeds that of the American Southwest, Chile is particularly fortunate to have excellent geothermal and sustainable biomass resources.  These non-conventional renewable energy technologies are mature and can provide cost effective power at reliability levels (known as “capacity factors”) comparable to coal, gas, hydro and nuclear.

–

Useful resources for further research on Renewable Energy in Chile:

• Amanda Maxwell’s blog
• Chile Renovables
• Comisíon Nacional de Energía
• Energía en Chile
• Global Energy Network Institute

The first, a New York Times piece entitled “In Kansas, Climate Skeptics Embrace Cleaner Energy,” outlines practical strategies the Climate and Energy Project has used to encourage [...]]]> In the past 24 hours, I have read two articles which contain completely different perspectives on the relationship between religion and social change.

The first, a New York Times piece entitled “In Kansas, Climate Skeptics Embrace Cleaner Energy,” outlines practical strategies the Climate and Energy Project has used to encourage greener behavior in Kansas.

A family eats by candlelight at a restaurant in Salina, Kan., part of an effort to conserve power.  Image: Steve Hebert for the New York Times

What I find particularly remarkable about this article is that the Climate and Energy Project has focused on culturally relevant strategies that fit into residents’ worldview,  such as tips for saving money, “creation care” talking points for church sermons, candlelight dinners on Valentine’s Day, and a Halloween campaign to search for vampire appliances.

“Don’t mention global warming,” warned Nancy Jackson, chairwoman of the Climate and Energy Project, a small nonprofit group that aims to get people to rein in the fossil fuel emissions that contribute to climate change. “And don’t mention Al Gore. People out here just hate him.”[more]

A basic tenet of rhetoric is that the best way to persuade people is to tell them stories that fit within their existing worldview.  Kelly Parkinson makes a similar point here: The truth about selling mistletoe (& anything else.) Another great article on this topic is  “Preach to the Choir –Then Get Them Singing Your Tune Outside Church.”

Speaking of church, today on Social Edge I read a discussion that begins with a description of a church in Kenya that is spreading a very different message, one that resists social progress.

Saul Garlick from the Innovation Institute writes:

Last year in Kenya, when I used to stay at a small motel in a highway town in the Coast Province, I woke up every morning to a blaring TV. The noise was scratchy and often unbearable and it was always a preacher standing on a stage exorcising a demon from some woman, healing a broken leg, or appealing to the masses to send in some small change to help their church pursue its mission.

I have no problem whatsoever with religion, but I was discouraged to learn the message that was taking hold in so many communities across the rural region where we work. A message of acceptance, but not acceptance of one another; rather, acceptance that their poverty, poor health and daily struggle was the way God intends.

There was a religious fatalism about what was possible. Hope was often sapped from their daily efforts, it seemed, because the community is ready to accept every disappointment, death, famine or burden as merely what God had planned for them.

This, of course, contrasts sharply with our goals in the community. The scholars on the Innovation Institute are deeply committed to seeing life improve in rural Africa and we believe unrelentingly in the power of people to create a better life for themselves.

Is this “religious fatalism” of accepting life as out-of-their-hands undermining our efforts to achieve social change in partnership with community members? [more]

I think that this world has a huge range of religious organizations, some progressive (which I define as taking concrete steps to make the world a better place) and some accepting (which I define as helping people deal with the world the way it is) and some destructive (which I define as aiming to destroy some aspect of the existing social order.)  A single institution may include more than one of these aspects.

I think the huge range of religious institutions makes the question I posed in this post’s title, “Does religion inspire or inhibit social change?” not especially useful.

I believe it is far more useful to look closely at the specific tactics of religious practice, which may be sermons on “creation care,” or may be exhortations to accept “poverty, poor health, and daily struggle.”

Also, Kansas and Kenya happen to be where Barack Obama’s mother and father were born.  On this particular issue, he seems to stand far closer to the people in Kansas.

What do you think?  In your experience, has religion inspired or inhibited social change?