Rio+20

Top UN officials stress need for concrete commitments ahead of Rio+20 conference - United Nations top officials today stressed the need to achieve concrete commitments ahead of the Sustainable Development Conference (Rio+20) in Brazil, and called on countries to make progress in the last round of negotiations before the Conference starts next month. (UN News Centre)

Water, energy and land access, Rio+20, and palm oil's toll on West Papua - Last week, the EU published its flagship annual European Development Report, which this year focused on fair access to water, energy and land. (Liz Ford, The Guardian)

Energy access

Africa: Solar Power Pioneer Brings Affordable Energy to Rural Africa - A company specializing in providing affordable solar power products for Africa's poor has been selected alongside six other organizations from India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Peru and Afghanistan as a finalist for the 2012 Ashden Awards, the world's leading green energy prize. (All Africa)

India Targets Doubling of Renewable-Energy Installations to 2017 - India plans to more than double its amount of clean power generation capacity to almost 53,000 megawatts by 2017 under the latest five year plan. (Natalie Obiko Pearson, Businessweek)

South Africa green lights another 1GW of wind and solar power - Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas emerged as a major winner in South Africa's latest tender round for new renewable energy projects designed to boost the country's energy security and drive down emissions. (Business Green)

Sustainable energy policy

WBCSD Blueprint Details Business Policy Pursuits for Rio+20 - The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has launched “Changing Pace,” a detailed blueprint of policy recommendations to scale up business solutions that can tackle our most pressing sustainability challenges. (Sustainable Plant)

Biomass-based power producers seek regulators' help to resolve issues - Amid growing regulatory and administrative uncertainties the biomass-based power producers have sought the intervention of Forum of Regulators (FoR) for early resolution of issues relating to open access, cross subsidy, CDM sharing, penalty clause imposed by certain distribution companies for maintaining plant load factor and the tariff structure. (Sanjay Jog, Business Standard)

Energy bill to boost clean energy production - The government's draft energy bill, designed to encourage major investment in clean energy generation, could result in higher consumer bills, critics have said. The government's draft energy bill, designed to encourage major investment in clean energy generation, could result in higher consumer bills, critics have said. (BBC)

Energy efficiency

Massachusetts Addresses "Biomass Loophole" and Limits Subsidies - The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) issued regulations recently limiting ratepayer-funded subsidies known as renewable energy certificates (RECs) to only those biomass power plants which adhere to scientific standards for climate and forest impacts. (Erica Gies, Forbes)

Kenya: Kengen to Construct Sh57 Billion Power Plant - Kenyan electricity generating company KenGen plans to raise funds from private investors for a $686 million gas-fired power plant to run on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), Managing Director Eddy Njoroge said on Friday. (Reuters)
Renewable energy

Renewable energy

South Africa shows Australia how to do green energy - South Africa is pushing forward with its ambitious renewable energy rollout, announcing overnight it has awarded contracts for another $3.4 billion of renewable energy developments, with 19 wind, solar and hydropower projects totaling 1,043MW getting the nod. (Giles Parkinson, RenewEconomy)

Renewables Help Soothe Texas Power Adequacy Concerns - Hardly a week has passed since Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association, TREIA, hosted the Electric Generation Adequacy & Reliability Forum at the Texas State Capitol on Tuesday, May 8 where Texas PUC Commissioner Pablos and industry leaders spoke to a standing room only audience about issues facing energy industries in Texas. (MarketWatch