We Energies to retire 1.8 gigawatts of fossil fuel; utility adding solar, wind, battery storage

Wisconsin’s largest utility plans to replace nearly half its coal-fired generation with a portfolio of solar, wind, batteries and natural gas plants as part of a $16.1 billion spending plan that the company says will generate profits for investors and save money for ratepayers.

WEC Energy Group plans to retire 1,800 megawatts of fossil fuel generation — including the South Oak Creek coal plant near Racine — over the next five years while adding 1,500 megawatts of clean energy and storage capacity along with 300 megawatts of natural gas generation.

Oak Creek, Wis., coal-fired electrical power stations. 

Coburn Dukehart/Wisconsin Watch

https://www.wpr.org/states-largest-utility-will-retire-1-800-megawatts-fossil-fuel-generation

Utility chairman Gale Klappa announced the capital plan during a call with investors Tuesday, in which he said it would help WEC meet its goal of carbon neutral electricity by 2050 and achieve a 55% reduction in carbon emissions by 2025.

Klappa said the spending plan, which is $1.1 billion larger than the previous five-year plan, will increase company profits by 5% to 7% a year while also saving ratepayers what amounts to $50 million a year over the next two decades.
...
In broad terms, the plan calls for building 800 megawatts of solar generation and 100 megawatts of wind generation coupled with 600 megawatts of battery storage, which can be used to balance those intermittent renewable resources.

“The data show that battery storage has now become a cost-effective option for us,” Klappa said.

The announcement comes as Wisconsin’s first utility-scale solar plant came online. Jointly owned by WEC subsidiary Wisconsin Public Service Corp. and Madison Gas and Electric, the 150-megawatt Two Creeks Solar Farm in Manitowoc County began commercial operation Monday.

Curtis Waltz Wisconsin Public Service Corp

WEC also intends to purchase a 200-megawatt share of Alliant Energy’s new West Riverside natural gas plant and build 100 megawatts of natural gas-powered peaking plants.

The company said those acquisitions will allow it to retire the 1,100-megawatt South Oak Creek power plant, whose four generators are all more than 50 years old, in 2023 and 2024.

WEC’s oldest coal-fired plant, South Oak Creek is the single largest source of toxic metals dumped into Lake Michigan, according to a Chicago Tribune analysis of federal data.

Last year, the Department of Natural Resources gave WEC until the end of next year to stop using water to remove ash from the boilers, a process that can lead to mercury and other toxins seeping into groundwater.
...
Klappa said closing an older plant like South Oak Creek could save $50 million a year in operational and maintenance costs.
...
Consumer advocates cautioned that ratepayer savings will depend on how regulators handle the hundreds of millions of dollars WEC has invested in fossil fuel plants over the past two decades.
...
On Thursday the Public Service Commission approved a plan for WEC to refinance $100 million of its remaining investment in pollution controls at its Pleasant Prairie coal plant, which WEC retired in 2018 saying it would save millions of dollars for ratepayers.  The financing arrangement, known as securitization, is expected to save ratepayers about $40 million.  Consumer and environmental advocates, as well as regulators, say securitization could be a key tool for paying off plants that are no longer economic to run.

Despite attempts by the Trump administration to prop up the coal industry, South Oak Creek is the 329th U.S. coal plant targeted for retirement since 2010, according to the Sierra Club.  Over the past decade, U.S. utilities have retired or replaced 95,000 megawatts of coal-fired capacity in response to tighter air pollution standards and increasingly unfavorable economics, according to the Energy Information Administration. Another 25,000 megawatts of coal capacity are expected to retire by 2025.  In the first six months of 2020, the U.S. electric power sector consumed 30% less coal than in the first half of 2019, according to recent data from the EIA.
...
Alliant Energy, which plans to add 1,000 megawatts of solar generation in Wisconsin, this year has announced plans to close its 415-megawatt Edgewater plant in Sheboygan by the end of 2022, while the company’s Iowa utility said last month it would also close a 275-megawatt coal plant in Lansing on the Mississippi River.

FOR FULL STORY GO TO:

https://www.kenoshanews.com/news/state-and-regional/we-energies-to-retire-1-8-gigawatts-of-coal-replace-with-solar-batteries-gas

by Chris Hubbuch 
Kenosha News https://www.kenoshanews.com

November 6, 2020

also see https://www.wpr.org/states-largest-utility-will-retire-1-800-megawatts-fossil-fuel-generation

City to acquire streetlights, replace them with LEDs ... New lights projected to reduce energy consumption by 70% [in Warwick Rhode Island]

"If all goes as planned, residents [of Warwick Rhode Island] won’t be waiting for weeks to have a burned-out streetlight replaced; they’ll have better roads, and best of all, the cost of borrowing all the money to get this done will be covered by all the savings."

Key elements to the plan are city-owned LED streetlights that will save an estimated $750,000 now being paid to National Grid for the maintenance of an estimated 9,000 Warwick streetlights, plus additional energy savings, and a low-cost 10-year loan estimated at 1.3 percent for $10.2 million from the Rhode Island Infrastructure Bank. The loan would fund a ramped up three-year road replacement and paving program, while the savings from streetlights would cover loan debt costs.

On Monday, the City Council gave second passages to ordinances authorizing the purchase of streetlights, conversion of fixtures to light-emitting diode (LED) technology and the financing of the project through an “appropriation obligation” bond not to exceed $3.2 million and the borrowing of the $10.2 million.....

In preparation for the streetlight conversion that it is hoped can be completed by this time next year, the city has solicited bids for the acquisition and installation of a system as well as its maintenance. Eight bids have been received for maintenance of the system.... For the acquisition and installation of the system, the city received two bids... Among the issues to be considered in addition to price, equipment and timing are the capabilities of the system and whether they could generate additional savings and be of use to other departments.

http://www.energy.ri.gov/efficiency/streetlights/

With a basic system, photoelectric cells would control when the lights go on and off. However, there is ... technology to link the lights into a “mesh network” that would give the city the capability to turn on or off lights as well as control their output by neighborhoods. The cloud-based system would come at a higher cost and would require the installation of repeaters and gateways as well as a monthly fee. An alternative is a cell phone-based system where each light is independent of the other and doesn’t require repeaters or gateways. It would have the capability of incorporating cameras. Both systems would provide real-time data on the system identifying outages and allowing ... [regulation of] the output of light.

The city is looking [at whether] ... the capability of reducing power and perhaps evening blacking some areas of the city during early morning hours could generate sufficient savings to more than offset added upfront costs and operational fees.

According to Michael D’Amico, financial advisor for the city, the light management option would cost an additional $1 million and the network mesh an added $1.3 million from the basic dusk to dawn photocell system at $3.2 million. At this point he doesn’t see a cost benefit to going with either of the more interactive systems.

With LEDs it is also easier to regulate the light shed so, for instance, sidewalks and streets can be lit without light spilling into abutting properties.

As streetlights don’t have individual meters, there’s not a precise knowledge of the energy being consumed. The city now pays National Grid a “tariff” based on light wattage and estimated power usage over the year. In addition it pays a maintenance fee.

It is estimated once the city replaces all the National Grid lights (it will buy those fixtures for a total cost of about $50,000) with LEDs energy consumption will be reduced by 70 percent.

...

Since the city will own the lights, it will assume their maintenance. The [warranty] on the lights that have a projected life expectancy of 10 years would mean the city would have little or no maintenance issues in the first year.

The cost of maintenance is being viewed as the major cost saving of the program with the potential of offsetting borrowing costs for the mayor’s road program.

The projected savings of $775,000 would offset about half the debt service costs of both the $3.2 million and $10.2 million bonds, D’Amico said.... 

When he announced the program, the mayor noted the historically low interest rates available as a common-sense and cost-effective way to address the city’s myriad infrastructure needs. The weighted interest rate for the bonds is expected to be 1.3 percent. Savings from the LED technology will significantly offset debt service costs. 

...

The city would spread the repayment of the bonds over ten years.

Furthermore, by contracting for the maintenance, the burden is not placed on the Department of Public Works and the city can dictate acceptable periods for the work to be completed. A maximum of five days is being considered for the replacement of a nonfunctioning light. Currently it can take several months to replace a streetlight.

...

by John Howell

http://warwickonline.com/stories/lighting-up-savings,150405

"City to acquire streetlights, replace them with LEDs; $10.2 million for roads also planned"

Warwick Online www.warewickonline.com

Posted Thursday, January 9, 2020

Japanese knotweed knocks £20bn off value of UK property market - It is estimated that up to 900,000 UK households are affected by the weed, which the Environment Agency describes as one of the ‘most aggressive, destructive and invasive plants’

Japanese knotweed has knocked £20bn off the total value of the UK property market, according to new research, with many mortgage lenders refusing loans for properties affected by the weed.

Japanese knotweed is an ornamental plant that first came to the UK in the 1850s. Now it is one of “the UK’s most aggressive, destructive and invasive plants” according to the Environment Agency, due to its ability to spread through tarmac, concrete, driveways and drains.

A recent survey by YouGov and Environet UK, which specialises in removing the weed, found that around 5 per cent of UK houses are currently affected by knotweed, either directly or indirectly (when a neighbouring property is affected).

...

According to the latest Land Registry price index, the average UK house costs £228,000. The presence of Japanese knotweed has diminished the value of affected houses by 10 percent, creating an average loss of £22,800 to property owners.

It is estimated that between 850,000 and 900,000 UK households are affected by the Japanese plant....

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fallopia_japonica_-_Japanese_knotweed,_Japanintatar,_Parkslide_C_IMG_6997.JPG  Anneli Salo

Japanese knotweed also appeared in several high profile legal cases this year, as landowners were successfully sued for allowing the plant to spread into neighbouring properties.

Marc Montaldo of Cobley’s Solicitors, who specialises in Japanese knotweed litigations, said: “In legal cases relating to diminution in value due to knotweed, we typically see claims for around 10 perent of the property’s value. This is due to the stigma attached to knotweed impacting its future sale price.”

Sellers are now required to inform future buyers whether the property is or has been affected by Japanese knotweed even if it the plant has been removed.

Furthermore, mortgage lenders will usually refuse to give out loans unless property owners have a knotweed management plan with an insurance-backed guarantee in place.

...

by Cristian Angeloni

FOR FULL STORY GO TO:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/japanese-knotweed-house-prices-property-value-mortgage-insurance-how-to-treat-a8557971.html

The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk
September 28, 2018

Road makers turn to recycled plastic for tougher surfaces - On the plastic highway

OF ALL the plastic produced since the 1950s, less than 10% has been recycled. The vast majority ends up being dumped, most of it in landfill. Some is left to litter the natural environment, where it can get into rivers and wash out into the sea (see article). The plastic-waste problem will worsen before it gets better: some 380m tonnes of the stuff are likely to be made this year.... 

... Just as plastic is derived from petrochemicals, bitumen is produced as a by-product of refining oil. Both are polymers, which consist of long strands of molecules bound together firmly. It is this characteristic that makes plastic strong and contributes to its great longevity.... 

Recycled plastic is already used to make some products, such as guttering and sewage pipes.... On September 11th in Zwolle, a town in the Netherlands, a 30-metre bicycle track made from 70% recycled plastic and the rest from polypropylene was opened. It will be used to test a product called PlasticRoad, which is being developed by two Dutch firms—KWS, a road builder, and Wavin, a firm that makes plastic piping—in partnership with Total, a French oil-and-gas firm.

https://www.plasticroad.eu/en/

PlasticRoad is prefabricated in a factory as modular sections. The sections are then transported to the site and laid end to end on a suitable foundation, such as sand. Because these sections are hollow, internal channels can be incorporated into them for drainage, along with conduits for services such as gas and electricity.... These were fitted with sensors to measure things such as temperature, flexing and the flow of water through the drainage channels. A second pilot cycleway is being built in the nearby town of Giethoorn.

Smart roads, too

... Car parks and railway platforms could follow.... [Plastic road] could contain sensors for traffic monitoring. In time, the circuits in the plastic roads might extend to assisting autonomous vehicles and recharging electric cars wirelessly.

Prefabricated plastic roads should last two-to-three times longer than conventional roads and cost less, the companies claim, mainly because construction times would be reduced by almost two-thirds. Anti-slip surfaces could be incorporated...

An alternative method of using recycled plastic is to mix the material into hot bitumen when making asphalt. A road is about to be built this way on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, to test a number of specialist roadmaking plastics developed by MacRebur, a British firm. Each mix is produced from plastic that is not easily or cheaply recycled and so typically ends up in landfill....

...

The company’s plastic mixes have already been used in roads, car parks and airport runways in various parts of the world. One of the oldest projects is a stretch of road in Cumbria, in north-west Britain, which is extensively used by heavy lorries. This used to need resurfacing every six months or so, but with the addition of plastic it is still going strong after two years....

Cleaning and sorting plastic made out of multiple polymers can be relatively expensive, especially if it is used to make low-value products such as packaging. But using such plastic as a replacement for bitumen is cost-effective, claims Mr McCartney. As an example, he says that a tonne of bitumen might cost around £400 ($521) in Britain. A recycled-plastic additive for a standard road works out at £300-£350 a tonne. The additive would replace a proportion of the bitumen, so there are savings to be made. At present 5-10% of the bitumen is replaced by the additives, but this could be increased to 25%.

...

Australia is another country that is starting to recycle plastic into roads. Earlier this year a 300-metre stretch was completed in ... a suburb of Melbourne, using a substance called Plastiphalt.

...

Stuart Billing of Downer, a firm involved in constructing the road, said that the cost of using the recycled materials was comparable with building a road in the usual way. But the road is expected to last a lot longer and prove better at coping with heavy traffic.

...

FOR FULL STORY GO TO:

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2018/09/15/road-makers-turn-to-recycled-plastic-for-tougher-surfaces

The Economist Newspaper https://www.economist.com

September 13, 2018

It’s a Superfund Site, but It’s Also Their Livelihood - The New York Times

...

Alberto Rodriguez', Los Primos Auto Repair and Sale, is one of six businesses at the intersection of Cooper and Irving Avenues in Ridgewood, Queens, that have been targeted for demolition as part of a cleanup plan released recently by the Environmental Protection Agency. The businesses are within a Superfund site, the term for sites covered by a program that finances the cleanup of hazardous waste.

The small, triangle-shaped tract, hemmed in on one side by an abandoned rail spur, does not look particularly active...  But for business owners like Mr. Rodriguez, who have turned the block into a one-stop shop for automotive needs ... the proposed plan threatens to uproot well-established livelihoods.

...

Mr. Rodriguez’s shop sits atop land formerly occupied by the Wolff-Alport Chemical Company, which from the 1920s through the 1950s extracted metals from imported sand. In the process, the company produced waste containing two radioactive elements, thorium and uranium, which it disposed of by dumping the waste into sewers and perhaps also by burying it .......

https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0206479

The E.P.A. has been aware of radioactive contamination at the site since at least 1988, but it was not until 2014 that the agency assigned Superfund status to the site. Before then, the E.P.A. installed interim protections, including placing slabs of concrete, lead and steel beneath floors and sidewalks to block radiation from emanating upward.

Those measures wreaked havoc with Mr. Rodriguez’s business, he said. 

...

The demolition plans are not final. Another possibility raised in the plan is the demolition of just the vacant warehouse and the excavation of soil around the remaining buildings. That option would require government checkups every five years, the plan said, with maintenance costs “in perpetuity.”

...

The health risks from the radiation at the site are small, said Dr. David Brenner, the director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University Medical Center, who reviewed the E.P.A.’s risk estimates at a reporter’s request. If no further remediation were done at the site, a future resident would see an increased risk of cancer of about 0.005 percent, the plan predicted.

Walter Mugdan, an acting deputy regional administrator for the E.P.A., acknowledged that the site’s tenants “are not in any significant danger at all.” But the agency’s goal, he said, is to ensure that the site can be used in the future, perhaps even for residential development.

...

Any demolition would not be undertaken until 2019 or 2020 at the earliest, Mr. Mugdan said. About two dozen Superfund sites are ready for cleanup at any given time, he said, but because of limited funding, usually work begins on only six to eight each year. The projected cost of the government’s preferred plan for the Wolff-Alport cleanup is more than $39 million.

The E.P.A. often seeks to hold companies responsible for the contamination financially accountable for the cleanup, but Wolff-Alport has been defunct for decades. Mr. Mugdan said his agency would try to determine if the company ever sold itself to any existing firms.

The protracted timeline for demolition offers small consolation to the site’s current tenants. “The rent is crazy. I can’t find a place like that,” said Mr. Rodriguez, who pays $3,600 a month in rent.... The E.P.A. will offer small businesses up to $25,000 to help them set up at another location....

...

FOR FULL STORY GO TO:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/04/nyregion/queens-epa-superfund-radiation-businesses.html

By VIVIAN WANG

The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com

August. 4, 2017

Also see

The Most Radioactive Place in New York City

Queens' Hottest New Bar Is "The Most Radioactive Place in New York City"

https://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/6427a6b7538955c585257359003f0230/609e310b78c3ef7a85257cd20055a13a!OpenDocument

https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0206479

https://ny.curbed.com/2014/7/3/10079546/ridgewoods-radioactive-superfund-site-worries-neighbors

Electrifying India, With the Sun and Small Loans

FOR FULL STORY GO TO: http://tinyurl.com/h2ytvh4 The New York Times www.NYTimes.com

A few years ago, the hundred or so residents of Paradeshappanamatha, a secluded hamlet in the southern Indian state of Karnataka ...watched as government workers hoisted a solar-powered streetlamp....

When B. Prasad arrived two years later to encourage people here to abandon kerosene lighting for solar-powered home systems, people had some idea what he was talking about. What sounded preposterous to the village residents was the price. Mr. Prasad, an agent for Solar Electric Light Company, or Selco, was selling a panel and battery that would power three lights and an attached socket for phone charging for approximately 12,800 rupees, or $192.

... P. C. Kalayya ... and his neighbors rise early in the morning to walk miles along a nearly impassable dirt road to work on coffee, pepper and betel nut plantations. Mr. Kalayya earns $3 a day ... and half his wage is withheld by his employer as repayment for various loans.

... Selco agents succeeded in persuading Mr. Kalayya and 10 other village households to make the switch. Now, his wife can better see how much spice she is putting in as she cooks, and Pratima, their 18-year-old daughter, can study long after dark.

http://tinyurl.com/j38potp

The idea behind Selco, and other companies like it, is to create a business model that will help some of the 1.2 billion people in the world who don’t have electricity to leapfrog the coal-dependent grid straight to renewable energy sources.

About a quarter of the world’s off-the-grid people, or 300 million or so, live in India, mostly in remote, rural communities ... or in informal urban settlements. Hundreds of millions more get electricity for only a few hours a day. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to achieve universal electrification in India by the end of 2022. His main effort is adding hundreds of new coal plants, which have contributed to near-apocalyptic pollution levels across large swaths of the country.

... Mr. Modi has also promised investments that would significantly increase production from renewable sources. Partly to that end, Mr. Modi and President François Hollande of France started an “International Solar Alliance” during the recent climate talks in Paris. With an initial pledge of $30 million from India, Mr. Modi said that the eventual goal was $1 trillion in global funding for solar technology development by 2030.

Solar power accounts for just 1 percent of India’s current electricity production, mostly through large plants that contribute power to the grid, but a generation of Indian energy entrepreneurs is out to prove that a faster, cleaner and ultimately more economical route to universal electrification is through solar home systems.
...
Selco India ... was one of the first of more than 40 companies now offering solar home systems in India.

Selco systems typically include a small panel connected to a battery that stores enough power to run one or more lights, phone chargers and, with higher wattage options, some small appliances. Since its inception in 1995, Selco India has sold 318,400 solar home systems, and has provided power systems to almost 10,000 schools, hospitals and other institutions....
...

For two decades, Selco has worked to persuade a network of banks to provide financing options to poor people who were typically seen as too risky. As Mohan Hegde, the company’s operations manager, noted, “The idea behind Selco is to take a poor man to the bank and see if what he can afford to pay per month is acceptable to the lenders.”

Wind Power Spreads Through Turbines for Lease

Three years ago, Ed Doody and his brothers, Kevin and Rich, installed a wind turbine at the dairy farm they operate [in Tully NY], looking to cut electric bills. They were so happy with the results that each got a turbine for his home, visible from the farm, which overlooks rolling hills and orchards.
...

Although rooftop solar systems have spread rapidly throughout the country over the last eight years — spurred by providers offering home systems free — wind energy has generally remained the province of industrial-scale operations providing power to utilities and big businesses.
...

But now, a start-up called United Wind is applying the rooftop solar model to wind, installing and maintaining systems at little to no upfront cost to the customer. As with the solar systems from companies like SolarCity and Sunrun, customers sign long-term agreements to buy the electricity the systems produce at prices set below those from their local utility. Most of the company’s customers, including the Doodys, are in rural areas like central and western New York, but the firm is rapidly expanding its reach.

[The United Wind website at www.UnitedWind.com reports that  Double A Vineyards expects annual production of 134,000 kWh (84% of usage) and 20 Year Savings of 34%; Kurt and Cathy Schmitt production over  17,000kWh (84% of usage) and expected 20 Year Savings of 57%; and Ed Doody over 16,000 kWh (99% of usage) and 20 Year Savings of 73%.\

http://unitedwind.com/locking-in-energy-price/
The company, which was formed in 2013 in New York through the combination of a leading distributor of small turbines and a digital site-assessment business, has raised about $40 million in project financing — including $13.5 million announced in October from the NY Green Bank, a state-sponsored investment fund, and U.S. Bank — and signed about 125 leases. Executives said they were in talks for a significantly larger investment that would allow United Wind to develop about 1,000 more projects in the Midwest.
...
According to a report this year from Navigant Research, worldwide revenue from the turbines — defined as anything under 500 kilowatts — will grow to nearly $2.4 billion in 2023 from $1 billion in 2015, in part spurred by the development of the lease model. Still, the United States is expected to remain far behind leaders like Britain, China and Italy, with only $216 million in revenue by 2023.
...
Over the decades, the American market has waxed and waned, said Jennifer Jenkins, executive director of the Distributed Wind Energy Association, a trade group that focuses on wind energy that is generated and used on site. But the market has grown from something originally aimed at remote, off-grid and island communities to something that the group hopes can reach 30 gigawatts worth of installations by 2030, up from 906 megawatts, reflecting 74,000 turbines installed across the 50 states by the end of 2014, according to the Department of Energy.
...

Having recognizable companies like Honda, Walmart and Anheuser-Busch install wind turbines at highly visible facilities helps, making distributed wind a more mainstream symbol of green energy, Ms. Jenkins said. Turbines are also sprouting up on office buildings and at locations as diverse as Logan Airport in Boston, Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia and even at the Eiffel Tower, where two turbines are nestled.
...
A wind turbine has cut the cost to run Ed Doody’s swimming pool and almost made a wood-burning boiler system unnecessary.

The turbines are much smaller and, often mounted on open-lattice towers, can appear lighter than the behemoths typically used on large wind farms. Still, they can be noisy and create a visual intrusion on a landscape. The Doody brothers said they had heard little objection.
...
Customers typically see savings of at least 10 percent over power provided by a public utility and, as with solar leases, can save even more if they prepay all or part of their contract to avoid the annual rate increases, 1.9 percent in United Wind’s contracts. In all, a typical homeowner will save $20,000 and a typical farm $200,000 over the life of the lease, generally 20 years.

The Doodys, who did not want to offer specifics on their savings, said the installations had proved successful, covering two-thirds of the power needed to run their twice-daily milking operation and producing even more electricity than anticipated for the farm and their homes. Rather than send the excess back to the utility for a small fee — the Doodys say they earn about 4 cents per kilowatt-hour but pay 14 cents to buy power — Kevin Doody recently installed on-demand hot water to use it up....

...

For Full Story go to: http://tinyurl.com/o8mxlk6

By Diane Cardwell

The New York Times www.NYTimes.com

December 18, 2015

Guangdong sells 3.89 mln carbon permits

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/news/2014/1/8/carbon-markets/guangdong-sells-389-mln-carbon-permits

China's Guangdong province ... sold 3.89 million carbon permits at the minimum price of 60 yuan (AU$11.11, US$9.88) each in its second allowance auction.

A total of 46 companies bid successfully for permits, with bids ranging from 60 yuan to 65 yuan....

Five million permits were on offer, but the auction was not fully subscribed....

In its first auction last month, Guangdong sold 3 million permits at 60 yuan [also].

The Guangdong emissions trading exchange, the world's second biggest, caps carbon dioxide emissions from 242 of the province's power generators and manufacturers, and covered companies must buy 3 per cent of the permits they need through government auctions.

The province will sell a total of 29 million permits for calendar year 2013 by the end of June.

Reuters via Business Spectator www.businessspectator.com.au

January 8, 2014

Reuters -- EU Carbon Price Headed Up ---- Or Down ---- in 2014

http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/reutersnews/1.3695182

POLL-Analysts lower 2014 EU carbon price forecasts

13 Jan 2014 16:11

LONDON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Analysts have lowered their forecasts for European Union carbon permit prices for the full year of 2014 due to uncertainty about when a supply cut will come into effect this year, according to a Reuters survey of 10 analysts.

http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/reutersnews/1.3599090

EU to lead global carbon market recovery in 2014: BNEF

08 Jan 2014 10:09

LONDON, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Efforts to curb supply in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme will raise European carbon prices by more than 50 percent this year and boost the value of global emissions markets for the first time since 2011, analysts say.

On Thursday January 16, 2014 the carbon allowance price was 5.10 Euros per ton on the secondary market , up from 4.80 on January 15th, and from 4.91 on January 1st but down from 5.77 on January 16, 2013 (http://www.eex.com/en/Market%20Data/Trading%20Data/Emission%20Rights).