from http://www.greentechmedia.com
Economic Times: Solar Could Soon Be Cheaper Than Thermal Energy in India
Solar power could become as cheap as conventional thermal energy over the next two to three years and reach Rs 4-4.5 per unit by FY18, India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) said in a report.
"This will be driven by a decline in capital costs -- solar modules and other balance-of-plant equipment, an increase in efficiency, a shift toward large solar photovoltaic projects leading to the economies of scale and lower return expectations by developers," Ind-Ra said.
AFP: French MPs Vote to Halve Energy Use, Slash Nuclear Dependence
French lawmakers adopted a new law on Wednesday that will halve the country's energy consumption by 2050 and slash its reliance on nuclear energy.
Under the new law approved by the National Assembly, nuclear energy will provide only 50 percent of France's electricity by 2025, down from 75 percent currently.
Six months ahead of the global climate conference in Paris, the legislation also calls for a 30 percent drop in the use of fossil fuels by 2030 (compared with 2012 levels), and a 40 percent drop in greenhouse gas emissions, compared with 1990.
Bloomberg: Wall Street Lenders Growing Impatient With U.S. Shale Revolution
Bank regulators have issued warnings on the risks involved in lending to U.S. drillers, threatening a cash crunch in an industry that’s more dependent than ever on other people’s money. Wall Street has been one of the biggest allies of the shale revolution, bankrolling thousands of wells from Texas to North Dakota. The question is how that will change with oil prices down by half since last year to $50.36 a barrel.
“Lenders in general are increasing pressure on oil companies either to raise more equity or do some sort of transaction to pay down their credit lines and free up extra cash,” said Jimmy Vallee, a partner in the energy mergers and acquisitions practice at law firm Paul Hastings LLP in Houston.
Climate Progress: Jeb Bush Wants to Kill Subsidies for Oil, Gas and Renewables
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush told a student in New Hampshire on Wednesday that he supports killing all subsidies for oil and gas -- including the billions in tax breaks the industry receives each year.
He was responding to a direct question about fossil fuels, but pivoted quickly to renewable sources of energy. “I think we should phase out, through tax reform, the tax credits for wind, for solar, for the oil and gas sector, for all that stuff,” Bush told Griffin Sinclair-Wingate, a student at the University of New Hampshire and an activist with 350.org’s action arm.
Esquire: When the End of Human Civilization Is Your Day Job
For more than thirty years, climate scientists have been living a surreal existence. A vast and ever-growing body of research shows that warming is tracking the rise of greenhouse gases exactly as their models predicted.
The physical evidence becomes more dramatic every year: forests retreating, animals moving north, glaciers melting, wildfire seasons getting longer, higher rates of droughts, floods, and storms -- five times as many in the 2000s as in the 1970s.
And yet, despite some encouraging developments in renewable energy and some breakthroughs in international leadership, carbon emissions continue to rise at a steady rate, and for their pains the scientists themselves -- the cruelest blow of all -- have been the targets of an unrelenting and well-organized attack that includes death threats, summonses from a hostile Congress, attempts to get them fired, legal harassment, and intrusive discovery demands so severe they had to start their own legal-defense fund, all amplified by a relentless propaganda campaign nakedly financed by the fossil-fuel companies.
