Bloomberg

Australian Energy: Greening ‘Oz’ Infographic

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Australia has punched above its weight in the global energy sector for years, with its huge natural resources providing a platform for the country’s economy that allowed it to outperform much of the world throughout the lingering post-crisis recessions in the developed world.

The country’s consumers and companies are energy investors and energy leaders, and issues surrounding energy usage and regulation have been political and cultural flashpoints in Australia in recent years. That means that the focus on Australian customers by pollsters and analysts pulling together the Corporate Renewable Energy Index and the Global Consumer Wind Study on behalf of wind company Vestas, TNS Gallup and Bloomberg New Energy Finance formed some of the key figures and results for a sector eyeing a transition to a “clean” economy. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 4, 2012 at 11:15 AM

Australian Renewable Energy Market Nears a Pivot

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The energy sector has transformed Australia’s economic and political fortunes in recent years, with the robust development of coal and natural gas lending it the strength of export powerhouse even as the country’s political leaders have repeatedly stressed a focus on renewable energy and carbon pricing in response to widespread concerns about environmental strain.

Pointing out that Australia had adopted an ambitious renewable energy and carbon emissions reduction campaign since 2006, International Energy Agency Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven welcomed the recent release of the Australian government’s Energy White Paper 2012. The White Paper release comes as the government’s Climate Change Authority prepares to issue a final version of its review of the country’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) program in December, and policy supported by both documents could lend much-needed certainty for renewable energy project developers like power company AGL awaiting confirmation of earlier government targets for renewable energy deployment in Australia. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 20, 2012 at 8:45 AM

Renewable Energy and the Corporation: Leaders Offer Insight

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Why would major corporations – absent a political requirement – get involved in renewable energy investments? Representatives for a group of major North American companies gathered in New York recently to discuss the results of a release of a pair of studies on renewable energy use and its perception among global consumers.

While each speaker at the Energy Transparency 2012 launch at the Bloomberg building in New York said that their companies were in part pursuing energy because it was “the right thing to do,” each also stressed a business reason behind their expansion of investments in renewables. Brand differentiation was cited by TD Bank’s Head of Environmental Affairs Diana Glassman, but so was the appeal to employees. Employees want to work for companies that are responsible about their environmental footprint, even when – as financial or insurance companies – their emissions output is relatively small. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 29, 2012 at 11:00 AM

The Green Republic? Germany’s Wind Energy Boom

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The German wind industry sits at the heart of a European energy market preparing for a disruptive transformation intended to promote integration and allow the rich wind resource of the North to fuel continent-wide growth, without the risks of nuclear power and reliance on foreign energy producers.

It is a comprehensive, ambitious vision that in Germany alone the environment minister Peter Altmaier has compared in scale to the country’s painful post-Communist reunification. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 8, 2012 at 4:00 PM

Energy Transparency Interview: Morten Albaek on Energy’s Present and Future

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Some of the most influential voices in the clean energy sector gathered recently in New York for the US launch of the Corporate Renewable Energy Index and the Global Consumer Wind Study.

Companies manage what is measured, and increasingly understand their customers and their competitors by leveraging the data sets provided by measurements that in previous business cycles would have been difficult to gather, much less compare. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 5, 2012 at 10:15 AM

Energy Transparency in the US: Changes are Real

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The world of renewable energy has changed rapidly over the past decade, moving from a marginal issue for environmentalists to a core component of both energy policy and the consumer mindset.

The energy business, which relies on lengthy lead times and regulatory certainty, has often been slow to adapt to the changes in the world around it and embrace renewable energy production or sustainability issues. That is no longer the case, as major corporations embrace direct investment in the sector to avoid an energy sector they increasingly see as adding major risk to operational reliability and customers become attuned to their energy choices. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 28, 2012 at 9:30 AM

Renewable Energy: Corporates, Financials and Technology Firms Take the Lead

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Companies are at the leading edge of wind globally, not least in the US. Starbucks recently sent a joint letter with 18 other US companies to Congress to request an extension of the Production Tax Credit which has helped grow installed capacity.

Ben & Jerry’s, Clif Bar, Johnson & Johnson, Levi Strauss & Co, The North Face, Sprint, Starbucks, Symantec, Timberland and Yahoo! are just a selection of household corporate names that understand the value of a sustainable wind industry to the consumer and the bottom line. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 25, 2012 at 2:30 PM

Energy’s Brave New Transparent World

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Energy supply will soon no longer be a commodity, exchangeable and undifferentiated. Transparency about methods of production combined with increased consumer enthusiasm for authentic ways of ensuring their habits don’t harm the planet will ensure a shift in how energy is made, consumed and tracked.

That’s the brave new world Morten Albaek envisions as he considers the “puzzle” that is the energy mix today. Albaek is Global Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Corporate Relations at Vestas, the Denmark-based world leading wind energy company, but his approach to the business of selling wind turbines to the world is based on a fundamental view of the sector’s place in history, and its development. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 24, 2012 at 9:30 AM

UK Wind Energy: Business Leadership and Green Growth

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Fast forward to a vision of Britain in the year 2020: 30% of the UK’s electricity demand will produce zero carbon; utilities will be settling balance sheets to the satisfaction of shareholders; investors will be counting a decent return on investment; government ministers will be celebrating the success of their policies; consumers will be paying reasonable rates to power and light their homes and businesses.

If a week is a long time in politics, eight years is a very short cycle in the energy industry and without an acceleration of government action, the UK is at risk of failing on its target of sourcing 15% of its demand from renewable sources. Every aspect of the dream scenario described above could be reversed. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 17, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Energy Transparency Studies Released

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Global investment in renewable energy capacity hit $237 billion in 2011, outpacing the $223 billion invested in new fossil fuel capacity globally, according to new data prepared by Bloomberg New Energy Finance for Vestas.

Moves by corporations to invest in renewable energy has the support of consumers as well, says a company data set – the Global Consumer Wind Study – also collected for Vestas and published as part of its Energy Transparency 2012 effort. Breaking Energy has partnered with Vestas on the Energy Transparency campaign as well. Read more about it here. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 14, 2012 at 2:00 PM
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