IPPBC’s Conference Features National, Heavy Hitter Line-Up
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An FD Element dispatch
Love them or loathe them, no doubt that Independent Power Producers (IPPs) play a pivotal role in positioning BC as a green energy leader. And the 7th Annual IPPBC Conference from November 1 to 3rd is set to showcase the people and ideas behind the scenes who are making clean power happen. The sponsor lists counts heavy hitters such as GE, Capital Power Corporation and EnMax as well as home grown leaders, such as BC Hydro.
In Vancouver? Here is a taste of the Top 12 Things to do at the Conference.
- Sunday Night Welcome Reception - 5pm – 7pm Hyatt Regency 3rd floor
- Sunday Run of River Field Trip - Ashlu Creek Hydro-Power Project
- Short Course 1 - IPP101: An Introduction to Small Hydro and Wind Projects
- Short Course 2 - Fixed-Price Contracts for IPP’s: Discussion Forum
- Short Course 3 - Public Communications for Independent Power Projects
- Opening Speaker - Honourable Blair Lekstrom, Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources
- Monday Keynote Luncheon with Honourable Gordon Campbell Premier
- Powerex Trading Floor Field Trip - Monday 4:30pm - 6pm
- Pre-Awards Dinner Reception 6:00pm - 7:00pm
- Monday Awards Dinner – Reception 6:00 Dinner 7:00
- Tuesday Opening Keynote Speaker – John Webster, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
- Tuesday Keynote Luncheon with David Cornhill Chairman and CEO of AltaGas Income Trust
Traffic Signals on the Road to Copenhagen
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Leave it to the CEO of one of the world’s largest energy companies to put it best: “I don’t think there’s any question that we want Copenhagen to be a success, said Jim Rogers, Chairman and CEO of Duke Energy. “The question is, what is success?”
With the International Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen now less than two months away, buzzing about potential outcomes continues to increase. That does not mean, however, that we are any closer to striking a deal. According to the NYT, the prospects for a successful treaty have all but evaporated.
But just because a binding, comprehensive agreement seems out of reach, global leaders continue to stress the importance of making progress at Copenhagen in advance of continued negotiations throughout 2010. Leaders would like to see incremental steps, even perhaps a loose outline of the agreement to direct the negotiations next year.
Top on the list of issues to resolve is achieving compromise between rich and developing nations over the degree to which the former will help the latter develop and fund technologies to develop more sustainably.
To that end, India and China signed a climate cooperation deal earlier today. This will solidify the seriousness of each country’s commitment to tackling climate change. It also strengthens the unity of developing nations in their approach to the global negotiating table.
Submitted by Grant Draper, President of FD Element
Myth of Clean Coal Finally Coming True?
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Recent developments in the world of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) — aka clean coal — have forced naysayers (remember the Cohen Brothers’ ad from earlier this year?) to eat a bit of crow.
As Climatebiz reported today, Alstom and We Energies recently reported success capturing 90 percent of the carbon produced from a coal-fired plant. The testing, which had been conducted since last year, used a “chilled ammonia” technology to capture the carbon — the same technology currently being used at the Mountaineer power plant in West Virginia.
According to We, CCS technology is on track for commercial deployment by 2015. Key to this will be effective use of the $3.4 billion awarded to DOE for CCS development in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), much of which has already been allocated. Whether or not coal gets even more love in the in the Climate Bill, passed by the House and just recently introduced in the Senate, remains to be seen. But the developments in Wisconsin and West Virginia should certainly help make the case for coal as part of our “clean” energy future.
Vancouver 1st City in the World to Recieve the Nissan LEAF Electric Car
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By Olga Orda
an FDelement.com dispatch.
In an announcement today by Renault–Nissan Alliance, the Province of British Columbia, the City of Vancouver and BC Hydro, British Columbia is scheduled to be the first Canadian province to receive the Nissan LEAF, Nissan’s first all-electric real-world car, in 2011, in advance of global distribution in 2012.
The partnership signals the auto industry’s dogged determination to roll out an electric car despite the well documented Ford EV1 electric industry-versus-consumer fiasco, as narrated in the 2006 documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?”
With rising gas prices, consumer demand for more energy efficient vehicle technologies and a series of high-profile climate change films, such the recent “Age of Stupid,” the LEAF may just be a car whose time has come. (more…)