European Union May Fail: Global Economy to suffer

Clueless in Canada starring the opposition political parties

It appears we are returning to more Global instability that will affect our economy, trade  is hitting the  Front pages again. The revised balance sheet in Greece and  Ireland's refusal in participating in the EU bailout plan. The fear  is other countries such as Portugal and Spain may require financial support if the markets lose confidence.

A simultaneous bail-out for both Ireland and Portugal might run to €200bn, depleting much of the EU rescue line. The European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) can raise up to €440bn on the bond markets but only two thirds of this would be available. The IMF is expected to loan a further €3 for every €8 from the EU under the bail-out formula.

The great concern is that the crisis could spread to Spain, which has a far bigger economy that Greece, Portugal, and Ireland combined. Foreign banks have €850bn of exposure to Spanish debt.

David Schautz, credit strategist at Commerzbank, said the EU bail-out fund would come under "severe strain" if Spain needed a rescue. Yet this remains a serious risk since Spain must roll over or raise €175bn of debt next year.-The Telegraph

Deep cuts by some EU members spark protests.

Will the Government in Britain, Germany, France that are passing austerity budgets be able to convince their citizens on the merit of another bailout by the European Union for the basket cases that are unwilling to accept the same level of cuts in spending?

In Canada our federal political parties on the Hill spent Monday debating the short title of a Government Bill they felt was inappropriate. Clearly the opposition MP's are out of touch with the economic realities of the global economy and the interests of its own citizens. The Coalition to nowhere remains clueless and needs to be held accountable at the earliest election.

Related articles

• Greece's deficit revised to largest in EU (financialpost.com)
• "Europe Believes That Debt Crisis Is Ready To Spread" and related posts (patdollard.com)
• UPDATE 2-Greece faces worse budget gap, blames Germany (reuters.com)
• Irish Resist EU Push to Accept Bailout (online.wsj.com)

Organized crime exploits wind industry

Criminals see an opportunity to tap into billions of euros' worth of European Union subsidies.

Organised groups linked to the Italian Mafia are among those to have infiltrated the industry, Jason Wright, senior director of Kroll's consulting group, told The Times.

While emphasising that the overwhelming majority of European wind projects were "entirely legitimate", he said that criminals were increasingly investing in the industry, both to qualify for subsidies and to launder profits from drug-running and other illegal activities.

Kroll, he added, was doing brisk business conducting due diligence on renewable energy projects on behalf of big banks and other potential investors.

The American-owned Kroll has detected a sharp increase since 2007 in the number of cases involving fraud and corruption in the wind energy sector - chiefly in Italy and Spain but also in Bulgaria, Romania and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe.

"Renewable energy is completely dependent on subsidies, so it is clearly an area for corruption," Mr Wright said.

"Wind farms are a profitable way to make money because of the subsidies, and they are also a great way of laundering it."- Wall Street Journal

Spain is proceeding with plans to cut prices for solar power from new generators, the Industry Ministry said, after talks on broader changes to renewable energy subsidies broke down last week.

Prices for power from ground-based panels may be cut by 45 percent while photovoltaic generators mounted on large roofs face a 25 percent reduction and plants on small roofs will see a 5 percent cut, the ministry said in a statement. 

Funds including London-based HG Capital and Denmark’s AP Pensions have argued that the government was reneging on its legal obligation to maintain the subsidies for 25 years.

The Spanish Banking Association estimated domestic banks have loaned 40 billion euros to renewable-energy projects. Some 600 photovoltaic plant operators may face bankruptcy if the subsidies are cut, the Photovoltaic Industry Association has said. 

Germany’s pioneering solar feed-in tariff law, established 10 years ago, requires power companies to buy renewable energy at a fixed feed-in tariff rate over 20 years, with gradual decreases yearly. The country seeks to source 18 percent of its electricity needs from renewable energy. In the United States, solar rooftop systems produce 1,600 MW of electricity, with less than 800 MW found in California. Canada has 100 MW installed, around half of that installed in Ontario.

Germany’s feed-in tariff cuts comes a week after Spain slashed subsidies enjoyed by solar thermal and wind projects. The Spanish government has decided to limit the number of hours concentrating solar plants can receive tariff premiums and delay the activation of solar plants previously approved for feed-in tariff support. - Germany cuts subsidies to Solar

Image by mars_discovery_district via Flickr

Ontario Power Authority quietly chopped the rate being paid to more profitable installations from 80.2 cents to 58.8 cents per kilowatt hour- Ontario’s rate cut for solar power a blow to green energy

Ka-ching! Ka-ching! or The Only Reason Wind Industry Exists in Ontario

• Subsidized Premium Rate Guaranteed for 20 years

• Flow-through shares

• Renewable Portfolio Standards

• Tax Incentives

• Emission Reduction Credits

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• Domestic Content Rising in U.S. Wind Industry (matternetwork.com)
• P.E.I. wind projects just hot air: opposition (cbc.ca)
• Europe�s major wind projects (ngpowereu.com)
• Spain proposes deep cuts to solar PV support (guardian.co.uk)
• Spain Reduces Feed-In Tariffs for Solar and Wind (solarfeeds.com)
• Spain's Famous Solar Subsidies Gored by Government (fastcompany.com)

Help Save Ontario: When Green turns Red.

On Wind, Green Jobs, deficits. Please read this post by Sean Holt, print, discuss with family,co-workers.

As my research continued and my knowledge diversified, it became obvious wind, solar and bio-energy, even combined, are incapable of making a meaningful contribution to the huge amount of the energy humanity will need in order to replace fossil fuels, either now or into the future. This was a painful and expensive lesson recently learned the hard way by many countries. One need only look to Denmark, Spain, Germany and California for graphic demonstrations of the pitfalls of large-scale alternative energy installations. - Sean Holt

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• Siemens joins Samsung in Ontario green power deal (reuters.com)
• Replace nuclear plant with green power, coalition urges (thestar.com)