US may miss out on green tech boom: Germany

by AFP Staff Writers

Berlin (AFP) Mar 26, 2025

Europe must seize on the “huge economic opportunities” offered by the green technology boom, Germany said Wednesday — adding it was up to the United States if it decided to miss out.

Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump’s administration has withdrawn the United States from the landmark Paris Agreement for a second time and vowed to focus heavily on fossil fuel extraction.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a climate conference in Berlin that he “deeply regretted” the United States leaving the Paris climate accord and stressed the “enormous” economic opportunities it is missing out on.

“The global market for climate-friendly key technologies continues to grow rapidly,” Scholz told the Petersberg Climate Dialogue.

He said investments in the global energy transition had exceeded the $2 trillion mark, which “corresponds to the volume of the entire global oil trade today”.

The meeting’s host, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, said economic data contradicted the “old prejudice” that investing in climate protection was “unaffordable”.

“We all know that there are spoilers in the world right now who want to prevent” greater climate investments, she told the first major meeting of the year related to the COP30 summit taking place in Brazil in November.

Baerbock added that “today climate protection and economic growth no longer contradict one another”.

“Climate protection opens up huge economic opportunities, and we as Europeans want to seize them”, she added.

Europe especially wants to work with “companies and countries in Latin America, Africa and other regions around the world,” Baerbock said.

“If others, such as the United States, decide to stay out of it, that is their decision.”

– ‘Renewing economies’ –

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres echoed Baerbock’s message, telling the Berlin meeting in a virtual address that “renewables are renewing economies”.

“They are powering growth, creating jobs, lowering energy bills and cleaning our air. And every day, they become an even smarter investment.”

Baerbock also hailed as “historic” a recent agreement struck in Germany to channel an extra 100 billion euros ($107 billion) to climate measures.

Her Greens, who are set to leave government after faring poorly in February elections, wrung the concession from other political parties in exchange for agreeing to support plans for greater defence and infrastructure spending.

EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra meanwhile warned that the world was living in “tremendously difficult times”.

“We’re facing problems literally from every direction — and clearly also in the domain of climate action,” he told the meeting.

Beyond the United States withdrawing from climate cooperation, there have also been concerns that the issue is being pushed down the global agenda by national security and economic pressures.

“But there’s no alternative,” Hoekstra stressed. “Humanity doesn’t have an alternative and cannot wait.

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Seven universities unite to propel solar projects over California canal system

by Clarence Oxford

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 26, 2025

A coalition of faculty from seven prominent research institutions, including six based in California, has launched an ambitious initiative aimed at scaling up the use of solar panel arrays installed over California’s vast canal infrastructure.

The California Solar Canal Initiative (CSCI), driven by researchers at the USC Dornsife Public Exchange in partnership with Solar AquaGrid, seeks to provide critical data and strategic insights to help government agencies, utilities, and communities implement solar canal systems effectively. Their work builds on a 2021 study from the University of California, Merced, published in Nature Sustainability, which projected that spanning the state’s 4,000-mile canal network with solar panels could generate clean power, save land, lower air pollution, and conserve significant volumes of water.

The effort has drawn support from key state agencies overseeing water and energy, including the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA), and the California Energy Commission (CEC). Researchers will work closely with these bodies to identify ideal sites, align with existing land and water policies, and foster cooperation with local communities willing to host such projects.

“California is leading the way in exploring innovative solutions to tackle climate change and strengthen our water and energy resilience,” said CNRA Secretary Wade Crowfoot. “We are excited to see top research institutions come together to help deploy solar panels over water canals – a big idea with great potential. Science-driven collaborations like this one are critical to guide our path forward.”

The research team will explore how solar canals can:

– Adapt to shifting energy demands;

– Provide added value that rivals other distributed solar technologies;

– Support existing canal maintenance and operations;

– Comply with current regulatory frameworks for land and water;

– Deliver benefits to communities where the infrastructure is deployed.

Participating institutions include USC, UC Merced, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC College of the Law San Francisco, San Jose State University, and the University of Kansas. The group brings together a multidisciplinary team of scholars whose work is supported by an advisory council composed of leaders from the public, private, and academic sectors. Chaired by Solar AquaGrid, this council features members from DWR, CNRA, CEC, California Forward, New Energy Nexus, Environmental Policy Center, and Stanford Water in the West.

Not all canals are suitable for solar development, but the UC Merced study estimated that full coverage of California’s exposed canals could:

– Generate enough electricity to power approximately 2 million homes annually;

– Save enough water to support up to 2 million residents each year;

– Avoid the need to develop up to 50,000 acres of land by using existing infrastructure.

Additional advantages noted in the study include potential reductions in canal maintenance costs due to shading, increased solar panel efficiency thanks to water’s cooling effects, and the creation of local job opportunities in system installation and upkeep.

Despite recent years of heavy rainfall and flood emergencies, California’s climate scientists warn that the state will continue experiencing extreme weather shifts between floods and prolonged drought. Given climate change’s intensifying impact, sustainable water use and expanded clean energy generation remain crucial priorities for California’s future.

The CSCI aligns with the state’s broader environmental ambitions, including its target of 100 percent clean electricity by 2045 and its 30×30 land conservation pledge. This initiative follows the launch of Project Nexus in 2023, California’s first pilot for solar canals, now under construction in the Central Valley. That project exemplifies a public-private-academic collaboration among the Turlock Irrigation District, Solar AquaGrid, UC Merced, and the California Department of Water Resources.

More information about CSCI, including a media kit, faculty details, and research focus areas, is available at: https://publicexchange.usc.edu/csci-media-kit/.

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Study links solar surge to evening price hikes for fossil energy

by Clarence Oxford

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Mar 26, 2025

A new study examining electricity markets in Western Australia reveals that the rapid spread of rooftop solar installations can unintentionally increase market power among fossil fuel producers during evening hours. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have developed a dynamic model that incorporates the operational realities of fossil fuel plants, including fixed start-up costs and ramping constraints, to better assess the impacts of renewables on competitive behavior.

Between 2014 and 2018, rooftop solar capacity in Western Australia more than doubled, making it one of the most solar-saturated regions in the world. This shift reduced daytime reliance on gas-fired plants, which in turn forced them to shut down temporarily. However, as solar output fades in the evening, these plants must restart-often at significant cost-to meet demand. The study found that these start-up costs reduce competition after sunset, allowing fossil fuel generators to increase profits during the evening peak.

“We developed a framework to measure market power in wholesale electricity markets,” explained Akshaya Jha, associate professor at CMU’s Heinz College and study coauthor. “This framework accounts for features of generating unit technology such as fixed start-up costs and ramping constraints that are becoming increasingly relevant in light of the global transition to intermittent wind and solar technologies.”

Because fossil generators incur fixed costs when restarting, they must earn enough revenue above variable costs to justify operation. Traditional approaches that assess market power through price markups over marginal cost fall short in such settings. Moreover, these fixed costs act as a deterrent to entry, softening competition in key periods.

To analyze the effect of rooftop solar growth, the researchers constructed a benchmark comparing actual generation and pricing with a simulated market scenario where units recover both fixed and variable costs optimally. They integrated high-frequency data on fuel inputs and electricity outputs to estimate plant-level cost curves comprising variable costs, fixed start-up costs, and baseline running costs. Their model dynamically scheduled output to meet demand every half hour while minimizing system-wide expenses and ensuring cost recovery.

The results indicated that the growing presence of rooftop solar increased collective market power rents for gas plants in the evenings, even as it drove daytime emissions lower. Since Western Australia’s retail electricity prices are determined by cost-of-service regulation, the study concluded that these elevated evening rents effectively shifted wealth from consumers to producers.

Despite minimal changes in market efficiency, the wholesale market does not capture the environmental benefits of reduced emissions. As rooftop solar expanded, daytime carbon output from gas generation plummeted, while evening emissions rose only slightly due to more frequent unit start-ups.

“Our findings speak to the growing relevance of adopting several design features not present in most markets outside the United States,” said Gordon Leslie, senior lecturer at Monash University and coauthor. One such feature is permitting generators to submit start-up bids alongside energy bids, enabling better scheduling across hours and enhancing efficiency as start-stop cycling becomes more common.

The study also underscores the importance of financial participation in day-ahead markets, especially in systems where physical constraints limit flexibility and market power is a concern. The authors warn that rooftop solar growth can unintentionally intensify these challenges by increasing the strategic value of start-up decisions.

Finally, the researchers point out that retail pricing reforms could help mitigate these issues. Allowing consumer electricity prices to vary hourly with wholesale market signals would incentivize more daytime use and reduce pressure on fossil fuel plants during the evening ramp-up, ultimately lowering costs for consumers and weakening evening market power.

Research Report:Start-up Costs and Market Power: Lessons from the Renewable Energy Transition

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Carnegie Mellon University

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