Clean Investor, June 28: Corporate Renewable Energy Index launched

The Corporate Renewable Energy Index (CREX) has been launched by wind firm Vestas Wind Systems A/S and Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The new measure aims to create transparency on the amount of renewable energy used by the world’s 1,000 largest listed corporations. US retailer Whole Foods Market has emerged as the leader in corporate wind energy use as it uses 100% wind energy. Link

The EU Emission Trading System is facing a new glitch. The Community Independent Transaction Log (CITL) website, which authorises and enables carbon transactions, has been suspended for “technical reasons”, the European Commission said late yesterday (June 27). Jos Delbeke, Director-General of the EU’s DG Climate Action, said: “No single instrument or technology will allow us to successfully address the climate challenge.”

BlackRock New Energy Investment Trust plc, the London-listed investment company dedicated to investing in companies with a focus on alternative energy or energy technology, plans to close its trading subsidiary. “The Company’s subsidiary, BlackRock New Energy Trading Company Ltd., has not actively traded for some considerable time,” it said in a filing.

Germany-based photovoltaic systems company S.A.G. Solarstrom AG is to make an up to €25m corporate bond issue. The six-year, 7.5% bond will be open from June 30-July 7. “This bond will enable investors to benefit not only from an extremely attractive fixed interest rate, but also from the positive impact of the accelerated energy turnaround,” said CEO Karl Kuhlmann. Link

News and data firm Bloomberg is to install a 1.8MW solar power system at its Skillman office building in New Jersey. The eight-acre, ground-mounted solar tracking system will be completed by the end of the year and is expected to generate the equivalent amount of power to meet 58% of the facility’s electricity demand. Announcement

The European Parliament voted to back legislation on “environmental economic accounts” earlier this month. European Union Member States’ reporting of “environmental economic accounts” will, from 2012, cover air emissions, material flows and environmental taxes that are levied. Link*German development finance* institution DEG (Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft) has made two loans totalling €6m for Latin American wind projects to the German developer SoWiTec group. The finance will assist projects in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.

GreenStream, the Finland-based carbon and renewable energy asset manager, says its assets under management have risen to €170m following recent investments by refining company Neste Oil and Estonian state-owned energy company Eesti Energia AS into its Climate Opportunity Fund. “In addition to acquiring emission allowances, the new fund investment enables us to support environmental projects in developing countries and meet our own emissions trading obligations,” said Neste.

Triodos Bank Belgium and France’s Crédit Coopératif have provided financing for two wind turbine projects in northern France put together by Finland’s Winwind and France’s InnoVent. The contract is for six 3MW wind turbines at two locations, at Fiefs and Sains-lès-Pernes. Link

UK energy efficiency technology firm Smart Metering Systems says a “broad range of institutional and other investors” have invested £10m into the firm. Smart Metering has announced its listing on AIM – with its shares set to trade for the first time on July 8.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development says its Sustainable Energy Finance Facilities (SEFFs) funding has reached €1.8bn – and estimates the project is cutting carbon dioxide emissions by more than 2m tonnes a year.
“There is a real path forward for biofuels” – that’s the conclusion of a recent speech by Philip New, CEO of BP Biofuels, at the Economist UK energy summit. “A sustainable, scalable, competitive, global industry is starting to emerge can complement – indeed catalyse- the expansion of the worlds agricultural capacity.”

A carbon cap-and-trade system in California took a step closer following a court decision last week. The ruling helps ease the way for the state’s Air Resources Board to establish a carbon market to help firms cut their CO2 emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Link