Clean Investor, May 10: Mongolian wind farm is 3,000th Clean Development Mechanism project

A wind power project in Inner Mongolia has become the 3,000th registered project for the Clean Development Mechanism, which channels investment into clean energy and greenhouse gas reduction technology in the developing world. In addition, there are about another 2,600 projects in the pipeline, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said. There are now CDM projects in 71 countries.

Cleantech investing is to feature at the Canadian Responsible Investment Conference in Victoria, British Columbia next month. The Cleaning up Canada’s Resource Sector session will feature clean tech companies that provide solutions to resource waste, energy use and pollution. It will be led by Martin Grosskopf, director of sustainability research at Acuity Investment Management. The conference is organised by the Social Investment Organization (SIO) and runs from June 22-22.

Most of the UK’s biggest publicly-listed businesses are now disclosing some information about their environmental performance on an annual basis, according to new Environment Agency-led research. Environmental Disclosures, the agency’s third major review of environmental reporting, found that 99% referred to an environmental issue in their 2009-2010 annual reports – but only a minority provide statistics in line with government guidance and that the quality of information is still “very varied”.

The US wind power industry installed 1,100MW of new capacity in the first quarter of 2011 and entered the second quarter with another 5,600MW under construction, according to the American Wind Energy Association. The AWEA said the total US wind fleet capacity is now 41,400MW – enough to supply 10m homes. Link

World Bank President Robert Zoellick has hailed its efforts on commissioning 2000MW of solar power capacity by 2020 in Morocco. Speaking at a summit in Casablanca last week, he said the bank’s Clean Technology Fund aims to mobilize $5.6bn for Concentrated Solar Power projects across the region, working with other donors. “When implemented, these solar projects would support deployment of about 1GW of solar power generation capacity – tripling today’s global concentrated solar power,” he said.Greg Barker, UK Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change will make the keynote address at Responsible Investor’s Clean Investor 2011 conference on June 30 at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, in Westminster, London – full details.

The Nordic Investment Bank has awarded a €33m 16.5-year loan to a 46MW wind farm project in northern Sweden run by Gabrielsberget Nord Vind AB. “A windmill park is a sustainable way of providing electricity, and by increasing the diversity of energy sources in the region, the project may also increase the security of energy supply,” said NIB CEO Johnny Åkerholm. Link

There was a total of $2.6bn (€1.8bn) of venture capital funding of greentech firms in the first quarter of 2011, according to Greentech Media. It said the momentum slowed in April with more than $330m invested in 26 deals.
A separate analysis from Ernst & Young said US VC investment in cleantech firms increased by 54% to $1.14bn in the first quarter to from $743.3m a year before.
Private equity firm Doughty Hanson has signed up Carbon Retirement as its carbon offsetting provider. Instead of buying project-generated carbon offsets, from forestry or renewable energy projects, Carbon Retirement buys and then permanently removes industrial pollution allowances from the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

The Carbon Disclosure Project is hosting a webinar on automated climate reporting on May 24. It will be chaired by Chaired by Nigel Topping, the CDP’s Chief Innovation Officer and will look at how software can help companies overcome reporting challenges and business benefits of carbon management solutions.

The UK could grab a quarter of global marine energy market, bringing £76bn (€86.6bn) into its economy by 2050, according to analysis from the Carbon Trust. It estimates that total marine energy capacity could be 27.5GW in the UK by 2050 – capable of supplying the equivalent of more than 20% of the country’s current electricity demand.