INVESTING
As big endowments spurn fossil fuel stocks, there’s one thing making this decision easy

PUBLISHED MON, FEB 10 Pippa Stevens@PIPPASTEVENS13KEY POINTS

Large investment funds are facing mounting pressure from activists to divest from the fossil fuel industry, and as energy stocks underperform the decision is becoming easier.

Earlier in February Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted in favor of divestment, and Georgetown University said it would cease new all new fossil fuel-related investments.

“I’m done with fossil fuels ... they’re just done. We’re starting to see divestment all over the world,” Jim Cramer said Jan. 31 on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “You’re seeing divestiture by a lot of different funds ... we’re in the death knell phase.”

As big endowment funds face mounting pressure to reduce their exposure to the fossil fuel industry, there’s one thing making their decision easier: the energy sector’s underperformance.

In the last ten years, the S&P energy sector gained just 1% as low oil prices, high operational costs and shifting consumer sentiment set off a wave of selling. In the same time period, the broader market gained 212%.

Energy’s lackluster performance coincides with college students across the United States protesting university endowments’ role in owning and supporting fossil fuel companies. Now, from the perspective of fund managers, divestment could make sense on both financial as well as moral grounds.

“I’m done with fossil fuels ... they’re just done. We’re starting to see divestment all over the world,” Jim Cramer said Jan. 31 on “Squawk Box.” “You’re seeing divestiture by a lot of different funds ... we’re in the death knell phase,” he added.

Harvard and Yale students protest during the halftime of the college football game between Harvard and Yale at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, CT on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2019. Demonstrators stormed the field during halftime at the Harvard-Yale football game Saturday, delaying the game for about an hour to demand that both universities divest their investments in fossil fuels and to call attention to the issue of climate change.
Nic Antaya | The Boston Globe | Getty Images


In the course of the last week, two Universities have made key announcements.

On Feb 5. the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted in favor of the endowment divesting from the fossil fuel industry in a 179-20 vote, according to the Harvard Crimson. The vote does not ensure implementation. — Harvard President Lawrence Bacow will bring the results before the endowment committee — although the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is the University’s largest division.

The vote in and of itself is important since Harvard’s endowment is the largest in the world, and is looked at as an example for ways in which other universities can build their own funds. As of June 2019, it stood at $40.9 billion.


One day later, on Feb. 6, Georgetown University announced that it would make no new investments in companies whose business is fossil fuel-dependent, and said over the coming years it would work to shed its exposure to fossil-fuel related companies in both the public and private market.

The actions from Harvard and Georgetown follow the University of California, which in September said it was going fossil fuel free. In an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times the endowment’s chief investment officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher and the UC Board of Regents’ Investments Committee chairman Richard Sherman said the decision was “not exactly for the reasons you may think.”

“Our job is to make money for the University of California, and we’re betting we can do that without fossil fuels investments,” they wrote on Sept. 17. “We believe hanging on to fossil fuel assets is a financial risk ... While our rationale may not be the moral imperative that many activists embrace, our investment decision-making process leads us to the same result.”

“The reason we sold some $150 million in fossil fuel assets from our endowment was the reason we sell other assets: They posed a long-term risk to generating strong returns for UC’s diversified portfolios,” they added.

Of course, university endowments are complex and composed of many different types of financial instruments, including stocks, bonds, venture capital and private equity investments. So it may be easier said than done to completely divest from the space.

Some argue that since the world will continue to depend on fossil fuels for the foreseeable future, the so-called best actors in the space should be rewarded.

“The focus on divestment is a bit too blunt of an instrument,” Valerie Grant, senior vice president at AllianceBernstein, said in November on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.”

Rather than following a negative screen process — which means completely ignoring one area of the market — she said students should engage with the endowment’s investment team to identify long-term risks posed by the climate crisis, and to push for positive changes through shareholder votes, among other things.

“There really has been an evolution in responsible investing ... Traditionally it was all about what not to buy or what not to own. And really I think what most investors are focused on now is what to own,” she added.

Work starts on world’s ‘largest offshore wind farm’ that could power 4.5 million homes

NOT IN THE USA

PUBLISHED FRI, JAN 17 20201 Anmar Frangoul

KEY POINTS

Dogger Bank Wind Farms will be made up of three 1.2 gigawatt offshore sites.
The construction work is being carried out by a firm headquartered in North Wales.


GE’s Haliade-X wind turbine has a 12 megawatt generator and stands 260 meters tall.
GE Renewable Energy

Construction work for a huge offshore wind farm in the North Sea is underway.

In an announcement Friday, energy firm SSE said that onshore work for the 3.6 gigawatt (GW) Dogger Bank Wind Farms project had begun near Ulrome, a coastal village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.


Dogger Bank Wind Farms – which SSE described as “the world’s largest offshore wind farm” – will be made up of three 1.2 GW offshore sites: Creyke Beck A, Creyke Beck B and Teesside A. The project is a joint venture between SSE Renewables and Norwegian energy major Equinor.

The construction work is being carried out by Jones Bros Civil Engineering U.K., a firm headquartered in North Wales.

The scheme is set to use GE’s Haliade-X wind turbine, which has a 12 megawatt generator and stands 260 meters tall. According to SSE, the project will have the capability to produce enough renewable energy for more than 4.5 million homes per year.


The future of wind turbines could be bladeless

“Getting the first spade in the ground is a significant milestone on any project, but for what will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm, this is a major moment for a project that has already been over a decade in the making,” Steve Wilson, who is managing director of Dogger Bank Wind Farms, said in a statement.

The U.K. is a major player in the offshore wind sector. It is home to projects such as the 659 megawatt Walney Extension facility, in the Irish Sea, which was officially opened in 2018.


The scale of that project is considerable: it is capable of powering more than 590,000 homes, has 87 turbines and covers an area of around 20,000 soccer pitches, according to Danish energy company Orsted.

Europe as a whole is home to a significant offshore wind sector. According to industry body WindEurope, 409 wind turbines were connected to the grid in 2018. The average size of offshore turbines in 2018 was 6.8 MW, which represents a 15% rise compared to 2017.

The world’s biggest offshore wind developer wants a carbon-neutral supply chain

PUBLISHED TUE, FEB 4 2020 Anmar Frangoul

KEY POINTS

Headquartered in Denmark, Orsted is involved in large scale wind energy projects around the world.

The company is one of many firms looking to reduce emissions across both its own operations and its supply chain.


Orsted


Danish energy firm Orsted has launched a plan for a carbon-neutral supply chain by the year 2040.

In an announcement Tuesday the business — which recently said it would be carbon neutral by 2025 — said its carbon footprint had two strands: emissions from its own energy production and operations; and emissions from the energy it traded alongside “the goods and services” in the company’s supply chain.


The Frederica-headquartered firm said it would engage strategic suppliers involved in “the most carbon-intensive categories” of its supply chain, namely the production of wind turbines, foundations, cables and substations.

Orsted described the materials used to make these assets as being “energy intensive to extract and manufacture.”

The company added that fossil fuels used by the ships which carry and install offshore wind components were the second biggest source of emissions in its supply chain.

“Reducing emissions in the renewable energy supply chain is a significant task,” Henrik Poulsen, the CEO of Orsted, said in a statement.

“Businesses will need to collaborate across supply chains to cut emissions at the pace and scale demanded by science,” Poulsen added. “We now reach out to our industry-leading suppliers to join forces to accelerate the global green transformation.”

Among other things, Orsted explained it would ask strategic suppliers to act by disclosing their emissions and using 100% renewable electricity to build things such as wind turbines, cables, foundations and components. In addition, they will be asked to “optimize their current vessel fleet and develop a roadmap to power vessels with renewable energy.”


Of its own business, Orsted said it would achieve carbon neutrality by undertaking actions such as phasing coal out and installing 20 gigawatts of onshore and offshore wind.

The world’s biggest offshore wind developer, Orsted is involved in large scale projects around the world. These include the 659 megawatt Walney Extension facility, in the Irish Sea, which was officially opened in 2018.

The scale of that project is considerable: It is capable of powering more than 590,000 homes, has 87 turbines and covers an area of around 20,000 soccer pitches, Orsted says.

The company is one of many firms looking to reduce emissions across both its own operations and its supply chain.

Toward the end of January another Danish firm, turbine manufacturer Vestas, said it was aiming to produce “zero-waste” wind turbines by the year 2040.

The company explained that its goal would mean operating a value chain that produced no waste materials.

This, it added in a statement, would be achieved through the introduction of a “circular economy approach” in the design, production, service and end-of-life parts of the value chain.

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Offshore wind installations in European waters hit a record level last year

PUBLISHED THU, FEB 6 2020 Anmar Frangoul

KEY POINTS

The U.K. was responsible for almost half of the new capacity in 2019, according to WindEurope. 

As technology develops, the size of both turbines and offshore facilities is increasing.


This image shows Scroby Sands offshore wind farm, in waters off the coast of Norfolk, England.
Geography Photos | Universal Images Group | Getty Images


European countries installed a record amount of offshore wind capacity in 2019, according to new figures from industry body WindEurope.

The amount — just over 3.6 gigawatts (GW) — marked a leap higher than 2018, when more than 2.6 GW was installed. It takes overall offshore capacity for European nations to more than 22 GW.


In an announcement Thursday, WindEurope said that the U.K. was responsible for almost half of the new capacity in 2019, followed by Germany, Denmark and Belgium.

Fresh investment decisions on four offshore wind farms were made in 2019. This, WindEurope said, amounted to another 1.4 GW of capacity and 6 billion euros ($6.6 billion) of investment.

As technology develops, the size of turbines and offshore facilities is increasing. WindEurope noted that the average size of an offshore wind farm in 2019 was 600 megawatts (MW), which is twice the average size in 2010.



Output from newer individual turbines is bigger too. The average size in 2019 was 7.8 MW, 1 megawatt bigger than in 2018.

And turbines are set to get bigger still. In December 2019, Dutch utility Eneco started to purchase power produced by the prototype of GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X 12 MW wind turbine.

The scale of that turbine is considerable: it has a capacity of 12 MW, a height of 260 meters and a blade length of 107 meters. GE Renewable Energy has described it as the “world’s most powerful offshore wind turbine.”

The European installation figures come after the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) said that North, Central and South America, together with the Caribbean, installed over 13.4 GW of wind power capacity in 2019, a 12% rise compared to installations in 2018.

Looking at these figures in more detail, the GWEC said 2019 saw the U.S. install “its third largest volume of onshore wind”. The “first large-scale installations” in the offshore market are expected to take place in 2022-23, it added. It’s expected that over 10 GW of offshore capacity will be built in the US by the year 2026.

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TRANSFORMING TRASH INTO ENERGY

Shell’s new solar farm to help power a natural gas plant in Australia

WAIT WHAT? THAT'S LIKE SAYING 
PUBLISHED FRI, FEB 7 
Anmar Frangoul

KEY POINTS

Shell Australia describes the facility as its “first large-scale solar farm”.

Queensland chosen as the project’s location because of reliable sunshine.

Shell Australia is set to construct and operate a solar farm made up of around 400,000 photovoltaic panels in the state of Queensland.

In an announcement Friday, Shell Australia described the facility as its “first large-scale solar farm” and said it would have a capacity of 120 megawatts.

Work on the project is set to finish in 2021, with Shell Australia saying up to 200 new jobs will be created during the construction phase.

Queensland was chosen as the project’s location because it had “some of the most reliable sunshine in the world”, the company added. The solar farm will help to power operations at the QGC onshore natural gas project and cut carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 300,000 tonnes a year.

“We believe solar will play an increasing role in the global energy system, especially when partnered with a reliable energy source such as gas,” Tony Nunan, the chairman of Shell Australia, said in a statement.

While Shell is indeed turning to renewable sources such as solar, the overall business is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels. In 2018 Royal Dutch Shell produced 3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, while it sold 71 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas.

At the end of January, Reuters reported that the entrance to the company’s headquarters in the Netherlands had been blocked by protestors chanting “keep it in the ground”.

Demonstrations such as this reflect the current debate – and increasing anxiety – over what many describe as “the climate emergency” and how best to stop it.

At the start of the COP25 climate summit last December, the UN Secretary General warned that “the point of no-return is no longer over the horizon.”

Antonio Guterres emphasized that his message was “one of hope, not of despair” but sought to highlight the urgency of the problems faced by the planet.

“We simply have to stop digging and drilling and take advantage of the vast possibilities offered by renewable energy and nature-based solutions,” he said.

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Pilot project using Tesla powerwalls to power 10 N.S. homes a success

$3.2M pilot project is one of the first battery installations of its kind in Canada

CBC News · Posted: Feb 06, 2020  Nova Scotia·Video
Renewable energy batteries could eventually change how N.S. powers homes

A pilot project that introduced a renewable energy battery storage system to 10 homes in Elmsdale, N.S., could eventually change how people power their homes. 

A pilot project that introduced a renewable energy battery storage system to 10 homes in Elmsdale, N.S., could eventually change how people power their homes.

The project, which is a joint effort of Nova Scotia Power, clean energy company Tesla and Ontario energy company Opus One Solutions, was launched in 2017. A grid-size battery was installed at Elmsdale's substation and 10 Tesla powerwalls were installed in homes nearby.

"Customers enjoy the reliability that the batteries provide [and] that all the cases we were testing were successful and so the batteries can do what we want them to do," said Jill Searle, the smart grid program manager for Nova Scotia Power.

"The next question is where would we deploy them that it's effective for the grid and effective for customers."

Wind energy powers the Tesla power pack at the substation, which sends energy to be stored in the powerwalls of the 10 homes.

Mark Candow is one of the 10 homeowners to have a powerwall battery installed in his home in Elmsdale, N.S. (CBC)

The project cost about $3.2 million and is one of the first battery installations of its kind in Canada.

Searle said testing the system is just the first step in trying to harness and store wind energy, and eventually, solar power.

"Being able to take that energy stored in the battery until a time that our customers need it, that's a benefit to us and for customers as well," Searle said.

Jill Searle, the smart grid program manager for Nova Scotia Power, says the grid could power up to 300 homes, but only 10 homes were tested over two years. (CBC)

She's encouraged by the pilot study and hopes more testing will be done to make renewable energy more affordable and available to more people. She said the battery installed at the substation can power up to 300 homes, but only 10 homes were selected to test the system because lithium ion is expensive.

Mark Candow was one of the homeowners selected for the pilot.

"From my standpoint, it is essentially a quiet generator for me," Candow said. "The power goes out [and] I get a text from Tesla saying the power is out, but I don't realize the power is out because it's still going."

The powerwalls serve as sources of extra power during outages but could one day serve as a way to power homes through solar panels connected to the home.

The Tesla battery pack installed at the Elmsdale substation is powered by wind energy. (CBC)

Candow said the powerwall provided his home with 19 hours of electricity when his power went out during Hurricane Dorian last September.

"In our neighborhood, there are few people with the Tesla power. You know the ones with it and the ones without, [because] everything goes dark except for our house and a few other homes," he said.

Searle said the next step is to do more analysis on the cost of lithium-ion batteries.

"We want to make sure we're making decisions that are good for customers, so we're going to watch the price of that and potentially deploy batteries at other locations in the future," she said.

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$500M investment means construction to start on Canada's largest solar farm this year

$500M investment means construction to start on Canada's largest solar farm this year

Travers Solar project will be built in southern Alberta

GREEN ALBERTA HAS MORE SOLAR AND WIND POWER THAN ANY OTHER PROVINCE IN CANADA AND THIS WILL ONLY INCREASE IT.
Sarah Rieger · CBC News · Posted: Feb 04, 2020 

The Travers Solar project in southern Alberta just secured a $500-million investment. When complete, it'll be the largest solar farm in Canada. (Susan Montoya Bryan/The Associated Press)Construction of what will be Canada's largest solar farm will soon start in southern Alberta after the project secured a major funding partner.

Greengate Power announced Monday that the Travers Solar project in Vulcan County will receive $500 million in funding from Denmark-based Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. 

Construction is set to start midway through this year and will finish in 2021

Greengate Power president and CEO Dan Balaban said the investment demonstrates investor confidence in Alberta's renewable energy market.

"It's a $500-million foreign investment in Alberta, and at a time where we're talking about the flight of capital from Alberta … this is an example that demonstrates Alberta is still a very attractive place to invest.

"It'll create more than 500 jobs during construction, provide an ongoing income stream for landowners that are participating in the project, and a really substantial form of annual municipal taxes that'll be realized for Vulcan County," he said.

The project will consist of 1.5 million solar panels that will generate about 800 million kWh per year, enough to power more than 100,000 homes.

Solar project approved for southern Alberta would be Canada's largest, by far

"To put that in perspective, that's about the size of a third of the island in Manhattan. So it's a large project that will have the ability to make a very substantial positive impact on our economy and our environmental performance," Balaban said.

Greengate is also responsible for the largest wind energy project in the country, also located in Vulcan County.

Balaban said he sees renewables as the obvious solution as the province looks to phase out coal. But, he doesn't think supporting green energy should contribute in any way to political polarization.

"As long as the world is using oil and gas, I believe it should be Alberta oil and gas but at the same time, we should be investing in the way the energy system is heading. We've got phenomenal renewable energy resources in this province and a great opportunity to diversify our economy," he said.

Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners said in an emailed release that the investment is the fund management company's first in Canada.

"Alberta is an attractive market for investment, and we look forward to working with Greengate, one of Canada's leading renewable energy developers, to bring Travers Solar online," CIP senior partner Christian Skakkebaek said.

Calgary

Federal government readies aid for Alberta as deadline for massive oilsands project nears: sources

Ottawa must decide by the end of February if Teck Resources Ltd can build the Frontier mine

Thomson Reuters · Posted: Feb 06, 2020 

A mining shovel fills a haul vehicle at the Shell Albian Sands 

oilsands mine near Fort McMurray, Alta. in 2008.

 (The Canadian Press/Jeff McIntosh)

The federal government is preparing an aid package for Alberta, heart of the country's struggling oil industry, that would help dull the pain if it blocks the Teck Frontier oilsands project that could create thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters this week.

Ottawa must decide by end-February if Teck Resources Ltd can build the $20.6 billion Frontier mine in northern Alberta despite climate and wildlife concerns.

The decision is a major test of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's 2019 election pledge to put Canada on the path to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Complicating the decision, unhappiness with the government's energy and pipeline policy cost Trudeau's Liberals all their Alberta seats in October 2019 elections.

"There will be a big fight inside cabinet over this," said one source directly familiar the matter who requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation.


Watch

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi talks about the Teck Frontier mine project proposal. 7:34

"Rejecting Teck without providing Alberta something in return would be political suicide," the source added.

In Alberta, the project is considered essential for employment and growth. Teck says it would eventually create 7,000 jobs, although the company's chief executive recently questioned whether it will ever be built.

Teck Frontier oilsands mine might not be built even if permit issued, CEO concedes 

Teck mine approval could require Alberta to hit net-zero emissions by 2050

About 20 oilsands projects currently sit dormant despite receiving approval.

Opponents of the Frontier mine project say it will damage wetlands and be harmful to Indigenous communities. (Julie Prejet/CBC)

Options being considered in the aid package, to be featured in the upcoming budget, include a cash injection to help clean up thousands of inactive oil and gas wells abandoned by bankrupt companies, five sources with knowledge of the situation said.

The move would help create jobs. But it would also require Alberta's government "to close the loopholes" that have allowed companies to shed their responsibilities for the clean-up, one of the sources said.

Also under discussion is expanding the federal fiscal stabilization program that helps provinces deal with economic downturns, a measure Alberta's Premier Jason Kenney has demanded. Local infrastructure projects could also be in the mix, the source said.

"Teck is not a political gift — it deserves to be approved on its merits," Kenney spokeswoman Christine Myatt said in a statement to Reuters.

"We do not view a decision on Frontier as something to be traded away."

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has urged the federal government to swiftly approve the Teck oilsands mine. (Dave Chidley/The Canadian Press)

All five sources said while Trudeau was particularly concerned about national unity, given strains with Alberta, he has not made his position known.

Both Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who has the job of repairing relations with the province, and Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan are widely believed to be tilting towards approving the project, while many other cabinet members remain undecided.

Freeland's office did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for O'Regan declined to say how the minister felt about the project.

"This is a cabinet decision that will be taken in due course," Trudeau spokesman Cameron Ahmad said when asked about the internal debate.

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'This will be hard': environmentalists skeptical about Regina's renewable energy goal

Group wants City of Regina to follow through on goal of 100% renewable energy by 2050

Saskatchewan CBC News · Posted: Feb 10, 2020 
 

Laura Stewart, of the EnviroCollective, speaks in Regina on Feb. 10 2020. (CBC News)

A Regina-based group of environmentalists is praising the City of Regina's decision to remove a climate skeptic from an environmental sustainability conference later this year.

Patrick Moore — who disputes the link between man-made carbon emissions and climate change — agreed to speak in May at the city's Reimagine Conference 2020: Roadmap to Sustainable Cities, for $10,000.

"We are happy to hear that the city's Reimagine Conference will not be a debate about climate change," said Laura Stewart of the EnviroCollective, on Monday in Regina.

Moore has a PhD in ecology from the University of British Columbia. He is a not an environmental scientist but chairs a group that says rising CO2 emissions "will be of great benefit to life on earth."

Moore also claims human-caused emissions are not responsible for climate change.

"He was not coming as a Regina citizen wanting to raise opinions from this community," Stewart said. "He was selected to come and speak at this community about one particular perspective."

Stewart said the group held its own strategy meeting after concerns were raised about the conference's agenda. The city has made a previous commitment to making Regina 100 per cent renewable by 2050.

Controversial sustainability conference speaker cancelled, City of Regina still on the hook for bill

Climate skeptic scheduled to speak at environmental conference in Regina fires back

Stewart said that is no longer the case and accused the city of a "full-scale retreat" away from that commitment as it moves back to conducting "business as usual," instead focusing on efficiencies.

"This will be hard. The longer we leave it, the harder it will get," Stewart said of the sustainability goal.

The City of Regina said in an emailed statement that it "remains committed to developing a framework that will outline the steps and implications to achieving 100 percent renewable fleet, operations, and facilities by 2050."

Addressing the Reimagine Conference, the city said that there will be a variety of presentations on technology and resources which could be useful in the city's framework.

"As part of this framework, Administration will provide at least four new and concrete actions for improving the environmental sustainability of the City of Regina that could be considered by Council and implemented by the end of 2023," the statement said.
Environmentalists welcome conversation

The group's proposal would see the city move forward with its plan to reach 100 per cent renewable energy while minimizing distractions, Stewart said.

Stewart said the group would love to hear concerns about sustainability and what that could look like for the energy sector. She said her group welcomes a conversation about the challenges that industry may face and how they could be addressed going forward.

EnviroCollective is a grassroots group with "fluid membership," Stewart said. She estimates that there were about 46 people at Monday's meeting.