2017 Predictions - Gold, Silver, PGMs, The Dollar, Markets And Geopolitics

Will the Trump Presidency last full term or could we see a President Pence?

Will US-Russian relations improve under the Trump presidency, thus easing global tensions/.

Will the US Fed be able to meet its rate setting program?

Prediction for the gold price - up 20% during 2017. Gold:Silver ratio to fall to 65.

Prediction for followed gold stocks - up around 100% in 2017.

This is the time of year that those of us who are brave - or more likely stupid - come up with some predictions for the year ahead. No doubt if they are horrendously wrong, which is the most likely outcome, they may be consigned to the dustbin of history, but if any are correct I will no doubt be dining out on them for the whole of 2018.

So let's look at what this observer considers will happen during the year ahead for the precious metals, precious metals stocks and the geopolitical drivers behind what I see as the likely price trends.

The prime trendsetter will be the ramifications flowing from the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the world's most powerful nation. Trump is, to say the least, prone to foot-in-mouthitis - or perhaps that should be twitteritis given his apparent propensity for tweeting his innermost thoughts in the early hours of the American morning. He may well take up the role of the world's most influential politician - although Trump and politician - certainly as far as the diplomatic niceties usually are concerned - could be considered something of a contradiction in terms. We actually doubt if a Trump Presidency will run full term. Perhaps impeachment, or resignation over past indiscretions, may lie ahead for The Donald, but the Presidency may well survive 2017, although with the American political divide ever deepening. How about a President Pence should Trump fall from grace - what would be his policies?

U.S.-Russian relations may well improve with the Trump/Tillerson (assuming the latter's assumption of the position of Secretary of State is not blocked) and some of the damage to relationships over the unproven hacking allegations may be undone. As an observer from outside the 52 States we do see a substantial degree of hypocrisy at play. It seems to be OK for the US to interfere openly in another country's election process (Ukraine etc.) but not for its own processes to be compromised by person or persons unknown, with the blame laid on Russia and President Putin himself. The latter has described the American accusations as fantasy, and sour grapes over Hillary Clinton's defeat in the Presidential election. Perhaps it is Putin's successes in possibly helping bring the Syrian civil conflict to some form of conclusion, albeit in alliance with the demonized President Assad, which is what really rankles, with the US-led regime-change efforts having come to naught over five years of passive and active support for the anti-government factions.

We suspect that Islamic State will be defeated on the ground in its Iraqi and Syrian strongholds, although, like the hydra, will rear other offshoots elsewhere. The defeat in its heartland will likely unleash terrorist atrocities in major population centers throughout the West - not even the USA will be immune despite any moves the Trump Administration may make in restricting Muslim immigration. This will just serve to build resentment within the existing Muslim community some of which may already be radicalized.

We suspect also, on the geopolitical front, that there will be some kind of military confrontation between the US and China - falling well short of outright war - over the latter's expansions over the disputed islands in the South China Sea. An increase in tensions in this volatile region could well be positive for gold (although the latter's price performance in the light of various 'black swan' events in 2016 does not look too promising for the year ahead). With gold, and all its interested parties, not the least of which would seem to be China and Russia - who knows?

So what of the markets? Any Trump bounce will likely be shortlived as far as general equities are concerned. We anticipate the Dow will almost certainly breach the magic 2000 level, but that this heady rise will be shortlived and it will come crashing down as the year progresses - maybe by not as much as some 'experts' are warning - but a substantial fall nonetheless. This will cause the Fed to once more delay its proposed interest rate rises and this will lead to 'déjà vu all over again' in terms of a rising gold price, but this time it may well not be halted on Independence Day and continue in the second half of the year too with the dollar falling in the light of Fed inaction on further interest rate rises and a fallout from the realization that the Trump Presidency is not the panacea for all the US's financial ills.

So where do we see gold and the dollar index by the year end? The former could well hit $1,400 or higher and the dollar index fall back to 95 from its current level of around 103. If these predictions are correct silver could again be the precious metal of choice. We suggest that the gold:silver ratio (GSR) under this scenario will fall to around 65 - it's 71.5 as I write - and the combination of a GSR of 65 and a $1,400 gold price could see silver soaring to $21.50. Not nearly enough to satisfy the true silver bugs - but give it time!

We don't think PGMs will do well as industrial output does not look like picking up sufficiently to have a significant positive price impact, but they would likely be dragged up by the higher gold price, assuming our overall scenario is correct. We could thus see Platinum at around $1,050 at some stage during the year and Palladium hitting $775. Nearly half the precious metals price increases though would be due to the falling dollar index.

So where do we see gold and silver stocks under this scenario? Most of them, failing technical and political difficulties, could well double in price from their current levels. We see no reason to adjust our most recent stock picks as providing the best upside options, sticking to our choices of the precious metals majors as being best able to ride out downturns without total collapse, if our metal price predictions are incorrect. These have all mostly done extremely well since we recommended them here a couple of weeks ago (See: Silver Leads The Way In Precious Metals Stock Performance), along with the recent precious metals price pickups.

We also added to our listing in an article published here on December 23rd and came up with Barrick Gold (NYSE: ABX) and Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) the world's two largest gold miners as the "go to" stocks for institutional investors, along with recovery gold stocks like Goldcorp (NYSE: GG) and Gold Fields (NYSE: GFI) as well worth following assuming a rising gold price scenario. Freeport McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) could also do well if copper and oil prices hold up, or advance. We suspect all these could be outperformed by silver and gold miner Hecla (NYSE: HL). Royalty and streaming stocks Franco Nevada (NYSE: FNV), Royal Gold (NYSE: RGLD), Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW) and Sandstorm Gold (NASDAQ: SAND) would also be likely positive buys if gold performs reasonably well in 2017. (See: GLD Drops 158 Tonnes Since Independence Day). We should also add in Randgold (NASDAQ: GOLD) as being perhaps the most solid performer in the sector.

So what target prices do we see for the stocks we would likely be following. The table below is adjusted for an approximate doubling in price during the year, but with our latest assessments of prices likely to be reached on the likely performance of individual stocks above or below the overall 100% increase.

Stock

Price 29/12

Target price

Barrick Gold

16.19

32.00

Newmont Mining

34.88

70.00

Goldcorp

13.75

30.00

Gold Fields

3.16

6.00

78.53

150.00

Freeport McMoran

13.45

25.00

Hecla

5.49

12.50

Franco Nevada

60.85

110.00

Silver Wheaton

20.03

40.00

Royal Gold

66.35

130.00

Sandstorm Gold

4.06

10.00

We have left out two of the best 2016 performers in the silver space - Coeur Mining (NYSE: CDE) which saw a rise of 266% during 2016 and Pan American Silver (NASDAQ: PAAS) which rose 126%. Undoubtedly both these will continue to do well in a strongly rising silver price scenario, but the former was very much a recovery stock in 2016 - and most of the upside is now taken into account - while the latter will likely continue to be held back by the Argentinean state of Chubut's continued opposition to mining which has kept the company's big Navidad silver project on hold with seemingly no likelihood of a change in circumstance in the near future.

So here we are with some predicted figures which leave us very much hostage to fortune. If the Trump boom and dollar strength is sustained through the year then all our predictions could well come down in flames. But we live in a particularly uncertain world at the moment and in a worst case scenario - for the world that is - there are all kinds of potential outcomes for forces already in play which could radically upset the global economic and geopolitical future - some of which we have alluded to above, while others remain unknown. After all who could have predicted the Brexit vote in the UK at the beginning of 2016 - and even more unlikely the Trump Presidential Vote victory. Undoubtedly more black swans lie ahead. We live in a topsy-turvy world.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Formalización minera: Inscripción de pequeños mineros iniciará en febrero de 2017

El ejecutivo creó el proceso de formalización minera integral de la pequeña minería y minería artesanal.

Los sujetos que realicen pequeña minería y minería artesanal podrán inscribirse, a partir del 6 de febrero de 2017, al proceso de formalización minera.

Estos tendrán un plazo de 120 días hábiles para realizar la inscripción ante la Superintendencia Nacional de Aduanas y de Administración Tributaria (SUNAT). Acabado este plazo de inscripción, podrán transcurrir 36 meses para completar el proceso.

Así lo determinó el Ejecutivo mediante el Decreto Legislativo N° 1293 que declaraba de interés nacional la Formalización de las Actividades de la Pequeña Minería y Minería Artesanal.

Inscripción

“4.2 Las inscripciones de los sujetos referidos en el inciso 3 del párrafo 4.1 del presente artículo, se realizan a partir del 06 de febrero de 2017, y hasta por un plazo de ciento veinte (120) días hábiles, ante la Superintendencia Nacional de Aduanas y de Administración Tributaria (SUNAT)”, indica la norma.

Estos 120 días de plazo también servirán como límite de la nueva prórroga a la vigencia de la Estrategia de Saneamiento de la Pequeña Minería y Minería Artesanal, aprobada por D.S. N° 029-2014- PCM.

Asimismo, El ejecutivo creó el proceso de formalización minera integral de la pequeña minería y minería artesanal. Para ello, se crea el Registro Integral de Formalización Minera, a cargo de la Dirección General de Formalización Minera del MEM. Este tiene por objeto identificar a los sujetos dentro de la formalización y simplificar sus trámites.

Formalización

El artículo 6 del decreto legislativo dispone la vigencia del Proceso de Formalización Minera Integral, que durará 36 meses. “Estos se cuentan a partir de la culminación del plazo de inscripción señalado en el párrafo 4.2 del artículo 4”, señala.

La Sunat queda habilitada a recibir información, para el Registro, desde el 6 de febrero de 2017. Esta información se remite al MEM en los siguientes 15 días hábiles posteriores a la culminación del plazo de 120 días (inscripción).

El MEM verifica que los sujetos inscritos acrediten:

“a) La actividad minera desarrollada tenga una antigüedad no menor a cinco (05) años. 

b) No contar con Declaración de Compromisos cancelada, como consecuencia de no encontrarse desarrollando actividad minera. 

c) No encontrarse inhabilitado para realizar actividad minera conforme a lo establecido en el Título Cuarto del Texto Único Ordenado de la Ley General de Minería, aprobado por el Decreto Supremo N° 014-92-EM.”

Aquellos sujetos que incumplan con acreditar los requisitos señalados en el párrafo anterior quedan excluidos del Registro Integral de Formalización Minera.

Gold powers miners to send the FTSE 100 to a new high

Precious metals miners sent the FTSE 100 index of leading shares to a fresh high on Thursday, powered by a rise in gold prices.

In a continuation of December's Santa rally, blue chip stocks rose by 14.18 points to close at a record 7,120.26.

Randgold Resources and Fresnillo led the FTSE 100 climbers for a second day, each rising by more than 4%. 

Stocks were lifted by gold prices which grew 1.5% to $1,158.1  an ounce.

Investors boosted gold as the yield on 10-year US bonds fell while the dollar fell to a 15-day low against the yen. Sterling rose against the dollar at $1.2250. 

Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior market analyst at London Capital Group, said: "The dollar fall was mostly due to renewed doubts about the US recovery after pending home sales dropped in November."

Recent data revealed that US pending home sales fell by 2.5% in November, compared to economists' expectations of a 0.5% rise. 

Ashtead Group was the day's biggest faller in London, down 2.3%. 

Industrial equipment hire company Ashtead is traditionally a strong performer in December, according to the Harriman Stock Market Almanac, and over the month its share price is still up by 4%.

Smiths Group, another industrial stock, was also one of the biggest fallers, losing 1.67%.

Gold prices are the lowest in years

Gold prices are the lowest in years.

Election signals better times with lower inflation to come.

My expectation for the yellow metal.

A secure investment or an anchor for your portfolio.

My first article this was about VAR Models (Vector Autoreggression Models) and I am finishing up the year the same way. I wrote about silver here and here.

I bought my first gold stock in 1982 and I have had a love hate relationship with it for many years. I will try to define what gold is and why it has or doesn't have value. I believe the metal frustrates investors because they don't understand what it is. We are confident in the markets with a new president and gold and gold miners have really suffered.

What Is Gold?

Gold is an original precious metal prized by kings and pirates for centuries. Archaeologists have discovered a treasure trove of gold coins and artifacts in buried cities both on land and in water. I choose to call it ancient money so from that perspective you can see why it still has value as an antique. In many respects the gold standard was a good idea which doesn't work well in today's economy. The reason is simple, there's a limited supply of gold and to divide it into more units is very difficult. Gold stopped being currency for the USA in 1971. From this link.

The government held the $35 per ounce price until August 15, 1971, when President Richard Nixon announced that the United States would no longer convert dollars to gold at a fixed value, thus completely abandoning the gold standard.

What Helps The Price Of Gold?

Gold is difficult to find and very hard to process. Due to its rarity and processing difficulty it continues to remain rare. Once out of the ground and processed, it is easy to work with which makes it ideal for jewelry and a few electronics but mostly used to store value. Because it's so rare and expensive to process the global supply of gold doesn't change very much.

An estimated total of 174,100 tonnes of gold have been mined in human history, according to GFMS as of 2012. World production for 2011 was at 2,700 tonnes.

From here.

Global mining, manufacture and storage works out to 1.6% growth of total supply per year. This explains the base value inflates 1.6% per year vs paper currency inflation of about 6%. However, that currency is also based on the economic value of the growth of the country so 3% growth and 2% inflation explains a lot. This is where understanding what gold is and isn't may help you.

Gold Is An Inflation Hedge

You can see by my math that gold supply also inflates as does currency. Think of two people walking side by side at the same speed (NYSE:RATE) and gold and money have the same value. When one person walks faster, it moves ahead or behind in speed (rate of supply growth). It's these changing rates of supply and demand that change the value in gold suddenly.

The US election has changed perceptions of the value of the USD because the theory is that lower taxes will speed up the economy (it will) and that is bad for gold. The effect of stimulus is faster and then when removed slower.

Gold Is Not Flexible

Because currencies can be made faster and slower at will or necessity, inflation (inflating the money supply) acts as a throttle and gold acts as a brake. Trump got elected on stimulus promise and that means money will jump ahead. Gold investors just have to wait for the brakes to either temper enthusiasm or reduction of stimulus to see where we end up.

So when money is growing too fast gold puts on the brakes.

Gold Is Heavy

The reason that gold is so heavy and not used for money any more is that it became (still is) an anchor. Anchors are heavy for a reason - stopping on choppy seas, slowing down, hard to move, etc. This is what gold is and why it needs to be lighter in your portfolio because at times it's too heavy to carry and your whole portfolio will suffer.

Like an anchor it will slow the current direction of your portfolio and if it's going the wrong way (your portfolio that is) it will slow that down too.

However, as an investment, it's hard to make money carrying around a bigger anchor than you need.

Gold As Insurance

So like an anchor it protects you from going too fast either direction (adding anchors on the way down doesn't help either). But it can also protect you from catastrophe (or cause one) in the event that high inflation returns. Investing in gold requires super human patience and luck because you are betting on future of failure to succeed. I can't really recommend it as insurance because life insurance is probably cheaper and less of a drag on your lifestyle. You need to understand why you need it before setting your portfolio allocation to precious metals.

Miners Or Metals

Making anchors is very different from carrying anchors. Miners are a leverage to what you expect gold to do. As an investment they are rarely correlated to the market and rarely produce wealth holding but you can make a little bit while waiting for gold to work. It's very difficult to find profitable miners, but when you find one it's often a profitable company in hard times.

As investors we have two choices. Buying the metal or buying the producers. On the producer side there are two types as well - miners and streamers. Miners mine metals, streamers finance miners via metal streams. Since I own both I will discuss those choices.

I've written about First Majestic, a silver miner based in Mexico. The reason that I chose them was liquidity, low cost production and they act like the metal (link above).

But with the further decline in gold and silver, I am switching horses mid-stream to reduce mining risk yet maintain PM exposure. I am adding Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW) to my producer list and will eventually sell AG.

I also own a premier gold miner Agnico Eagle (NYSE:AEM) a larger miner based in safer jurisdictions.

I recommend a streamer first if you are new to PM.

Outlook For Precious Metals

I cannot predict the future price of PMs. Robert Balan right here on Seeking Alpha provides investors a tool called VAR Models (Vector Autoreggressions). You can see his latest blog here.

Click here for a live link.

My read on PM is that we are making a significant bottom but not necessarily the final bottom. Here's what I see in my own technicals. I find that I have to design my technicals based on what I see in the models. It makes it easier for me to understand the models.

Long Term View With Monthly Increments

You can see the long term trend is up. When I zoom into today, you can see the 4 version lines that I was and still am expecting. Looks like we are getting closer to the end of declines.

But I've been wrong before, so I would like to explain how a turn works. Take a step back from the monthly with my turn version.

I had to figure out a feature that I have never used, but seems to explain to me what is currently happening. I had to first imagine what was happening and then plot it using Fibonacci circles. You can see the circular lines above. Here's a look when you stand back.

You can see the circle placed on the last turn and where I think we are today is still somewhere in the turn. If this turn is like the last one we should know in a month or two.

Conclusion:

Gold is a viable investment if you understand what it is and where we are. My own technicals have a low of $900 at some point in the future. While I personally think that can't happen, it's technically possible. I have never seen this behavior so it's a lot easier to see if it's happened before. I need you to understand that predicting the future is impossible and I am helping myself to clarify my thinking by writing my thoughts and sharing them with you. I would like to thank Robert Balan for allowing me to share his work with my own interpretations. I would also like to thank Ziad Jasani of the Independent Investor Institute for helping me with my technicals training.

Peru: 169 Social Conflicts within 1 Month

The Peruvian National Office for Dialogue and Sustainability reported that the country has seen a total of 169 social conflicts in November 2016 alone. The government intervened in 50 cases while it took what was describes as "preventative action" in another 119 cases.

Fifty-two percent of the cases are related to "socio-environmental issues"; the majority of them is related to oil and mining operations and projects in the country. 40.3 percent of the cases where the government took "preventative action" were related to with extractive mining activities, and another 13.4 percent with hydrocarbon extraction activities.

The most controversial and publicized cases are related to social conflicts that emerged due to the lack of fulfilment of agreements assumed by previous governments to communities and companies.

The National Office of Dialogue and Sustainability stressed the need to create a unit to systematically manage and pursue cases where the State or institutions failed to honor agreements and obligations.

The office also stressed the need to better evaluate the viability of agreements before committing to them to avoid subsequent and avoidable disputes, and to find alternatives in cases where agreements are not feasible.

Peruvian Prime Minister Fernando Zavala stated that the government is paying attention to the conflicts. He underlined that all of these conflicts have their roots in agreements signed by previous governments and stressed that his government would try to get a handle on these problems.

Zavala's government "inherited" more than 200 of such conflicts from the previous government of Ollanta Humala. The test for the government of Zavala will be whether his administration merely scapegoats the former government or whether his government will really implement the much-needed changes and interventions.

This battery is powered by bacteria

Researchers at Binghamton University in New York have created a “bacteria-powered battery on a single sheet of paper.” The project is aimed at creating batteries for disposable microelectronics that can run for weeks using a little bacteria-rich liquid.

“The manufacturing technique reduces fabrication time and cost, and the design could revolutionize the use of bio-batteries as a power source in remote, dangerous and resource-limited areas,” write the researchers.

The researchers used a piece of chromatography paper and a ribbon of silver nitrate under a layer of wax. The anode was made of “a conductive polymer on the other half of the paper” and a reservoir held bacteria-rich liquid. The cellular respiration powered the battery.

You’re not going to power your car with these but you will be able to squeeze out a little juice. The batteries expel “31.51 microwatts at 125.53 microamps with six batteries in three parallel series and 44.85 microwatts at 105.89 microamps in a 6×6 configuration.” The researchers believe these batteries can run glucose sensors, detect pathogens, or keep small electronics alive for days without traditional power supplies.

Interestingly this isn’t the first bacteria battery his team has made. The team “developed its first paper prototype in 2015, which was a foldable battery that looked much like a matchbook.” The best part? “Earlier this year they unveiled a design that was inspired by a ninja throwing star.”

Fission 3.0 confirms strong uranium mineralization at Macusani project in Peru

Published 21 December 2016

Fission 3.0 announced that assay results confirm high-grade uranium, along with lithium mineralization, at its Macusani project in Peru.

Drilling intersected uranium mineralization of up to 12,151 ppm U3O8 (1.21% U3O8) just 16.0m from surface (hole MAC16-016) and lithium mineralization of up to 533 ppm (hole MAC16-009). Thirteen of sixteen holes were mineralized and all mineralization was encountered near to, and even at, surface.

News highlights

Near-surface and at-surface uranium and lithium mineralization

High-grade uranium of up to 12,151 ppm over 0.5m at just 16m from surface (hole MAC16-016), equivalent to 1.2103% U3O8

Lithium of up to 533 ppm over 0.5m (hole MAC16-009)

Drilling success rate of over 80%, with thirteen of sixteen holes mineralized

Ross McElroy, COO, and Chief Geologist for Fission 3, commented,

"Our 1st pass drilling at Macusani includes very encouraging results - with uranium and lithium mineralization in several drill holes on both the Llama South and Llama North prospects at shallow depths. Both prospects compare favorably in grade, and are on trend with, Plateau Uranium Inc.'s ("Plateau Uranium") two nearby uranium deposits. Plateau Uranium's recently-completed, robust PEA shows an OPEX of US$17.28/lb and payback within 1.76 years."

The two Plateau Uranium deposits on-trend with Fission 3's Llama South and Llama North prospects include the Corachapi Complex (5.0M lbs U3O8 Measured and Indicated at 195 ppm U3O8 and 1.91M lbs U3O8 Inferred at 230 ppm U3O8) and Corani Complex (1.3M lbs U3O8 Measured and Indicated at 131 ppm U3O8 and 1.8M lbs U3O8 Inferred at 166 ppm U3O8) based on cut-off grade of 75 ppm U.

High-priority exploration prospects. Drilling focused on the Llama South and Llama North prospects, where numerous anomalous uranium outcrops have assayed >2% U3O8 including a maximum of 24.48% U3O8. The prospects are part of an anomalous mineralized 8km NE oriented corridor that includes two shallow, resource-defined and heap leachable uranium deposits on Plateau Uranium's property. Both deposits are also host to substantial lithium mineralization.

Composited U ppm mineralized intervals are summarized in Tables 1 and 2 using the following parameters: 1) Minimum Thickness of 0.50m 2) Grade Cut-Off of 75 ppm U and 3) Maximum Internal Dilution of 2.0m. Composited Li ppm and K% intervals include all results within the Composite Parameters used to determine U ppm intervals. Samples from the drill core are split in half sections on site. Where possible, samples are standardized at 0.5m down-hole intervals. One-half of the split sample is sent to Bureau Veritas; prep lab in Peru, for analysis and final analysis is carried out in Vancouver. The other half remains on site for reference. All analysis includes the MA250 Analysis Package (Four-Acid Digestion, ICP-ES and ICP-MS). Samples overlimit for Uranium (above 4,000 ppm) were re-analyzed using the MA270 package (Multi Acid Digestion, ICP-ES). All depth measurements reported, including sample and interval widths are down-hole, core interval measurements and true thickness are yet to be determined.

The Macusani Project

The Macusani property is located within southeastern Peru. Fission 3.0 Corp. holds the rights to 9 claim blocks encompassing 51 km². The district is mining-friendly, has a mild climate and has solid infrastructure, including all-weather roads and low-cost power.

Within the area, the stratigraphy is dominated by the sub-horizontal Pliocene Quenamari Formation, which is mainly composed of ignimbrite layers. Uranium anomalies occur on plateaus that are composed of the Upper Yapamayo Member of the Quenamari Formation. Sampling to date has shown that the most significant uranium anomalies appear to be restricted to this assemblage. Mineralization within the area is dominated by very high grade Autinite veins along 'enriched fault planes', with lesser disseminated mineralization. The significant fault planes can vary from up to 2m thick, while multiple enriched fault planes occur in shear zones up to 150 m across.

The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and reviewed on behalf of the company by Ross McElroy, P.Geol., COO and Chief Geologist for Fission 3.0, a qualified person.

Exploration company eyes up rich seam of gold in Co Tyrone

Exploration company eyes up rich seam of gold in Co Tyrone

There should be a public inquiry into plans for a gold mine in Co Tyrone, Infrastructure Minister Chris Hazzard has said.

Local residents have raised concerns about the use of cyanide at the Greencastle site as part of the process.

No planning application has yet been submitted.

Mr Hazzard said: "However if and when a planning application is submitted, I am of the view that it should be subject to an independent public inquiry before any final decision is taken."

Northern Ireland has the seventh richest undeveloped seam of gold in the world, the company behind the project Dalradian has said.

It hopes to submit an application for full planning permission in the near future and has already injected more than £56 million into the project.

It believes the excavation can create many jobs in constructing and operating the site.

Cyanide is used in part of the processing system but Dalradian has said it will be heavily regulated and does not pose a risk to the public or the environment.

A diluted cyanide solution will split gold particles from crushed ore.

Mr Hazzard added: "It is already clear that the planning application, if submitted, will be both complex and controversial, involving a wide range of views and in-depth information to assess the potential socio-economic and environmental impacts, both positive and negative, of the proposed development.

"As DfI Minister I will ultimately be the final decision maker, but I would like the benefit of a public inquiry and report which has independently considered the views of stakeholders, including the local community, and has scrutinised the information provided by all interested parties."

Dalradian Gold chief executive Patrick Anderson welcomed the prospect of a public inquiry which he said would provide a further forum in which to engage locally and hear more fully from those who are in favour of, against or neutral on the project.

"This would allow the minister to make a more informed decision when the time comes."

He added: "Our planning application will be a complex one and we want to ensure that as many people as possible are engaged in the process and that the process is rigorous and fair."

Bill Gates announces $1bn investment fund for clean energy technology

Bill Gates is heading up a fund worth more than $1bn to fight climate change by investing in new ways of producing clean energy.

The Microsoft co-founder will lead a group of investors whose combined wealth totals some $170bn, including Richard Branson, Amazon's Jeff Bezos and Jack Ma, the founder of Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba

Mr Gates says the fund, called Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV), could pump money into "anything that leads to cheap, clean, reliable energy", QZ.com reported.

Investing in energy is a complex business, he told the site, and so the market is not crowded. He said: "People think you can just put $50m in and wait two years and then you know what you got. In this energy space, that’s not true at all.

"It’s such a big market that the value if you’re really providing a big portion of the world’s energy, the value of that will be super, super big."

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study in July estimated that between 2006 and 2011 clean energy investors lost more than half the £25bn they put into the sector.

BEV aims to invest in bringing greenhouse gas-reducing technology to market, including in transport, industrial processes and agriculture.

It is likely to look first at ways of storing energy. Creating more efficient means of storing power could allow more people to use energy sources, like wind turbines and solar panels, that only function intermittently because they are dependent on the weather.

US President-elect Donald Trump recently appointed climate-change sceptic Scott Pruitt as head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Mr Gates said: "The dialogue with the new administration as it comes in about how they see energy research will be important.

"The general idea that research is a good deal fortunately is not a partisan thing."

Gold Speculators dropped their net bullish positions for 4th week

Gold Non-Commercial Positions:

Large speculators and traders decreased their net positions in the gold futures markets last week for the fourth consecutive week, according to the latest Commitment of Traders (COT) data released by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday.

The non-commercial futures contracts of Comex gold futures, traded by large speculators and hedge funds, totaled a net position of 136,380 contracts in the data reported through December 6th. This was a weekly decline of -15,190 contracts from the previous week which had a total of 151,570 net contracts.

Gold speculative positions are now at their lowest level since February 16th when net positions equaled 117,360 contracts.

Gold Commercial Positions:

The commercial traders position, categorized by the CFTC as hedgers or traders engaged in buying and selling for business purposes, totaled a net position of -154,944 contracts last week. This is a weekly rise of 12,879 contracts from the total net of -167,823 contracts reported the previous week.

Gold ETF vs Specs:

Over the same weekly reporting time-frame, from Tuesday to Tuesday, the GLD ETF, which tracks the price of gold, closed at approximately $111.43 which was a fall of $-1.84 from the previous close of $113.27, according to ETF market data from Yahoo Finance.

*COT Report: The COT data, released weekly to the public each Friday, is updated through the previous Tuesday (data is 3 days old) and shows a quick view of how large speculators or non-commercials (for-profit traders) as well as the commercial traders (hedgers & traders for business purposes) were positioned in the futures markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators). 

Latin America Mining Outlook 2017: Riding Out the Bottom - Research and Markets

DUBLIN - (BUSINESS WIRE) - Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Mining Outlook 2017: Riding Out the Bottom" report to their offering.

While 2017 is set to open with metal prices at significantly higher levels than a year earlier, persistent uncertainty around global economic growth is keeping mining companies in wait-and-see mode, meaning few major investment decisions and little cash available for junior exploration. Prices are not expected to rise much in 2017, but there is a hope that they will consolidate, forming a basis for the beginning of the end of the mining industry's spending freeze.

The Mining Intelligence Series Outlook 2017 consolidates facts, figures and qualitative analysis focusing on the principal mining markets of Latin America and the overall trends impacting mining activity in 2017, including economic growth, metal prices, productivity, debt management and spending.

Prices are not expected to rise much in 2017, but there is a hope that they will consolidate, forming a basis for the beginning of the end of the mining industry's spending freeze.

Analysis of the socio-political investment climate and details of the main projects where spending will occur in 2017 make this report essential for operators, providers, government entities and financial institutions active in or seeking to enter Latin America's mining industry.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction: Market Conditions for Mining Investment to Remain Subdued

2. Argentina: Consolidating Policy Across the Provinces

3. Brazil: New Government Brings Hope but Iron Ore Price Relief Unlikely

4. Chile: Poster Child for the Push to Productivity

5. Colombia: Power To the People

6. Mexico: Economic Growth Struggles but Mining Project Approvals Signal Optimism

7. Peru: Social License Still the Main In-Country Challenge

8. In Brief: Guatemala, Panama, Ecuador, DR, Venezuela and Bolivia

9. Conclusion

Companies Mentioned

• Alamos Gold Inc

• Albemarle Corporation

• Americas Silver Corporation

• Anglo American

• Anglogold Ashanti ltd

• Arcelormittal SA

• Argonaut Gold Inc

• B2 Gold Corp

• BHP Billiton

• Barclays plc

• Barrick gold Corp

• Camimex: Camara Minera de Mexico

• Coarantioquia: Corporacion Autónoma Regional del Centro de Antioquia

• COCHILCO: Comision chilena del cobre

• CORFO: Corporación de Fomento de la Producción

• CSN: Companhia siderurgica nacional

• Cerro vanguardia SA

• Codelco

• Coeur mining Inc

• Commerzbank ag

• Credit suisse group ag

• Endeavour Silver Corp

• Falcondo: Falconbridge Dominicana

• First Majestic Silver Corp

• Hudbay minerals Inc

• Ica Fluor s de RL de CV

• Minera alumbrera ltd Sucursal Argentina

• Ministerio de Energía y Minas República del Perú

• Newmont Mining Corporation

• Pan American Silver Corp

• Premier Gold Mines ltd

• Teck resources limited

• Timmins Gold Corp

• Torex Gold Resources Inc

• Vale SA

The smell of death was everywhere': Inside the world's most dangerous mines

Hugh Brown risks his life to document the men, women and children who mine precious minerals by hand in brutal conditions. He's encountered the "coal mafia", braved the "mountain that eats men" and been interrogated over terrorist links - and he isn't done yet.

"Literally the smell of death was everywhere."

Hugh Brown has recently returned from one of the world's largest silver mines - Bolivia's Cerro Rico. It roughly translates to "rich mountain" but also has a much darker moniker - the "mountain that eats men".

It's an ancient death trap that has claimed the lives of as many as eight million miners in the past 471 years.

"Death is part of working on the mountain. My first fixer, as we were driving through the streets of Potosi, was pointing out 'that woman lost a husband in the mine, that woman lost a husband in the mine'," Brown says.

"It's a town of 150,000, and every single person was related to someone that had died in the mine."

The Perth-based photographer says the 4,824-metre-high mountain in the southern highlands is "like a piece of Swiss cheese" and is "actually physically collapsing in on itself".

"There are so many holes, but the holes haven't all been mapped so nobody knows what holes are where. There are also toxic gases, and people dying in blasts, and people falling off ladders," he says.

"Two men will push these wagons weighing up to two tonnes, and in certain places they get quite a bit of speed up, and if you're caught in the wrong place you can be crushed to death."

Many of those who survive the mountain are struck down with black lung disease.

"Eight years ago they were losing three to five people a day on that mountain. While I was there they were estimating about three to five a month," Brown says.

"Every day you woke up to go into the mountain you thought, am I going to come out today?"

The Cerro Rico miners are among the estimated 30 million men, women and children who mine by hand around the world.

Brown first encountered artisanal miners while travelling through remote parts of Ghana in 2006.

"What they were doing was just fascinating. You hear about the conditions they worked in on the Australian goldfields back in the 1850s, but to see it here in the 21st century blew me away," he says.

Over the past decade, Brown has journeyed to West Africa about 20 times, and has also been to remote and dangerous parts of India, Pakistan and Indonesia.

"In east Java, I spent three weeks living on the side of the Ijen volcano, literally 200 metres from the rim," Brown says.

At the time, the volcano was on its second-highest alert level, with an eruption considered to be imminent.

Miners journey down into the crater of the volcano to collect solidified sulphur. Beneath the tenuous crust is molten sulphur that is somewhere north of 120 degrees Celsius, and could either kill or cause severe burns.

In eastern India, Brown photographed the illegal indigenous Adivasis coal miners, many of whom have turned to mining to survive after being displaced from their traditional lands. At the time, the area was in the midst of a Naxalite insurgency.

"Kidnapping was a significant risk I had to manage," he says.

He then spent three days building trust with the Indian "coal mafia" so he could gain access to another area of the country.

"I know very little about them but I know that if you get on the wrong side of them, it's not good," he says.

"I work in areas that are quite sensitive, because mineral resources mean money, and money funds a lot of things that are not necessarily savoury in the Western world, to put it sensitively. So they don't like photographers sniffing around.

"I had to convince them that I wasn't there for a political purpose, that I was just there to capture a subject that I felt would be historically important in the years to come."

Brown has also spent time among the world's highest altitude miners in the Karakorum Range of northern Pakistan, where some of the world's most beautiful and valuable gems are found.

Towards the end of the trip, while seeking to photograph nomadic gold panners on the Indus River, he was interrogated by civilian and military intelligence agencies who were investigating groups in the region for links to the Islamic State group and the Taliban.

He laughs when asked about the encounter.

"At the end, when he decided I was alright, the military intelligence guy said to me 'have you thought about converting to Islam? I think it's a good idea that you do'," Brown recalls, adding: "That was funny."

The places Brown visits pull together some of humanity's most dangerous - and disturbing - elements: people trafficking, child slavery, insurgency, terrorism, the irreversible destruction of the environment.

"My attitude to a lot of it, which is probably more of a strength now, is that I try not to judge these things," he says.

"It's the yin and the yang. For all the negatives there are good things to come out of it.

"The money that they're making is exponentially greater than what they could earn in the fields or the villages."

In the hardship, he says, the strength of the human spirit shines - as does the universal concept of sacrifice in the name of a better life.

"Back in the Western world, you've got people slogging away in an office doing something they hate, or working a second job, because they think that if they can earn that extra money they will get ahead," Brown says.

"And these miners are no different to that. It's about sacrificing the life that you have for the prospect - and prospect being the key word - of a better life. There's no guarantee, but they're trying.

"And that's what just about every single person on the planet is doing."

Brown says his job makes it "very easy to get killed if you're not careful". He admits the risk to his life is constant, and daily.

"You've got to be on your game. Your senses have to be heightened, you must be aware," he says.

He says the danger is heightened by the fact that he works alone - but quickly adds that he could just as easily be killed in a car accident in Australia.

Where the next part of his project will unfold is, for now, a secret. But he has just finished hostile environment training in preparation.

"I've known what it is like to experience extreme fear. It's not particularly pleasant but you just have to deal with it, and if you can push through that you get to enjoy experiences that enrich your life," Brown says.

"It is in times of difficulty where you learn the most."

Brown can't put a finger on exactly why the project feels so important, but it has a lot to do with creating a place in the history books for the world's artisan miners.

"I could never in my wildest dreams have thought I would be doing something like this," he adds.

EPA rejects $20.4 million in requests for Gold King Mine spill costs

DENVER — The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it will pay $4.5 million to state, local and tribal governments for their emergency response to a mine spill that the EPA triggered, but the agency turned down $20.4 million in other requests for past and future expenses.

The EPA provided the figures to The Associated Press a day after informing two Indian tribes and more than a dozen state and local agencies in Colorado and New Mexico.

An EPA-led crew accidentally triggered a 3-million-gallon spill from the inactive Gold King Mine in southwestern Colorado while doing preliminary cleanup work in August 2015. The wastewater carried arsenic, lead, metal and other heavy metals and polluted rivers in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah.

The spill prompted utilities, farmers and ranchers to temporarily stop drawing from the rivers. The EPA said the water quality returned to pre-spill levels quickly.

Reimbursements for emergency response costs have been contentious. Some governments complained the EPA is rejecting legitimate expenses or taking too long.

Two bills before Congress are aimed at speeding up the reimbursement process.

The EPA said in a statement Friday it is following federal law that dictates what it can pay.

Separately, the Navajo Nation filed a claim with the federal government last week seeking $162 million in costs from the spill, including $3.1 million for unreimbursed expenses and $159 million to develop alternative water supplies, future monitoring and other costs.

One of the rivers affected by the spill, the San Juan, crosses the Navajo Nation. In addition to agriculture and drinking uses, the tribe considers the river sacred.

The EPA said the Navajo Nation had requested $1.4 million and would be reimbursed $603,000. The difference in the EPA and Navajo figures couldn’t immediately be reconciled.

Navajo Nation officials had no immediate comment Friday on the EPA’s reimbursement decisions.

Among the Navajos’ costs that EPA rejected was more than $250,000 to haul drinking water to replace supplies taken from the San Juan. The EPA did agree to pay more than $90,000 to transport water to two areas until early September 2015 but said the river quality had returned to pre-spill levels by then.

The EPA turned down requests from several local and tribal governments to be repaid for such spill-related expenses as attorney fees, future water quality monitoring and travel to testify before Congress.

The EPA agreed to pay New Mexico $1.1 million but rejected $236,000 in requests. The reimbursements are for the San Juan County cities of Aztec and Farmington, and 11 state agencies.

State Environment Secretary Butch Tongate said he was pleased the EPA was repaying the costs and said the state will pursue reimbursement for long-term monitoring as well.

The EPA’s reimbursement decisions can be appealed. None of the governments reached Friday had decided whether to do so.

La Plata County, Colorado, may decide next week, County Manager Joe Kerby said.

“We are extremely disappointed in their response,” Kerby said. “Disappointed but not surprised.”

EPA rejected some of the county’s costs because they came after Oct. 31, 2015, the day the EPA closed down its incident command center. But Kerby said the county kept accumulating response costs after that.

Kerby said the EPA has repaid the county about $377,000, and he believes the agency owes it another $29,000 in expenses.

“It’s not a huge amount, but it’s actual cost that we incurred and that our taxpayers paid for because of the spill, through no fault of our own,” he said.

Sunrise With Solar Array

Astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency captured this photograph from the International Space Station on Nov. 25, 2016, and shared it on social media.  Pesquet commented, "Sunrises. We experience 16 sunrises every 24 hours on the International Space Station as it takes us 90 minutes to do a complete orbit of our planet flying at 28,800 km/h. Of course we don't notice most of the sunrises as we are working inside, but every now and again I can take a picture."

Image Credit: ESA/NASA

Sustainability doesn't mean 'living in a cave'

Jerad Capp never pays a utility bill.

The Spearfish resident, who goes by Cappie, lives off the grid, an increasingly popular choice for environmentally conscious homeowners, and one Cappie hopes to share with his fellow community members.

Off-grid living means not relying on traditional municipal water supply, natural gas, sewer, electrical power and other utility services.

"There are many misconceptions about what an off-grid house means," Cappie said. "That was my hope with this house, was to show people you didn't have to live in a cave, you didn't have to live in a hobbit house, you didn't have to live this austere lifestyle where everything was so arduous."

Cappie's home is a 650-square-foot load bearing straw bale house, which runs completely on solar power. The straw bales, which are stacked on top of one another like Legos, serve as the structural support for the home. Straw bales are natural building elements that help immensely with the heating and cooling of the home. Straw bales are also easily obtainable, renewable and naturally fire-retardant.

It took about four years to get approval to build his off-the-grid home, but Cappie has lived sustainably most of his adult life.

"I always felt I needed to be responsible for me and the impact I make on humans and the planet," Cappie said.

He built his first off-the-grid home in 2004, a modified 1993 International school bus with PV solar, solar hot water and a composting toilet. However, his fascination with sustainable building peaked through travel. Cappie has visited 61 countries and all 50 states.

"I've seen every kind of building you can imagine from mud walls three-feet thick in the Middle East to log cabins in Oregon built with logs I can't even reach around down to Central America homes built out of cinder block and tin roofs," he said. "It's about using what you have."

Cappie, who has built conventionally with his dad and grandfather most of his life, now owns Pangea Design Group in Spearfish, a natural building company using local materials and sustainable techniques to build homes.

The U.S. Energy Information Association (EIA) cites that in 2015 less than 2 percent of homes in the United States ran on solar power. But the trend is picking up momentum.

In a recent report from the Solar Energy Industries Association, enough solar energy is produced in the U.S. to power 6.2 million homes. The report also states there were 1.1 million residential solar installations nationwide in the second quarter of 2016.

While South Dakota is not a leader in solar energy, it's making progress. The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission shared data from the EIA stating 9,734,000 MWh of energy was produced in 2015, with approximately 1,000MWh of that coming from solar power. The total was a 29.3 percent increase in solar generation from 2014 in the state.

Cappie runs with a 1.6kw array solar panel mounted on his roof. The solar system, which Cappie said is modest in size, provides all of his electricity, which is enough electrical power to wash his clothes, cook food and binge watch his favorite television shows like any homeowner in Spearfish.

And in the event the solar panel didn't produce enough electricity, which Cappie said it never has, he has 14, 12-volt deep cycle batteries stored beneath his living room floor for backup.

Cappie said overcast days do not hinder energy production; it simply takes self-conscious decision-making to conserve electricity.

"I pay attention to things," he said. "I don't do four loads of laundry at midnight because it uses a lot of the battery bank. I do a load of laundry at 9 a.m. or over lunch when the sun is high and there is a lot of electricity being produced."

Aside from producing electricity, the sun heats Cappie's home for most of the winter, and a ceiling fan, coupled with fresh air, cools it.

The floor and walls of his house are made from straw, clay and sand. When the sun beats through the windows, the 10-inch thick floor creates a heat sink, storing the heat and warming the home much like concrete on a hot, summer day.

When the temperatures do start to drastically drop, Cappie has two wood stoves to heat the home. The wood used is left over from his construction projects; he has enough wood to heat his home for eight years.

An irrigation ditch runs through the property supply Cappie with all his irrigation water. A paddle wheel, called a screw pump that Cappie designed, pumps water into a tank 20 feet above the ground. The water is used to water his 10,000 square foot vegetable garden, eliminating another charge from a utility company.

Cappie enjoys sharing his passion for sustainable building and off the grid living. Last March, he spoke at the International Straw Building Conference in New Zealand on practical sustainability.

"People talk about these smart homes with smart thermostats, why can't we just be smart homeowners," Cappie said.

Homeowners can make small changes to reduce their carbon footprints such as opening a window to heat the house or using a ceiling fan rather than running an air conditioner. Cleaning the back of the refrigerator, using more sustainable light bulbs and even riding a bike to work helps reduce the carbon footprint, he said.

And while South Dakota is not a leader in solar energy, Chris Nelson, South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner, said the state has created much energy from wind and water. In 2015, 50 percent of the state's energy was water generated and 26 percent was wind generated. And 14 percent of the hydro energy was used, while 10 percent of the generated wind energy was used.

"And now for the first time, we're seeing solar power projects in the state," Nelson said. "A 1 megawatt solar facility in Pierre recently developed through the Missouri River Energy Systems, providing electricity to municipal energy facilities."

While the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission doesn't keep track of individuals using solar energy, Nelson said he suspects the option will become more popular as the economics make more sense.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates the cost of photovoltaic solar panels dropped 60 percent between 2008 and 2014. In 2014 the median installed price for residential systems was approximately $4.3 per watt DC, costing a homeowner approximately $43,000 to install a 10 kW PV system.

Cappie said Spearfish is progressive enough to make sustainable changes in the future.

"It's exciting to bring something to light where your kids, my kids, will be like, "Well, why wouldn't you have solar panels on your house?' I think we can get there," Cappie said. "It just has to go mainstream and it has to be practical."

Ameresco to develop community solar projects in Massachusetts

Renewable energy service provider Ameresco is playing a large part in bringing community solar to two towns in Massachusetts.

The company announced Monday that it has completed a four-project pipeline of community solar installations in Wayland, while also unveiling plans to develop a 2.4MW facility in Sturbridge.

Wayland's solar arrays are made up of 4,214 PV panels totaling 1.2MW, and are expected to generate over 1.5 million kWh of renewable electricity per year.

Collectively, three solar canopies developed at Wayland's high school, middle school and town building - as well as a rooftop project at the Department of Public Works building - are projected to generate enough electricity to offset 25% of the town's municipal electric needs and net an annual financial savings of over US$100,000.

Dan Knapik, director of the green communities division at the Department of Energy Resources, said: "With the passage of the Green Communities Act of 2008, the Commonwealth established an opportunity for municipalities to blaze a new path in the clean energy field. Wayland was one of our earliest designations as a Green Community and I am pleased to see the town utilize the powerful opportunity provided by an energy management services program."

Ameresco's solar project in Sturbridge is slated to be completed and operational by early 2017. The 2.4MW installation will help provide renewable energy to Sturbridge and cut down on energy costs.

The 20-year power purchase agreement tied into the site is expected to generate millions of dollars in savings. Under the PPA, 50% of the annual electricity generated from the project will be used by the town as net metering credits, while the other half will be used by the Community Solar Program to deliver green energy to residents in the area.

Michael T. Bakas, senior vice president, Ameresco, said: "It's a pleasure for Ameresco to partner with the town of Sturbridge and the greater community to build and manage this new renewable energy project. We commend town leadership for being fiscally prudent in selecting a project that will generate long-term savings and admire the community's commitment to sustainability."

Tags: ameresco, massachusetts

Americans love, love solar energy, but not everyone can wrangle a set of rooftop solar panels.

Americans love, love solar energy, but not everyone can wrangle a set of rooftop solar panels. Some roofs are too small or too shady, or they face the wrong direction. Some people are renters. Others own their home, but they can't afford the up-front installation costs.

These barriers, say experts, don't have to keep Americans from cashing in on solar. If rooftop panels aren't right for you, you might try something called community shared solar. Band together with friends, neighbors or your church to set up a solar array. Everyone buys in. Everyone reaps the benefits.

Community shared is taking off, but not necessarily in the places with the most sunshine. Rather, solar is growing in states with the strongest policy. The steps currently being taken to advance community solar in New York make that state a prime example.

How does community solar work?

In 2015, Governor Cuomo approved the Shared Renewables Initiative to expand access to clean energy. The initiative enables renters, homeowners and businesses to set up shared solar projects.

Community solar projects can take several forms: One variety is community group purchasing, where a group of homeowners or businesses jointly hire a solar firm to install panels on their roofs. Buying in bulk cuts everyone's costs. Another option is offsite shared solar. These arrays usually take the form of a solar "farm" or "garden." Any ratepayer can subscribe to panels in the array and get credited on their electric bill as if the panels were on their own roof. Onsite shared solar is another form of community solar. Residents of an apartment building or tenants in a large office building can put panels on the roof to supply electricity for everyone. And finally, there are community-driven financial models, which involve private investors and donors funding solar installations in low-income communities. Residents in turn reap the cost savings.

New York utilities now credit ratepayers for the electricity produced in their name by offsite solar projects. Consumers play a flat rate to subscribe to a solar panel or two in a shared solar array, and they are credited on their monthly bill for the energy generated by that solar panel. Subscribers pay month-by-month, meaning they can move away at any time.

"People really want to go solar, but only one in five homes are suited for it," said David Sandbank, director of NY Sun, part of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). But with community shared solar, this is the first time that everyone can buy in.

"Low to moderate income residents now qualify. Renters are in play now. It really widens the demographic access," Sandbank said. He said NYSERDA is receiving applications for community shared solar worth hundreds of megawatts.

Shared solar arrays cost less per kilowatt than individual arrays, in part because the per-panel cost of installation is lower. Shared solar is also eligible for tax incentives from NYSERDA, as well and state and federal tax credits that apply to any solar installation.

"It's a big deal and we're really excited about it," Sandbank said. "There's a lot of development because of it, and we're bringing a lot of business to New York."

A case study

The first shared solar project in New York state was completed in Tompkins County this year. When community shared solar became a possibility, Renovus Solar, an Ithaca-based solar installer, was eager to jump on the opportunity and conducted an informational session for the community.

"Over our 12 years of business as residential and commercial solar energy installers, we'd disqualified many roofs of hopeful solar owners due to shading issues, size constraints etc.," Renovus' Emma Hewitt said. "So we knew that there were many people in this area who wanted a community solar option and would happily become early adopters."

Judy Hyman, a local clean energy advocate, drove all over Enfield searching for suitable panel sites: flat, south-facing, and electrically compatible.

Renovus looked at Hyman's notes, aerial maps, and property maps before sending out letters to each person who owned land suited to this purpose, telling them that they might be able to receive income from their land, defray tax costs, and help the environment. Several property owners responded and a site was selected.

CREDIT: Renovus Solar

About three dozen people signed up for the solar project, which feeds into the utility grid. The array offsets 100 percent of the power subscribers use at home.

"Community solar is about individuals claiming their power production , investing in a clean energy system that they own. It's the difference between owning your electricity production versus renting electricity from the utility company," Hewitt said. "And there are big savings associated."

"With energy prices increasing, the cost of doing nothing is becoming increasingly expensive. Going solar secures a low energy rate for decades," Hewitt said.

Before shared solar arrived on the scene, there were a lot of Tompkins residents who wanted to solar power, but couldn't make it work.

"People like me would've loved to go solar, but my house is in the woods," said David Bock, one such resident. When the community project was unveiled, Bock signed up. His monthly electric bill is now about $15.

Net metering laws allow solar power credits to be annualized, so surplus electricity generated in the summer is effectively carried over to winter. So, while the solar panels fell a little short of his needs in October, they'd built up enough credits during the summer to defray his energy costs.

"The future of the planet depends on getting us off of fossil fuels," Bock said. "Renewables and solar are our best option."

California EPA says settled with Apple on hazardous waste claims

The California Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday said Apple Inc agreed to pay $450,000 to settle state claims that it had mishandled hazardous electronic waste at facilities in Silicon Valley.

Apple also agreed to increase inspections to settle allegations about facilities in Cupertino and Sunnyvale, the Agency's Department of Toxic Substances Control said.

"This matter involves an oversight in filing paperwork to close one of our recycling facilities as part of our expansion to a larger site," Apple spokeswoman Alisha Johnson told Reuters in an emailed statement.

"We've worked closely with [the Department of Toxic Substance Control] to ensure that going forward we have the proper permits for our current site. As we do with all our facilities, we followed our stringent set of health and safety standards, which go well beyond legal requirements."

State regulators alleged Apple opened and operated an electronic waste shredding facility in Cupertino, its home base, between 2011 and 2012 without informing them.

The department also alleged Apple mishandled metal dust from shredder operations at the Cupertino facility, which processed about 1.1 million pounds (500,000 kg) of waste before it was closed in January 2013.

Regulators also said that Apple subsequently opened another shredding facility in nearby Sunnyvale and processed 800,000 pounds of waste before notifying the regulators of the plant's existence. At the Sunnyvale plant, regulators alleged, Apple took hazardous dust swept from the floor and sent it to a disposal site that was not authorized to handle toxic waste.

The regulators also claim Apple did not properly report and track exports of hazardous waste and failed to mark used oil containers properly as hazardous waste.

Researchers develop a simple processing technique that could cut the cost of organic photovoltaics

With a new technique for manufacturing single-layer organic polymer solar cells, scientists at UC Santa Barbara and three other universities might very well move organic photovoltaics into a whole new generation of wearable devices and enable small-scale distributed power generation.

The simple doping solution-based process involves briefly immersing organic semiconductor films in a solution at room temperature. This technique, which could replace a more complex approach that requires vacuum processing, has the potential to affect many device platforms, including organic printed electronics, sensors, photodetectors and light-emitting diodes. The researchers' findings appear in the journal Nature Materials.

"Because the new process is simple to use, general in terms of applicability and should be configurable into mass productions, it has the potential to greatly accelerate the widespread implementation of plastic electronics, of which solar cells are one example," said co-author Guillermo Bazan, director of UCSB's Center for Polymers and Organic Solids. "One can see impacts in technologies ranging from light-emitting devices to transistors to transparent solar cells that can be incorporated into building design or greenhouses."

Studied in many academic and industrial laboratories for two decades, organic solar cells have experienced a continuous and steady improvement in their power conversion efficiency with laboratory values reaching 13 percent compared to around 20 percent for commercial silicon-based cells. Though polymer-based cells are currently less efficient, they require less energy to produce than silicon cells and can be more easily recycled at the end of their lifetimes.

This new method, which provides a way of inducing p-type electrical doping in organic semiconductor films, offers a simpler alternative to the air-sensitive molybdenum oxide layers used in the most efficient polymer solar cells. Thin films of organic semiconductors and their blends are immersed in polyoxometalate solutions in nitromethane for a brief time - on the order of minutes. The geometry of these new devices is unique as the functions of hole and electron collection are built into the light-absorbing active layer, resulting in the simplest single-layer geometry with few interfaces.

"High-performing organic solar cells require a multiple layer device structure," said co-author Thuc-Quyen Nguyen, a professor in UCSB's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. "The realization of single-layer photovoltaics with our approach will simplify the device fabrication process and therefore should reduce the cost. The initial lifetime testing of these single layer devices is promising. This exciting development will help transform organic photovoltaics into a commercial technology."

Organic solar cells are unique within the context of providing transparent, flexible and easy-to-fabricate energy-producing devices. These could result in a host of novel applications, such as energy-harvesting windows and films that enable zero-cost farming by creating greenhouses that support crops and produce energy at the same time.

“Los costes de la energía fotovoltaica han bajado un 80% en 6 años”

• José Donoso,  director general de la Unión Española Fotovoltaica, afirma que “las subastas en Sudamérica muestran que la energía solar es la más barata”

La energía solar fotovoltaica resulta plenamente competitiva, explica José Donoso, director general de la Unión Española Fotovoltaica (Unef), entidad que reúne a unas250 empresas (inversores, abogados, fabricantes, instaladores...). Por eso, pideeliminar las barreras que impiden una mayor implantación y lograr un sistema deconformación de precios de la electricidad que permita a los ciudadanos beneficiarse de ello.

Las declaraciones se producen coincidiendo con la presentación de la nueva directiva europea de energías renovables para cumplir los objetivos del Acuerdo de París contra el calentamiento. La normativa estaba siendo largamente esperada por el sector fotovoltaico, y ha sido acogida con esperanza y algunas prevenciones por José Donoso.

¿Cómo valora la actual situación de la energía solar fotovoltaica?

A nivel global nos encontramos en el momento de recoger los resultados de lo sembrado anteriormente. El año pasado se batió unnuevo récord de capacidad instalada con 55.000 MW y vemos que el principal motor de este crecimiento es la competitividad de nuestra tecnología. Cada nueva subasta internacional significa un nuevo precio más bajo.

El Gobierno sitúa los contras

El Gobierno enfatiza esto e insiste machaconamente en que el autoconsumidor de energía renovable debe pagar las redes de transporte. Sabemos, además, que si hay mucho autoconsumo, las empresas eléctricas perderán clientes...

Por querer desinformar, se está tratando de trasladar la idea de que el autoconsumidor es insolidario y amenaza al sistema eléctrico, cuando la realidad es que por cada 100 MW que produzca el autoconsumidor el sistema eléctrico solo deja de ingresar 2,6 millones euros. Nosotros calculamos que el autoconsumo producirá al año en España entre 300 y 400 MW; con lo cual, en una hipótesis máxima, estaríamos hablando de unos 12 millones de euros que deja el ingresar el sistema eléctrico ¡Pero el sistema ingresa 18.000 millones! ¡Nadie puede aducir seriamente que porque un sistema de 18.000 millones deje de ingresar 12, eso va a afectar a la solidaridad del sistema, ni nada parecido!

La Unión Europea se ha marcado como objetivo lograr que el 27% de la energía final sea de origen renovables en el 2030. ¿Qué opina?

Que el Parlamento europeo aprobó oficialmente que esa proporción debía ser un 30%. No sólo no se ha llegado a la meta que el Europarlamento aprobó, sino que la normativa en preparación no tiene objetivos vinculantes por países. Es un objetivo global, y aún está por ver cómo se concreta eso en cada país

El comisario Arias Cañete dice que piensa buscar una solución, un sistema degobernanza para que todos cumplan…

Cuando no tienes una respuesta concreta de cómo vas a obligar a los países a lograr eso, hablas de la gobernanza…En teoría, se van a solicitar a los países unos planes que detallen cómo van a conseguir los objetivos y si entre todos los planes sumados por países no se llega al 27%, la Comisión haría unos concursos a nivel europeo.. Todo suena muy inconcreto.

Planta de energía solar en Yokohama, ciudad premiada por sus esfuerzos por combatir el cambio climático. (Tomohiro Ohsumi / AP)

Las subastas, la modalidad de moda

La Comisión planea que el desarrollo de la energía renovable se hará en Europa no con primas a la producción, sino con subastas…

Tras cuestionarse el actual sistema de ayudas a las renovables, calificado como de ayudas al Estado en la época del comisario Almunia, se dice que a partir de ahora sólo se dará un sistema de apoyo a las renovables utilizando sistemas de mercado, fundamentalmente mediante las subastas. Y se decide que a partir del 1 de enero del 2017, esas subastas tienen que ser tecnológicamente neutras, de forma que tienen que competir unas tecnología con otras, salvo en los casos en que se admiten de tecnologías que no son maduras, como pueden ser la mareomotriz. Nos parece bien que la adjudicación se haga en función de los precios, pero no nos gusta el sistema de subasta en España, que no tiene en cuenta este criterio, sino la inversión. Nuestro presidente Jorge Barredo ha reclamado un sistema abierto, transparente, y no discriminatorio, basado en la planificación y la experiencia internacional. Estas condiciones, según las empresas del sector, evitarían el riesgo de especulación y la no ejecución de los proyectos. Por eso, han reclamado que el 20% de cada subasta se reserve a los proyectos más pequeños, para impulsar un desarrollo ordenado del sector.

Todo esto tiene unos cimientos de barro. El III Foro Solar ha denunciado la hiperretribución que obtienen las hidroeléctricas o las nucleares en el recibo de la luz…

Nos encontramos con que hay países, como la República Checa, que aprueba una central nuclear con ayudas del estado, que se hace cargo de los seguros, los residuos radiactivos y demás. Se cuestionan las ayudas a las renovables, pero luego nos obligan a comulgar con ruedas de molino, con esos subsidios. Es la esquizofrenia de la Comisión Europea.

Interconexiones, arma de doble filo

Cuando se habla de interconexión de las redes, ésta realmente favorece a las fuentes renovables. ¿Es así de clara esa ecuación?

Evidentemente, cuanto más interconectado está un sistema eléctrico, menos necesidad tienes de tener plantas de respaldo (plantas de apoyo o soporte que, como las térmicas, están paradas y cobran un subsidio en reconocimiento de que se pueden disponer de ellas cuando son necesarias). Pero las interconexiones son caras, y hay que ver, desde el punto de vista del análisis coste-beneficio, si son necesarias. Pero en principio, permiten un mayor capacidad de inyección de renovables en la red con menos respaldo. Pero también puede suponer un mayor coste en el transporte. Cuanta más energía tu entras desde fuera, más te subirá el precio dentro (por el sistema de configuración de costes que hacen que la energía más cara da precio a todas las energías). Con la interconexión vas a hacer que entren más centrales ineficientes y más caras. Tiene sus pros y sus contras.

Los inversionistas extranjeros que vieron recortada drásticamente su retribución en las plantas de energía solar en España han acudido a arbitrajes internacionales. ¿Qué solución espera?

Estamos pendientes de que se resuelva el litigio del Ciadi (Centro Internacional de Arreglo de Diferencias relativas a Inversiones) ante el Banco Mundial, y eso es lo que marcará el futuro. Puede ser que no todos los arbitrajes coincidan. Unos pueden darnos la razón y otros no. Esperamos que esos litigios se resuelvan el año próximo. Si se ganan los arbitraje a nivel internacional y los inversionistas pueden recuperar sus inversiones, en España habría que buscar una solución para los inversiones nacionales (a los que ni el Supremo ni el Constitucional les ha dado la razón).

“Parece que dieran rabia”

El discurso oficial del Gobierno no destaca las ventajas de las renovables; todo lo contrario, insiste en sus problemas…

Es como si les diera rabia que las energías renovables fueran competitivas, y son baratas. Hace poco, el secretario de Estado decía que a las renovables les quedan 15 o 20 años. Pero ¿qué quieren que regalemos la electricidad, a los precios que se están dando ya…?

¿Se han abaratado, mucho no?

Sí. En el fondo, se está produciendo lo que siempre se había anunciado: que cuando se invirtiera en energía solar fotovoltaica, se iba a conseguir una energía barata. En los últimos 20 años, esa afirmación ha estado siempre ahí. Pero se pensaba que era una idea de ecologistas que no tenía mucho fundamento, pero es lo que ha pasado. En cuanto has abierto un mercado en España, Alemania y en otros países que ha dado fiabilidad al sector, se ha hecho inversiones en I+D, se ha generado volumen de inversiones, ese volumen ha reducido precios, ha habido más mercado, ese mercado ha invertido más en I+D y se ha generado un círculo virtuoso en una escala que ha hecho bajar los costes un 80% en 5 o 6 años. Son muy claros los ejemplos los precios alcanzados por la fotovoltaica en las últimas subastas llevadas a cabo en Argentina y otros países de México o Sudamérica, que han demostrado que, a día de hoy, es la tecnología más barata.

¿Bajarán más?

No ha tocado suelo en lo que toca al precio del panel, y todavía puede seguir bajando más. Y aún quedan evoluciones tecnológicas pendientes, que llegarán con los nuevos materiales, claramente.