Ghana: The World's Fastest Growing Economy in 2011

In an economic research by the Economy Watch led by Juan Abdel Nasser, Ghana is ranked the fastest economic growing country in the world. Looking at the data on the Economic Statistics database from the Economy Watch.com., with the data points from the IMF's tracker of GDP Growth in constant prices in the national currency (not converted to US dollars).

Even though many people assume that China is the fastest economic growing country in the world, but that is not the case, it is the fastest growing largest economy, but that is a different thing.

What matters here is the key trends that are driving the growth figures. Looking at the Economic Indicator list for the year 2011, it is surprising to see who is now leading the pack in terms of economic growth.

It is not one of the countries that is normally thought of in those terms but rather Ghana which is currently the World's fastest growing economy in the year 2011.

The statistics for 2011:
Economic Indicator Listing in Year 2011

Ghana 20.146 %
Qatar 14.337 %
Turkmenistan 12.178 %
China 9.908 %
Liberia 9.003 %
India 8.43 %
Angola 8.251 %
Iraq 7.873 %
Ethiopia 7.663 %
Mozambique 7.548 %
Timor Leste (East Timor) 7.4 %
Laos 7.395 %

Growth rates are much higher this year. The chart tops out at over 20%. Last year there was a projected high of 16.4% from growth leader Qatar.

We can see once again that developed countries do not feature in the Top 12. Almost half of the top 12 come from Africa. Ghana has swept from 4.5% last year, to an astonishing 20.146% for 2011.

One third of the Top 12 are from the Far East, two from the Middle East and one from Central Asia. In 2010 there was only one G20 nation in the Top 12. This time India also makes the grade. This is the beginning of a larger trend. According to a political economic expert, with China's ageing population and India's young demographic, India's growth rate will overtake China's within 10 years, as it will start to enjoy a ?demographic dividend.? However India will not be without its own challenges as the chief political economist David Caploe points.

* The African decade continues to hold sway. 2010 to 2020 is bringing massive development to the continent. As China continues to boom we will see the Chinese offer more large-scale infrastructure development to African governments in return for natural resources and farmland to support it's vast population. In turn African countries are continuing to challenge old perceptions of corruption and violence through practising better governance. Chart leader Ghana is one of Africa's strongest democracies. African countries will continue to veer in favour of increased prosperity. The picture continues to be replacement of Western aid for Africa by Eastern trade with Africa.

* Energy is still remains a major key and will continues to play a key role. We expect this trend to continue with the advent of ?peak oil? and the continuing upward trend in oil and natural gas prices. Countries like Qatar and Azerbaijan with their huge natural gas and oil reserves will continue to boom.

* Rapid population growth is a key factor in economic growth. The countries with some of the highest rates of population growth in the world dominate the growth chart. As their economies mature, expect to see this trend slow down somewhat for these countries.

* A low growth base offers more opportunity for expansion. This explains the lack of highly developed economies in the Top 12. As these markets contend with the credit crisis or as "Dr Dave likes to call it, the Loan Freeze", the ongoing costs of supporting an ageing population and the law of diminishing returns will ensure that we will see much higher growth performance from economies that have more room to grow.

* Democracy and transparency in governance is the only way to (peace and) promote economic development, countries like Ghana who are experiencing a new era of good governance will enjoy massive growth increases. Where there is peace and good governance, prosperity will follow as we see in other countries making profitable use of their resources for development, rather than wage war. Underdeveloped economies surging ahead for 2011 will assist in closing the gab between rich and poor in the World.

Article by GhanaWeb

RETURN2GREEN VISITS EJURA MAIZE FARMS IN EFFORT TO ENHANCE FARMER INCOMES AND REDUCE TONS OF CO2

September 24, 2011 – Ejura, Ghana
Press Release

RETURN2GREEN VISITS EJURA MAIZE FARMS IN EFFORT TO ENHANCE FARMER INCOMES AND REDUCE TONS OF CO2 BEING CREATED BY BURNING OF AGRICULTURAL WASTE

Ms. Lily He, President of Return2Green International, visited expansive maize farms in Ejura, the largest maize producing district in Ashanti, with officials from The Ministry of Food and Agricultural. The purpose of the visit was to gain cooperation with the Farmer’s Association for a public and private investment program in which agricultural waste from
the farms is collected for use as Distributed Energy Fuel and raw materials for MZ-3 flower pots.

By collecting the agro-waste for alternative uses; as opposed to burning it, thousands of tons of CO2 per year that harm the environment will be eliminated. Additionally, thousands of hours of paid working time for farmers at the manufacturing plants will be created, thus adding to their economic and social status.

The program which is still in the development stages is intended to be spread around the entire country creating substantial positive effects for thousands of Ghanaians.

SEIA: “Solar is the Fastest-Growing Industry in the US”

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) hosted a press teleconference today to discuss an emerging trend in the utility-scale solar market toward diversifying solar technologies in utility-scale power plants. But the call strayed from the diversification topic and addressed some of the major issues confronting the U.S. market in 2011.

 

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

Rhone Resch, President of SEIA, said that the solar industry employs 100,000 Americans and that that number could double in the next two years. Within a few years, the U.S. will be the world's largest solar market, according to SEIA.

 

1603 Tax Grant Program and Solar

Resch said that the 1603 tax grant program has filled the void in the collapse of the tax equity market and that the grant program has doubled the efficiency of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC). He remarked that it is scheduled to expire despite the tax equity market not having fully recovered. (The 1603 program provides a 30 percent grant in lieu of the tax credit.)

Resch said, "We have found it to be absolutely critical in the last two years." Resch added that SEIA wants the1603 program extended through 2016 "so we have business certainty. We've found that the 1603 program is an extremely efficient policy for job creation." In the last two years, the solar industry has created 50,000 jobs, according to Resch, adding that the U.S. market will double from 1 gigawatt in 2010 to 2 gigawatts in 2011 and could possibly double again if the tax credit is extended.

This is the kind of policy that yields huge results, creates jobs and doesn't have an enormous impact on taxpayers, according to Resch.

Extension of 1603 is the number-one priority of SEIA and they are working with Republicans and Democrats on the issue. SEIA thinks it has a good chance of extending the program -- and instead of extending it for one year, the group would prefer to see "it ingrained in the tax code through 2016."  The 2012 Obama budget does have an extension of the TGP for one more year, according to Resch.

Resch added that 1603 is "simply the most important policy for continuing renewable energy growth in the U.S." The 1603 grant provision was actually passed during the Bush Administration.

It's not just large-scale solar that will feel the pain if 1603 expires. Tax equity and grants are what keeps solar residential financing companies like SolarCity, SunRun and Sungevity in business. 

According to law firm K&L Gates, "The 1603 Treasury Grant Program is dead after 2011. There won't be an extension." That information was reported by Ed Gunther while attending a GABA event.

 

Pushback From the Environmental Community on the Solar "Land-Grab"

Large-scale solar farms on public lands have pitted environmentalists against solar developers, with a bit of help from media amplification. And tortoises.

Resch notes that the oil and gas industry has received 74,000 permits for drilling on public lands over the last century, while the solar industry has received nine permits to build on public lands. "There is no land grab," said Resch, adding, "The EIR [environmental impact report] to study these areas has been comprehensive."

Resch also notes that 75 percent of the U.S. public support locating solar on public land instead of using it for grazing or other uses.

 

Technological Diversification, etc.

Arizona wants to be a leader in solar. (In 2010, Arizona was the fourth largest state market for solar with 55 megawatts of solar installed.) But that is certainly set to change.

Pat Dinkel, VP of Resource Planning, Arizona Public Service spoke of the Solana solar trough plant -- an Abengoa project with a U.S. DOE loan guarantee, the $500 million, 100 megawatt Arizona Sun project and the plan for Gila Bend to be the solar capital of the world.

In addition to those large projects, APS is working on a number of projects in the 15-megawatt to 20-megawatt range using c-Si panels on trackers or CdTe on fixed mounts. 

Tom Georgis, Senior VP of SolarReserve, spoke of the Crescent Dune project (which is backed with a loan guarantee) and the Rice project (which is currently going through the loan guarantee process). Georgis restated the need for clarity and certainty around policy in order to attract project and corporate capital.

Jim Stein, VP of Government Affairs, Schott North America, does qualify as a diverse supplier, as the company manufactures PV panels as well as CSP tubes. The firm has nine manufacturing sites in the U.S. and a flagship Albuquerque solar facility employing over 300 people and looking to expand to a workforce of 1,500 in the near future.

Article by Eric Wesoff, GreenTechMedia

Why We Are in Awe of China....It’s The Can-Do Optimism For One Thing

At a lunch in Chicago last week, Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) said he was “blown away” during a recent trip to China by how competitive their renewables industries had become, according to wind developer Michael Polsky, President and CEO of Invenergy. When Polsky asked the senator what he was going to do about it, Durbin shrugged helplessly.

“He didn’t know what to do about it,” Polsky said, because Congress cannot agree on stable, long-term incentives for U.S. renewables. “We’re debating something that should not be debated. It’s obvious. For the Chinese, it’s obvious. For the rest of the world, it’s obvious.” But, Polsky said, “We’re still debating.”

“I was listening to another panel,” Polsky went on, referring to a Milken Institute Global Conference panel like the one at which he was speaking. “They criticized the renewable subsidies all over the world. Like they are three people on the panel who are right and the whole world is wrong. It was just laughable.”

Venture capitalist Peter Labbat, a partner at Energy Capital Partners, remembered the 2007-2008 period when his firm made its big renewables commitments as a metaphorically “sunny day.” Demand was strong, and substantial support, including long-term tax credits, a federal Renewable Energy Standard (RES) and a price on emissions, appeared imminent.

With the changes that followed the Great Recession and the political swing back to the right, the day has turned “cloudy,” Labbat said. Incentives were lost to partisan bickering. Now, “there is a lot of supply chasing fewer and fewer opportunities to build projects, fewer and fewer PPAs, [and] fewer contracts on offer from utilities demanding renewables.”

Falling solar panel prices, low returns on PPAs for wind, competition from cheap natural gas and other factors, Labbat said, have drastically cut into the payoff an investor in renewables can expect. “Whereas you could get double-digit returns building a wind farm a couple of years ago, now you’re stuggling to get 8 percent or 9 percent. That makes it tough for private capital to take the risk.”

With the new spending austerity in the House of Representatives, even long-protected incentives like wind’s production tax credit (PTC) are, Labbat said, in jeopardy. 

“With the wind PTC expiring at the end of 2012,” he said, “if you’re building a wind farm today, you better be sure it’s going to get done by December 31, 2012, because you need those tax credits -- [and] if it’s going to miss that deadline, you probably aren’t going to take that risk.”

To avoid such loathed uncertainties, Labbat said, “We’re looking for projects with PPAs, we’re looking for projects where developers have capital, [... and] we’re looking for projects that can definitely get done on time.”

“China did make a decision back in July 2010,” said venture capitalist Patrick Eilers, Managing Director of Madison Dearborn Partners, “to spend $800 billion over the next decade to capture the entire manufacturing renewable chain,” while U.S. renewables investors continue to struggle for meager, fluctuating short-term tax credits worth perhaps $2 billion.

Adding insult to injury, Eilers said, the strongest competitors are “manufacturers from overseas [whose products are] delivered domestically, who have set up headquarters in Chicago, L.A. and New York.” The impotent congressional response, he said, might be domestic content rules that, if they even win passage, Eilers suggested, will not stop foreign manufacturers.

“Fifteen people in China’s ministry looked at the United States,” Eilers said, and realized it was a democracy and so “could not come to a decision to do anything for ten years” and so their $800 billion dollar investment was secure.

“What China does is not an accident,” Polsky agreed. “They’re gearing up for something really big.” Their plan, he said, is to “create their own markets -- to generate, to build plants, to really learn, to attain economies of scale. And then they will come to the world, while we are debating whether $2 billion is a good investment. And then we’re going to be blaming China for bad trade practices.”

But that is just the beginning, Polsky warned. “What I think Chinese manufacturers will do, they will bring not just technology but also money.” This, he said, “will dramatically change the landscape.”

A wind farm builder-owner-operator needs money to buy equipment, but, in this current climate of compromised incentives and disappearing venture investment, the builder needs project financing as well. With the cash the Chinese government has made available to its turbine manufacturers, they can entice purchases of their technology with promises of financing. “The rest of the manufacturers will not be able to compete,” Polsky said. “On the solar side, it’s the same,” he added.

“This is our problem,” Polsky said of U.S. policy. “If it’s not convenient, we pay no attention to the long term. For nuclear, we looked long-term. When it comes to renewables, we have to justify the investment today or it’s no good. If we start talking about the price of gas today, we have already lost the battle. If it is natural gas or oil, it doesn’t matter. It’s a finite commodity."

“It just makes sense that this country should have a policy to obtain a specific percentage of its energy from renewables,” Polsky finished. “A third, twenty percent, whatever. It just makes sense from any standpoint: economic, national security, diversity, the environment, jobs -- whatever reason you bring, it just makes sense.”

California: Strongest Renewable Standard Bill Sent to the Governor

California’s pioneering 33% Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) bill, authored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, passed the California Assembly yesterday, sending a measure to Governor Brown’s desk - which he is expected to sign. The new standard will increase the state’s renewable portfolio standard to 33% by 2020.

Replacing Governor Schwarzenegger’s executive order, Simitian’s bill codifies the 33% RPS, sending a stronger message to investors about Californian’s commitment to clean tech investment. Between 2005 and 2009, California clean tech firms received $9 billion in venture capital funds. By the second quarter of 2010 alone, the state received $980 million in funds - the most in the world.

Speaking to this stunning trajectory, Simitian noted that “Senate Bill 2X sends a signal to renewable energy providers that California wants them here. He predicts that “they will respond, as they have in the past, with billions of dollars in investments that will provide jobs and tax revenues.”

This landmark legislation, which was attempted in each of the past two sessions, is a message that will hopefully reverberate nationally. While Congress continually stalls on clean energy, California is leading the way towards building a diverse, clean and resilient energy portfolio.

Source: Got2BeGreen