Environmental Industries Mexico Pre-mission Outreach Webinar

DFAIT hosted an Environmental Industry Opportunities in Mexico webinar on Wedensday, July 28th, 2010 at 10:30AM (Saskatchewan time) in partnership with SEIMA, STEP, WED, and ES. The webinar was presented by Rosalba Cruz, the Environmental Industries Trade Commissioner from Mexico City and two in-market consultants (Mexico City and Monterrey) who highlighted trade opportunities within their respective region as well as provided information on how to do business in Mexico.

Of particular interest was that the maximum wholesale price of electricity in Mexico is 18 cents per kilowatt hour (for street lighting). It was clear that wind energy is the most important form of energy at the moment in Mexico but that there are opportunities for solar as well.

This was an interesting webinar and I am sure the trade mission to Mexico in fall will be very useful in helping companies establish contacts.

Feed-in-tariff for Finland

The "Law for Feed-in-Tariff for Wind Energy" is under preparation at the Finnish ministry of trade and industry. The law will be reviewed and voted on in September 2010 and is expected to come into force in January 2011. The proposed level of the tariff will be 83.5 €/MWh for 12 years. There is a bonus for those projects that will start producing energy during the first two years after the law comes into force. The level of the bonus tariff is 105.30 €/MWh for three years. After three years the project will receive the regular tariff level for nine years.

The target of the Finnish government is to have 6 TWh worth of wind energy installed by 2020. This means 2000 MW worth of installed capacity in near shore, offshore or onshore or 3000 MW worth of capacity inland.

Sky Harvest Reports SaskPower RFQ Decision

VANCOUVER, July 15, 2010 - SOURCE: PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - In October 2009 SaskPower announced the Green Options Plan, stating its intention to procure up to 175MW of wind power from independent power producers. A formal Request for Qualifications (RFQ) was issued in December 2009. Sky Harvest Windpower Corp. announces that the Company was not granted qualification by SaskPower in the RFQ. The reason given to the Company was that the balance sheets of the Company and the proposed Joint Venture Developer and Project Finance Guarantor submitted in the Company's response to the RFQ did not meet the financial requirement to qualify at this time. "We have a project with all the right components to deliver a responsible and clean source of energy to Saskatchewan and are very disappointed to not be participating in this year's Request For Proposals" says Chris Craddock, Sky Harvest's President and C.E.O. "Wind power is expected to contribute significantly to the future power generation capacity of Saskatchewan, and the Company intends to participate in any future procurement process which may be announced by SaskPower." The Company is continuing discussions with the proposed developer and is examining other strategic options.

Canada and India reach nuclear deal

On June 27, 2010, Canada and India signed The Agreement for Cooperation in Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy which provides for, among other things, cooperation in the mining and supply of uranium.

Cameco, the world's largest supplier of uranium, is located in the city of Saskatoon in the province of Saskatchewan which has some of the richest deposits of uranium in the world.