Promesa para el 17

AMERICA ECONOMIA. BVL sube 58,5% en 2016 y se ubica como la segunda más rentable del mundo

La rentabilidad de la Bolsa de Valores de Lima (BVL) fue de 58,5% en soles en el 2016, impulsada especialmente por las acciones del sector minero, con lo cual terminó el año como la segunda más rentable del mundo, señaló hoy el analista de Juan Magot y Asociados SAB, Ángel Alcalá Canales.

La BVL alcanzó una rentabilidad de 58,5% (al 30 de diciembre del 2016) con un avance en su índice general a 15.607,64 puntos respecto a los 9.848,59 que culminó el 31 de Diciembre del 2015.

“La Bolsa limeña subió en 2016 impulsada por el repunte de las cotizaciones de materias primas como el zinc, cobre y oro”, declaró al Diario Oficial El Peruano.

Refirió como ejemplo que el precio del oro descendió en 2015 hasta los US$1.047 la onza, y este año logró picos de hasta US$1.370.

“Esta mejora en el precio del oro conllevó a que acciones mineras como Buenaventura subiera de US$3,80 hasta US$15, ahora está en plena corrección”, dijo. 

Asimismo, estimó que en la medida que el precio de la onza de oro continúe entre los US$1.300 y US$1.350 el próximo año, hay buenas perspectivas para los papeles mineros relacionados a la explotación del oro.

Rentabilidad. Asimismo, en 2016 la BVL fue la segunda más rentable del mundo, entre las principales bolsas del globo, al lograr una ganancia de 58.91% en dólares (con datos al 28 de diciembre), después de la plaza de Sao Paulo (66.34%), superando a las de Santiago (17.66%), Colombia (23.24%), México (-12.13%), Buenos Aires (20.52%).

También la plaza bursátil limeña, superó a las de Nueva York en el Dow Jones (13.82%), S&P 500 (10.08%), Nasdaq Composite (8.61%), también tuvo mejor rendimiento que las bolsas de de Hong Kong (-0.83%), Shanghai (-18.23%), Tokio (4.59%), Madrid (-6.14%), París (0.22%), Frankfurt (2.39%), y Londres (-5.62%).

Perspectivas. “La perspectiva es que va a ser otro año positivo en la Bolsa de Valores de Lima, estimo que puede obtener una rentabilidad entre un 20% y 25% anual”, afirmó.

Alcalá Canales fundamentó su proyección en las proyecciones de un aumento en la cotización de los metales en los mercados internacionales, refirió que si bien se produjo “una pequeña corrección” (descenso de los precios) en los últimos trimestres, la perspectiva es que vuelvan a subir el 2017.

 

Indicó que esta recuperación de los metales, será una consecuencia de la anunciada política económica que Donald Trump aplicará en Estados Unidos una vez que asuma la presidencia el próximo 20 de enero.

“En la medida que Trump comience a implementar su política económica de lograr un dólar barato para favorecer sus exportaciones, las materias primas van a comenzar a subir, hay una correlación del dólar con las materias primas, y también el proyecto de Trump es impulsar la inversión en infraestructura que aumenta la demanda por los metales”, explicó.

En ese sentido, proyectó que en 2017, los Estados Unidos serán el principal comprador de metales.

Wall Street. De otro lado, señaló que se espera una corrección en el mercado de valores estadounidense, debido a la alta cotización de las acciones, el Dow Jones está cerca de los 20,000 puntos, y además se prevé “una pequeña burbuja tecnológica”.

Indicó que si bien las perspectivas pueden ser un poco desalentadoras para el mercado bursátil de Estados Unidos, para el mercado peruano no, porque no tienen correlación, debido a que en Wall Street predominan los papeles tecnológicos y financieros, mientra que en la de Lima, tienen un peso importante las mineras.

Además destacó las buenas perspectivas macroeconómicas de la economía peruana. El Banco Central de Reserva (BCR) proyectó un crecimiento del Producto Bruto Interno (PBI) de 4% para el cierre del 2016 y de 4.3% para el 2017, en ambos casos, liderando la expansión entre los países de la región.

“Eso es correcto, y mientras se tenga una política que aliente los proyectos mineros, la bolsa limeña va a seguir creciendo, el sector minero va a repuntar”, subrayó.

Interés de inversionistas extranjeros. Por otra parte, refirió que la BVL sigue concitando el interés de los inversionistas extranjeros en busca de mejores rendimientos, con apuestas a mediano plazo entre seis y ocho meses.

“Hay inversionistas mexicanos, colombianos, chilenos que están entrando a invertir en la bolsa. En la medida que otras acciones posibles coticen tanto la BVL y en Nueva York (como Buenaventura, Southern y Credicorp), habrá perspectivas para que más inversionistas extranjeros ingresen al Perú”, puntualizó.

http://www.americaeconomia.com/economia-mercados/finanzas/bvl-sube-585-en-2016-y-se-ubica-como-la-segunda-mas-rentable-del-mundo?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

DJI 2016:13.41%

Qui bibit sanctus est

CLIMATE CENTRAL. These are the 10 most important climate stories of 2016

This year is likely to remembered as a turning point for climate change. It’s the year the impacts of rising carbon pollution became impossible to ignore. The world is overheating and vast swaths of the planet have suffered the consequences. At the same time, it’s also a year where world leaders crafted and agreed on a number of plans to try to turn the tide of carbon pollution and move toward a clean energy future. It’s clear 2016 was a year where planetary peril and human hope stood out in stark contrast. Here are the 10 most important climate milestones of the year.                                                                       

1. The world struck an airline carbon pollution deal.
2. An extremely potent greenhouse gas is also on its way out.
3. July was the hottest month ever recorded. Then August tied it
4. Arctic sea ice got weird. Really weird
5. Divestment and clean energy investments each hit a record
6. The Great Barrier Reef was decimated by warm waters
7. The world breached the 1.5°C climate threshold
8. Carbon dioxide hit 400 ppm. Permanently
9. The Paris Agreement got real.
10. It was the hottest year on record. Again             

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/most-important-climate-change-stories-2016-21007

ECOINVENTOS.Todos los trenes holandeses funcionarán con energía eólica a partir de 2018

A principios del año 2015, 886 holandeses demandaron a su gobierno ante el tribunal de la Haya para que redujera sus emisiones de CO2. Ganaron y el tribunal de La Haya ordenó al gobierno holandés acometer una reducción del 25% en los siguientes 5 años. Una de las medidas que tomará el gobierno holandés para acometer esta reducción será que los ferrocarriles holandeses funcionen con el 50 % de energía eólica a finales de este año y con el 100 % a partir de 2018.

Los trenes en Holanda transportan 1,2 millones de pasajeros cada día, pensemos el logro que sería transportar a tanta gente con energía renovable cada día. Piensa que el transporte es responsable del 20 % de las emisiones de CO2 en los Países Bajos, y si queremos seguir viajando, es importante que lo hagamos sin dañar el ambiente.

La energía eólica que se utilizará para alimentar los trenes no solo será generada en los Países Bajos, también de Bélgica y los países escandinavos. Esto permite que los recursos eólicos del país también puedan ser utilizados por otras empresas.

Esto podría ser una inspiración para otras naciones – en todos los continentes – para copiar los planes de los Países Bajos e inclinar la balanza hacia las energías renovables.

Seguir leyendo: http://ecoinventos.com/todos-los-trenes-holandeses-funcionaran-con-energia-eolica-a-partir-de-2018/#ixzz4UH0PfWdv

Energy Department Invests $19 Million to Improve Efficiency of Nation’s Buildings

The Energy Department announced today it is investing $19 million to improve the efficiency of our nation’s homes, offices, schools, hospitals, restaurants and stores. These projects will develop advanced building technologies that will help American consumers and businesses save money on their utility bills, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and create jobs.

Buildings are the largest energy consumer in the nation—accounting for more than 40 percent of the nation’s total energy demand and greenhouse emissions, and resulting in an annual energy bill totaling $430 billion. On average, nearly a third of this energy is wasted. It’s estimated that if the U.S. reduced energy use in buildings by 20 percent, the nation could save nearly $80 billion annually on energy bills.

Today’s 18 innovative projects will develop sensors and energy modeling tools to make our buildings smarter, reduce refrigerant leaks and improve the efficiency of heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration (HVAC&R) systems, and produce a low-impact, gas-powered heat pump that can operate efficiently in colder climates. The projects will also support renewable energy market penetration through energy storage, pinpoint air leaks and reduce energy losses through the building envelope, and cut electricity use by transmitting sunlight to building interiors.

“Improving the efficiency of our nation’s buildings presents one of our best opportunities for cutting Americans’ energy bills and slashing greenhouse gas emissions,” said Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. “These innovative technologies will make our buildings smarter, healthier, and more efficient, driving us toward our goal of reducing the energy use intensity of the U.S. buildings sector by 30 percent by 2030.”

The 18 selected projects span multiple technology areas, targeting a variety of building efficiency improvements:

Sensors and Controls

• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) (Berkeley, California) will develop a platform for design and specification of HVAC control sequences that inter-operates with both whole-building energy simulation and automated control implementation. OpenBuildingControl will eliminate the manual translation steps currently associated with HVAC control design, reducing both effort and error.
• Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) will develop a sensing and control system that can save significant energy by accurately estimating the number of occupants in an area, and then adjusting HVAC operations accordingly. Current HVAC systems waste energy by assuming maximum occupancy in each room.
• PARC (Palo Alto, California) will develop a wireless system of peel-and-stick sensor nodes that are powered by radio frequency hubs, relaying data to building management systems that can significantly reduce energy use.
• Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina) will develop low-cost, digital, plug-and-play, passive radio-frequency identification sensors for measuring indoor and outdoor temperature. These sensors will improve building operations and cut energy costs.
• The University of California-Berkeley (Berkeley, California) will create a low-cost, open-source, wireless sensor system, which will be integrated with building management systems, their components, and smartphones to enable installation of secure and easily deployed building energy efficiency applications, such as demand response.
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) (Oak Ridge, Tennessee) will develop system-level architecture for a plug-and-play multi-sensor platform, which can use peel-and-stick sensors less than a quarter of an inch thick that are powered by indoor, high-performance, flexible photovoltaics.
• SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (Menlo Park, California) will develop a toolkit for the Department’s open-source VOLTTRON platform, which supports a wide range of building energy management and grid integration applications. The toolkit adds testing and simulation tools to cut costs by as much as 30 percent for systems integration, distributed energy, and microgrid development projects.
• Columbia University (New York, New York) will use metering and automated personalized feedback to encourage occupants of multifamily buildings to save electricity by reducing appliance use or shifting use to non-peak hours.

HVAC&R and Joining Technologies

• Optimized Thermal Systems (Beltsville, Maryland) will develop a manufacturing procedure for a serpentine heat exchanger for HVAC&R systems that has 90 percent fewer joints than current heat exchangers; joint leaks can release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and reduce system efficiency.
• Ingersoll Rand (La Crosse, Wisconsin) will reduce refrigerant leaks and enhance HVAC&R systems’ efficiency by improving the strength and quality of brazed joints.
• ORNL will develop adhesive chemistries for bonding aluminum and copper during heat exchanger manufacture, resulting in enhanced bonding and significant energy savings.
• ORNL will integrate its Ground-Level Integrated Diverse Energy Storage (GLIDES) system with HVAC systems to provide efficient, building-integrated electrical and thermal energy storage.
• ORNL will develop a residential, gas-fired split heat pump that will use an ammonia refrigerant, which is not a greenhouse gas and can convert chemical energy to heating and cooling without using any moving seals.

Windows and Building Envelope

• LBNL will develop insulation that is 2 to 4 times more efficient than conventional materials and at a comparable installed cost. The new insulation will make it easier and cost-effective to retrofit existing buildings.
• LBNL will also extend its popular detailed envelope heat-transfer model THERM with moisture-transfer modeling capabilities to help industry evaluate and design energy-efficient facades that mitigate moisture and problems, avoiding structural degradation and mold.
• Iowa State University (Ames, Iowa) will develop an infiltration diagnostics system that uses a laser to locally heat a portion of the building envelope, and then uses an infrared camera to pinpoint air leaks.
• Glint Photonics (Burlingame, California) will develop a stationary, roof-mounted concentrating daylighting system that uses internal optics to track the sun in the sky and light guides to transmit the light to the building interior, thereby reducing the energy use for electric lighting by 40-70 percent.

Energy Modeling

• The University of Miami (Miami, Florida) will integrate several existing energy modeling packages to create a tool that is customized for the design and operational requirements of data centers and large computer rooms. These account for a significant and growing share of energy consumption in the U.S., reaching 2 percent of all electricity use in 2013.

The Energy Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) accelerates development and facilitates deployment of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies and market-based solutions that strengthen U.S. energy security, environmental quality, and economic vitality. EERE supports innovative technologies that reduce both risk and costs of bringing energy efficient building technologies online. Learn more about the Department's efforts to help homes and buildings save energy at Energy.gov.

https://energy.gov/articles/energy-department-invests-19-million-improve-efficiency-nation-s-buildings

DOE. Zero Energy Ready Home Newsletter. 2016 Leading builder round table report

In September, the DOE Zero Energy Ready Home program hosted the 4^th Annual Leading Builder Round Table Meeting prior to the EEBA Conference and Expo in Dallas, TX.  Winners of the 2016 Housing Innovation Awards gathered for a half-day meeting to share lessons learned in constructing and selling Zero Energy Ready Homes, key challenges moving forward, and provide feedback to program staff on what DOE can do to improve the program. 

This annual meeting plays a major role in identifying and shaping the future efforts of the Zero Energy Ready Home program to best support our builder partners and further expand the market for Zero Energy Ready Homes.  At the 2015 Leading Builder Round Table Meeting, much of the conversation surrounded the need for additional resources to help with marketing and communication. As a result, 2016 saw the launch of the Tour of Zero and accompanying Consumer Video.

Sales and Marketing

A major takeaway from this year’s meeting was that sales and marketing presents a much bigger challenge to Zero Energy Ready Home builders than technical barriers and construction issues.  In other words, we have gotten to the point where building a Zero Energy Ready Home is not difficult.  The hard part is to find ways to communicate the benefits to consumers. Competing with existing homes and other new builds, partners find it difficult to communicate the true value and benefits of their high performance homes to potential customers.  One area where builders did find success in reaching consumers was via social media, which the majority of builders indicated they were using to promote their Zero Energy Ready Homes and grow their brand. 

Education and Outreach

The group agreed that educating a variety of different stakeholder groups was necessary in helping to continue to increase the market share of Zero Energy Ready Homes. Consumer education was high on this list, highlighting the need for a strong consumer video.  Additionally, many builders indicated the need for training for sub-contractors, to better understand the program specs, and realtors, to be able to communicate the benefits of these high-performance homes.

Technology

On this topic, several builders mentioned the integration of smart homes and home automation packages that could also include smart monitoring systems. The advancements in smart home technology and the capabilities they have monitoring and reducing energy use with an interconnected home is a valuable package builders can offer. Additionally, while the majority of builders are still using stick‐frame construction, several builders indicated that more time and investment should be made into understanding advanced wall systems such as SIPS and ICFs.  Properly ventilating tight homes is also an issue for many builders, including the need for supplemental dehumidification.

AMÉRICA ECONOMÍA. Por primera vez la energía solar supera a la eólica como fuente más barata

El viento siempre ha sido más barato que el sol. Al menos hasta ahora. Ambos tipos de energía han sido la bandera de las renovables durante décadas, pero la eficiencia de la eólica en relación a su coste era mayor. De forma indiscutible además. Los paneles solares siempre han tenido un precio muy alto. Pero ahora las cosas han cambiado, sobre todo por la gran cantidad de recursos invertidos en el sector solar.

Anteriormente se habían dado casos donde la energía solar era más barata que la eólica. Pero esto se producía únicamente en ciertas condiciones, por ejemplo en Oriente Medio, donde el sol no tiene rival.

La tendencia que ha observado Bloomberg New Energy Finance indica que ahora por primera vez la energía solar supera a la eólica como fuente alternativa más barata. Este fenómeno se produce sobre todo en países no pertenecientes a la OCDE. En concreto se han tomado datos de 58 mercados emergentes, entre los que están China, India y Brasil.

Como media, en estos países ya es más barato instalar paneles solares que molinos de viento. Algunos contratos en 2016 reflejan la bajada del precio de la electricidad generada mediante energía solar. En enero se firmó en India un acuerdo para producir electricidad a US$64 el MWh. Solo ocho meses después, en agosto, se firmó otro contrato en Chile para obtener el MWh a US$29,1.

Este descenso de precios tan agudo se debe a la proliferación de plantas solares. Las empresas invierten, y no solo en la construcción, también investigan. El resultado es que la eficiencia de los paneles ha crecido sólidamente en los últimos años. Los costes de instalar una planta, claro, también han disminuido.

Las previsiones de Bloomberg New Energy Finance estiman que en 2016 se instalará una totalidad de 70 GW de capacidad en energía solar fotovoltaica. La energía eólica se quedará en 59 GW de capacidad.

En los países desarrollados la energía solar aún sale más cara que la procedente de combustibles fósiles. Pero en los países en desarrollo las oportunidades son mayores para las renovables. Cuando la demanda energética es mayor  a la oferta hay que construir más centrales. Ahí la energía solar puede competir con el gas o el carbón. Y cada vez de forma más ventajosa.

http://www.americaeconomia.com/negocios-industrias/por-primera-vez-la-energia-solar-supera-la-eolica-como-fuente-mas-barata

BLOOMBERG

Cheaper coal and cheaper gas will not derail the transformation and decarbonisation of the world’s power systems. By 2040, zero-emission energy sources will make up 60% of installed capacity. Wind and solar will account for 64% of the 8.6TW of new power generating capacity added worldwide over the next 25 years, and for almost 60% of the $11.4 trillion invested.

BLOOMBERG. Tesla, Panasonic to begin solar panel production in New York

Tesla Motors Inc. and Panasonic Corp. completed work on an agreement to begin manufacturing solar cells and modules at Tesla’s factory in Buffalo, New York, eventually bringing some 1,400 jobs to the region.

Production will begin this summer, with the factory’s output capacity expanding to 1 gigawatt by 2019, the companies said in a statement Tuesday. Panasonic will invest more than 30 billion yen ($256 million) on the installation of production equipment, Yayoi Watanabe, a spokeswoman for the Osaka-based company, said by phone. The total investment wasn’t disclosed in the statement.

Among the jobs being created are more than 500 manufacturing positions. Palo Alto, California-based Tesla is expanding its manufacturing base in the U.S. and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is on President-elect Donald Trump’s business advisory team.

“We already knew about this deal, but now it’s finalized,” said Ben Kallo, an analyst with Robert W. Baird. “Panasonic is covering the capital costs, and Tesla is buying the modules. You’re seeing the stock break out a bit.”

Tesla shares rose 3 percent to $219.84 at 1:09 p.m. New York time and have declined about 8.2 percent this year.

...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-27/tesla-panasonic-to-begin-solar-panel-production-in-new-york

BLOOMBERG. China to Cut Solar, Wind Power Prices as Project Costs Fall

China is reducing the amount of money it pays to newly completed solar and wind power generators for their electricity, in order to reflect declines in construction costs, the country’s price regulator and economic planner said Monday.

The nation will cut tariffs paid to solar farms by as much as 19 percent in 2017 from this year’s levels, and by as much as 15 percent for wind mills in 2018 from current prices, according to a statement posted on the National Development and Reform Commission’s website. The changes will help reduce subsidies paid to new photovoltaic and wind power projects by about 6 billion yuan ($863 million) annually, the NDRC said.

The move comes as average solar panel prices have tumbled about 30 percent this year, according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, resulting in a lowering of the bids that solar developers offer to build projects. Prices of wind turbines also fell in 2016, according to London-based BNEF.

China will also encourage local authorities to continue making use of auctions to select renewable energy developers, in order to further lower power prices, according to the NDRC.

Reductions to renewable power prices will be smallest in regions in China that have the calmest wind and the weakest solar radiation, according to the NDRC. These areas are also where people or industries make use of more electricity, it said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-26/china-to-cut-solar-wind-power-prices-as-project-costs-fall

Clean Energy Authority. World's first solar highway in France

France on Thursday inaugurated the world's first "solar highway", a road paved with solar panels providing enough energy to power the street lights of the small Normandy town of Tourouvre.

The one-kilometre (half-mile) "Wattway" covered with 2,800 square metres (30,000 square feet) of resin-coated solar panels was hooked up to the local power grid as Environment Minister Segolene Royal looked on.

"This new use of solar energy takes advantage of large swathes of road infrastructure already in use... to produce electricity without taking up new real estate," Royal said in a statement.

The minister announced a four-year "plan for the national deployment of solar highways" with initial projects in western Brittany and southern Marseille.

An average of 2,000 cars use the road in Tourouvre each day, testing the resistance of the panels for the project carried out by French civil engineering firm Colas, a subsidiary of construction giant Bouygues.

The idea, which is also under exploration in Germany, the Netherlands and the United States, is that roadways are occupied by cars only around 20 percent of the time, providing vast expanses of surface to soak up the sun's rays.

Colas says that in theory France could become energy independent by paving only a quarter of its million kilometres of roads with solar panels.

http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/worlds-first-solar-highway-france-1334827

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. Why China is dominating the solar industry.

China, according to Chung, had “dabbled” in solar energy only as a source of electricity to help impoverished rural areas remote from its power grid. But then some of its pioneering companies became intrigued by the income that manufacturing solar panels for export to Germany might bring in. When Spain and Italy began their own rapidly expanding solar incentives, adding to the demand, China began scouring the world, hiring more solar experts and shopping for machinery and polysilicon supplies to meet the expected surge of orders for solar panels.

According to some veterans in the U.S. solar industry, China bought solar companies and invited others to move to China, where they found cheap, skilled labor. Instead of paying taxes, they received tax credits.

Chung notes that China’s government was also generous in other ways. Making solar panels is difficult. To make them efficiently, the business requires large, semiautomated factories.

“It is not easy to add small bits of capacity to meet growing demands; you have to add it in big chunks,” he said. He called it a “yo-yo effect” that tends to create more and more capacity. That made solar still more attractive to China.

China’s solar companies have shareholders who want profits, Chung said. But the government “has other constituencies that are demanding jobs and factories to be put up.” That pressure came from provincial and local governments that found, according to DOE, that the federal government was willing to chip in as much as $47 billion to help build its solar manufacturing into what it calls a “strategic industry.”

Expanding renewable energy became one of seven categories of business that receive special attention including loans and tax incentives under China’s five-year plans.

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5066401331494533047#editor/target=post;postID=1029939274708978121

BLOOMBERG. U.S. Economic Growth Revised Up to 3.5% Pace in Third Quarter. By Michelle Jamrisko

The U.S. economy expanded more than previously reported last quarter on bigger contributions from a range of factors including services spending, intellectual property and construction by state and local governments.

Gross domestic product rose at a 3.5 percent annualized rate in the three months ended in September, compared with a prior estimate of 3.2 percent, Commerce Department figures showed Thursday. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey called for a 3.3 percent gain.

The revised growth estimate, still the fastest in two years, reflected updated figures on research and development expenses from companies, spending by nonprofit institutions and use of financial services. The economy is unlikely to sustain such a pace in the final three months of the year, instead probably growing at a 2.2 percent rate, according to the median projection of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg earlier this month.

Economists’ projections for the updated advance in third-quarter GDP, the value of all goods and services produced in the U.S., ranged from 2.8 percent to 3.5 percent. This is the last of three estimates for the quarter before annual revisions in July.

Household purchases, which account for almost 70 percent of the economy, grew at a 3 percent annualized rate, stronger than the 2.8 percent pace previously estimated. That change reflected primarily higher spending on services by incorporating newly available data from the Census Bureau, according to the report.

Estimates of the contributions to growth by trade and inventories were little changed. Stripping out those items, the two most volatile components of GDP, so-called final sales to domestic purchasers increased at a 2.1 percent rate, compared with the prior estimate of a 1.7 percent pace.

Corporate spending on equipment decreased at a 4.5 percent annualized pace in the third quarter, compared with the 4.8 percent drag previously estimated, and subtracted 0.3 percentage point from growth, the report showed. Those outlays had declined 2.9 percent in the prior three months.

The government’s report on fourth-quarter GDP is due Jan.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-22/u-s-economic-growth-revised-up-to-3-5-pace-in-third-quarter

CNN. Chile es el país latinoamericano que más invierte en la lucha contra el cambio climático. Por Valentina Becker

(CNN Español) - El cambio climático está dejando muchas consecuencias en el planeta. Ríos contaminados, devastadores incendios forestales, lluvias torrenciales en verano, glaciares que se derriten; son algunas de las escenas de las que hemos sido testigos en el último tiempo. El planeta nos está enviando señales y algunos líderes mundiales están tomando cartas en el asunto. A fines de 2015, en la XXI Conferencia sobre el Cambio Climático se aprobó un acuerdo histórico producido por la COP21. Los países firmantes se comprometieron a llevar a cabo todos los esfuerzos necesarios para que la temperatura no se incremente más 1,5 grados a nivel mundial.

En Latinoamérica y el Caribe, el país que más invierte en energías renovables y en la lucha contra el cambio climático es Chile, según el ranking de New Energy Finance Climascope elaborado por Bloomberg y el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo. El ranking considera cuatro variables: marco propicio, inversión, cadena de valor y reducción de CO2.

Chile confirmó su liderazgo con una inversión récord en proyectos de energía renovable no convencional (ERNC), que se ha más que duplicado: saltando de 1.300 millones de dólares en 2014 a 3.200 millones de dólares en 2015. Le siguen Brasil y Uruguay, en el tercer lugar de la región.

China, una vez más, encabeza la lista a nivel mundial. Chile, Honduras, Kenia, México y Uruguay son los países que alcanzaron las puntuaciones más altas de Climatescope, reflejando un gran progreso en los esfuerzos por detener el calentamiento de la Tierra.

“Adicionalmente, Chile está a la vanguardia en las actividades de reducción de emisiones en América Latina y lidera el ranking de actividades de gestión de gases de efecto invernadero de Climascopio en la región”, destaca el gobierno de Chile. El Climascopio analiza la actividad de 58 mercados emergentes en materia de energías limpias, en África, Asia y Latinoamérica y el Caribe.

http://cnnespanol.cnn.com/2016/12/20/este-es-el-pais-latinoamericano-que-mas-invierte-en-la-lucha-contra-el-cambio-climatico/

BLOOMBERG. World Energy Hits a Turning Point: Solar That's Cheaper Than Wind. By Tom Randall

Emerging markets are leapfrogging the developed world thanks to cheap panels.

A transformation is happening in global energy markets that’s worth noting as 2016 comes to an end: Solar power, for the first time, is becoming the cheapest form of new electricity.

This has happened in isolated projects in the past: an especially competitive auction in the Middle East, for example, resulting in record-cheap solar costs. But now unsubsidized solar is beginning to outcompete coal and natural gas on a larger scale, and notably, new solar projects in emerging markets are costing less to build than wind projects, according to fresh data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

The chart below shows the average cost of new wind and solar from 58 emerging-market economies, including China, India, and Brazil. While solar was bound to fall below wind eventually, given its steeper price declines, few predicted it would happen this soon.

“Solar investment has gone from nothing—literally nothing—like five years ago to quite a lot,” said Ethan Zindler, head of U.S. policy analysis at BNEF. “A huge part of this story is China, which has been rapidly deploying solar” and helping other countries finance their own projects.

Half the Price of Coal

This year has seen a remarkable run for solar power. Auctions, where private companies compete for massive contracts to provide electricity, established record after record for cheap solar power. It started with a contract in January to produce electricity for $64 per megawatt-hour in India; then a deal in August pegging $29.10 per megawatt hour in Chile. That’s record-cheap electricity—roughly half the price of competing coal power.

“Renewables are robustly entering the era of undercutting” fossil fuel prices, BNEF chairman Michael Liebreich said in a note to clients this week.

Those are new contracts, but plenty of projects are reaching completion this year, too. When all the 2016 completions are tallied in coming months, it’s likely that the total amount of solar photovoltaics added globally will exceed that of wind for the first time. The latest BNEF projections call for 70 gigawatts of newly installed solar in 2016 compared with 59 gigawatts of wind.

The overall shift to clean energy can be more expensive in wealthier nations, where electricity demand is flat or falling and new solar must compete with existing billion-dollar coal and gas plants. But in countries that are adding new electricity capacity as quickly as possible, “renewable energy will beat any other technology in most of the world without subsidies,” said Liebreich.

Turning Points

The world recently passed a turning point and is adding more capacity for clean energy each year than for coal and natural gas combined. Peak fossil-fuel use for electricity may be reached within the next decade.

Thursday’s BNEF report, called Climatescope, ranks and profiles emerging markets for their ability to attract capital for low-carbon energy projects. The top-scoring markets were China, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, South Africa, and India.

When it comes to renewable energy investment, emerging markets have taken the lead over the 35 member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), spending $154.1 billion in 2015 compared with $153.7 billion by those wealthier countries, BNEF said. The growth rates of clean-energy deployment are higher in these emerging-market states, so they are likely to remain the clean energy leaders indefinitely, especially now that three-quarters have established clean-energy targets.

Still, the buildup of wind and solar takes time, and fossil fuels remain the cheapest option for when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. Coal and natural gas will continue to play a key role in the alleviation of energy poverty for millions of people in the years to come. 

But for populations still relying on expensive kerosene generators, or who have no electricity at all, and for those living in the dangerous smog of thickly populated cities, the shift to renewables and increasingly to solar can’t come soon enough.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-15/world-energy-hits-a-turning-point-solar-that-s-cheaper-than-wind

PM. Solar Power Is Now The World's Cheapest Energy

Over the past six years, the cost of solar energy has dropped dramatically, to the point where it is now even cheaper than wind power in emerging markets like China and India. This may be largely due to rising investments in solar over the last few years. Now, there is electricity being produced in Chile for $29.10 per megawatt hour–half the price of power produced by coal.

"Renewables are robustly entering the era of undercutting" energy made by fossil fuels, Bloomberg New Energy Finance chairman Michael Liebreich wrote this week.

This is great news for developing nations, which do not generally have the kind of infrastructure that developed countries have dedicated to fossil fuels already in place. As they build their energy infrastructure, it will make sense to go with cheaper, renewable options, more so than it does for a country like the United States to abandon our formidable fossil-fuel based infrastructure.

Source: Bloomberg

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a24357/solar-power-cheapest-energy/

BLOOMBERG. Bank of Japan

The yen was trading at 118.12 to the dollar at 5:09 a.m. ET, following the Bank of Japan's first meeting since Donald Trump's U.S. election victory, after the bank upgraded its assessment of the economy while keeping its policy stance unchanged. The Japanese currency has weakened by more than 10 percent against the greenback since Nov. 8, a move that should help lift inflation in the economy. 
http://quotes.wsj.com/fx/USDJPY

Deshun Wang

EL COMERCIO. Universidad San Marcos enseñará carrera de Ingeniería Biomédica

La Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM) anunció que desde el 2018 los estudiantes podrán postular a la nueva carrera profesional de Ingeniería Biomédica.

En diálogo con la agencia Andina, el rector de San Marcos, Orestes Cachay, informó que esta decisión se adoptó en la Asamblea Universitaria, instancia que se reunió esta semana tras estar suspendida por casi tres años y donde participan decanos, docentes, estudiantes y vicerrectores.

La nueva escuela de Ingeniería Biomédica formará parte de la Facultad e Ingeniería Electrónica y Eléctrica. San Marcos se convierte así en la primera universidad pública del país que impartirá con esta carrera. Católica y Cayetano Heredia, ambas privadas, ya lo enseñan de manera conjunta.

"En el mundo actual ya se está articulando la medicina con la ingeniería. La ciencia está avanzando mucho. Se está trabajando la parte robótica, genética o del sistema nervioso donde la ingeniería colabora. Es una gran satisfacción para la comunidad sanmarquina que podamos abrir esta carrera", subrayó Orestes Cachay.

La nueva escuela, que abrirá en un inicio con 60 vacantes, contará con las especialidades de bioinstrumentación, imágenes biomédicas, biomateriales, biomecánica y sistemas de prótesis, sistemas de control biomédicos, telesalud e ingeniería clínica.

Indicó que el Consejo Universitario ya había aprobado la creación de esta escuela en el 2013 y el proyecto pasó a la Asamblea Universitaria para su ratificación, pero en ese momento dicha instancia fue suspendida por los problemas con el anterior rector.

Cachay se comprometió a generar los pedidos y el presupuesto respectivo para la implementación y equipamiento de la escuela. "Hay un proceso gradual que se debe seguir y que incluyen trámites ante la Superintendencia Nacional de Educación Superior Universitaria (Sunedu)".

De acuerdo con información de San Marcos, en el Perú existen cerca de 20,000 centros de salud donde los egresados de esta escuela tendrán la oportunidad de laborar.

Cabe señalar que actualmente Essalud cuenta con una Gerencia de Ingeniería Clínica, mientras que el Ministerio de Salud tiene la Dirección General de Infraestructura, Equipamiento y Mantenimiento.

http://elcomercio.pe/sociedad/lima/universidad-san-marcos-ensenara-carrera-ingenieria-biomedica-noticia-1954306