(EnergyAsia, May 15, Tuesday) — India’s Assam state has launched a rural electrification programme to supply power to residents in 2,139 remote villages that lie outside the main grid. In one project, Kolkata-based Amrit Biofuel will set up a 10-megawatt (MW) biomass-based power unit in Baghjap, near Jagiroad in Morigaon district. The plant...
(EnergyAsia, May 15, Tuesday) — London-based Solar Integrated Technologies Inc. (AIM:SIT.LN), a leading provider of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) roofing systems, has launched a new product offering Ð a carport integrated photovoltaic system, or solar carport, that provides shaded parking for vehicles while generating clean solar power. The company also announced the completion of...
(EnergyAsia, May 15, Tuesday) — Philippines’ DMCI Holdings has sealed a power supply agreement with the Masbate Electric Cooperative (Maselco) to supply more reliable and affordable electricity to more than half a million residents of Masbate, one of the poorest provinces in the Philippines. IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, structured...
(EnergyAsia, May 15, Tuesday) — Singapore-listed coal producer Straits Asia Resources Limited said it is entering the oil and gas industry with the appointment of Rizal Ramli the respected economist and former Coordinating Minister for Finance & Economy in Indonesia, as CEO of its new oil and gas subsidiary. Dr Ramli, who has had...
(EnergyAsia, May 15, Tuesday) — Australia’s lead scientific agency CSRIO said its latest research confirms that avoiding deforestation can play a key role in reducing future greenhouse gas concentrations. Pep Canadell, a scientist at the Global Carbon Project and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, wrote in the journal Science that tropical deforestation releases 1.5 billion...
(EnergyAsia, May 15, Tuesday) — Upstream company Cairn India said the Indian government has awarded it a six-month extension to the exploration phase of the Northern Appraisal Area in Rajasthan state. The licence RJ-ON-90/1 in North West India will be extended from May 2007. In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange and...
(EnergyAsia, May 15, Tuesday) — Dutch environmentalists are emerging as the unlikely heroes in the decade-long struggle of people in Southeast Asia to be free of heavy air pollution caused by the ritual burning of rainforests in Indonesia every year. While the governments of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have been content to point blame...
(EnergyAsia, May 15, Tuesday) — The air of Southeast Asia will likely be choked again this year as the region’s governments concede they will be unable to stop loggers and plantation owners from continuing to burn down the rainforest of Indonesia’s Sumatra during the dry season. Calling it a ‘complex’ problem, Singapore’s National Environment...
(EnergyAsia, May 15, Tuesday) — Ezra Holdings Limited, a Singapore-based offshore support and marine services provider for Southeast Asia’s offshore oil and gas industry, said it is building two large Rolls-Royce designed multi-functional support vessels. Ezra awarded the S$98 million contract, excluding certain owner furnished equipment, to local shipbuilder Pan-United Marine Ltd. The two...
(EnergyAsia, May 15, Tuesday) — Germany’s SolarWorld Group, among the world’s three largest solar companies, recently established its regional head office in Singapore. The company is also considering investing 100-million euro in a solar module plant in Singapore in the next two years, said founding CEO Frank Asbeck. (US$1=0.72 euro). SolarWorld Asia Pacific, under...
(EnergyAsia, May 14, Monday) — Work has begun on a new 10MW million hydropower dam in the northern mountainous province of Lai Chau province’s Than Uyen District in Vietnam. The Nam Mo 3 hydropower plant will supply the province with nearly four million kWh per year through the national power grid when it is completed...
(EnergyAsia, May 14, Monday) — Partly due to rising world demand for biofuels, Indonesia’s rainforests have been destroyed at a record pace in the five-year period to 2005, said Greenpeace. It said plantations groups and farmers destroyed 1.8 millions hectares of forest each year over that period to make room for the cultivation of...
(EnergyAsia, May 14, Monday) — Australia’s Allco Finance Group said it and two German partners have purchased $200 million worth of wind energy assets in Germany and France to kick start a new investment fund targeted at institutional investors. The acquisition of three wind farms in Germany with a total capacity of 112 megawatts...
(EnergyAsia, May 14, Monday) — Rising palm oil prices are dampening the mood for investors to set up biodiesel plants in Malaysia. Surging demand has pushed crude palm oil prices to record levels of more than RM2,000 per tonne in recent weeks, with further increases expected in the months ahead as more plants come...
(EnergyAsia, May 14, Monday) — US Nasdaq-listed First Solar Inc said it plans to invest RM2 billion in Malaysia’s first solar-panel plant in Kulim town in the northern state of Perak. Phase one of the facility is expected to be completed by end-2008, and will provide jobs for 500 workers. When fully operational...
(EnergyAsia, May 14, Monday) — Australia’s AGL Energy Limited (AGL) said it has acquired the development rights to a 71 megawatts (MW) wind farm in South Australia from Wind Prospect Pty Ltd. The proposed Hallett Hill wind farm will be approximately 20km from the 95MW Hallett wind farm currently under construction by AGL. AGL...
(EnergyAsia, May 14, Monday) — Malaysia’s Sime Plantations and Holland’s BioX Carbon have signed an agreement to jointly develop Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects at the palm oil mills of the Malaysian company. Sime Plantations is a subsidiary of Sime Darby Berhad while BioX Carbon is part of the BioX Group which won a...
(EnergyAsia, May 14, Monday) — CSIRO, Australia’s largest scientific research agency, has welcomed the government’s approval of a record funding of A$2.8 billion that will enable it to work on the country’s climate change strategy. (US$1=A$1.2). The agency has been drafted in to help identify climate issues and shape the country’s adaptation policies that...
(EnergyAsia, May 14, May 14) — The UN Energy Program is investing US$1.5-million in a four-year programme to make small solar panels available to villagers in some of the poorest parts of India and reduce their dependency on kerosene lamps. Kerosene lamps are hazardous and toxic in poorly ventilated dwellings, and increasingly costly to...
(EnergyAsia, May 14, Monday) — Rural areas now hold 37% of China’s hydropower capacity after it was boosted by six million kw to 50 million kw last year, said the Ministry of Water Resources. With increased focus on developing the country’s long-neglected rural heartlands, the government is targeting to build up the power infrastructure...
(EnergyAsia, May 11, Friday) — The Chinese government is stepping up efforts to accelerate the development of renewable energy to enhance energy security and protect the environment. According to consultants Frost & Sullivan, China’s renewable energy market will grow from around $6.9 billion in 2006 to $17.9 billion in 2013. The Renewable Energy...
(EnergyAsia, May 11, Friday) — China is poised to surpass the US as the world’s leading producer of greenhouse gases this year, said the International Energy Agency. China’s rapidly growing economy is also a source of greenhouse gases. The increase in its emissions could well exceed the combined reductions achieved by other countries. ...
(EnergyAsia, May 11, Friday) — China has been urged to join a global initiative to promote transparency and fight corruption by making clear how oil revenues are raised and spent in oil-producing states. Under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which is backed by the G8 industrial nations, oil producers would have to publish...
(EnergyAsia, May 11, Friday) — Japanese diesel engine manufacturer Yanmar Co Ltd is setting up a biodiesel research and development (R&D) hub in Sabah to leverage on the Malaysian state’s palm oil resources. Yanmar said it has developed new engines and power generation equipment that use palm oil as feedstock. Sabah is Malaysia’s largest...
(EnergyAsia, May 11, Friday) — Calgary-based Talisman Energy Inc has announced successes in its exploration and production efforts in Norway and Vietnam. Wholly owned subsidiary Talisman Energy Norge AS has started oil production from two prolific wells in the Gyda and Brage fields in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. They are producing...