(EnergyAsia, October 11, Thursday) — NYSE-listed Ferro Corp said it will begin construction later this year on a 16,500-square-meter plant facility in Suzhou, China, where it will produce aluminum pastes for the Southeast Asia solar cell manufacturing market. The plant is expected to begin production in the third quarter of 2008 and will include expansion...
(EnergyAsia, October 11, Thursday) — NYSE-listed LDK Solar Co Ltd, a leading manufacturer of multicrystalline solar wafers, said it has signed a five-year contract to supply multicrystalline solar wafers to Taiwan-based Mosel Vitelic Inc. The US$190 million supply agreement begins next year, with the pricing and quantity fixed for the first three years. Solar wafers...
(EnergyAsia, October 11, Thursday) — Energy Solutions International Inc, the Houston, US-based leading supplier of oil and gas pipeline management software, said it will work with Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL), Pakistan’s largest integrated gas company, to conduct a pipeline and compressor optimisation study of its 6,200-km transmission network using EnergySolutions’ PipelineStudio(R) application and...
(EnergyAsia, October 11, Thursday) — The Philippines’ Department of Agriculture has signed a Memorandum of Association (MOA) with India’s Praj Industries to promote energy crops and technology for biofuels production in the Philippines. The agreement was signed during the recent visit of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to India. The Department of Agriculture is keen to...
(EnergyAsia, October 11, Thursday) — China is proving a huge draw for wind power investments, such that the sector could be described as fully developed by as early as 2010. The Chinese Wind Energy Association (CWEA) has forecast that installed wind power capacity could reach 5,000 megawatts (MW) by end-2010. After that, it predicts China...
(EnergyAsia, October 11, Thursday) — Oil firms from several countries have registered their interest in taking a stake in the proposed six-million-tonne-per-year Bina oil refinery project in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) are among those interested in the Rs103.7 billion project. (US$1=Rs39). Bina is spearheaded...
(EnergyAsia, October 11, Thursday) — Electricity of Viet Nam (EVA) has obtained pledges from four banks for the funding of the country’s largest hydropower plant in Son La province. The 2,400 megawatt (MW) project is estimated to cost some VND36.9 trillion (US$1=VND16,000). It is slated to begin operations in 2010, with full completion in 2012....
(EnergyAsia, October 11, Thursday) — Singapore-based Renewable Energy Exchange (REEX) said it has raised US$25 million for PowerSource Energy Services Inc (PES), a Philippine-based US corporation focusing on renewable energy. PES has an established market position applying distributed generation concepts to commercial real estate. The company has entered into contracts to supply combined heat and...
(EnergyAsia, October 11, Thursday) — Australian’s Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer recently pledged A$1.5 million over the next three years to the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) to help improve access to reliable, clean and affordable energy sources such as solar energy, across the Pacific. (US$1=A$1.10). The funding is a part of the...
(EnergyAsia, October 10, Wednesday) — China needs to step up efforts to tap its abundant solar power potential, a new study has found. While the government has stated its goal to lift solar power capacity to 10,000 megawatts (MW) by end 2030, the current capacity is only around 100 MW, the study by Greenpeace and...
(EnergyAsia, October 10, Wednesday) — Australia’s tourism minister Fran Bailey has slammed wind power, saying this form of alternative energy is not suitable for Australia. To the astonishment of her colleagues, Ms Bailey objected strongly to a proposed wind farm in Victoria’s spa region, northwest of Melbourne. Citing the noise from wind power projects, she...
(EnergyAsia, October 10, Wednesday) — The federal government has set up a working group to draft codes for wind farms which are expected to play a big role in Australia’s renewable energy industry. The codes are meant to lay out procedures for the construction of new wind power farms including community consultation. The working group...
(EnergyAsia, October 10, Wednesday) –– Singapore Exchange-listed Chemoil, one of the world’s leading integrated physical suppliers of marine fuel products, has announced plans to build a new storage terminal in the bunkering hub of Cristobal, Panama. When finished the terminal is expected to have a total capacity of 245,000 metric tonnes. Construction will take two...
(EnergyAsia, October 10, Wednesday) — The Association of Process Industry (ASPRI) has signed a landmark memorandum of understanding (MOU) with several key government agencies and institutes of higher learning to help grow Singapore as the regional hub for the process industry. The MOU was signed with Economic Development Board (EDB), SPRING Singapore, International Enterprise Singapore...
(EnergyAsia, October 10, Wednesday) — The Carbon Disclosure Project, which acts as a secretariat for a collaboration of over 315 institutional investors with over $41 trillion in assets under management, has launched its fifth annual report based on the responses from the FT500 largest global companies. The report revealed that FT500 companies are beginning to...
(EnergyAsia, October 10, Wednesday) — The lower house of the Kazakhstan Parliament last week voted unanimously to amend an existing law regarding subsoil use, granting the government the unilateral right to modify or cancel energy contracts to “protect the national interests … and safeguard the economic security of the Republic of Kazakhstan.” “If the amendment...
(EnergyAsia, October 10, Wednesday) — Gulf Energy Maritime (GEM), the Middle East’s largest independent commercial product tanker operator, has taken delivery of its 11th tanker and the fifth of 13 tankers on order with Korea’s Hyundai Mipo Dockyard (HMD). With the delivery of the US$55 million Gulf Mist, Dubai-headquartered GEM said it has solidified its...
(EnergyAsia, October 10, Wednesday) — Tata Sons Ltd, the holding company of one of India’s largest industrial groups, has bought more than 13.42 million shares, equivalent to a 7.3% stake in Praj Industries, a leading biofuels technology provider. Pune-based Praj Industries said its executive chairman Pramod Chaudhari, his wife, Parimal Chaudhari, a non-executive director, and...
(EnergyAsia, October 10, Wednesday) — Thai state-owned PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Limited (PTTEP) said it plans to soon launch seismic surveys in its recently acquired Blocks L21/48, L28/48 and L29/48 in Thailand’s northeast. It includes a 1,200-km line of 2D seismic data in parts of Udonthani, Khon Kaen, Nakhon Ratchasima, and Chaiyaphum Provinces....
(EnergyAsia, October 9, Tuesday) — Singapore’s Ezra Holdings Limited, a leading integrated offshore support and marine services provider in Southeast Asia’s offshore oil and gas industry, said its production and construction arm EOC Limited has successfully listed on the main board of Norway’s Oslo BØrs last Wednesday under the ticker EOC. Ezra expects to receive...
(EnergyAsia, October 9, Tuesday) — China-based Trina Solar said it has signed an agreement with Switzerland’s Meyer Burger AG for the supply of ID cropping, band and wire saws used for the production of its monocrystalline and multicrystalline wafers and cells. Trina is an integrated manufacturer of solar photovoltaic products from the production of ingots,...
(EnergyAsia, October 9, Tuesday) — SunPower Corporation said it will work with Korean energy company EnE System to build a 2-megawatt solar electric power system in Jeonju city in the Jeolla province of South Korea. The system, owned by Jeonju Solar Energy, is the first in Korea to be located on a landfill property. “Locating...
(EnergyAsia, October 9, Tuesday) — Are we passed the worst of the subprime and credit crises? It depends on who is talking. International Monetary Fund managing director Rodrigo Rato told the Financial Times the global credit crisis is far from over and will have an impact on governments’ budgets. Meanwhile, CIBC World Markets said the worst has...
(EnergyAsia, October 9, Tuesday) — Energy ministers of the ASEAN group have agreed to fund a region-wide power grid that will include all 10 member countries. ASEAN – the Association of South East Asian Nations — includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The plan calls for the grid to...
(EnergyAsia, October 9, Tuesday) — The biofuels sector is expected to grow rapidly despite facing a tough fight to gain acceptance as a transportation fuel in Australia, according to a new study. Consumers still prefer to use crops for food production rather than for fuel. The study by consultants Mike Cochran and Graeme Bethune noted a...