(EnergyAsia, December 7, Monday) — Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) has launched the Smart Energy Challenge (SEC) to provide seed funding of up to S$5 million per project for innovative energy ideas that meet the nation’s energy needs. (US$1=S$1.38). The challenge is aimed at supporting new solutions that enhance the nation’s energy security through fuel...

(EnergyAsia, December 7, Monday) — Western Australia state has launched a new centre for researchers, industry executives, investors and government officials to design and develop geothermal energy technologies to provide modern cities with air conditioning, power and desalinated water. Supported by the state government, the Western Australian Geothermal Centre of Excellence (WAGCOE) in Perth is...

(EnergyAsia, December 7, Monday) — The world’s leading international financial institutions have promised to coordinate their financing of climate actions and use their combined expertise and resources to assist the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) parties and private firms to confront challenges posed by climate change. The promise was contained in a joint...

(EnergyAsia, December 4, Friday) — China Huaneng Group’s newly acquired Tuas Power has broken ground on a S$2-billion utilities complex comprising a clean coal and biomass cogeneration plant on Singapore’s Jurong Island. (US$1=S$1.38). The Tembusu Multi-Utilities Complex (TMUC) is being promoted as Jurong Island’s latest draw by contributing to its electricity supply and keeping down...

(EnergyAsia, December 4, Friday) — US-listed GC China Turbine Corp (GCHT) said it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Yancheng regional government in China’s Jiangsu province to build a wind-turbine manufacturing plant. The plant will produce large utility scale turbines for offshore and coastal use, which GCHT will use for developing wind farms...

(EnergyAsia, December 4, Friday) — GE said it and China’s Shenhua Group Corporation have agreed to a framework for an industrial coal gasification joint venture to combine GE’s expertise in gasification and cleaner power generation technologies with Shenhua’s expertise in building and operating coal gasification and coal-fired power generation facilities. The venture will aim to...

(EnergyAsia, December 4, Friday) — Reducing the amount of energy required to produce a unit of gross domestic product (GDP), particularly in the service sector, has been by far the greatest contributor to curbing emissions growth, according to a new World Bank study on changes in CO2 emissions. Entitled ‘Changes in CO2 Emissions from Energy...

(EnergyAsia, December 4, Friday) — The World Bank Group said it is working with Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade to develop a waste-to-energy project using rick husk as a feedstock. The bank and the ministry recently hosted a seminar, “Rice Husk Biomass: Turning Waste into Energy and Profits,” to key findings from a study...

(EnergyAsia, December 4, Friday) — An additional 1,582 megawatts of electricity generation capacity powered by alternative energy sources was added to the Australian grid in the six months to October 2009, said state research agency Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE). The new capacity came onstream following the completion of one coal, one...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Thursday) — India should prepare for worsening power blackouts in the coming years as it is facing a growing shortage of coal supply, said the Power Ministry. Officials recently spoke of their fears to the Coal Ministry, predicting that India could face a“severe” coal supply crunch by 2012. The Power Ministry is...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Thursday) — Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd said it has secured two marine contracts worth a total of about $165 million through subsidiaries Keppel Shipyard Limited and Keppel Verolme BV. (US$1=S$1.38). The first project, secured by Keppel Shipyard from repeat customer Petrobras Netherlands BV (PNBV), is for the pre-conversion of P-58,...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Thursday) — India’s ethanol companies are shifting to produce industrial alcohol where the absence of pricing regulation makes it a more profitable alternative. A skewed pricing policy makes biofuel from ethanol cheaper than feedstock, but producers are optimistic that the government will raise the price cap for ethanol eventually. Sugar millers have...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Thursday) — Industry Funds Management, Australia’s umbrella management group for 36 superannuation or pension funds, has launched a A$1 billion Clean Energy Fund to support renewable energy projects. (US$1=A$1.08). The new fund would also take a large stake in Australian firm Pacific Hydro, which specialises in hydroelectric and wind farm projects, and...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Thursday) — American Superconductor Corporation, a Nasdaq-listed global power technologies company, said that it has received a follow-on order for 30 sets of electrical control systems from South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co Ltd (HHI) for its 1.65 megawatt (MW) wind turbines now in production in South Korea. AMSC also has received...

(EnergyAsia, December 3, Thursday) – US engineering giant GE said it has teamed up with Chinese companies to promote and develop clean energy projects and applications including clean coal in China. The announcements were made during GE’s recent ‘Clean Technology Week in China’ activities, which included agreements to explore future ‘cleaner coal’ gasification and high-speed...

(EnergyAsia, December 2, Wednesday) — Pulau Ubin, a 10-sq km island to the northeast of Singapore, will be the test-site for a smart power grid running on renewable energy sources and clean energy technologies, said the Energy Market Authority (EMA). Clean energy companies have been invited to submit their proposals for the smart grid plan...

(EnergyAsia, December 2, Wednesday) — China’s apparent petroleum demand in October jumped 10.2% from a year ago as the world’s second largest oil consumer ramped up crude processing rates, said energy media Platts. The data is in line with a batch of positive economic data released by the government for the month. Chinese oil demand...

(EnergyAsia, December 2, Wednesday) — Friends of the Earth International (FOEI), Greenpeace and other environmental groups are continuing their international campaign to stop the massive destruction of Indonesia’s fragile life-supporting rainforests. The destruction has led to an irreversible loss of biodiversity. Of growing concern is that both large companies and  small farmers, with the knowledge...

(EnergyAsia, December 2, Wednesday) — The European Union (EU) has proposed that the shipping and airline industries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 20% over the next decade by as part of an environmental accord to combat global warming. Under the proposal submitted to the UN, ships should cut greenhouse gases by one-fifth in 2020...

(EnergyAsia, December 2, Wednesday) — Despite the economic effects of the global financial crisis, carbon dioxide emissions from human activities rose 2% last year to reach an all-time high of 1.3 tonnes of carbon per capita per year, according to a paper published today in Nature Geoscience. The paper, authored by scientists from the internationally...

(EnergyAsia, December 2, Wednesday) — Singapore’s petrochemical producers will look to Qatar for long-term feedstock supplies once Qatar Petroleum (QP) completes its acquisition of substantial stakes in two Shell Chemicals joint ventures on Jurong Island by year-end. The deal, to be executed by subsidiary Qatar Petroleum International (QPI), will represent QP’s first downstream investments abroad....

(EnergyAsia, December 2, Wednesday) — Suzlon Energy Limited, an India-based wind turbine maker, said its subsidiary, Suzlon Energy Australia Pty Ltd, has secured a repeat order for 20 turbines with a combined capacity of 42MW from Infigen Energy, a leading specialist renewable energy business in Australia. Suzlon will deliver and install 20 units of its...