(EnergyAsia, January 18 2010, Monday) — The UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) unit has stopped approvals for funding of China’s wind farms, possibly stalling some wind power investments.   The agency made the decision after it found out that the Chinese government had reduced subsidies for wind energy projects so that it could earn carbon...

(EnergyAsia, January 15 2010, Friday) — A consortium led by the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has won one of the largest contracts in nuclear energy history when it was awarded a US$20.4 billion project to build four nuclear power plants in the UAE. The first of the four 1,400MW nuclear reactors located in Sila,...

(EnergyAsia, January 15 2010, Friday) — Singapore’s Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd said its subsidiary, Keppel FELS Brasil, has secured contracts from Noble Corp worth a total of US$456 million to upgrade three drill ships. It won a US$152 million contract to upgrade one drill ship last December, following on an earlier award for two...

(EnergyAsia, January 15 2010, Friday) — Global Green Power PLC Corp, partly owned by the UK’s Global Green Power, said it is looking to build 12 biomass plants worth more than US$1 billion over the next 12 years. David de Montaigne, president of Global Green, said the 12 plants would each have a power generation...

(EnergyAsia, January 15 2010, Friday) — The oil producing countries of the Middle East are concerned that emerging markets like China and India could begin curbing their oil and gas appetite as they increasingly focus on improving energy efficiency and step up their production and consumption of renewable energy resources. It has been estimated that...

(EnergyAsia, January 15 2010, Friday) — eSolar, a US-based global provider of reliable and cost-effective concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, and Penglai Electric, a privately-owned Chinese electrical power equipment manufacturer, are collaborating to build at least two gigawatts (GW) of solar thermal power plants in China over the next 10 years. eSolar has agreed to...

(EnergyAsia, January 15 2010, Friday) — Asian countries are poised to dominate the race to develop clean energy technologies as they are heavily out-spending the US, said a recent report by a US foundation assessing the global landscape in clean energy development. The Breakthrough Institute and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said its report...

(EnergyAsia, January 14 2010, Thursday) — The following is an edited version of an article by Benjamin Jones and Michael Keen of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Efforts to negotiate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, and to form domestic climate policies, have intensified in recent months. Policymakers are searching for new sources of sustainable...

(EnergyAsia, January 14 2010, Thursday) — France’s Air Liquide said it has signed 13 new contracts to supply industrial and specialty gases to crystalline-Silicon (c-Si) solar cell manufacturers in China including market leaders JA Solar and Yingli Green energy. Air Liquide said it will invest more than 10 million euro to meet the needs of...

(EnergyAsia, January 14 2010, Thursday) — Qatar Petroleum (QP) and ExxonMobil Chemical Qatar Limited, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corporation, said they have agreed to jointly develop a world-scale petrochemical complex in Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City. Due to start up in late 2015, the proposed complex would include the world’s largest steam cracker and polyethylene...

(EnergyAsia, January 14 2010, Thursday) — Singapore has signed on as a member of the International Convention on the Control of Harmful Anti-Fouling Systems on Ships, 2001 (AFS Convention) with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). The convention, adopted at the IMO on October 5 2001, and enforced on September 17 2008, bans the use of...

(EnergyAsia, January 14 2010, Thursday) — South Korea’s LG Electronics has unveiled the start-up of its first solar cell production line in Gumi, about 200 km southeast of the country’s capital city Seoul. LG said the production line will enable it to manufacture approximately half a million solar modules a year with a total capacity...

(EnergyAsia, January 14 2010, Thursday) — Taiwan’s Motech Industries said it has signed an agreement to acquire GE Energy’s Delaware, US solar module assembly operation. The plant in Newark city assembles crystalline silicon based photovoltaic modules currently employs 75 people. As part of the agreement, Motech will be entrusted to maintain GE’s high standards for...

(EnergyAsia, January 14 2010, Thursday) — Australian oil and gas explorer, Central Petroleum, said it is planning to plant drought-resistant hybrid eucalyptus saplings and other species on up to 100,000 hectares of desert in Central Australia over the next decade. The Perth-based company said its wholly owned subsidiary, Central Green Pty Ltd, has started the...

(EnergyAsia, January 13 2010, Wednesday) — ISO has announced that it is aiming to develop an international standard to address sustainability issues for the bioenergy industry. The standard will be produced by a new project committee called the ISO/PC 248, sustainability criteria for bioenergy. It will bring together international experts at its first meeting in...

(EnergyAsia, January 13 2010, Wednesday) — Nasdaq-listed A-Power Energy Generation Systems Ltd said it has signed a contract with Thailand’s Biomass Electricity Co Ltd to develop a 150MW biomass firing power plant in the Thai province of Prachinburi. The $86 million contract will cover the design of the power station, the procurement and installation of...

(EnergyAsia, January 13 2010, Wednesday) — Unless battery costs fall sharply on a breakthrough in technology over the coming decade, the electric vehicle (EV) will not win widespread adoption, according to a new study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In a study, BCG has concluded that the long-term cost target used by many carmakers...

(EnergyAsia, January 13 2010, Wednesday) — LM Glasfiber, a world leading independent manufacturer of blades for wind turbines, has agreed to supply South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries Co Ltd, blades for its new 2.5 MW wind turbine. The agreement includes a five-year contract for the supply of at least 1,500 MW of blades from LM...

(EnergyAsia, January 13, Wednesday) — The South Korean government plans to impose fines of as much as 10 million won on companies that fail to comply with their own energy reduction targets. (US$1=1,120 won) The government will also ask 219 large companies that use 50,000 tonnes of oil equivalent of energy per year such as...

(EnergyAsia, January 13 2010, Wednesday) — Qatar Airways, Qatar Science & Technology Park (QSTP) and Qatar Petroleum (QP) announced that they will jointly work on developing biofuels for the aircraft industry with the support of Airbus. The ground-breaking initiative comes months after Qatar Airways, the emirate’s national airline, completed an historical milestone in the aviation...

(EnergyAsia, January 13 2010, Wednesday) — Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Envision Energy Co Ltd Services has signed a contract appointing Germanischer Lloyd (GL) to provide wind turbine certification services. GL said it has been appointed to provide A-Design assessments of six turbine variants including certification for an onshore wind turbine of 1.5 MW (EN 15-77...

(EnergyAsia, January 12 2010, Tuesday) — The effectiveness of carbon offsetting and carbon trading in combating global warming is being questioned by some environmental groups. Organisations that accept payments to plant trees or protect forests to offset carbon emissions from contributors’ activities such as long-haul flights have become popular, but Greenpeace and Friends of the...

(EnergyAsia, January 12 2010, Tuesday) — Starting 2012, the European Union (EU) will require carriers flying to Europe to cap their carbon emissions or pay a surcharge.   Analysts believe that most carriers will pass on the extra cost to consumers, which could add another US$4 billion a year to the cost of air travel....

(EnergyAsia, January 12 2010, Tuesday) — A UN committee has decided to exclude clean coal technology from possible funding under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) to fight global warming. The decision is a blow to Australia, Saudi Arabia, the UK and the US, as all four had strongly argued that the technology should...