(EnergyAsia, June 3 2010, Thursday) — Construction has begun on the US$80 million Binh Phuoc bi-ethanol plant in the Bu Dang district in Vietnam’s southern Binh Phuoc province. The plant is expected to be completed in 21 months and is designed to have a capacity to process 100 million litres of ethanol. The project is...

(EnergyAsia, June 3 2010, Thursday) — Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell Systems, in which the Singapore government has a stake, has abandoned plans to produce fuel cells and has gone back to doing research and development work. The company has decided to delay plans to start commercial production of fuel cells due to technical issues. The joint...

(EnergyAsia, June 3 2010, Thursday)—Internet giant Google Inc has emerged as a champion of renewable energy as it looking to increase its use to power its energy-guzzling data centres. The company has also become actively involved in buying and selling energy on the US wholesale market. In February, Google’s energy subsidiary obtained an approval from...

(EnergyAsia, June 3 2010, Thursday) — The board of commissioners at Indonesia’s state oil and gas company Pertamina have called on the company to use high-sulphur content sour crude oil in its refineries to improve profit margins. In a statement, the board said Pertamina must look at “opportunities for crude processing deals by using the...

(EnergyAsia, June 3 2010, Thursday) — China WindPower Group and Liaoning Energy have agreed to establish 18 new joint venture firms to develop 900MW of wind power projects in Chaoyang in China’s Liaoning province. Each joint venture firm will be responsible for a wind farm project with an initial installed capacity of 49.5 MW. The...

(EnergyAsia, June 2 2010, Wednesday) — Two Chinese companies, LDK Solar and Solarfun, have announced plant expansions to increase their production of components used in solar power generation. LDK Solar said it expects to soon start up production at the recently completed second 5,000 MT train in its 15,000 MT polysilicon plant. The first train...

(EnergyAsia, June 2 2010, Wednesday) — Foreign investors are jointly developing solar power projects in India. Azure Power, the developer and owner of India’s first privately operated utility- scale solar power plant and SunEdison will jointly develop a 15MW solar power plant in Gujarat state, while Astonfield Renewable Resources and Belectric have agreed to build...

(EnergyAsia, June 2 2010, Wednesday) — Japan’s Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) will invest in Tesla Motors Inc as well as work with the Palo Alto, California company to jointly develop electric vehicles, parts, and production system and engineering support. They plan to form a team of specialists to further those efforts. In a joint statement,...

(EnergyAsia, June 2 2010, Wednesday) — Members under Singapore’s Global Traders Programme (GTP) reported a 30% drop in revenue for 2009 to US$465 billion, reflecting the near collapse in world trade last year, said state agency International Enterprise Singapore (IES). Despite this sharp fall, the revenues of the nearly 300 GTP companies have grown at...

(EnergyAsia, June 2 2010, Wednesday) — Oil pricing and media group Platts said it handled a record volume of paper trade through its Singapore electronic trading window in the first quarter. Dave Ernsberger, a Singapore-based editor until his recent promotion to a global portfolio in London, said the Platts’ window processed the equivalent of about...

(EnergyAsia, June 2 2010, Wednesday) — American Superconductor Corporation, a Nasdaq-listed global power technologies company, said it has received a new multi-year order worth US$445 million from China’s Sinovel Wind Group Co Ltd, the world’s third largest wind turbine manufacturer. AMSC said it will begin shipping core electrical components for Sinovel’s 1.5 megawatt (MW) wind...

(EnergyAsia, June 1 2010, Tuesday) — Work has begun on the construction of two Chinese-funded hydropower dams in southwestern Cambodia costing more than US$1 billion. The Ministry of Industry Mines and Energy said that work has begun on the US$540-million, 246-megawatt dam on the Tatai River and the US$496-million, 338-MW dam on the Lower Russei...

(EnergyAsia, June 1 2010, Tuesday) — State-owned Qatar International Petroleum Marketing Company Ltd (Tasweeq) has opened a representative office in Singapore to help market its fuels and products as well as provide marketing support, customer service and liaison assistance in the Asia Pacific region. The office, headed by general manager Sultan Al-Hajri, previously the sales...

(EnergyAsia, June 1 2010, Tuesday) — NCT Jacam Energy Co, a joint venture between Cambodian and Japanese companies, is planning to raise biodiesel production at its refining facility in Cambodia’s Kampong Speu province by six times to 600 litres per day. The company’s president, Chheuy Sophors, said that a lack of jatropha supplies had constrained...

(EnergyAsia, June 1 2010, Tuesday) – Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has announced that it will invest a total of seven billion yen to build facilities for experiments to establish advanced smart grid technologies. The facilities, to be developed within the company’s premises in Japan by March 2012, will support the adoption of sustainable energy sources...

(EnergyAsia, June 1 2010, Tuesday) — India will provide a total of 350 billion rupees in funding for hydro power projects in Bhutan, which aims to produce 10,000 megawatts of hydro power by 2020 under a joint venture. (US1=45 rupees). The bulk of the power will be exported to India which has agreed to provide...

(EnergyAsia, June 1 2010, Tuesday) — Organisations in Finland and the US are looking into forest residue and algae to produce biofuels. Finnish forest industry groups UPM and Stora Enso are planning to integrate biofuels production with pulp and paper mills, and are testing synthetic gas technologies to achieve this objective. Last June, Stora Enso...

(EnergyAsia, June 1 2010, Tuesday) — US President Barack Obama faces an uphill challenge creating renewable energy-related jobs at home as cheaper Asian countries offer a far more attractive alternative to industry players. First Solar Inc, the world’s largest maker of thin-firm solar power modules, will be adding 200 manufacturing jobs at its Ohio plant,...