(EnergyAsia, April 11, Friday) — Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric said it recently installed photovoltaic (PV) modules in the new administrative headquarters of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region, located in the Italian city of Udine. The photovoltaic installation, built in conjunction with Copetti Impianti, a company based in Gemona del Friuli which specialises in the renewable energy...

(EnergyAsia, April 10, Thursday) — Chinese power generator Huadian Corp said it has concluded a deal to buy up to 142 wind turbines from China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Industry (Group) Corp for $200 million. Huadian will install the first 20 turbines to produce around 36 megawatts (MW) at a wind farm in Hunan...

(EnergyAsia, April 10, Thursday) — Trina Solar said it has signed an agreement with GT Solar Incorporated to purchase $49 million worth of primary converter and reactor systems for its planned polysilicon production project. (US$1=7 yuan) The purchase price will be paid in instalments over a period of 12 to 18 months. The agreement was...

(EnergyAsia, April 10, Thursday) — Nasdaq-listed Spire Corporation, a global solar company providing turnkey solar factories and capital equipment to manufacture photovoltaic modules worldwide, said it has won a contract in China for a combined solar module and solar cell facility. The order includes a 25-megawatt (MW) module factory and an adjacent 25MW solar cell...

(EnergyAsia, April 10, Thursday) — Singapore’s KS Energy Services, a services provider to the oil, gas and petrochemical industries, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Atlantic Oilfield Services Ltd, said that they collaborated to recently secure a $130 million contract to rent out a 300-feet cantilever drilling jackup rig on a time charter. (US$1=S$1.38). The ‘KS...

(EnergyAsia, April 10, Thursday) — The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has downgraded its industry profit expectations for 2008 to US$4.5 billion based on global economic growth slowing to 2.6% and an average annualised Brent crude oil price of US$86 per barrel. At an average annual price of US$86 per barrel for Brent, fuel represents...

(EnergyAsia, April 10, Thursday) — A Chinese subsidiary of Chevron Corporation has announced the official opening of an office in Dazhou to support Chevron’s Chuandongbei natural gas operations in the Sichuan province in southwest China. The Chuandongbei natural gas development covers nearly 2,000 square kilometers and is located in the Xuanhan and Wanyuan counties of...

(EnergyAsia, April 10, Thursday) — Threatened by job losses and higher fuel prices, oil workers are holding up plans by the Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC) to expand in Sri Lanka’s domestic market. Following a threat to cripple nationwide fuel distribution, the government last month agreed to meet representatives from the petroleum unions who suspect...

(EnergyAsia, April 10, Thursday) — GT Solar Incorporated, the solar equipment and turnkey manufacturing solutions provider and subsidiary of GT Solar International, said it has secured a $200 million contract to supply South Korea’s DC Chemical Co Ltd (DCC) with chemical vapour deposition polysilicon reactors for use at its facility in Gunsan. GT Solar said...

(EnergyAsia, April 10, Thursday) — Nasdaq-listed American Superconductor Corporation (AMSC), a leading energy technologies company, said it has received an $18 million-plus order for wind turbine electrical systems and core electrical components from Beijing, China-based Sinovel Wind Corporation Limited. AMSC said it will deliver these products to Sinovel over the next 15 months.  The systems...

(EnergyAsia, April 9, Wednesday) — Indonesia wants to sharply raise the price of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the Tangguh project in West Papua. Seeking to cash in on the sharp rise in world energy prices, officials said the past contract prices of $3 to $3.5 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) are...

(EnergyAsia, April 9, Wednesday) — India’s Gujarat state is planning to build small hydropower projects along major dams in its southern region. The state government has identified several potential sites in Karjan, Damanganga and Vanakbori. The projects would primarily tap excess water during the monsoon season to generate electricity. The size of the projects varies...

(EnergyAsia, April 9, Wednesday) — India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said it is supporting a programme to bring solar energy to remote villages in the northern state of Assam. For the financial year to March 31 2008, it has supported efforts to install a total of 750 solar home lighting systems, 50 solar...

(EnergyAsia, April 9, Wednesday) — Investors are unlikely to follow through on their plans to build biodiesel plants as the cost of palm oil feedstock continues to soar. Crude palm oil prices have surged to record levels of more than RM4,400 per tonne,  more than twice the level needed to make biodiesel profitable. (US$1=RM3.2). The...

(EnergyAsia, April 9, Wednesday) — The increased production and use of biofuels are likely to boost greenhouse gas emissions, a top environmental scientist has warned. The warning comes as European nations are pondering mandates for tough biofuels blending targets. Robert Watson, the chief environmental scientist at the UK’s Department for the Environment, has described as...

(EnergyAsia, April 9, Wednesday) — In late 1999, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Chinese government jointly embarked on a massive $183 million programme to improve the environment in three highly polluted cities in the nation’s leading coal-producing province of Shanxi. Today, ADB said the nearly seven million residents of Taiyun, Datong, and Yangquan...

(EnergyAsia, April 9, Wednesday) — Norway’s NorSun plans to invest US$300 million in Singapore to build a plant to make monocrystalline wafers for the global solar cell industry. Earlier this year, another Norwegian firm, Renewable Energy Corporation (REC), announced plans for a giant facility produce multicrystalline wafers in Singapore. NorSun’s solar cell wafer plant will...

(EnergyAsia, April 9, Wednesday) — India’s privately held Reliance Industries is shutting down all its 1,400 downstream retail outlets as rising crude prices have made that part of its business commercially unviable in the country’s tightly regulated fuel market. The Federal government has stated it intends to continue imposing price caps on oil products. While...

(EnergyAsia, April 9, Wednesday) — The city of Sydney must take immediate measures to prepare for expected future oil shortages, said the Australian Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO). One important step would be to reduce the reliance on cars by removing any tax subsidies or concession for motorised vehicles and put the...

(EnergyAsia, April 9, Wednesday) — The economic costs of addressing climate change, described as “one of the world’s greatest collective action problems” can be contained by putting in place well-designed policies that are implemented across many countries, said the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In its April 2008 World Economic Outlook chapter entitled “Climate Change and...

(EnergyAsia, April 8, Tuesday) — Malaysia’s Carbon Capital Corporation Sdn Bhd is teaming up with Japan Carbon Mercantile to build a new 240,000-tonne-per-year multi-feed biodiesel plant in Tanjung Manis in Sarawak state. Sarawak is a Malaysian state located on Borneo island. The plant will be able to use jatropha and palm oil as feedstock, and...

(EnergyAsia, April 8, Tuesday) — The Renewable Energy Development Agency of India’s West Bengal state (WBREDA) has announced plans to set up a solar energy park in Purulia district. It expects the park to generate up to 40 MW of power and attract investments worth between Rs 6billion and Rs8 billion over the next two...

(EnergyAsia, April 8, Tuesday) — IMV Projects, the Calgary subsidiary of international energy services company John Wood Group PLC, said it has been awarded a $4.5 million contract by Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) to provide front-end engineering and design (FEED) services for their 10,000 b/d BlackGold steam-assisted gravity drainage facility to be built in...

(EnergyAsia, April 8, Tuesday) — The Cambodian government is keen to develop the country’s hydropower potential to supply energy to Thailand, Vietnam and China, thereby creating an additional source of export earnings. Cambodia has the potential to generate some 10,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity for its domestic use as well as exports, with about half...