Biomass

The Chinese government said it will accelerate the pace of solar power installations after 2015, part of a program including funds from the state to cap carbon emissions while satisfying the nation’s demand for electricity, according to a report in Bloomberg.

US-listed GE has revealed that the SOMA Group is to use GE’s Waukesha gas engine technology to power a new rural, rice husk biomass-energy project. The project is Cambodia’s first integrated biomass gasification-gas engine solution designed to supply renewable electricity to the local grid in support of the country’s Cambodia Rice Husk Biomass-Energy Project rural electrification goals.

The China CleanTech Index has reported an 8.1 per cent loss in June, a worse performance than all its benchmarks and it was down 10.8 per cent for the year. Only days after Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported  that China was driving global growth in the clean energy sector with a 92 per cent surge in investment in the second quarter of 2012 over the first quarter, the Index showed that investor confidence is still shaky.

Several years after the implementation of the Philippines Renewable Energy Act, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is finally looking to issue the much-awaited feed-in tariff (FiT) rates by the end of this month, which would allow dozens of long delayed renewable energy projects to move forward. The Renewable Energy Act, also known as Republic Act 9513, aims to increase the country's renewable energy capacity to 15.3-GW from the current 9.8-GW. To help spur renewable energy demand, the law calls for the Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) to establish a FiT system, as well as specific RPS targets for utilities.

DP CleanTech, a Chinese biomass and waste-to-energy business, won a contract to build a facility in the Philippines that will use rice husk, rice straw and woodchips to produce power, Bloomberg reports.

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), one of Taiwan’s leading scientific centers, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands to develop green energy applications.

Researchers in the United States say agricultural waste from coconut and mango farming could generate significant amounts of off-grid electricity for rural communities in South and South-East Asia. Many food crops have tough, inedible parts that cannot be used to feed livestock or fertilise fields. Examples of this material — known as “endocarp” — include coconut, almond and pistachio shells, and the stones of mangoes, olives, plums, apricots and cherries.

Up to 33 million people in Africa and Asia living in poverty will have access to low-cost energy by 2016 through a global initiative supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the UN agency announced Thursday.

India has the world's most toxic air, according to a new study presented at the World Economic Forum currently taking place in Davos, Switzerland.