The Philippines’ Department of Energy has finally given the go ahead for three proposed wind farms, with a generating capacity totaling 208.5-MW, as the country looks to escalate the development of its wind power potential, estimated to be 76-GW. These approvals are the first to be given under the country’s feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme for renewable energy.
While there has been plenty of interest from local and international investors in the Philippines wind sector since the passing of the country’s Renewable Energy Law in 2008, regulatory developments have been slow.
The chairman and acting president of Sinovel Wind Energy Group, Wei Chiyuan, has resigned as of one of the country's largest makers of wind turbines struggles amid an industry downturn, according to a report in news portal, Caixin Online.
China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (CGN) is planning to invest 4.5 billion yuan (USD731 million) in an offshore wind farm adjacent to one of the islands of Pingtan Country, off the coast of Fujian Province. The company says, rather optimistically, that it hopes to start project construction next year.
India once dominant wind giant Suzlon Energy has been booted from its top spot and replaced by another local turbine supplier, Wind World (India) Ltd, formerly known as Enercon (India) Ltd.
Indian wind turbine maker Suzlon on Tuesday said it has implemented a USD 1.8 billion debt restructuring package in an effort to put the company back on a sound business footing.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced his government’s intention to double the country’s non-hydro renewable energy generating capacity by 2017.
"It is proposed to double the renewable energy capacity in our country from 25,000-MW in 2012 to 55,000-megawatts by the year 2017," Singh told the two-day Clean Energy Ministerial conference in New Delhi.
He said India that ramping up its use of wind, solar and biomass energies in the coming years, in line with the country’s low carbon strategy, was necessary for sustainable growth.
India's grid-connected non-hydro renewable energy capacity, mainly solar and wind, has reached 27-GW, while the country’s total grid-connected power generation capacity is about 215-GW, according to a top Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) official.
The rapid expansion of renewable technologies is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise bleak assessment of global progress towards low-carbon energy, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in an annual report to the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM).
“The drive to clean up the world’s energy system has stalled,” IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven told the CEM, which brings together ministers representing countries responsible for four-fifths of global greenhouse-gas emissions.
Hong Kong-listed China Wind Power has signed a strategic co-operation agreement with CNNC Rich Energy to co-invest in a total of 700-MW of renewable energy capacity.
China’s state-owned enterprises are behind some 81 percent of the country’s booming wind power industry, according to data released by the National Energy Administration (NEA).
China generated 100.8 billion KWh of wind power in 2012, marking a 41 percent rise from 2011, the National Energy Administration said in a statement on its website yesterday.
The average amount of time wind turbines in China were generating electricity shrank last year according to data released by the country's energy watchdog, underlining the need to boost grid construction to absorb more wind power.
A consortium of six Japanese banks led by the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) will loan 18 billion yen (UD191 million) for a lrage wind power project in western Japan.
The Japanese cabinet is moving ahead with a proposal to revamp the country’s electricity industry and foster competition by obliging utilities to split power generation and distribution into separate businesses.
The plan, which requires parliamentary approval, is aimed at encouraging innovation and grid modernization as Japan grapples with its energy policy after the shutting down of almost all its nuclear power plants in the wake of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
The idea of liberalizing Japan’s electricity market has been around for years and was included in a series of economic overhauls, intended to improve the country’s competitiveness, being discussed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration.
Amid all the news about coal and pollution problems in China you might have missed this one: According to new statistics from the China Electricity Council, China’s wind power production actually increased more than coal power production for the first time ever in 2012.
Thermal power use, which is predominantly coal, grew by only about 0.3 percent in China during 2012, an addition of roughly 12 terawatt hours (TWh) more electricity. In contrast, wind power production expanded by about 26 TWh.
Germany’s Siemens will install 18-MW of wind power in north west Japan after being awarded a contract from Japanese developer Eurus Energy.
Siemens will deliver and maintain six turbines Six 3-3.5 MW turbines which will be installed at Japan’s Akita Port and are expected to be operational by mid-2014.
Sinovel Wind Group, China’s biggest wind-turbine maker by market value, has become the third big Chinese renewable-energy company to replace the head of its board this month following the resignation chairman Han Junliang, for the usual euphemism of for personal reasons.
Following its success in solar, Japan is now ripe for a boom in wind power as investors seek to cash in on the country’s generous subsidies for clean energy, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The Indian government announced in a press statement earlier this week that it has set a target of 15-GW for new wind power installations during the country’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17).
China's inexorable demand for energy has seen it sign a slew of multi-billion deals in the past in the past week or so, reflecting the new complexities of the international energy market. They add to new calculations by analysts that China is set to produce enough crude oil outside its borders to rival OPEC members such as Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
In a recent interview with the Financial Times International Energy Agency chief economist Fatih Birol said last year's USD35 billion foreign energy company buying spree by Chinese companies will produce the equivalent of Kuwait's output by 2015.
This report by the World Bank spells out what the world would be like if it warmed by 4 degrees Celsius, which is what scientists are nearly unanimously predicting by the end of the century, without serious policy changes.
Companies in Asia reveal expectations that regulations that could lead to rising costs for reporting and reducing GHG emissions will also be the main sources of climate-related business opportunities.
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