Clean Energy

In a further attempt to prop up its besieged solar industry and help its makers clear massive over stock of cheap PV panels, China is encouraging its banks to loosen up their purse strings and power companies to make room for more solar-friendly generation.

The Malaysian Government is thinking about revamping the way it allocates feed-in tariff (FiT) to the solar power sector, as applications continue to far outstrip available budget. Under the country’s Renewable Energy Bill the Sustainable Energy Development Authority Malaysia (SEDA) allocates FiT budget – split between biogas, biomass, small hydro and solar photovoltaic – on a first-come, first-served basis, every six months. To fund the FiT Tenaga Nasional, the country’s state-controlled electricity company, charges customers on the Malaysian Peninsular a one percent levy on electricity bills.

Japan’s government has taken the first steps to revamp the country’s 16 trillion yen (USD166 billion) electricity industry and spur competition after a House of Representatives committee passed a resolution which will see the country’s utilities split power generation and distribution.

In the face of its worst power shortage for decades South Korea has given approval for a nuclear reactor – shut down for almost eight months due to faulty safety equipment – to be restarted.

New report shows how to stop growth in energy-related emissions by 2020 at no net economic cost Warning that the world is not on track to limit the global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius, the International Energy Agency (IEA) on has urged governments to swiftly enact four energy policies that would keep climate goals alive without harming economic growth. “Climate change has quite frankly slipped to the back burner of policy priorities. But the problem is not going away – quite the opposite,”

A "Road Map for a Low-carbon Thailand towards 2050" has been published to point the way for the Kingdom to develop sustainable energy whilst reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Based on a joint Thai-Japanese research program which started in 2010, the new roadmap is aimed at supporting establishing policies for sustainable energy and the environmental transition of Thailand towards a low-carbon society. The low-carbon Thailand (LCT) roadmap is a joint research initiative between Thammasat University's Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology

Thailand’s Energy Conservation Promotion Fund committee has agreed to invest THB2.147 billion (USD69 million) on renewables including THB1.8 billion for rooftop solar on 2,000 government buildings.

The Japanese postal service is planning to install solar panels on 286 post offices to produce 11-MW of energy for resale to national utilities.

WWF today launched its new international campaign, under the slogan “Seize Your Power”, to get governments and financial institutions worldwide to increase renewable energy investment by at least USD40 billion over the next 12 months.