Renewable Energy

Dhaubadi, in remote Nepal has become the ADB's first 'renewable energy village',as the Times of India called it. Using money from the Asian Development Bank and in partnership with the local community and government, the pilot wind-solar hybrid power system brings power to the village. Other clean-tech solutions are being integrated into the pilot. The development allows villagers to work at night by light, recharge mobile phones and even watch television, but its key is local participation.

China has become the world's biggest investor in renewable energy sources last year according to a senior environmental official.

Eight countries in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region are making progress in development and uptake of renewable energy technologies, which can maintain sustainable economic growth for mountain communities, a workshop in Kathmandu heard in earlier this month.Further investments could provide environmental, social and economic benefits to mountain communities, experts told the meeting, which was organised by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

New research says that there's a growing interest in systems that store energy, especially from renewable power generation. Pike Research says that while cost reduction is a serious requirement along with improving technologies, there is a growing interest in enabling long-duration and short-duration storage helping in balancing electricity grid operations. Its tracker report says there are nearly 600 energy storage projects worldwide.

Japanese trading house Marubeni has won a tender for engineering, procurement and construction work on a geothermal plant in West Java, an official from state utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) said last week. Murtaqi Syamsudin, the director of business and risk management at PLN, told the Jakarta Globe that Maubeni will receive a letter of intent soon, but would not disclose the value of the contracts.