China Fuel Shortages Spreading

With oil prices over US$100/barrel, China’s independent refineries are understandably balking at supplying at a loss. The government is forcing independent suppliers to take the brunt of the massive inflation affecting the country, causing shortages to even Shanghai and Beijing.

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China Goes Climate Cool

Spring 2008 (YES! Magazine, Anna Fahey) – Last summer, Chinese President Hu Jintao toured the country in short sleeves to show that his countrymen could turn their air conditioners down. In China, conservation is “in.” Fashions do change.

Global warming denial is out of vogue. Unfortunately, though, the climate change do-nothing set is sporting a new line: “Why should we bother fighting climate change when China’s emissions are increasing?”

China’s Topraysolar shares surge fivefold in debut

February 28, 2008 (Reuters) – Shares in Shenzhen Topraysolar Co, a maker of solar power cells, jumped nearly fivefold when they began trading on Thursday, riding a wave of investor interest in China’s clean energy companies.

Topraysolar, the country’s first specialist maker of solar cells to list domestically, closed at 51.62 yuan on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, up 378 percent from their initial public offer price of 10.79 yuan, after hitting a high of 57.00 yuan.

China’s construction industry getting greener

February 26, 2008 (Xinhua) – China’s green construction system, with a market value estimated at 1.5 trillion yuan (US$208 billion), is growing through energy-efficient projects, the Ministry of Construction said here on Tuesday. Qiu Baoxing, deputy head of the ministry, said the construction area involved had increased by 2 billion square meters each year, nearly half of world’s total.

As the largest construction market, China also has the largest amount of energy to conserve.

Asia’s tigers eye nuclear future

February 15, 2008 (Asia Times) – The 2005-07 spike in petroleum prices topping out at US$100 a barrel has prodded economic planners across the globe to reconsider their energy options in an age of growing concern over global warming and carbon emissions. The Southeast Asian economies, beneficiaries of an oil and gas export bonanza through the 1970s-1990s, now find themselves in an energy crunch as once-ample reserves run down and the search is on for new and cleaner energy supplies. Notably, regional leaders at the 13th ASEAN Summit in Singapore in November 2007 issued a statement promoting civilian nuclear power, alongside renewable and alternative energy sources.

China’s Angang to sell $218 mln of carbon credits

February 11, 2008 (Reuters) – Anshan Iron and Steel Group, the parent of China’s third-biggest steel firm Angang Steel Co. Ltd., will sell $218 million of greenhouse gas credits to two international carbon credit investors, China’s Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. The company, based in northeast China, said it would sell 13 million tons of carbon credits to the European Carbon Fund (ECF) and Camco International.

3-Pronged Profits from China’s Worst Winter

February 10, 2008 (Seeking Alpha) – It was the worst winter in half a century in the Middle Kingdom, throwing China into a coal energy crisis and giving us several ways to play China’s power problems.

You probably saw the unbelievable photos like this one:

Those are some of the hundreds of thousands of travelers stuck at a train station in Guangzhou, one of the industrial capitals of the new China. Guangdong (better known to English speakers as Canton), where Guangzhou is located, is the richest province in the country, an export titan and magnet for tens of millions of migrant workers from other parts of China.

These folks sat on their haunches for days on end, waiting for crews to clear the country’s iron roads and let them get home for maybe the only time this year – this week’s Lunar New Year celebration.

China’s COSL signs deal with Philippine National Oil Corporation

January 19, 2008 (Xinhua) – China Oilfield Service Limited (2883: HK) has signed its first overseas directional geothermal well service contract with the Philippine National Oil Corporation (PNOC).  Under the two-year contract, COSL will provide engineering and technological services to 34 PNOC directional geothermal wells, according to company sources.

The contract is worth millions of U.S. dollars, sources said without giving further details.

COSL has been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 2002. The majority of its activities, such as drilling and marine support services, are carried out off the Chinese coast.

Its operations have extended around the world, including the America, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank raise US$130 million for ReneSola (SOL)

January 29, 2008 (MarketWatch) – ReneSola, the China manufacturer of silicon wafers for solar power cells, priced its U.S. stock offering at a discount Tuesday and the shares rose in the open market. The company debuted in the U.S. in the wake of recent weakness in alternative-energy shares.
ReneSola offered 10 million American depositary shares at $13 each, raising $130 million via underwriters Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities. The stock closed at $12.99, down a penny, in its first day of trades. The IPO priced at a 9.7% discount to the company’s closing price Monday on the AIM market on the London Stock Exchange, according to Renaissance Capital.

Letter from Shell CEO

From: Jeroen van der Veer, Chief Executive
To: All Shell employees
Date: 22 January 2008 Subject: Shell Energy Scenarios

Dear Colleagues

In this letter, I’d like to share reflections about how we see the energy future, and our preferred route to meeting the world’s energy needs. Industry, governments and energy users – that is, all of us – will face the twin challenge of more energy and less CO2.

This letter is based on a text I’ve written for publication in several newspapers in the coming weeks. You can use it in your communications externally. There will be more information about energy scenarios inthe months ahead.

By the year 2100, the world’s energy system will be radically different from today’s. Renewable energy like solar, wind, hydroelectricity and biofuels will make up a large share of the energy mix, and nuclear energy too will have a place.

Mankind will have found ways of dealing with air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. New technologies will have reduced the amount of energy needed to power buildings and vehicles.