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.
February 28, 2008 (Bangkok Post) – Thailand is developing a master plan to build the country into the world’s second largest green energy producer after Brazil. Energy Minister Poonpirom Liptapanlop said she wanted to see the country become a net exporter of green energy to tap strong global demand.
To achieve the goal, authorities plan to develop a 15-year Renewable Energy Development Plan to cover the full range of alternative energy businesses including gasohol, biodiesel, biomass, wind and solar power, she said yesterday. Continue reading
February 27, 2008 (Reuters) – Japan’s Sharp Corp, which aims to become the world’s biggest maker of solar cells, is looking abroad to raise annual output of thin-film solar cells by sixfold to 6,000 megawatts after 2012 and beat silicon shortages.
Sharp aims to raise its annual thin-film solar cell production capacity “as soon as possible” after a planned new plant in Osaka, western Japan goes online by March 2010 with eventual output of 1,000 MW per year, Toshishige Hamano, corporate senior executive director, said on Wednesday.
The electronics group, which also supplies liquid crystal display panels, now has thin-film cell capacity of 15 MW per year at its Katsuragi Plant in Nara, western Japan, and plans to raise this to 160 MW in October.
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. Continue reading
February 4, 2008 (UPI) – The Tuyen Quang hydroelectric plant’s generator was connected to the national power grid in Vietnam, the Vietnam News Agency reported. The plant, which cost more than $438 million to build, will have three generators when finished with a total capacity of 342 megawatts. Continue reading
February 26, 2008 (Bloomberg) – Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. securities firm, said it would trade United Nation emission credits in Japan, the first non-Japanese bank to win permission to buy and sell the environmental products there. Lehman has opened an account in Japan’s emissions registry, an ownership tracking system, the bank said in an e-mailed statement. Permission was granted by the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, it said.
February 26, 2008 (Canberra Times) – Australia’s rapidly escalating electricity consumption remains the biggest risk to meeting its Kyoto treaty targets, a new Federal Government report warns. A Department of Climate Change analysis of national greenhouse emission trends estimates Australia’s emissions from electricity use will increase 59 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020.
Despite use of renewable energy doubling to 20 per cent of the national electricity mix by 2020, carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired electricity are projected to rise from 1990 levels of 129 million tonnes a year to 204 million tonnes. Continue reading
February 25, 2008 (The Age) – A project to build a solar power plant in Victoria with $79.5 million promised by the former Howard government has been launched by new Climate Change Minister Penny Wong. Despite the former Howard government committing the money to the project she was launching, Ms Wong attacked her predecessors, saying they had done “virtually nothing” toward reducing greenhouse emissions.
The $420 million solar plant will be built at a yet to be determined site in the Swan Hill and Mildura region in Victoria’s north, and should generate enough power for 45,000 homes every year, without creating any greenhouse emissions.
February 25, 2008 (Bloomberg) – GreenAir, a carbon credit dealer, is seeking to raise A$100 million ($92.4 million) ahead of plans for an initial public offering after the Australian government signed the Kyoto Protocol, the Australian Financial Review said. The Sydney-based company, established by former Westpac Banking Corp. executive Himanshu Dua, is trying to secure an underwriter and plans to begin trading on the Australian Stock Exchange within 12 months, the newspaper said, citing Dua.
February 4, 2008 (Company release) – Fairchild Semiconductor, a global supplier of high-performance products that drive energy-efficiency, has opened a design center in Pune, India. This research and design (R&D) center will be responsible for designing and developing the company’s new generation of power MOSFETs and IGBT technology to support popular applications such as solar inverters, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), automotive, lighting and ballast applications.
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