Sharp looks abroad for thin-film solar cell output

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.

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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.

Vietnam connects new hydroelectric plant

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.

Victoria to get solar power plant

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.

GreenAir, Carbon Broker, to Raise A$100 Million

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.

Fairchild Semiconductor Selects Pune for Energy Efficiency R&D Center

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.

TSH to reap benefits from carbon credits (Malaysia)

February 20, 2008 (The Star Online) – As the world’s second largest crude palm oil producer, Malaysia has great potential to reap revenue from certified emission reduction (CER), or carbon credits. According to Aseambankers, palm oil milling, which produces organic waste, create opportunities to generate CERs. It named plantation player TSH Resources Bhd as one of the beneficiaries of CERs in Malaysia.

“Thanks to its biogas power generation, the group qualifies to sell carbon credits, potentially generating an estimated 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent in carbon credit points per annum,” Aseambankers said in a recent report.

The research unit added that TSH had already secured annual sales of 150,000 CERs to a European buyer.

Choppy certified emission reductions market to hit India most

February 20, 2008 (Economic Times) – Politics and jittery equity indices are making the global carbon credit markets nervous. Carbon credit prices have plunged in the last few weeks. This could be troubling for major supplier India, which sold 20 million carbon credits in 2007, and has a larger number in the pipeline. The bad news is there is little likelihood of things settling down any time soon.

India is already in danger of getting outpriced in the global carbon credit market, with China and Vietnam offering certified emission reductions (CER) at lower, more fixed prices. The price of carbon credits, or CERs, fell to e14 last week, down from e17 in December. Though they are now at e15.50, it not certain how soon they would claw back another e2.

Q-Cells 2007 sales rise, to start Asia production

February 19, 2008 (Reuters) – German solar cell maker Q-Cells reported strong full-year results and said it plans to invest more than 1 billion ringgit ($263.2 million) in its first production site in Asia.Q-Cells, which said on Tuesday it had become world’s largest solar cell producer by volume, said it plans to build a factory in Malaysia to take advantage of new growth markets and protect against currency fluctuations.

Solar companies around the world are expanding production capacity rapidly to meet growing demand for green energy to counter global warming.

Q-Cells said 2007 sales rose 59 percent to 858.9 million euros ($1.26 billion), which is more than its own target of least 800 million euros.

Lanco plans wind turbine facility in India

February 14, 2008 (Live Mint) – Infrastructure company Lanco Infratech Ltd is planning to set up one of the country’s largest wind turbines manufacturing facilities, to take advantage of shortage of wind turbines in the global and domestic markets, according to chairman Lagadapati Madhusudhan Rao. Lanco proposes to set up wind turbines facility close to Mangalore in Karnataka.

“We have tied up with a German engineering company for wind turbine technology. Currently prototyping of 2MW wind turbine is going on,” said Rao, who declined to name the German firm.

Lanco plans to set up a wind turbine manufacturing facility with an installed capacity of 500 units of 2MW turbine each a year at an investment of close to Rs500 crore, said Rao.
Work on the wind turbine manufacturing facility has been initiated and Lanco expects commercial launch of turbines sometime by September next year, added Rao.