More investment in cleantech is needed (Business Times)

The following was published on December 5, 2012.  By Ron Mahabir

SINGAPORE SHOULD INVEST MORE HEAVILY IN CLEANTECH

AS WE speed dangerously along the highway of global economic growth, it has become awfully clear that we are headed for major accidents in food, water and other resource shortages, as well as increasing environmental disasters.

We just have had way too many red alerts in recent years including Fukushima, Gulf of Mexico, Katrina, floods and heat waves to not take these a great deal more seriously. It is probably more than coincidence that 2012 is on track to be the hottest year in the United States and Hurricane Sandy was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record.

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Japan may invest $1.93 billion in climate fund

March 3, 2008 (Reuters) – The fund, to be set up jointly with the United States and Britain, is expected be the largest ever of its type, with total investment of about 500 billion yen ($4.82 billion), the Nikkei said.

By investing in technologies such as wind and solar power in less developed countries, participating governments hope to encourage private finance to follow suit, the newspaper said without identifying its sources.

The British government last year announced 800 million pounds in support for the fund over three years, while the United States said this year it would provide $2 billion, also over three years, the Nikkei said.

Carbon Capital to invest RM150m in biogas, biomass plants

March 3, 2008 (The Edge Daily) – Carbon Capital Corp Sdn Bhd will launch RM150 million worth of biogas and biomass projects in Sarawak next month as part of its long-term strategy for growth.

“We will be launching four biogas projects and one 10 megawatt biomass power plant there, utilising empty fruit bunches (from oil palm).

“These are all projects which we will be investing in and developing 100%,” Carbon Capital group managing director William Kho said.

Japanese govt to push high-tech ways to reduce CO2

March 2, 2008 (Daily Yomiuri) – The government and business groups are set to jointly promote the use of 21 revolutionary new technologies, such as an advanced form of solar-power generation and underground storage of carbon dioxide emissions, as part of a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions, government sources said Saturday.

Adoption of the plan, which also forms part of a national road map for promoting technological development, by the world’s major polluters could account for as much as 60 percent of the 40 billion ton cut in global emissions by 2050 that Japan has proposed, the sources said.

The government is set to announce the plan at a meeting of ministers from 20 countries on global warming to be held in Chiba starting March 14.

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.

Lehman starts emissions trading in Japan, will sell UN credits

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.

Sharp, KEPCO planning on Japan’s largest solar power plant

February 15, 2008 (Power Engineering) – Sharp and Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) are planning to jointly build Japan’s biggest solar power generation plant in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. The new plant will have a total electricity generation capacity of 10 MW, informed sources said. For the plant, Sharp and Kansai Electric are planning to lease a 20-hectare site within the prefecture’s 280-hectare industrial waste disposal site in Sakai. The two companies aim to complete construction around autumn 2009.

Sharp will install its solar power generation panels. Kansai Electric will purchase electricity generated at the plant. A 5 MW facility in Sharp’s Kameyama Plant in Mie Prefecture, western Japan, is currently Japan’s largest solar power generation plant.

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.

Malaysian-Japan JV In RM1 Bln Biodiesel, Jatropha & Biogas Deal In Sarawak

February 12, 2008 (Bernama) – Carbon Capital Corporation Sdn Bhd will join hands with Japan Carbon Mercantile Co. Ltd to develop a multi-feedstock diesel plant in Tanjung Manis in Sarawak, Jatropha and oil palm plantations as well as a biogas renewable projects in the state covering five years involving investments no less than RM1 billion initially.

The multi-feedstock plant would have an annual capacity of about 240,000 tonnes per year and bulking facilities in Tanjung Manis while the Jatropha and oil palm plantations would cover an acreage of 100,000 hectares.

Japanese government to draft plan to boost green businesses

February 11, 2008 (Yomiuri Shimbun) – The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry plans to expand the nation’s environment-focused business sector to about 83 trillion yen in 2015, from 59 trillion yen in 2005, sources said. In June, the ministry plans to draw up policies to achieve this target that will include proposals for popularizing environmentally friendly technologies and businesses, according to the sources.

The ministry will promote the plan to participants at the Group of Eight summit meeting, which is to focus on environmental issues, to be held in Toyakocho, Hokkaido in July.

The ministry believes the domestic market for businesses involved in tackling global warming could grow by 54 percent to 49 trillion yen by 2015 from the 2005 level.