NorSun to build $300M Singapore solar plant

March 4, 2008 (AP) – A Norwegian manufacturer of solar panel components will start building a wafer plant in Singapore this year, the company said Tuesday.

“Solar energy will be the dominant source of energy in the future. It’s a very exciting industry to be part of,” said NorSun AS founder Alf Bjorseth, at a press conference.

The company plans a US$300 million (euro197 million) factory that can make enough solar wafers in a year to produce 350 megawatts of power. Construction will start in the third quarter of this calendar year.

It expects operations to begin in the third quarter of 2009.

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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.

Green developers get S$20m fund (Singapore)

March 4, 2008 (Today Online) – Developers of new and green buildings can now tap into a S$20 million fund set up by the Government – a decision that is certain to sit well all-round as oil prices continue to surge.

The fund will partly offset the cost of integrating solar panels into new buildings “which attain a certain level of Green Mark standard”, Mr S Iswaran, the Minister of State for Trade and Industry (MTI) told Parliament yesterday.

Transport fuels from New Zealand biomass a reality

March 3, 2008 (Scoop) – Biofuels generated from New Zealand-grown softwood feedstocks have been identified as a feasible, large scale option for meeting both the low-carbon transport vision of the Government’s 2007 Energy Strategy (NZES) and Biofuels Sales Obligation (BSO), say the authors of a report by the New Zealand Lignocellulosic Bioethanol Initiative.

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.

Australian industry looks to gas, coal for transport fuel

February 26, 2008 (The Australian) – A move to develop a national agenda to create a multi-billion-dollar industry producing liquid transport fuels from coal and gas will be launched today by the Rudd Government.

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson will use a conference in Brisbane to set the scene for gas and coal offsetting Australia’s huge and growing oil import bill.

Australia last year spent $7.5 billion on energy imports, more than it gained from selling oil, gas and coal overseas.

The country has only about eight years of oil at current rates of extraction but more than 100 years of gas and about 600 years of coal.

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.

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.

Poonpirom wants to make Thailand world-class ‘green energy’ hub

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.