Thursday, December 23, 2010

20101223 0919 Renewables Energy Related News.

CHINA POWER SECTOR INVESTMENT MAY RISE 68 PCT-REPORT
BEIJING, Dec 22 (Reuters) - China will invest 5.3 trillion yuan ($796 billion) in the power sector in the next five years, up 68 percent from 2006-2010, the Economic Information Daily reported on Wednesday, citing an official research study.
Of the investments, around 2.75 trillion yuan or 52 percent will be spent on power generation and 2.55 trillion yuan will be spent on grid networks, the paper said, citing a study by the China Electricity Council.

ANALYSIS-BRAZIL EYES ENERGY, FARMS FOR FUTURE EMISSION CUTS
RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - After winning global praise for protecting its Amazon forests, Brazil now faces another tricky obstacle to cutting its carbon emissions -- the gases produced by its booming economy.
International pressure for reductions to slash-and-burn deforestation led Brazil to cut illegal Amazon logging by 34 percent from 2004 to 2009, making it one of the few nations at climate talks in Cancun to show progress against global warming.

US DOE FINALIZES ABENGOA $1.45 BLN LOAN GUARANTEE
LOS ANGELES, Dec 21 (Reuters) - A unit of Spanish conglomerate Abengoa SA  said it got the final sign-off on the U.S. Department of Energy's largest renewable-energy loan to date, a $1.45 billion loan guarantee for a 250-megawatt solar thermal power plant in Gila Bend, Arizona.
The loan guarantee helps advance the nation's broad goals of building up renewable energy resources and lessening its dependence on fossil fuels.

SOLARRESERVE NEVADA SOLAR POWER PLANT GETS U.S. OK
NEW YORK, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Interior has approved solar power developer Solar Reserve’s proposed 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes solar thermal power plant capable of storing energy in Nevada.
SolarReserve plans to start construction in the middle of 2011, the Santa Monica, California company said in a statement.

ATLANTIC WIND FILES TO BUILD OFFSHORE POWER LINE
NEW YORK, Dec 21 (Reuters) - Atlantic Wind Connection filed with federal energy regulators for permission to build a giant power transmission project in the Atlantic Ocean along the U.S. Mid-Atlantic coast to enable the region's offshore wind potential, a spokesman for the project said Tuesday.
Announced in October, the project will stretch from New Jersey to Virginia and enable up to 6,000 megawatts of wind power that could be built out of sight from land, enough to serve about 1.9 million homes with carbon-free power.

U.S. RENEWABLE ENERGY TAX GRANTS EXTENDED FOR 1 YR
LOS ANGELES, Dec. 17 (Reuters) - The renewable energy industry cheered the passage of the U.S. tax bill, which included a provision to extend a generous grant program for projects in the fast-growing sector.
The grant program allows qualifying renewable energy projects such as solar and geothermal power plants to apply for a Treasury Department grant that covers up to 30 percent of costs. Until U.S. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law on Friday, the program was slated to expire on Dec. 31, 2010.

ITALY'S SOLAR CAPACITY SEEN AT 3,000 MW AT END 2010-GSE
MILAN, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Italy's total installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity is seen rising to nearly 3,000 megawatt (MW) at the end of 2010, state energy services agency GSE said in a statement on Monday.
In 2010 alone, new installed photovoltaic capacity is estimated at above 1,500 MW, more than doubling compared with 720 MW installed in 2009, GSE said.

ANALYSIS-FRENCH SOLAR INDUSTRY VULNERABLE TO GOVERNMENT CURBS
PARIS, Dec 20 (Reuters) - France's solar industry could suffer a big blow by government moves to deflate a speculative bubble fed by a boom in connection demands and a backlog of solar power projects in the pipeline.
The French government said this month it wanted to cut the number of solar power projects and above-market purchase tariffs for the renewable electricity for the third time this year.

ITOCHU, ABENGOA IN $660 MLN SPAIN SOLAR PLANT DEAL
TOKYO, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Japanese trading house Itochu Corp  said on Monday it and Spain's Abengoa Solar  will build and own two 50-megawatt solar thermal plants in southern Spain in a project costing more than 500 million euros ($660 million).
Itochu will take a 30 percent stake in the project, while Spain's solar mirror power plant builder Abengoa will hold the rest. The plants will start operating in 2012.
FERC APPROVES MIDWEST ISO RENEWABLE POWER LINE PLAN
NEW YORK, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Thursday approved the Midwest ISO's plan to allocate the cost of building power lines that connect renewable energy projects needed to meet the public interest goals of many states.
MISO said these so-called Multi Value Projects that have a regional impact and are part of a regional plan will now have a 100 percent regional allocation of costs, ensuring the cost to upgrade the transmission system is distributed fairly to all involved.

VESTAS GETS 144 MW SCOTLAND ORDER
COPENHAGEN, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas  has won an order for 48 turbines with total capacity of 144 megawatts for a wind power development in Scotland, the customer said on Friday.
The order was placed by EDF Energy Renewables, a joint venture of EDF Energy and EDF Energies Nouvelles , North British Windpower -- the project company -- said in a statement.

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