Thursday, May 26, 2011

20110526 1018 Renewable Energy Related News.

JAPAN'S SOFTBANK: TO PARTICIPATE IN SOLAR POWER PROJECT
TOKYO, May 25 (Reuters) - Softbank Corp , Japan's third-largest mobile phone operator, said on Wednesday that it would participate in a project to build about a dozen large solar power facilities across the country.
The company's billionaire president, Masayoshi Son, has committed himself to helping boost renewable energy sources in the wake of the crisis at a nuclear power plant in northeast Japan.

KENYAN WIND FARM GETS UN CARBON CREDIT APPROVAL
NAIROBI, May 24 (Reuters) - A 310 megawatt (MW) Kenyan wind power project has received approval to earn carbon emissions credits under the United Nations' Clean Development Mechanism, a senior company executive said on Tuesday.
Construction on the 617 million euro ($873.7 million) Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) project is expected to start by December and will be the fourth project in Kenya to get approval under the CDM.

CITI, GOOGLE TO INVEST $110 MLN IN WIND ENERGY PROJECT
May 24 (Reuters) - Google Inc  and Citigroup Inc  will each invest $55 million in Terra-Gen Power's 102 megawatt Alta IV project in California, the companies said.
Renewable energy developer Terra-Gen Power is constructing the 1,550 MW Alta Wind Energy Center (AWEC) project in several phases, five of which have been completed.

NUCLEAR GIANT EDF EYES GAS, RENEWABLES
PARIS, May 24 (Reuters) - Utility EDF  said it would invest in gas and renewable energies while forging ahead with its core nuclear power business, as the former French monopoly vies to be the world's biggest provider of electricity by 2020.
Electricity de France SA said atomic power production would remain its core business, stressing this was not called into question by the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, but moved to address two questions raised by investors on its strategy.

SERBIA EPS, GERMAN RWE IN JV TO BUILD HYDRO PLANTS
SARAJEVO, May 24 (Reuters) - Serbia's power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) and RWE Innogy, a subsidiary of German utility RWE , on Tuesday signed a 352 million euros ($495 million) deal to build hydro-power plants in Serbia.
Under the deal the utilities agreed to set up a joint venture, named Moravske Hidroelektrane (Morava Hydro-Power Plants), an independent power producer which will operate at least five future hydro power plants on Velika Morava river.

INDIA SOLAR POWER GRID PARITY SEEN BY 2019-20-REPORT
NEW DELHI, May 24 (Reuters) - Solar power in India could cost the same as conventional electricity by 2019-20, a report said on Tuesday, which could boost the use of an energy source regarded as key to curbing emissions in the world's third-worst carbon polluter.
A KPMG report said more aggressive policy could see solar power prices decline at a rate of 5-7 percent annually over the next decade, ensuring "grid parity", or the point when solar power costs the same as conventional power, as early as 2017-18.

TOSHIBA CAUTIOUS ON NUCLEAR SALES, EYES RENEWABLES
Tokyo, May 24 (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp  said it may not reach its target of 39 orders for nuclear reactors until 2-3 years later than expected, and that it would increase focus on renewables and smart grids as the crisis rumbles on at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.
Despite the setback to its nuclear business, Toshiba said it aims to more than double its operating profit to 500 billion yen by the year to March 2014.

MPX TO OPEN BRAZIL SOLAR PLANT, EYES INCENTIVES
RIO DE JANEIRO, May 23 (Reuters) - Brazil's MPX will open the country's first solar power plant linked to the national grid in June and hopes the project will spur government incentives for the sector.
MPX , controlled by billionaire industrial magnate Eike Batista, will start the Taua plant in the northeastern state of Ceara with a capacity of only 1 megawatt, enough to power 1,500 homes, but expects that to increase to 50 megawatts within 10 years.

TEETHING PROBLEMS SHADOW INDIA SOLAR POWER DREAMS
NEW DELHI, May 23 (Reuters) - From a lack of data and trained manpower to dealing with inexperienced investors, India's ambitious dream to boost solar power faces a host of problems that could slow plans to zoom production from near zero to 20 gigawatts by 2022.
Under its Solar Mission plan issued in 2009, India is to produce 1,300 megawatts (MW) of power by 2013, an additional supply of up to 10 gigawatts (GW) by 2017 and the rest by 2022 at an overall investment of about $70 billion.

US DOE OFFERS SOLARRESERVE $737 MLN IN LOAN AID
LOS ANGELES, May 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy offered SolarReserve LLC a conditional $737 million loan guarantee on Thursday to support the development of a Nevada solar power plant.
The Santa Monica, California company was among a large group of companies competing for the coveted loan guarantees, which are awarded to projects deploying innovative energy technologies on a far larger scale than ever before.

SPAIN SUSPENDS SUBSIDIES FOR MORE SOLAR PLANTS
MADRID, May 19 (Reuters) - Spain's energy watchdog suspended subsidies to 143 solar plants on Thursday for failing to show they were up and running before a generous state support for the fledgling industry was slashed in 2008.
That added to 808 plants which have been provisionally suspended as part of a review of more than 9,000 plants under way since last year in one of the world's major solar producers, the National Energy Commission (CNE) said in a statement.

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