India is on the cusp of a solar energy revolution. The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) kick-started the development of large, mega-watt scale, solar plants. In combination with the Gujarat solar power programme, JNNSM has resulted in an installed capacity of 1047 MW as on November 31, 2012. What was crucial for the success of phase-I (2010-13) of the JNNSM was a realistic price discovery thr ...

China's solar problems stem from rapid expansion over the past decade and issues with the U.S. and Europe In response to troubles with its solar panel manufacturing, China is trying to get producers to merge. Beijing, in particular, is facing problems with its solar panel industry and plans to fix it by reducing government support for the industry, encouraging mergers and blocking local leaders from support ...

SMA Solar Technology, Germany’s biggest solar company by market value, agreed to buy a majority stake in Jiangsu Zeversolar New Energy Co. to gain access to the Chinese market. SMA Solar will get 72.5 percent of the inverter maker in a deal that gives Zeversolar an enterprise value of 319 million yuan ($51 million), Niestetal-based SMA said in a statement. The agreement is subject to Chinese regulatory appr ...

Billing-systems vendor Orga Systems has been asked to contribute its expertise to an EU-funded smart-grid project in Thailand. The company has been running a series of training sessions about introducing cost-effective and user-friendly smart grids to the Thai market as part of the SmartThai initiative. Owing to the success of those workshops, Thailand’s Ministry of Energy has asked Orga (Paderborn, Germany ...

LG Electronics said it has agreed to take part in a smart grid project with U.S.-based Pecan Street Inc. in Austin, Texas. The firm will participate in the project as a member of the industry advisory council and will provide expertise in the research of smart homes, energy management and consumer electronics until 2015. LG's primary focus will be on the development of effective home energy management syste ...

The Indian Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) is developing the country's own operating system (OS) in a bid to establish a more robust cybersecurity environment. India currently is dependent on many imported OSes based on Windows and Linux, which are likely to have malicious worms and security issues, DRDO's Director-General VK Saraswat said at the Navigation and Communication (NAVCOM) co ...

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. has received a full-turnkey order from Gulf JP UT Company, Ltd., or GUT, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gulf JP Company Limited, for the construction of a 1,600MW gas turbine combined cycle power generation plant consisting of two blocks of a 800MW power generation unit, in Thailand. MHI has also concluded a long-term parts agreement (LTPA) for the plant. The large-scale powe ...

Bosowa Group, a Makassar-based conglomerate with diversified business interests, inaugurated its first power plant in South Sulawesi, maintaining the company’s commitment to develop eastern Indonesia. The coal-fueled plant is valued at $250 million and features two 125-megawatt turbines. Located in Punagaya village in Jeneponto district, it will boost the electricity supply for South Sulawesi capital Makass ...

Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam Hoang Trung Hai has asked banks to provide capital for Electricity of VietNam (EVN) to develop urgent power supplies and the grid over the next two years. Hai said that although EVN made a profit this year, they still lacked funds because of aggregated losses. He asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to send a list of EVN's projects to the Prime Minister this month and to ...

EnergyAustralia, a unit of Hong Kong-based utility CLP Holdings, said today it has shelved construction of a 1000 megawatt gas-fired power plant in Victoria due to a lack of electricity demand. The decision comes after rival AGL Energy in October said it was suspending indefinitely construction of a similar-sized plant in neighbouring New South Wales estimated to cost over $1 billion for the same reason. ...