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. ...

The Malaysian power sector is bracing for another exciting year in 2013, buoyed by higher energy demand from growing industries and businesses. A steady gross domestic product (GDP) growth expected in 2013 will mean more electricity to power up factories, offices, shops and houses, analysts said. The demand for power in Malaysia has been growing hand in hand with the GDP for the past decades, they noted. En ...

Electricity Generating Public Company Ltd. of Thailand is expected to award the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the 500-megawatt expansion of a coal-fired power plant in Quezon province in the second half of 2013. A report by the Energy Department said the award of the contract was expected in July 2013, while the design and construction would start by January 2014. The report also sa ...