On 1 May 2013, South Australia's water minister, Ian Hunter, announced that a brackish-water desalination plant to deliver improved water quality to the town of Hawker, in the Flinders Ranges 100km north of Port Augusta, had been approved for construction. A final report to the state House of Assembly on the same day said that the reverse-osmosis plant would provide 500 m³/d with a target salinity of <60 ...

China lacks government support for desalination programs needed for the country's water security, according to Li Linmei, director of the State Oceanic Administration's Institute of Seawater Desalination and Multipurpose Utilization in Tianjin. "The lack of an effective pricing mechanism for desalinated water and support for an operable policy is affecting the development of the country's sea desalination i ...

Despite numerous regulations supposed to speed up infrastructure development, Indonesia is still besieged with countless impediments to a sufficient supply of electricity. Demands consistently outpaces capacities. Blackouts continue across the country on a regular basis, with a significant one effecting virtually the whole of Jakarta at the beginning of April. State power company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negar ...

China Development Bank, a Chinese state-owned lender,  inked a deal to bankroll Indonesian power producer Sumber Segara Primadaya’s plan to build a coal-fired plant in Central Java. The funding for the plant, to be built in Cilacap with a total capacity of 614 megawatts, is the latest sign of interest in Indonesia’s economy from China. Muhammad Rasul, the president director of Sumber Segara, said that the p ...

Work has started on China's third ultra-high voltage (UHV) power line project, according to an announcement by the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC). The new line will connect Zhejiang Province and Fujian Province, and in the future will form a major part of what will become the Eastern China UHV electric transmission line. UHV power lines are designed to deliver large quantities of power over long dis ...

The Philippines government has approved a 35MW PV project in Darong, Davao del Sur on the island of Mindanao. The PhilNewEnergy PV solar power plant is located on a land owned by Ayala Corp’s subsidiary, Darong Agricultural Development Corp and will cost an estimated US$146.7 million. The project will be constructed by the local company Philnewenergy Inc. (PNE) in collaboration with Japan's Mitsubishi Corp, ...

A high-level Environment Ministry panel has recommended coastal regulatory zone (CRZ) clearance for setting up a desalination unit at Koodankulam Nuclear Power plant (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu. The desalination plant functions on the distillation (Mechanical Vapour Compression) principle. Seawater will be drawn and will be fed to the plant. At KKNPP, the desalination plant consists of four streams each having a ...

Dubai has inaugurated the UAE's largest power and desalination plant in a move to boost power generation and water production in the emirate. The US$272.2 million gas-fired M Station, located in Jebel Ali, will be operated by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and have a capacity of 2,060MW and 140mn gallons of water a day. Saeed Al Tayer, manageing director of DEWA, said, “We are utilising th ...

Singapore firm Hyflux has signed a memoranda of understanding (MoU) to develop water and environmental projects with the two prefectural governments of Chuxiong and Qujing in Yunnan province, People’s Republic of China. The total combined investment value for the two projects in Qujing and Chuxiong is estimated to be approximately RMB3.2 billion ($515 million). The projects will include the development of w ...

Korea, a few years back, identified smart grid as a dual opportunity. First, it could provide benefits to citizens. Second, it could become the next big export opportunity. Now it appears that progress may be stalled as industry and government point fingers. Will Korea revive its smart grid push under new President Park Geun-hye? Or will the new government repeat the errors that created what some are callin ...