Electricity Generating Plc (EGCO), Thailand's second-largest private power producer, will spend 15 billion baht this year to expand generation capacity and diversify from fossil fuels into renewable energy. President Sahust Pratuknukul said Egco is considering both investing in new projects and acquiring power plants already operated by independent power producers (IPPs). "We are working on proposals for ne ...

Former energy minister Piyasvasti Amranand has called on the government to lift the 2,000- megawatt ceiling on the purchase of solar energy from the private sector and allow free trade to spur competition in Thailand. In his speech on “Thailand’s Energy Crisis” organised by the Centre for Investigative Journalism on Monday, he said the government should eradicate redundancy in the private sector’s applicati ...

Sonnedix Group announces that it has reached over 100 megawatts of operating PV capacity with the completion of a 9.5MW solar plant in the Mae Chan district in Chiang Rai northern Thailand. The solar power plant is the largest built to date in northern Thailand, and was constructed by Assyce Fotovoltaica and Ch. Karnchang Group using 41,000 REC solar modules and 16 ABB inverters. Long term bank debt was pro ...

China-based Suntech Power Holdings Co Ltd said it would close its only solar panel-making plant in the United States to cut costs, two years after opening the facility that never reached full production. Shares of the company, struggling to cover a convertible bond due this Friday, fell 9 percent to $1.05, their lowest in more than two months. Suntech opened the plant in Goodyear, Arizona in September 2010, ...

China's troubled solar-panel manufacturing industry should see light at the end of the tunnel as early as this year, the CEO of a major panel manufacturer said. Chen Kangping, who heads JinkoSolar Holding Co, said domestic solar companies who can survive 2013 should be able to make a profit next year. "We believe those companies that perform well, including Jinko, will be profitable in the second half of th ...

The Indian government’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has approved plans to build 2,000 kWp of capacity in Agra, around 10% of it’s current consumption, which will come from a variety of sources. These include over 1.5 million gallons of heated water per day, 6400 solar street lights, 4600 solar cookers, and 20 solar traffic lights for the city that houses the Taj Mahal. The overall budget for creati ...

The European Union is set to publish a Commission Regulation that will impose the mandatory registration of all imports of solar modules, cells and wafers that originated in China. The registration of systems is a normal function of the EU Commission’s investigation and is necessary to determine whether or not any anti-dumping and/or countervailing duties will be applied retroactively. According to the Alli ...

Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K. and Ube Industries Ltd. will build and operate a 21 megawatt solar power station in western Japan. The companies set up a venture to start construction of the plant in Yamaguchi prefecture in April, Showa Shell, the Japanese refining unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc. (RDSA), said in a statement today. The station will start operation in July next year. Solar Frontier K.K., a wholly owne ...

Russia is thinking of building a giant solar power station capable of collecting energy and beaming it to Earth. This idea was put forward by Central Scientific Research institute for Engineering, a subsidiary of the Russian Space Agency, Roskosmos. The concept of such a power station was formulated by Peter Glasier in the US in 1968. It is aimed at beaming energy to Earth using giant solar panels. To gener ...

Cypark Resources Berhad, the largest solar developer in Malaysia, has called on the Malaysian government to remove the cap on maximum installed capacity for renewable energy projects in order to give investors better opportunities. The Malaysian government introduced an FiT system for renewable energy in December 2011. The FiT rate for solar photovoltaic (PV) is the highest at 0.85 to 1.78 ringgit per kilow ...