Rajasthan to attract $16.04 billion investment in renewable energy

The state of Rajasthan in India is set to attract an investment of $16.04 billion in renewable energy sector, with 14 companies proposing projects to tap power from wind and biomass. Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation (RREC) Chairman and Managing Director Rajeev Swaroop said that the state government has signed memorandum of understanding (MoUs) with 14 power companies to set up power plants in the field of wind biomass energy.

There would be five wind energy projects in Jaisalmer, Barmer and Jodhpur with a generation capacity of 1,600 MW while 8 biomass projects would be set up in Sirohi, Baran, Tonk, Alwar, Sawai Madhopur, Kota, Naguar, Hanumangarh and Jalore districts.

Rajasthan, at present, has an installed capacity of 490 MW in wind energy and 46.3 MW in biomass. With the commissioning of proposed projects, the installation capacity would increase to 2,150 MW in renewable energy sources.

Wind energy has been the world’s fastest growing renewable energy source growing at a rate of 28% in the last decade and has emerged as an option for grid quality power generation.

Source: http://www.livemint.com/2008/12/02145410/Rajasthan-to-attract-Rs8000-c.html Date:02-12-08

Report Positive on China Wind Power

According to a report by Emerging Energy Research, China's plans to reach 100 GW of installed wind power generation capacity by 2020 are unlikely to be detailed - or even side-tracked - by the current global financial crisis. In the new assessment, China Wind Power Markets and Strategies, 2008-2020, Emerging Energy Research reports that despite inevitable slowdowns in market elsewhere, China's wind initiatives are so large in scale and so well supported by the government that the country's new renewable energy goals are likely to be met well before the 2020 target.

Discussing the report's findings before a special briefing session sponsored by EER during the Global Wind Power 2008 Conference & Exhibition in Beijing, EER Wind Research Director Keith Hays told an audience, "From planned projects to operational capacity, China is on track to become the single largest market for wind power by 2011. In just two years, China will account for more than 17 percent of the world's installed wind generation capacity, financed by an investment of more than $20 billion."

EER Analyst Caitlin Pollock, principal author of the China Wind Market study, echoed Hays' analysis in a discussion of the recently completed research. "China will lead the global wind market in annual installations by 2011 with an estimated 10 GW/year," Pollock said. "This is an initiative supported by strong political will, improving incentives, and vast natural and industrial resources. Chinese utilities, such as Longyuan and Datang, are now among the world's largest wind asset owners. And, while most of the newly emerged suppliers will fall victim to industry consolidation, according to Pollock, "China's wind technology incentives are forced on building an industry that can compete on a global scale...it's not just the domestic market that is driving China's investment strategies."

EER's new study, China Wind Power Markets and Strategies, 2008-2050, was completed following three months of in-market, primary research and interviews by EER's Asia research team with dozens of Chinese independent power producers (IPPs), utilities, component and turbine manufacturers, and government and provincial ministries. As part of the study, three forecasts (conservative, baseline, and aggressive) for China's wind market was developed, detailing wind energy capacity additions through 2020.

Despite the near-collapse of financial markets elsewhere and broad-based concern over the potential impact on funding for energy development projects, EER's analysis sees China's government wind energy priorities and the country's ravenous energy demand as drivers that will keep China on track to surpass its target of a 15 percent renewable energy capacity by 2020.

Source: http://www.emerging-energy.com/ Date: 20-11-2008

Taiwan Wind Energy Growth

Taiwan's wind power generation may grow to 3,000 MWs by 2020 due to increased government attention to clean or renewable energy. Many experts believe Taiwan, with some of the world's best engineers and advanced technologies, could emerge as an important player in the clean energy field.

Karen Ma, a researcher with the Industrial Economics and Knowledge Center of ITRI's Industry and Technology Intelligence Services (IEK-ITIS), said that as wind power is considered by the government to be the most important renewable energy, the country's wind power installation capacity will be increased to 3,000MWs in 12 years.

He forecasted that increased wind power generation is expected to indirectly generate commerce worth over US$6.12 billion in the country by 2020. Ma also predicted that by 2009, China is expected to replace the United's States as the world's largest country in terms of wind power installation capacity.

Up to this year, Taipower, the sole electricity supplier in Taiwan, has installed more than 100 giant wind turbines in 13 wind farms along Taiwan's west coast, with a capacity of 420 MW a year -- enough power to power 105,000 households and prevent the emission of 250,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year. Taipower began to harness wind energy in 2002 and plans to establish 200 wind turbines in Taiwan and Penghu by 2010.

Taiwan's coastal areas are ideal for the development of wind power because they have six months of strong northwest winds each year, with an average wind speed of five to six meters per second. The Bureau of Energy under the ministry of Economic Affairs has targeted renewable energy as a way to meet 10 percent of Taiwan's electricity needs by 2010, with wind power to make up 80% of renewable energy resources.

In the long term, Taipower plans is to build an additional 546 wind turbines between 2010 and 2020 in shallow waters off Taiwan's west coast and Penghu, with a total capacity of 1,980 MWs at an estimated cost of NT$200 million each. Out of the 546 windmills, 176 will be built off the Penghu Islands, and the electricity generated by these units will be transmitted to Taiwan through a 40-kilometer undersea cable.

Source: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/asia/b-taiwan/2008/11/13/182937/Taiwan%E2%80%99s-wind.htm Date: 13-11-2008

Germany leads Europe's wind and solar energy revolution

European leads the world in production of wind power and Germany leads Europe. The 20,000 windmills that line the landscape generates 8% of Germany's electricity, power 10 million German homes and save an estimated 42 million tons of carbon dioxide. The northern state of Schleswig-Holstein's 2600 wind turbines fill one third of its electricity needs by utilizing just 1% of its land mass. Over 84,000 people nationwide have found employment within the wind industry. Germany plans to build an additional 30 offshore wind farms, with some 2,000 windmills in the North and Baltic Seas.

To the north-west, several European power companies are constructing the world's largest wind farm 12 miles off the British coast, near where the Thames flows into the North Sea. The ambitious $2.7 billion project will consist of 341 turbines occupying an area of 90 square miles. Together with the output from a second wind farm being built off the coast, the 440 turbines will power a third of London's three million households. And it's all renewable energy, resulting in a decrease of over two million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year.

Further south, the world's fastest-growing producer of wind power is Spain. In March 2008, wind power produced an average of 28% of all electricity consumed nationwide and over 40% during peak moments. Portugal is building $1.3 billion worth of wind turbines around the country, enough to power 750,000 homes. Swedish power company Vattenhall is building northern Europe's biggest wind turbine park in the Baltic Sea, between Sweden and Germany. Denmark already gets about 20% of its total power from wind energy, led by the existing largest wind energy installation in the world at Nysted. Here, 72 turbines generate enough power for 110,000 households.

Three fifths of the world's 74,000 megawatts of wind power are generated within Europe. Meanwhile, the US lags with only a third of Europe's wind power capacity. It is afflicted by an antiquated power grid conceived 100 years ago to share power across small regions, not nationally. It's difficult to move large amounts of power overlong distances, such as from the lightly populated plains states to the heavily populated coasts.

Extracts from: http://www.wavemagazine.net/econ/energy_efficiency.htm Date: 15-11-2008