Solar energy news and analysis
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the government will focus more on the development of renewable energy, like solar and wind power.
“Japan needs to review its energy policy while seeking safer ways to secure nuclear power,” Kan told a gathering of reporters on Tuesday.
The Japanese government will promote renewable energy and create a more energy-efficient society.
The country goal is to have renewable power account for 20 percent of the country’s total electricity output by 2030.
China, the world’s largest polluter will make more investments in renewable energy.
China has some of the globe’s worst air and water quality but has an economy growing.
China doubled its target for solar power capacity to 50 gigawatts for 2020 because his power requirement is one of the highest in the world.
China vast experience in building solar panels will help her in building the necessary infrastructure for its own solar power needs.
Beijing has ordered safety inspections of the country’s nuclear plants and “temporarily” suspended approval of new and proposed projects following the disasters in Japan, but has said it will continue to develop the technology.
China hopes its installed solar power capacity will reach 10 gigawatts by 2015 and 50 gigawatts by the end of the decade.
Panasonic donated 4,000 pieces Solar Powered Lantern to Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, hoping that they’ll help add a bit of comfort and assistance to those who have been hit hardest by the quake.
The state policy of Gujarat in India, with a population of 50 million, is one of the drivers in Indian solar. Gujarat has the fastest growing economy in the country. Another driver is the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission with an initial feed-in tariff structure, which is already under fire from opponents. That plan, in three phases, looks for one gigawatt to be commissioned by 2013, half of which will be CSP (see diagram below). The state of Rajasthan proposes 550 megawatts in a reverse bidding process.
Kadan, March 31 (CTK) – Japanese company Kyocera has launched the construction of its second solar panel plant in the industrial zone in Kadan in the Usti nad Labem region, northern Bohemia, Stepanka Filipova of the government agency CzechInvest told CTK Thursday.Source: http://praguemonitor.com/2011/04/01/japans-kyocera-build-another-solar-panel-plant-%C4%8Dr
The largest solar power plant in Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region will become operational in May to help ease the plateau region’s power shortages.
The 30-megawatt solar photovoltaic generation project in Xigaze Prefecture, about 3 km northwest of Tibet’s second largest city Xigaze, is perched at 3,895 meters above sea level, the project’s steering committee said Thursday in a press release.
It said the project would cost 800 million yuan (122 million U.S. dollars), funded solely by Linuo Power Group, a leading provider of solar photovoltaic power generation systems based in east China’s Shandong Province.
Construction of the first phase, costing 249 million yuan and covering an area of 30 hectares, began in May last year. It will generate up to 20.23 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, the document said.
German bored piling technology was used to dig through the thick layer of perennial frozen earth on the plateau, said project manager Zhang Daobin. It was the first time such technology had been employed in Tibet.
He said the first phase of the project alone could ease some power shortages in Xigaze Prefecture, by supplying electricity for more than 100,000 farming and herding families.
The clean energy project would help save 7,600 tonnes of coal annually and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 13,800 tonnes, said Zhang.
Last year, a 10-megawatt solar photovoltaic generation project was built in Yangbajing, a town 90 km northwest of Tibet’s capital Lhasa, with a designed power generation capacity of 430 million kwh during its 25-year life span.
Source: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90776/90882/7336743.html
EVENT PROFILESource: www.solar-magazine.com
The world’s biggest energy consumer is watering down its policy to boost nuclear energy, but strengthening targets on solar power, in the wake of the nuclear crisis at Japan’s Fukushima power plant.
Tata Power is joining hands with the Sunengy Pty Ltd, an Australian solar power company to set up India’s first floating solar plant. It would be a low cost plant as the economic floating solar technology invented by Sunengy is going to be used. According to Mr.Banmali Agrawala, the executive director of Tata Power, India’s private electrical utility provider, Tata Power plans to set this floating solar unit on water that in the company’s quest for providing sustainable energy that is also eco-friendly. As this would be set on water surface land competition can be reduced considerably and it can be used for other purposes.