Commentary

Operating industrial installations is a constant reminder that a zero risk situation does not exist. Indeed, in our business lines, external and natural events represent a significant proportion of our operational risk.

In recent discussions with a scientist at China Guodian Corporation, one of China’s five biggest electricity power generation corporations, it was disclosed that State Grid is less likely to open new energy storage projects for renewable energies and its electricity grids in the near future.

Integrating renewables into the grid effectively, accommodating nuclear power safely, and interconnecting with other neighboring networks are some of the challenges that United Arab Emirates power sector is tackling at the current stage.

Over the years, the Indian power sector has had its own share of ups and downs. The Electricity Act 2003 was a watershed event, giving a much needed boost to the sector's economic viability.

Solar Energy is rather new and emergent in Asia and in many countries consumers and companies do not know exactly what it is or what it means and some myths have paved their way into the market place. Here are the top ten:

Power generation in the Asia Pacific region expanded by about 1/3 over the first decade of the new millennium. Some developing countries in the region experienced much higher growth rates than others, while generation barely increased in the developed countries of the region.

Polysilicon prices in December reached a low just above $26/kg, resulting in extremely low module costs for manufacturers.

Nearing the one year anniversary (March 11, 2011) of the historic Tohoku earthquake (M9.0), subsequent tsunami (~14-15m waves), and unfortunately, the ongoing consequences of the ‘Fukushima nuclear power plant (NPP) accident’, allow me to take this opportunity to reflect upon the significance and relevance of this tragic loss-of-life and the importance of energy for economic development and the human condition in Asia-Pacific (AP).

Recent trends within the PV industry have seen a massive increase in the number of module manufacturers within the Asian region. This will set the scene for the next few years where we can expect to see a move away from small roof-top PV systems to the deployment of large-scale commercial and industrial arrays. Historically, in most countries, such as Australia, the roll-out of PV has been dominated by domestic roof-top installations. For a country that has one of the greater levels of solar insolation, the deployment of solar as an energy source is small by world standards. Currently the largest PV flat-panel array is only 1.22MW located in Brisbane at The University of Queensland (UQ), which was designed primarily for research purposes. Whilst the Government has committed support for two large-scale projects and a number of other larger arrays are planned, most are still relatively small compared to those already established within Europe.

Nazery Khalid assesses efforts in the shipping sector to go green

The cost of solar usually comes as the barrier for a larger solar deployment. Fit and PPA driven by RPS have lead the path for the revolution in Renewable Energies leading wind to achieve more than 100 GW and PV more than 20 GW.

With intellections to reduce dependence on hydrocarbons and concerns over environments, Asian Power industry is currently demanding more green solutions to produce power.

World attention was recently focused on the climate change negotiations held during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa.

India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission is bound to achieve 20 GW until 2022. India has some KW of installed solar power until the kick start of the Mission in 2010. India is one of the two countries in the world with more than one billion and is also home to many persons without electricity. But we are not talking about off-grid applications, we are talking about on-grid and with Fit. India learnt the lesson of Fit and RPS driven PPA and created their own scheme: RPO – Renewable Purchase Obligation – with a reverse bidding to determine the Fit.

In July 2011 Asian Power posted an article I wrote on the new paradigm for utility information security where you should assume your information systems can be breached and react accordingly. In this article I’d like to extend some added ideas for energy and utility executives to consider when trying to secure their information systems.

The China Photovoltaic Industry Alliance (CPIA) is finalizing a complaint alleging that U.S. manufacturers are dumping polysilicon at below cost prices in China. The petition will ask the ministry of commerce to open a dumping and subsidy investigation into the sales of U.S. polysilicon in China. The move is a response to the U.S. anti-dumping investigation into the export practices of Chinese solar cell and module manufacturers. The CPIA includes major Chinese solar players like GCL-Poly, Suntech, LDK Solar, Yingli, and Trina. It should be noted, however, that Suntech said it is not involved in the action. In addition to the anti-dumping complaint, the CPIA will be preparing a petition urging the Ministry to look into subsidies allegedly received by U.S. manufacturers.