Staff Reporter

Japan wants more time to decide about restarting two offline nuclear reactors, according to the trade minister.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto will consider setting up a panel of nuclear experts to verify the safety of nuclear power plants.

March 11th, 2011. Nuclear engineering sector is hit by Fukushima's accident. A year has passed and it is now time to have a look on what has come out of this. The international institute of nuclear energy, I2EN, was inaugurated in France the same year.

Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang said nuclear power plants are of essential significance for the national development.

The largest electric utility in South Korea reports a surge of foreign interest in its nuclear power plants.

The ratio of electric power generated by thermal power plants in Japan has surpassed 70 percent following the March 2011 nuclear meltdowns.

Sri Lanka's electricty consumers will receive the opportunity of having free electricity for one month by reducing their electricity bills by 20 percent.

The Sri Lankan government has proposed an MoU to India on nuclear disaster management, according to Power Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka.

Hydro Tasmania will carefully consider the financial impact of the proposed GenTrader model recommended by the Expert Panel.

China Sunergy recently delivered its first shipment of "CSUN Made in France" modules.

India's energy grid can look forward to an additional 40MW of electricity, this from solar power.

Mitsubishi's major wind power project in the USA has hit the doldrums.

The TEPCO and Marubeni joint venture is exploring 10 renewable energy projects in the Philippines.

Japanese joint venture firm TeaM Energy has been exploring at least 10 areas in Luzon and Visayas for prospective renewable energy projects. In a briefing with reporters, TeaM Energy president Federico E. Puno noted that his company’s interests are generally focused on hydro, biomass and geothermal energy developments. The sites it has been evaluating for prospective RE projects include those for mini-hydro in San Juan, La Union; Tabuk-Kalinga; Tuba-Benguet; and Mountain Province. The larger-scale hydro targets are in Tuba, Benguet’s site at the tailings pond of Philex Mining Corporation. Incidentally, the company is currently a capacity off-taker (buyer) of TeaM Energy’s excess capacity in the Sual plant. The rest of the hydro prospects are in various sites in Luzon and Visayas. Geothermal developments, according to the company chief executive, are eyed for the sites being evaluated in Mountain Province and Mount Natib in Bataan Daclan, also in Benguet province. The company has listed two biomass sites being studied in Unisan, Quezon and San Ildefonso, Bulacan. Puno noted that they are currently “awaiting feasibility study from proponent” for the Quezon prospect; while a meeting with another interested party is being scheduled for the Bulacan target. “There were areas that we’ve already looked at, but we have already abandoned some of them because the potential had not been viable for development,” the TeaM Energy chief executive stressed. For the hydro developments, some areas are currently the subject of feasibility studies; while others are already at the process of awarding turnkey contracts leading to the actual construction of the projects. TeaM Energy is among those expressing interests to join the bandwagon of RE investments; but it is one which would be willing to bet on these projects even without the support of feed-in-tariffs. The company noted that it can work on cornering its own market for such developments as long as the other hurdles, such as the sustainability of fuel for biomass projects, can be sufficiently addressed.  

JinkoSolar has opened its Asian headquarters in Singapore to  manage sales, logistics, financing, project development and customer service for the country.

Reliance Power plans to invest more than $1.18 billion to develop solar power projects in Rajasthan over the next two years.