The financing will be used to purchase and refurbish production facilities and to procure essential machinery to support Wyntron’s production capacity expansion in Cavite Industrial Park in the South of Manila. Wyntron will expand the production of alternating current (AC) EV charger stations for residential and commercial purposes. The stations will be capable of overnight or 4- to 6-hour fast charging, and include the EV charging equipment with bi-directional functionalities that allow a charged car battery to provide power to the home grid through the charger.

“Charging equipment is a critical component in the EV global value chain and is essential in the decarbonization of the transport sector and the global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” said ADB Private Sector Operations Department Director General Suzanne Gaboury. “This assistance will provide a significant boost to the Philippines’ EV-related manufacturing industry, helping to generate export revenue, and providing new jobs and training for local skilled workers, engineers, and graduates.”

Additionally, ADB will help Wyntron to develop a gender action plan to enhance women’s participation in management training and career development programs, provide paid on-the-job internships for female engineering students, and have human resources officers trained on anti-sexual harassment and gender equality programs.

“With this investment, Wyntron will be able to substantively increase our competitiveness, in both quantity and quality, within the burgeoning global EV charging equipment market,” said Wyntron Chairperson SungHyuk Steven Lee. “We highly appreciate ADB’s responsiveness in this deal and see this as a mark of trust and faith in our company and our people.”

Wyntron was incorporated in 2006 in the Philippines as part of the Danam Group based in the Republic of Korea. Danam Group was founded in 1985 with interests in telecommunications and navigation research, aerospace and electronics manufacturing.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

Beijing has spearheaded an ambitious drive to increase the country’s renewable energy capacity in recent years and renewables now account for 31.3 per cent of the country’s total power supply capacity.

Last year, China installed 152 gigawatts (GW) of renewable capacity, or 76.2 per cent of all new energy capacity, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said on Monday (Feb 20).

This additional renewable capacity is broadly equivalent to the total energy capacity of Norway.

However, its rapid growth has put it into competition with other industries, particularly agriculture, for land use, making it increasingly tough to win land rights for installing solar panels.

Central government restrictions on land use had been implemented by local governments in a “one-size-fits-all” way, Wang Bohua, honorary chairman of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, said at a conference last week, adding that these policies, if not improved, will “greatly influence the scale of new solar installations in eastern and central China”.

China needs to remove the hurdles to construction and promote integration with the grid to ensure its first batch of large-scale wind and solar power bases are put into operation on time, the NEA said in a report following a recent meeting on the issues.

President Xi Jinping has pledged to bring China’s total wind and solar capacity to at least 1,200 GW and to cap its carbon emissions by 2030.

The country is also planning to build 450 GW of solar and wind power generation capacity in the Gobi and other desert regions.

China has said it aims for renewable power to account for more than 50 per cent of its electricity generation capacity by 2025.

Source: Reuters

His remark comes just a day after the island nation hiked the power tarrif by 66 per cent, Daily Mirror reported.

Addressing a press conference, Kanchana said President Ranil Wickremesinghe has advised him to ensure uninterrupted power supply with the imposition of the new tariffs.

Wickremsinghe also asked officers concerned to provide concessions for low-income families and solar rooftop systems for religious places and government educational institutions.

The tariff hike is likely to generate revenue of around LKR 287 billion in the cash-strapped nation.

Source: PTI

Vietnam has big offshore wind power potential given the strong winds and shallow waters near coastal densely populated areas, according to the World Bank Group, which estimates the sector could add at least $50 billion to its economy.

The Southeast Asian country’s most recent draft power development plan from December, reviewed by Reuters, targets production of 7 gigawatt from offshore wind by 2030 from zero output now.

Its approval has been repeatedly delayed. It could now be further postponed, Minh Nguyen, vice president of the European chamber of commerce in Vietnam, told a conference on Thursday.

Hinging on its adoption is sizable investment in wind farms, including much of the $15.5 billion pledged by G7 countries in December for green energy transition projects.

Minh said progress depended on new legislation on use of marine space for military, shipping or other purposes, which was not expected before October, citing talks between Vietnamese officials and EU businessmen earlier this week.

That is despite EU companies’ pressure for swift regulatory progress, according to public recommendations and an internal document about this week’s meetings seen by Reuters.

Some diplomats and experts say Vietnam is also keen to scrutinise Chinese investment in the sector for national security reasons, fearing windfarms could be used for surveillance.

Vietnam’s foreign, industry and environment ministries and China’s embassy in Vietnam did not immediately respond to separate requests for comment.

A delay would come as little surprise to investors in Vietnam, where bureaucratic and legislative delays are common.

Some are sanguine, however, confident that pilot projects could be approved quickly, even before legislation passes, while others see it as unlikely wind turbine makers would review investment plans given Vietnam’s location and clout as a regional manufacturing powerhouse.

Source: Reuters

On February 8, 2022, CANMAX disclosed that it was going to issue shares to specific investors in order to raise no more than RMB 4.6 billion. The proceeds were to be used for the followings: (1) supporting its Sichuan subsidiary in the development of the lithium hydroxide plant, (2) the acquisition of the first phase of a lithium hydroxide project owned by Weineng Lithium Industry Science and Innovation, (3) the acquisition of a 7% stake in Tianyi Lithium Industry, and (4) supplementing working capital. The first phase of Weining’s project has a production capacity of 25,000 tons per year. Both Tianyi Lithium Industry and Weining are based in Yibin, a city in China’s Sichuan Province.

CANMAX’s Sichuan subsidiary commenced the construction of its lithium hydroxide plant on May 2, 2022. The plant will manufacture lithium hydroxide (i.e., lithium hydroxide monohydrate) from lepidolite via a process involving sulfuric acid, causticizing reaction, cooling, and crystallization. The total investment in this project has come to RMB 2.5 billion.

CANMAX stated that the development of the lithium hydroxide plant has been on schedule, and the operation of the plant will move along in the phases that are set in the original plan. Going forward, the equipment in the plant will be further optimize so that a fully-loaded capacity will eventually be reached.

CANMAX also stated that the new plant will contribute significantly to its capability to supply battery-grade lithium hydroxide. This, in turn, will improve the company’s economies of scale and position in the market for materials used in Li-ion batteries.

Source: energytrend

JAKARTA : Indonesia has committed to cutting carbon to net-zero by 2060, a huge statement by the government to take extreme action into tackling climate change. The government has detailed its roadmap for net-zero, in which by 2050 the number of fossil fuels used for energy would be no more than 25 percent and most of the energy should be based on renewable energy.

As part of reaching net-zero by 2060, Indonesia plans by 2025 to produce energy from renewables as much as 23 percent. This renewable energy is contributed by hydro energy (8 percent), geothermal (7.5 percent), biomass (6 percent) and other renewable energy (1.5 percent).

The information regarding what energy source is considered renewable should be followed by the same categories that the United Nations has determined. Renewable energy sources consist of solar energy, wind energy, hydropower, ocean energy, bioenergy and geothermal energy.

To reach what is supposed to be called net-zero, each source of energy should be distributed properly considering each country’s economic and geographic characteristics. Each country has different advantages and disadvantages to producing renewable energy. Indonesia, which has so many potentials in producing various types of renewable energy, has an advantage in the geographical landscape to smoothly transition our energy source to renewable but we still must keep in mind that Indonesia is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels for energy generation.

From the many sources of renewable energy, the government has created a plan to increase the proportion of biomass in generating electricity. Biomass is considered renewable because its source is from replantable trees, which at the same time absorb carbon.

Indonesia, as one of the biggest producers of wood products, clearly has a huge potential to utilize its energy forestry and wood waste as a source of biomass such as wood chips and wood pellets. From that perspective, Indonesia has an abundant amount of potential to use biomass as one of substitutes for fossil fuels. However, the development and utilization of biomass as an energy source is still very small compared to its potential.

Globally, the biomass market has been on the rise with major developed countries in Asia, such as South Korea and Japan, have significantly increased their usage of biomass as their source of energy generation. South Korea has been the main importer of Indonesian wood pellets with a share of 88 percent followed by Japan with 11 percent. It is expected that in 2023 Japan will increase its import of Indonesian wood pellets through several business commitments made by both countries.

It is very unfortunate that Indonesia has not used biomass as much as other countries as a source of energy knowing the abundance of resources Indonesia has. This leads to our question regarding biomass challenges that keep its potential from soaring.

There are big concerns about using biomass for electricity generation for businesses and that concern is supply reliability. Businesses must be completely certain that the generators would always get their source of biomass sustainably and at a competitive price. It is not uncommon for businesses that the main driving force in choosing the right supply of electricity is the price.

Unfortunately, to cut costs businesses would rather use something that gives them the most value rather than one that is more sustainable. With that in mind, to be able to increase demand for biomass, one of the main issues that need to be addressed is price competitiveness.

In normal circumstances, the coal price for electricity generation is significantly cheaper than that of biomass with coal price is around US$3.1 per Gigajoule while the price of biomass and wood pellet is around $8,1/GJ in 2019 during a stable economy. For the majority of 2022, the soaring price of coal certainly helped the biomass industry to be looked at by businesses as a potential source of energy. This situation, however, would not be permanent if coal prices returned to their original price. For biomass to be competitive, coal prices should be consistently 43 percent higher than wood pellets.

Our recommendations to increase the use of biomass for energy is firstly to develop a sustainable supply of biomass. Indonesia’s main source of supply for biomass is expected to come from energy forestry. State-owned electricity company PT PLN has a partnership with state-owned forestry firm Perhutani for the supply of biomass. The land needed for biomass is estimated at around 430,000 hectares.

Secondly is to increase demand for biomass domestically. We know that the global demand for biomass will keep increasing but it is such a shame if Indonesia could not use biomass as a source in energy generation. With that in mind, a program such as co-firing would certainly increase the demand for biomass domestically. PLN has stated that the co-firing program would require around 8 million tonnes to 16 million tonnes of biomass every year to reach the targeted 6 percent contribution from biomass by 2025.

Lastly is to develop well-planned incentives for biomass businesses. With incentives, there will be more business players producing more biomass. For example, the wood pellet business has started to grow over the past couple of years because of high demand in the global market. The carbon tax would be one form of regulation that could certainly grow the biomass industry. Through the carbon tax scheme, biomass businesses could get subsidies from the allocation of generated taxes to help grow the business and to help the industry operate sustainably.

Source: asianews

Itochu would supply wind-generated power to Meta from the Texas-based Prairie Switch Wind project, set to have capacity of 160 megawatts when launched towards the end of this year and where Itochu agreed to invest.

Separately, Itochu agreed with Amazon to develop 700 solar power sites to supply the e-commerce giant with renewable power in Japan by next year, Itochu said in a statement.

Source: Reuters

Kwatra arrived here on Monday for a two-day official visit to hold talks with the country’s top leaders on the entire range of multifaceted cooperation between the two neighbouring countries, including connectivity, trade and transit, power sector cooperation, agriculture, education, culture, health sector, and people to people relations, among others.

Kwatra on Tuesday called on Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Narayankaji Shrestha at the Ministry’s office at Singhdurbar, Kathmandu.

Source: PTI

JSMC said its lithium carbonate has been in high demand in recent years thanks to the rapid market growth of new energy vehicles and energy storage equipment. In fact, the company has not been able to meet all of its customers’ demand for some time. Gao’an provides a sufficient tract of land for accommodating the equipment used in processing lithium brine and high-temperature acid processing (or roasting). At the same time, local conditions will allow JSMC to meet the energy consumption standard imposed by the relevant regulatory authority. All in all, the proposed project will be able to supply lithium carbonate at a high efficiency and a relatively low cost.

The project will be set up within the Jiantao industrial base (park) of the city. The project will comprise a production line that encompasses all the key processing sections (e.g., impurity removal, mixing, evaporation, deposition, drying, and packaging) as well as the related facility buildings. Construction will begin within six months after the municipal government has formally allocated the land to JSMC. The project is expected to be completed within one year after the land grant.

JSMC also stated that the decision to land a project in Gao’an is based on assessments of its current overall production capacity, the amount of customers’ demand, and the growth trajectory of the Li-ion battery market. Furthermore, Yichun is the recognized as the lithium capital of Asia. Therefore, expanding the company’s existing lithium business operation there aligns with the company’s growth strategy over the medium to long term and further contributes to the city’s development. Once up and running, the project will add 30,000 tons to the company’s annual production capacity.

JSMC was established in 1995 and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2007. The company started off as a provider of electric machinery, but its core businesses now include lepidolite mining, ore sorting, lithium carbonate, lithium salts, and related processing works. Its main lithium business operation is located in Yichun, where there is a large reserve of lithium ores.

Within the vicinity of Yichun, JSMC has the rights to mine lithium porcelain stones for two sites and prospecting rights for five sites. The amount of lithium resources that JSMC now owns or controls comes to more than 100 million tons. This figure includes known reserves and puts the company ahead of other domestic lithium suppliers.

In terms of capacity expansions, JSMC has been accelerating its efforts since 2022 and has numerous projects under development. On April 7, 2022, the company announced that its subsidiary Jiangte Mining will set up a project for sorting lithium ores and manufacturing lithium salts. The project site is in a major industrial park within Jiangxi’ Yifeng County (that is also within the administration of Yichun). The total investment in the project has reached around RMB 2 billion. In terms of production capacity, the project is designed to have 3 million tons for ore sorting and 20,000 tons for lithium salts.

Then, on August 17, 2022, JSMC revealed that its wholly-owned subsidiary Yin Li New Energy will upgrade the first phase of its lepidolite processing project. The reason for the upgrade is to improve the linkages among its prospecting, mining, and sorting sections of its lithium business operation. Smoothing out the production flow can lower production-related costs. The spending on the upgrade is estimated at RMB 128 million.

At the start of 2023, JSMC and precision machinery provider Fulin inked an investment promotion agreement. They will form a joint venture located in Yifeng County for the development of a lithium salt project. The planned investment in the joint venture and the project totals RMB 500 million. The annual production capacity of the project will be at least 50,000 tons.

In terms of performance, JSMC has seen strong sales for its lithium carbonate and lithium salts due to the rapid growth of the market for new energy solutions. This year, the market environment is expected to remain healthy, and the demand from the downstream sections of the supply chain will likely keep climbing. Furthermore, prices of JSMC’s lithium carbonate products have registered significant hikes from last year. Looking at its financial results for 2022, JSMC estimates that its profit attributable to the parent company reached RMB 2.25-2.55 billion, showing a massive year-on-year growth rate of 483.25-561.02%.

Source: energytrend

China-made photovoltaic modules, wind turbines, gear boxes and other key components accounted for 70 percent of the global market share last year, Wang said at a press conference.

“The center of gravity of the global new energy industry is shifting further to China,” he said.

China’s renewable energy development has made positive contributions to global emissions reduction.

In 2022, China’s renewable energy generation was equivalent to a reduction of 2.26 billion tonnes of domestic carbon dioxide emissions. China’s exports of wind power and photovoltaic products helped other countries reduce emissions by approximately 573 million tonnes.

Source: PTI

EVE stated that the new production lines in Jingmen will manufacture Li-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and energy storage systems. The area of the production site is planned to span around 1,000 mu. Located in the Jingmen Hi-Tech Industrial Park, four roads border around the planned site: Transportation Road to the east, Mingli Road to the south, Jianqiu Road to the west, Longwang Road to the north.

EVE also said that this investment project will synergize both parties’ resources and competitive advantages so as to significantly expand the local production capacity for EV power batteries. At the same time, EVE will be able to further optimize its business operations so as to provide its clients with more products and solutions. By continuously improving its overall competitiveness, EVE will not only grow its presence in the market for Li-ion EV power batteries but also exert a greater influence over the wider industry for new energy solutions.

Since 2022, EVE has been rapidly building up its production capacity. In March 2022, the company revealed that it will be investing in two battery production lines and supporting facilities in the Jingmen Hi-Tech Industrial Park. One line will have a production capacity of 20GWh per year for prismatic LFP battery cells, and the other line will have a production capacity of 48GWh per year for batteries purposed for electric mobility and energy storage. The investment in the fixed assets of the two lines and supporting facilities is estimated to reach around RMB 12.6 billion. Hence, the agreement that was signed this January 31 represents a further expansion in EVE’s operation in Jingmen.

Also, in April 2022, EVE announced that it will be investing RMB 20 billion to set up a battery production base Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan Province. Located in the city’s Longquanyi District, the base will have a production capacity of 50GWh per year for Li-ion batteries equipped in electric vehicles and energy storage systems. Then, in May and June of the same year, EVE successively announced that it will be landing a battery manufacturing projects in the Yuxi Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone and another one in the Qujing Economic Development Area. Each of these two projects will entail an investment of around RMB 3 billion and have a production capacity of 10GWh per year.

Later, in September 2022, EVE revealed that it had inked an investment agreement with the government of Shenyang and the administrative committee of the Shenyang Economic and Technological Development Zone. Under the agreement, EVE will invest RMB 10 billion to set up 40GWh per year of production capacity for EV power batteries. Shenyang is the capital of China’s Liaoning Province.

Moving to 2023, EVE has not slowed down the pace of its capacity expansion. On January 18 this year, the company released a plan to build a manufacturing base in Jianyang, a county-level city under the administration of Chengdu. With a planned production capacity of 20GWh per year, the base will manufacture batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage systems. The investment agreement had been signed by the company and the government of Jianyang by the time of the announcement. The total investment in this project is estimated around RMB 10 billion, and EVE has set up a wholly-owned subsidiary to build and operate the base.

Also, on the same day, EVE notified that it signed a revised investment agreement with the government of Qujing and the administration committee of the Qujing Economic Development Area. Specifically, a project involving 23GWh per year of production capacity for cylindrical LFP battery cells has been adjusted. Its investment is now estimated around RMB 5.5 billion, of which fixed assets will account for around RMB 4.5 billion

Source: energytrend

Based on a previous study conducted by ANU in 2020, the research team was funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), which promised to provide AUD 40 million to achieve the country’s Solar 30 30 30 goal. The team claimed that the proposed perovskite-silicon cell is exceptionally efficient along with enhanced stability.

Despite a high conversion efficiency, perovskite cells are infamously unstable with little commercialization possibility. Unlike its predecessors, the perovskite-silicon cell created by the ANU team does not contain methylammonium (MA), and has higher thermal stability. The researchers also added 4M-PEACl to enlarge the perovskite crystal grains and suppress cell defects considerably.

Research member The Duong revealed that by utilizing the advantages of solar and perovskite cells, the team enabled the top perovskite cell to effectively absorb blue light and transmit red light to the silicon cell at the bottom with more energy generated compared to a single cell. The experimental silicon cell had an efficiency of 26.81% at maximum, while the commercial module had a nearly 20% efficiency.

As Duong indicated, exceeding the 30% efficiency level is meaningful because the percentage is the commercialization threshold of tandem technologies like that used in their study. Tandem technologies are projected to be commercialized in 2026, but more research is required to upgrade and ensure stable running of tandem solar cells in the next 25 to 30 years.

Source: energytrend

This “clean energy project” entails an investment of RMB 4.5 billion and combines PV with floristry. Specifically, PV and other clean energy technologies will power facilities for growing flowers. Thus, this energy base will support a local industry and take on local characteristics.

Jingneng develops various renewable and clean energy projects. It has a wealth of expertise and experience in building PV power stations, hydroelectric power stations, and wind farms. China Sun Fund Management is an equity finance channel for enterprises and boasts successful cases in the floristry sector.

Source: energytrend

Much of Asia’s electricity use will be in China, a nation of 1.4 billion people whose share of global consumption will rise from a quarter in 2015 to a third by the middle of this decade, the Paris-based body said.

“China will be consuming more electricity than the European Union, United States and India combined,” said Keisuke Sadamori, the IEA’s director of energy markets and security.

By contrast, Africa — home to almost a fifth of world’s nearly 8 billion inhabitants — will account for just 3% of global electricity consumption in 2025.

“This and the rapidly growing population mean there is still a massive need for increased electrification in Africa,” said Sadamori.

The IEA’s annual report predicts that nuclear power and renewables such as wind and solar will account for much of the growth in global electricity supply over the coming three years. This will prevent a significant rise in greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector, it said.

Scientists say sharp cuts in all sources of emissions are needed as soon as possible to keep average global temperatures from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. That target, laid down in the 2015 Paris climate accord, appears increasingly doubtful as temperatures have already increased by more than 1.1 C since the reference period.

One hope for meeting the goal is a wholesale shift away from fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil toward low-carbon sources of energy. But while some regions are reducing their use of coal and gas for electricity production, in others consumption is increasing, the IEA said.

The 134-page also report warned that electricity demand and supply are becoming increasingly weather dependent, a problem it urged policymakers to address.

“In addition to drought in Europe, there were heat waves in India (last year),” said Sadamori. “Similarly, central and eastern China were hit by heat waves and drought. The United States also saw severe winter storms in December, and all those events put massive strain on the power systems of these regions.”

“As the clean energy transition gathers pace, the impact of weather events on electricity demand will intensify due to the increased electrification of heating, while the share of weather-dependent renewables will continue to grow in the generation mix,” the IEA said. “In such a world, increasing the flexibility of power systems while ensuring security of supply and resilience of networks will be crucial.”

Source: AP

While trade and investment have fueled remarkable economic growth in Asia in recent decades, it has also led to large increases in carbon dioxide emissions in the region—which is more vulnerable to the effects of climate change than any other. Reversing this trend will require measures such as promoting trade in environmental goods and services, nurturing green businesses, developing carbon pricing mechanisms, and strengthening regional cooperation through trade and investment agreements, according to the Asian Economic Integration Report (AEIR) 2023, released by ADB today.

“Asia and the Pacific’s remarkable growth has lifted millions of people out of poverty, but this has come at an environmental cost,” said ADB Chief Economist Albert Park. “The region now finds itself on the frontline of the climate crisis, which can derail development progress. Trade and investment remain as one of the most important drivers for growth and poverty reduction, but governments in the region need to intensify their cooperation to make trade and investment greener.”

Asia’s production-related carbon dioxide emissions almost tripled between 1995 and 2019, largely reflecting the region’s unparalleled pace of economic growth and industrialization to satisfy demand—both within the region and in export markets. Asia and the Pacific is now warming faster than any part of the world. Almost 40% of the world’s disasters occur in the region, and more than 70% of people affected by disasters live in Asia and the Pacific. Disasters disproportionately affect women and vulnerable populations.

According to today’s report, governments in the region can make trade and investment more sustainable and greener by:

• promoting the trade of environmental goods, such as solar panels, and services;
• nurturing green businesses through regulations, incentives, standards, and certification systems;
• enhancing international regulatory cooperation to make climate commitments and actions transparent, firm, interoperable, and collaborative; and
• developing carbon pricing mechanisms at both national and cross-border levels, through linkages and regional alliances.

AEIR reviews Asia and the Pacific’s progress on regional cooperation and integration and the states of trade, cross-border investment, financial integration, and the movement of people. According to the 2023 report, integration in the region is progressing steadily and remained stable in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Trade growth, meanwhile, moderated in 2022 following a strong rebound in 2021.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

Source: adb

The deal, which comes just three weeks after Britishvolt fell into administration, could help revive Britain’s ambitions of building a home-grown EV battery industry that can support domestic car production.

Privately owned Recharge, a division of New York-based portfolio company Scale Facilitation, is building a large-scale lithium-ion cell factory in Australia expected to begin production next year.

“We’re thrilled to be progressing with our proposed bid for Britishvolt and can’t wait to get started making a reality of our plans to build the UK’s first gigafactory,” Scale Facilitation CEO and Recharge founder David Collard said.

“After a competitive and rigorous process, we’re confident our proposal will deliver a strong outcome for all involved.”

The accounting firm EY, appointed as Britishvolt’s administrators, said the bidding process saw “multiple approaches from interested parties and numerous offers”.

The Recharge buyout deal should be completed within the next seven days, it added, without specifying the details of the bid.

Britishvolt had previously outlined ambitious plans for a 3.8 billion pound ($4.57 billion) 38 gigawatt-hour plant in England’s industrial north to build electric vehicle batteries.

The planned plant site at Blyth is regarded as Britain’s best “shovel-ready” location to make EV batteries at scale, with the land already acquired and planning permission in place.

The British government under former prime minister Boris Johnson had touted Britishvolt’s project as a major milestone toward building an EV industry as the country heads toward a ban on combustion engine cars in 2030.

But Britishvolt had only raised around 200 million pounds by summer 2022 and had pushed back its production timeline.

Its failure was seen as a step back for Britain’s car sector, as industry officials consider domestic EV battery plants as essential to keeping UK car production from shifting to mainland Europe.

($1 = 0.8309 pounds)

Source: Reuters

MANILA, PHILIPPINES : The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has appointed Safdar Parvez as its Country Director for the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Mr. Parvez has arrived in Beijing following his appointment last month. As Country Director, he will oversee ADB’s operations in the PRC, including implementation of the country partnership strategy (CPS) that prioritizes high-quality, sustainable green development. The current CPS is central in reorienting ADB’s engagement in the PRC as an upper middle-income country.

“I am deeply honored to be leading the office in the PRC, where I look forward to strengthening ADB’s longtime partnership with the government and other significant stakeholders,” said Mr. Parvez. “ADB will continue the effective work we’ve been doing with the PRC as an important player in ensuring environmentally sustainable development and climate change adaptation and mitigation. We’ll work together towards solutions for health security and supporting an aging society. We will also seek to upscale our support for institutional development, knowledge management, and private sector development. Most importantly, we will facilitate sharing of knowledge and best practices between the PRC and developing member countries of ADB to support replicable development models.”

Mr. Parvez has more than 26 years of professional experience, including over 20 years with ADB. He joined ADB in 2002 and has held senior positions, including Director for Regional Cooperation and Operations Coordination in Central and West Asia and Advisor in East Asia. He has been a key leader on a number of corporate strategy reforms and initiatives at ADB.

ADB has been working with the PRC since 1986. To date, ADB has committed 1,160 public sector loans, grants, and technical assistance totaling $41.3 billion to the PRC. ADB’s green development work includes projects in the greater Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region to boost sustainable financing in renewable energy, clean transport, industrial energy efficiency, and cooling system retrofits.

A national of Pakistan, Mr. Parvez holds two master’s degree in economics: one from Cambridge University, United Kingdom, and another from Quaid-e-Azam University, Pakistan; and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Government College, Pakistan. Prior to joining ADB, Mr. Parvez was Programme Manager Policy at the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

Source: adb

On January 1, 2023, Jiangsu Kaijin New Energy Technology held a ceremony to mark start of construction for the second phase of its integrated anode production base in Jiangsu. The base is located in New Huanghe District of Yancheng, a prefecture-level city in China’s Jiangsu Province. It is set to comprise 200,000 tons per year of production capacity for anode material used in Li-ion batteries.
The total investment in the base comes to RMB 6 billion, with each of the two phases entailing RMB 3 billion. The base is set to accommodate an R&D center, a centralized warehousing facility, and processing facilities that enable the vertically integrated manufacturing of anode materials. The first phase, which began construction on February 28, 2022, will have processing lines pertaining to grinding, surface modification, and low-temperature carbonation. It will also have a centralized warehousing facility.

The second phase, which began construction on the first day of this year, will have processing lines pertaining to superfine grinding, high-temperature carbonization, and high-temperature graphitization. Kaijin said the anode materials manufactured at the base will contribute to the creation of Li-ion batteries that have a higher storage capacity, a longer cycling life, a greater durability against high temperatures, and other kinds of performance advantages. Once the base is fully built and in operation, it is expected to become a major pillar of the local industry for Li-ion NEV power batteries. Yancheng is currently developing a battery industry cluster that is worth tens of billions in yuan.

Jiangsu Kaijin New Energy Technology is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Guangdong Kaijin New Energy Technology that was established in March 2012. Kaijin as a whole focuses on the development, manufacturing, and sales of anode materials used in Li-ion batteries. Besides Jiangsu, Kaijin has local operations in many other regions of China, including Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, and Sichuan. The anode materials offered by the company are mostly based on artificial graphite. However, a few of its products are based on composite graphite. Kaijin’s customers consist of domestic and foreign battery manufacturers. Its notable Chinese clients include CATL, Lishen, Gotion Hi-Tech, and Farasis Energy. Its notable clients in other countries include LEJ from Japan and Kokam from South Korea.

Earlier, the China Securities Regulatory Commission notified that it had terminated the review process for Kaijin’s IPO application on October 14, 2022. Kaijin originally planned to launch IPO in the Shanghai Stock Exchange and get listed on the Main Board of the exchange. It was to issue no more than 41 million shares that would account for less than 10% of its total shares and be separated from the publicly traded shares of its existing shareholders. The target of the IPO was to raise RMB 1.02 billion that would then be used to add 50,000 tons per year of production capacity for high-performance anode materials, built an R&D center, and supplement working capital. Dongxing Securities was to be the sponsor or lead underwriter.

This article is a translation of a Chinese article posted by TrendForce. It contains information that is either sourced from other news outlets or accessible in the public domain. Some Chinese names are transcribed into English using Hanyu Pinyin.

Source : energytrend

MANILA, PHILIPPINES : The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been rated the most transparent development finance institution (DFI) for sovereign operations and in the top three for private sector operations in a newly launched DFI Transparency Index published by British nongovernment organization Publish What You Fund.

“Transparency and accountability are at the heart of ADB’s mission to help its developing member countries in Asia and the Pacific to address their most pressing development challenges,” said Director General of ADB’s Strategy, Policy, and Partnerships Department Tomoyuki Kimura. “We are proud that this commitment to transparency has been recognized and will study this report closely to identify how we can provide even more effective and efficient support to our region.”

ADB’s sovereign operations, which provide assistance to the public sector in ADB’s developing member countries, ranked first on transparency out of nine DFIs. ADB’s nonsovereign operations, which support private sector investments with significant development impact, ranked third out of 21 DFIs.

The DFI Transparency Index aims to provide an independent assessment of the transparency of 30 leading DFIs. DFIs were assessed across 47 indicators in five categories, including core information; and environmental, social, and governance and accountability to communities. Publish What You Fund also publishes the Aid Transparency Index (ATI).

The DFI Transparency Index’s recommendations include that DFIs provide more information on the impact of their assistance, improve transparency around assurance of disclosure to project-affected people, and ensure adequate internal resources for efforts to improve transparency.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

Source : adb

In early January, the Development and Reform Bureau of Zhuhai released a notice on the development of PV generation in the city for the 2022-2025 period. Zhuhai is a well-known urban center located in the Pearl River Delta of China’s Guangdong Province. According to the notice, the city aims to increase its installed PV generation capacity by around 3.7GW by 2025. Of this total, centralized PV power stations will account for around 3.48GW, and various community-based DG PV projects will account for around 220MW.

The notice also stated that the city will promote the rapid development of the advanced manufacturing of PV products and energy storage equipment. Furthermore, the city will assist in the setup of demonstration projects that highlight the unique attributes of the local PV industry. These projects will include a smart operation center and a PV product manufacturing base that will be the largest in scale in the province.

Regarding DG rooftop PV projects, the notice listed the following installation goals for 2025: 13.49MW for rooftop PV projects on party buildings; 49.69MW for rooftop PV projects on public buildings; 145.62MW for rooftop PV projects on commercial and industrial buildings; and 10.78MW for rooftop PV projects on residential buildings.

Regarding centralized PV power stations, Zhuhai wants to add 3.48GW within the period of the 14th Five-Year Plan. Presently, applications for six projects related to PV power stations have been filed with the municipal government. These six projects include ground-mounted and floating PV power stations, and together they occupy a total area of around 10.67 square kilometers. Their total generation capacity is estimated around 960MW and will be mainly used support facilities related to aquaculture.

There are also 10 more projects that are being planned but have yet to reach the application stage. Together, these ten projects will occupy a total area of 27.71 square kilometers (including coastal areas) and mostly support facilities related to aquaculture, waste disposal, and other integrated industrial applications. The notice also stated that the centralized PV power stations that will be built during the 2022-2025 period will be concentrated in the following the districts of the city: Jinwan District, Hezhou New District, and Doumen District. They will be developed in three phases: 1.28GW for the first phase, 1.815GW for the second phase, and 335MW for the third phase.

Turning to energy storage, the city wants to take advantage of the existing resources related to PV generation and promote the growth of PV-plus-storage projects. Every centralized PV power station in vicinity of the city is mandated to have a complementing storage capacity that is no less than 10% of its generation capacity and can meet at two hours of demand. This mandate is subject to change as per the new requirements issued by the relevant national regulatory authorities in the future. The notice further stated that the energy storage systems deployed in PV-plus-storage projects must meet industry standards with respect to battery specifications, etc. Both PV systems and energy storage systems must be installed simultaneously during project construction.

Source: energytrend

MELBOURNE : A huge solar power project in Australia that collapsed last week will be put up for sale before the end of January and the sale process is expected to take about three months, administrators at FTI Consulting said on Friday.

The administrators said they plan to appoint an adviser shortly to run the sale of Sun Cable, a Singapore-based company that collapsed after its two top investors, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest, failed to agree on future funding plans.

“Indicative timing for the sale process is approximately three months,” the administrators said in a statement released after the first meeting of creditors.

Sun Cable designed its key project, Australia-Asia PowerLink (AAPL), to send power from a 20 gigawatt (GW) solar farm with the world’s biggest battery in northern Australia across what would be the world’s longest undersea cable, to Singapore, all together estimated to cost more than $20 billion.

Cannon-Brookes, tech billionaire and Sun Cable’s chairman, backs that plan. However, iron ore magnate Forrest’s private firm Squadron Energy called for an overhaul of the project, aiming to scrap the undersea cable plan.

Both camps are expected to submit bids for the company.

The administrators accepted A$65 million in interim funding, including six months interest free, from Cannon-Brookes’ private firm Grok Ventures, a Grok spokesperson said.

“This proposal is indicative of Grok’s ongoing commitment to the success of the Sun Cable and AAPL project.”

Squadron had no comment on Friday.

Forrest, however, told the Australian Financial Review in an interview at the World Economic Summit in Davos that he would not mind if Cannon-Brookes succeeded in taking over Sun Cable.

Forrest said the project’s soaring costs, which had jumped as high as A$35 billion ($24 billion), were a concern, and he would not go ahead with the cable portion of the project if he bought the business.

($1 = 1.4451 Australian dollars)

Source: Reuters

Five key challenges posed by China were taken up at the chief secretaries conference that discussed ‘global geopolitical challenges’ and India’s possible response to the same across economic, educational and energy sectors.

ET gathers that military aggression as seen in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, water-related issues like implications of China’s mega hydel power plants, economic exploitation, dominance of key supply chains as seen in solar energy, and the issue of social subversion/propaganda and disinformation were among the five concerns related to China that were discussed at the second National Conference of Chief Secretaries held earlier this month.

The officials identified the geopolitical challenges and elaborated on the ‘return of great power competition’, ‘geopolitical realignments’, ‘rebalancing/multipolarity’ and its economic manifestations besides technology control and the race for strategic minerals and resources – all inextricably centred on China’s growing pre-eminence in a changing world order.

Economic and military threats and coercion were also listed as a new geopolitical challenge besides the fracturing of global value chains, both linked to China.

The problem of climate change coupled with India’s high dependence on imported crude and gas – 80% and 50% respectively – and the difficulty of transitioning to renewables amid import dependence were highlighted.

States were also alerted to the challenges posed by Russia’s conflict with Ukraine and its impact not only on the defence sector but also on fertilisers and supply chain.

It was underlined that the changing geopolitics opens new space for India as it moves towards 2030.

Economic and fiscal strategy besides energy efficiency, education and skilling were identified as key action areas during the discussions.

It was underlined that education must go beyond enrolment and just arithmetic efficiency and focus on ‘multiple intelligences’ instead.

The idea of skilling children to meet 21st century challenges such as climate change, mental health, coexistence with AI and machine learning was highlighted.

As part of economic strategy, upgradation of physical and digital infrastructure, increasing share of manufacturing in GDP through PLI, decreasing cost of borrowing, climate adaptation, a 21st century education and knowledge system and a startup ecosystem linked to India’s LIFE (sustainable lifestyle) mantra were detailed.

The meeting called for lowering of energy intensity, optimising consumption through metering, development of critical minerals and rare earth deposits besides creating facilities for recycling.

To ensure fiscal discipline, it was advised that government borrowing rates be brought down to enable investment in infrastructure.

Source: PTI

• New installations rose 59% to record 87.4 gigawatts in 2022

• Installations of wind turbines slowed to weakest since 2020

China set another record for solar power capacity last year as the country sped up renewable installations to reach its ambitious climate targets.

The nation installed 87.4 gigawatts of solar last year, beating 2021’s record of 54.9 gigawatts, the National Energy Administration said Wednesday. Additions fell short of bullish industry forecasts in the middle of last year for as much as 100 gigawatts as supply chain disruptions boosted prices and slowed installations…Read More…

Source: Bloomberg

Seeing how various sectors have been recently focusing on the differences in development and cost on offshore wind farms between Taiwan and overseas, and pointing out that the cost of establishing offshore wind power is much lower in overseas, the Taiwan Offshore Wind Industry Association (TOWIA) commented that each country deals with its respective challenges in offshore wind power development, and is thus required to seek for the most optimal solutions according to local conditions.

SEMI Wind Energy Industry Committee also recently commented that offshore wind farms in Taiwan are currently being funded and established by developers, and the profitability of tendering wind farms is based on the power purchase contracts with enterprise users, apart from the FiT of TPC for demonstration and selected wind farms in the past. As a result, the target of establishing offshore wind farms is to ensure more than 25 years of unobstructed operation, and continuous power generation, as well as quality and delivery.

The level of construction difficulties is higher at the Taiwan Strait compared to other areas due to its faster current and deeper seabed. TOWIA pointed out that Taiwan, having decided to establish offshore wind farms at areas with a water depth of more than 20 meters due to concerns on the ecology of coastal waters, has adopted different maritime engineering specifications and construction methods, and shoulders the responsibilities in constituting a local industry chain and cultivating local specialists throughout the construction process.

TOWIA commented that investment plans and sum for wind farm development and construction, according to experience from the international sector, require coherency with conditions of each wind farm, before developers would evaluate and allocate corresponding investment sum, in order to ensure quality and safety throughout the construction process within the given time period that can then provide stable green power for users.

As pointed out by the SEMI Wind Energy Industry Committee, the current four major trends in the development of the global offshore wind power industry include: 1) acceleration on offshore wind power establishment in various countries, 2) aggressive development in advanced technology such as large-scale wind turbines and floating wind farms, 3) acceleration on renewable energy applications and industrial decarbonization through innovative energy technology, and 4) expedition on net-zero transformation for overall supply chain by adhering to the target of industrial sustainability. Taiwanese offshore power developers, following closely behind the development tendencies of global technology, are now heavily engaged in building next-gen offshore wind power advancement.

Source: energytrend

SINGAPORE : General Electric’s turbine manufacturing unit said on Wednesday it had agreed with Japan’s IHI Corp to develop gas turbines operating on ammonia to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

GE and IHI would work to develop technology that would allow some of GE’s existing gas turbine products to safely burn 100% ammonia by 2030, the companies each said in separate, almost identical statements on Wednesday.

“We will focus our efforts on satisfying domestic and overseas demand for large-scale ammonia gas turbines, stimulating further demand for fuel ammonia and expanding the fuel ammonia value chain,” Hiroshi Ide, president of IHI Corp said.

Source: PTI