Cement, Energy and Environment

RENEWABL ENERGY: China turns leader China has smartly overtaken the US in sheer investment in the renewable energy sector. China's latest estimate of investment in green technology is $34.5 billion, twice that of the US. Of course , stepped up funding is a necessary but not sufficient condition for innovation in solar power. The latter calls for thriving markets, hard-budget constraints and demanding customers, to significantly boost solar usage. Courtesy: Total Energy, Sep.-Oct. 2010, P31. Wind SUZLON GOES LOCAL IN TOUGH CHINA MARKET Suzlon Energy, India's largest wind turbine manufacturer, on 19.11.2010 appointed a new Chinese CEO, part of a wider strategy to localize for a market it has, so far, found difficult to enter. Suzlon, which has invested more than $300 million in China over the past five years, has now a 3.4 per cent market share. It has struggled to compete with bigger Chinese players , who have cornered about 80 per cent of the wind power market, and Western firms like Vestas and GE. The Suzlon Group is now ranked eighth in the fast growing wind sector here. Courtesy: TERI (The Energy Resources and Institute) Newswire, 16-30 Nov. 2010, P12. INDIA EMERGING AS KEY HUB FOR WIND TURBINES India, with an installed wind generating capacity of 12 800 MW, is emerging as a major manufacturing hub for wind turbines. As of now, 17 manufacturers have a consolidated annual production capacity of 7500 MW and nine new companies are expected to enter the Indian wind energy sector in the next one or two years. The annual wind turbine manufacturing capacity is likely to cross 17 000 MW by 2012/13, according to a background note on the wind energy industry, prepared for the Delhi International Renewable Energy Conference 2010. The note, prepared for a session on "Wind energy: leapfrogging into a new era", says that Indian companies are exporting wind turbines and turbine blades to Australia, Brazil , China, Europe, and US. Some of the foreign companies with subsidiaries in India are sourcing more than 80 per cent of their components from Indian component manufacturers. The Global Wind Energy Outlook 2010, prepared by the Global Wind Energy Council, estimates the installed capacity in India to reach 65 000 MW in the next 10 years, with investment of about $80 billion and employment of about 150 000 people. Courtesy: TERI (The Energy and Resources lnstitute)Newswire, 16-31 October 2010, Pp11-12. INDIAN WIND ENERGY MARKET 'Wind Energy is the fastest growing renewable energy sector in India, which is, the world's fifth largest wind power nation. Wind energy accounts for over 70 per cent of the total 15 540 Megawatt (MW) of installed renewable energy generation capacity in India. The installed wind power capacity at the end of March 2010 reached 10 242 MW, which is expected to go up to 25 505 MW by 2013. Centre for wind energy technology (C-Wet) has recently estimated the potential for wind power in India at 48.5 gigawatt(GW).' The report Indian Wind Energy Market is loaded with similar facts and figures related to the wind energy sector in India. The wind energy sector in the country is expected to get a major fillip due to the Government of India's plan to infuse about Rs. 600 billion in the next few years under the Eleventh Five-year Plan into this industry. In the back drop of this robust growth scenario of wind energy, Cygnus Business Consulting and Research has come out with a report on the wind energy market in India. Courtesy: Renewable Energy Akshay Urja Vo/.3, issue 6, June 2010, P45. WIND POWER HEADS FOR DEEP SEA A group of companies has come up with a radical proposal that it claims will open up thousands of kilometers of coastline to zero carbon power: floating windmills . Project Deepwater was launched last year by firms including BAE Systems, the defence giant, and the utility EDF Energy, to research ways of overcoming the engineering problems that limit offshore turbines to water depths of 40 metres or less. That is not a problem in the shallow North Sea but it is in the much deeper waters off Britain's west coast, where winds are stronger. David Clarke, chief executive of the Energy Technologies Institute, the organization behind the initiative, said the floating turbines have the potential to open up vast amounts of potential power. Courtesy: TERI (The Energy Resources Institute) Newswire, 1-15 October 2010, P16. 72 -