Wind Power News: Asia
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted.
Wind power blown off course
T Boone Pickens, the billionaire Texas oilman turned green energy promoter, has just had the wind knocked out of his sails.
His heavily advertised Pickens Plan to reduce US dependence on foreign oil by investing roughly US$1 trillion (Dh3.7 trillion) in wind farms has smacked up against the global credit crunch and this year’s record drop in energy prices.
“When we were looking at the project, we felt like we could do it with 30 per cent equity . . .
Bombay HC asks Suzlon to pay property tax
The crisis-ridden Suzlon Energy will have to pay property tax imposed on hundreds of windmills from wind farms situated in 14 villages of the Sangli district of Maharashtra. The Bombay High Court (HC) has rejected Suzlon Energy’s writ petition against the recovery of property tax. Instead, the HC has asked Suzlon Energy to deposit the necessary amount towards property tax in the court.
The average demand for taxes on windmills raised by 13 gram panchayats ranges between Rs 6,171.42 to Rs . . .
Blow to Brown as BP scraps British renewables plan to focus on US
BP has dropped all plans to build wind farms and other renewable schemes in Britain and is instead concentrating the bulk of its $8bn (£5bn) renewables spending programme on the US, where government incentives for clean energy projects can provide a convenient tax shelter for oil and gas revenues.
The decision is a major blow to the prime minister, Gordon Brown, who has promised to sweep away all impediments to ensure Britain is at the forefront of the green energy . . .
Wind energy experiment goes wrong in coastal Goa
Haste makes waste, that’s what Charles D’ Silva, a resident of the coastal village of Kanaguinim in south Goa discovered albeit painfully some fifteen years back. His ancestral village which has not been affected by mass tourism till now, had been constantly facing water shortage and low electricity voltage problems for the past several years. And when the Norwegian company installed a wind turbine in 1993 to tap the wind as an energy source in the region, several residents like . . .
Afcon to build wind farm on Gilboa
Mountaintops are certainly windy, and Shlomo Shmeltzer’s Afcon Industries plans to take make hay while the gusts rage. Afcon is in advanced discussions to build a wind turbine farm on the famed Gilboa mountains in the lower Galilee.
General terms of agreement have been reached with the kibbutzim Degania, Ma’aleh Gilboa and Beit Zera, to build 30 wind turbines on two sites on land belonging to the agricultural collectives. The sites are on Ramat Sirin, west of Lake Kinneret, and . . .
Wind power output plunges
CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu could well face a power crisis if the Electricity Board, struggling hard to cope with dwindling resources, fails to reduce the widening gap between demand and supply in the state. There is every chance that this winter could be harrowing and sweaty just like last year.
On Thursday, state electricity minister Arcot N Veeraswami is said to have talked to Union power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, demanding allocation of additional power from the Central pool, as the 100 . . .
Rain causes wind power crunch
HENNAI: The state will have to face load shedding for a couple of days and perhaps even at night as there has been a 1,000 mega watt shortage in wind power generation.
Last time, the shortage was due to the failure of monsoon in the neighbouring states which left the reservoirs that generate hydro-electricity parched. But this time, wind energy has dropped drastically as there was rainfall in Kayatha where the state’s wind energy farms are located. In the . . .
India's Suzlon Energy encounters headwinds at home
Suzlon Energy Ltd., the world’s fifth-largest wind-turbine maker by sales, is facing complaints in its home market of India over technical problems with turbines, only months after blades it sold to U.S. buyers began cracking.
Some of Suzlon Energy’s largest Indian customers say their turbines fail to generate anywhere near the amount of electricity expected, suffer from excessive vibrations during high winds and have control problems costing them millions of dollars in lost power revenue.
“The machines are not fit . . .
Locals seek change in plans for wind power plant to save wild birds
TOKYO — Local officials and a bird conservation group requested Monday that an electric power company and the government alter plans to build a wind power plant in Fukui Prefecture in order to prevent birds being killed.
Officials of the Kaga municipal government in Ishikawa Prefecture and of the Wild Bird Society of Japan visited Electric Power Development Co., the plant’s builder, and the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy in Tokyo to plead their case.
They argue that as . . .
India's wind power boom is failing to deliver
To all appearances, wind energy in India is booming – but it could very well be nothing but an optical illusion. For despite rising installed capacity and huge investments, India only uses a small proportion of the potential wind energy that has been installed.
In more technical terms, India does not manage to generate enough power from wind because of lower than average plant load factors (PLF).
This is reported in its latest expose by Down To Earth magazine, a New Delhi-based . . .
