Energy

India will sell only electric cars in the near future

Every car sold in India from 2030 will be electric, under new government plans that have delighted environmentalists and dismayed the oil industry. It’s hoped that by ridding India’s roads of petrol and diesel cars in the years ahead, the country will be able to reduce the harmful levels of air pollution that contribute to a staggering 1.2 million deaths per year. India’s booming economy has seen it become the world’s third-largest oil importer, shelling out $150 billion annually for the resource – so a switch to electric-powered vehicles would put a sizable dent in demand for oil. It’s been calculated that the revolutionary move would save the country $60 billion in energy costs by 2030, while also reducing running costs for millions of Indian car owners. India’s Energy Minister Piyush Goyal says the government will financially support the initiative for the first two or three years, but the production of electric vehicles will be “driven by demand and not subsidy” after that. Air pollution a big problem in India More than a million people die in India every year as a result of breathing in toxic fumes, with an investigation by Greenpeace finding that the number of deaths caused by air pollution is only a fraction less than the number of smoking-related deaths. The investigation also found that 3% of the country’s gross domestic product was lost due to the levels of toxic smog. In 2014, the World Health Organization determined that out of the 20 global cities with the most air pollution, 13 are in India. Efforts have been made by the country’s leaders to to improve air quality, with one example coming in January 2016 when New Delhi’s government mandatedthat men could only drive their cars on alternate days depending on whether their registration plate ended with an odd or even number (single women were permitted to drive […]

Air quality: ACOEM Group merges with Indo-Australian company Ecotech

ACOEM Group (EUR 62 million revenue, 450 employees) announces its merger with Ecotech, Indo-Australian specialist in air quality monitoring (EUR 24 million revenue, 220 employees). ACOEM Group’s mission is to help companies and public authorities limit their environmental impact, offering products and services that enable them to prevent noise and vibration pollution, improve air quality, and increase the productivity and reliability of industrial machines. Leveraging this merger as well as its positioning in the high-growth market for monitoring environmental parameters, ACOEM Group seeks to double its sales revenue by 2020. “The extensive expertise Ecotech possesses in air quality complements our well-established know-how in acoustics and vibration, making the ACOEM Group the world’s first company to position itself in the measurement, analysis, and control of all types of environmental parameters,” says Fabien Condemine, CEO, ACOEM Group. “Our merger with Ecotech also enables us to speed up our international growth, notably by opening markets in Australia, India, and Southeast Asia.” “Joining the ACOEM Group is an opportunity for Ecotech to continue its growth, participating in the international success of a group that shares our vision and common values,” says Nicholas Dal Sasso, Managing Director at Ecotech. This external growth operation is consistent with the ACOEM Group’s strong growth over the past five years (from EUR 40 million revenue in 2011 to EUR 62 million in 2015), and it supports a development strategy that seeks to make ACOEM Group the worldwide leader in monitoring environmental parameters. This merger will enable both companies to leverage their expertise and positioning: – Ecotech will develop its expertise in air quality over all the zones covered by ACOEM Group, notably Europe, North America, and Brazil. – ACOEM Group will develop its expertise related to noise and vibration pollution in all the zones covered by Ecotech, notably Australia, […]

Towards a low carbon society

Highlighting the Trend of Hybrid & Electric Vehicles The Ministry of Energy joins hands with Chulalongkorn University, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Industry of Thailand to announce their partnerships to organise the international conference and exhibition on “Sustainable Energy & Technology Asia 2017 or “SETA 2017” and “Low Carbon Expo 2017”, the co-located events for two consecutive years under the theme of “Towards A Low-Carbon Society”. The event will be held during 8-10 March 2017 from 8:00 to 17:30 hrs. at Hall 103 -104, Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre (BITEC), Bangna, Bangkok, Thailand. Four major topics of discussion at SETA 2017 include energy policy and planning on electricity generating technologies for low-carbon emission, power for low-carbon transportation, smart city and green industry with the aim to drive and develop knowledge of energy and technology. This year, the focus is on the trend of hybrid and electric vehicle technology. “SETA 2017” provides an opportunity for executives from government, private sectors, manufacturers, power producers, academics, experts, manufacturers of renewable energy, bankers, investors from all sectors, publics and medias from both domestic and abroad, to gain insights of advanced technology in energy as well as advice from experts of relevant agencies both academic and business. The official opening ceremony will be chaired by H.E. Air Chief Marshal Dr. Prajin Juntong, Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand, H.E. Gen. Anantaporn Karnchanarat, Minister of Energy, H.E. Mr. Arkhom Termpittayapaisith, Minister of Transport, H.E. Dr.Atchaka Sibunruang, Minister of Science and Technology, Thailand, H.E. Dr. Maximus Johnity Ongkili, Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water, Malaysia, H.E. Jesus Miguel Sanz, Ambassador and Head of Delegates of the European Union in Thailand, and H.E. Dr. Matar Al Neyadi, Undersecretary of Ministry of Energy, U.A.E. will address and speak in “CEO Energy Forum” […]

MHPS Opens Global Service Center for Thermal Power Plants in the Philippines

Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) has opened a Global Service Center (GSC) for thermal power plant operators, centered on the Southeast Asia region in Alabang, Muntinlupa City in Metro Manila, Philippines. The Center will support the optimal operation and maintenance (O&M) of thermal power plants, harnessing the latest Information and Communications Technology (ICT), such as remote monitoring, and MHPS’s extensive accumulated knowledge of thermal power systems. In addition, it will provide training to increase the expertise of clients’ O&M engineers. The Center will begin to provide services this fall. An opening ceremony was held locally on the 16th and was attended by many VIPs such as Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary Rowel Barba and Ambassador Kazuhide Ishikawa from the Embassy of Japan, as well as executives from Southeast Asian and Japanese power plant operators, financial institutions and trading companies. President and CEO Takato Nishizawa and Executive Vice President Masao Ishikawa also attended from MHPS and presented an outline of GSC and its services for thermal power plants using ICT. The Global Service Center follows the remote monitoring centers set up in Takasago, Hyogo Prefecture in 1999 and Orlando, Florida in 2001. It will open with approximately 20 employees with excellent communication and technical skills from local group companies with the aim of promoting globalization and consideration will also be given to technology transfer from Japan and development of new services designed to meet the needs of Southeast Asia. The Center will have three main functions: – The Service Solution Center will act as a ‘one-stop shop’ for client needs, providing services such as management of maintenance parts and dispatch of emergency personnel. – The Remote Monitoring Center will not only perform remote monitoring but will also provide solutions for improving O&M based on early fault detection and optimized […]

9th Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW) 2016

Registration is now open for the 9th Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW), a key platform for the discussion of global energy issues and their impact on Asia. SIEW 2016 will bring together top energy leaders to share perspectives on the theme, “New Energy Realities”, which addresses the implications of energy prices remaining lower for longer, and a greater push to make energy systems both greener and smarter. SIEW will kick off with the Singapore Energy Summit (SES) which will focus on: (i) Asia’s New Energy Realities; (ii) Building a Low-Carbon Future; and (iii) Disruptive Technologies and the Energy Consumer. Global thought-leaders speaking at the Summit include:  Dr Fatih Birol, Executive Director, International Energy Agency (IEA)  Dr Shamshad Akhtar, Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)  Dr Phyllis Yoshida, Lead Shepherd of the APEC Working Group & Senior Advisor for International Affairs, US Department of Energy  Masakazu Toyoda, Chairman & CEO, The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ)  Datuk Ir. Ahmad Fauzi bin Hasan, CEO, Energy Commission of Malaysia  Anne Vadasz Nilsson, Director General, Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate  Charif Souki, Co-founder & Chairman, Tellurian Investments  Steve O’Neil, CEO, REC  Anil Sardana, CEO & Managing Director, Tata Power  Ditlev Engel, CEO, DNV GL-Energy  Aaron Domingo, EVP & COO, Meralco PowerGen Corporation  Prof Dr Michael Weinhold, Chief Technology Officer, Energy Management Division, Siemens SIEW continues the tradition to bring together the world’s leading conferences, exhibitions and roundtables, in one week, one location. The 26th International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference and Exhibition (PVSEC-26) will be co-located with the Asia Clean Energy Summit for the first time. Delegates can also network with over 200 exhibitors at Asian Downstream Week, EU Business Avenues in South East […]

Energy services company LR Senergy delivers in Asia Pacific

LR Senergy – a business of the Lloyd’s Register Group – which has offices in Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia, has seen a shift in its geographic portfolio of work, with much of its projects taking place in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. While Europe continues to be a key area for LR Senergy, the company had taken the decision to expand its focus to other regions less affected by the current downturn more than two years ago as part of a longer term strategy to diversify its product offering and the areas in which it operates. One of the most significant projects recently completed by LR Senergy was the drilling of two deepwater wells offshore Vietnam on behalf of VietGazProm. LR Senergy provided full wells project management services, its involvement in bringing about changes to local operating practices regarding the removal of equipment from the seabed post operations. This development provides the opportunity for multi-million dollar savings for operators working in the area. The project also marked the first time LR Senergy has provided a full well project management package in South East Asia – and the first wells to be drilled in water depths of 1,600m offshore Vietnam. The project was delivered on time and under budget. LR Senergy has also recently completed an abandonment and decommissioning study offshore Mauritania for Petronas Carigali. The study entailed undertaking a full conceptual study for the abandonment of 15 subsea wells in the Chinguetti field. The LR Senergy team – including experts that had previously been involved with completing one of the world’s largest subsea field decommissioning projects – identified potential savings for the client worth up to $60 million. LR Senergy’s Jakarta team has recently project managed the drilling of an exploration well for M3nrgy in Indonesia. The well was […]

Revolutionary wind energy conversion system

The novel cross-axis-wind-turbine (CAWT) is a new type of wind turbine that has the capability to extract energy from multi-directional wind that is commonly found in urban areas due to the interaction of airflows between high-rise buildings. Its ability to operate in areas with complex wind pattern and low wind speed overcomes the weaknesses of the vertical and horizontal axis wind turbines (VAWT and HAWT). The novel wind turbine consists of vertical and horizontal blades arranged in a cross axis orientation, therefore enabling it to function with airflows coming from horizontal and vertical directions. The horizontal blades serve as the radial arms that link and support the vertical blades and the hubs through specially designed connectors to form the CAWT. Any airflow streams channeled to the bottom of the turbine interact with the lower and upper radial supporting-arms, therefore maximising the wind energy potential that can be extracted. Viewed from the top, the upper and lower radial arms can be considered as a double-layered HAWT that extracts energy from the vertical wind. Moreover, the lift created by the interaction between the vertical airflow and the horizontal blades creates aero-levitation forces which reduce bearing friction in the generator, hence extending the lifespan of the wind turbine. Initial studies have shown that the CAWT can overcome the problem of self-starting ability of a conventional VAWT, and produce better performance output by up to 2.5 times. In conclusion, the CAWT presents an innovative outlook on the future of wind turbines, creating significant opportunities for the use of wind energy devices and therefore alleviating dependencies on fossil fuel power plants. -chong_wentong@um.edu.my

Paradigm Shift to Mott device-based Power Interruption

Researchers in Korea have overcome a 100-year old technological limitation by fabricating the world’s first Mott device that reduces the size and enhances the performance of traditional electromagnetic switches and circuit breakers. Daejeon, KOREA – The research team, led by Dr. Hyun-Tak Kim of Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, has developed an innovative power interruption technology based on a Mott metal-insulator transition (Mott MIT) device. The Mott MIT signifies the phenomenon that a Mott insulator is abruptly converted into a metal or vice versa without the structural phase transition. The research team previously developed a Mott MIT critical temperature switch (CTS) (or MIT device) which generates a control current (or signal) at a critical temperature between 67 degrees Celsius and 85 degrees Celsius as the unique characteristic of vanadium dioxide. After that, the MIT devices were applied to some kinds of electromagnetic switches that interrupt an electric current in case of overcurrent. An existing traditional electromagnetic switch that takes the role to interrupt electricity through the mechanical switching when it conducts an overcurrent is composed of both an electromagnet called the magnetic contactor, which connects or disconnects signals of main power, and the thermal overload relay with an on-off switching function controlled by temperature. The overload relay is composed of both an expensive delicate mechanical switch with a large size and a bimetal that is made of two separate metals with different thermal expansion coefficients joined together. The bimetal has a characteristic of bending to any direction when heat is applied. The bending force of the bimetal controls the mechanical switch inducing the on-off switching; this has been called ‘hundred years technology of power interruption’; Westinghouse applied the patent right of the power circuit breaker using a bimetal in 1924. However, the bimetal undergoes a change of the bending […]

MHIEC Receives Order to Refurbish 525 tpd MSW Incineration Plant in Nishonomiya City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

TOKYO – Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Environmental & Chemical Engineering Co., Ltd. (MHIEC), a group company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), has received an order from Nisihinomiya City in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, to refurbish core components at the Nishinomiya Waste Municipal Refuse Disposal Center, a municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration plant. The order calls for refurbishment of a stoker type incineration plant(1) with a total capacity of 525 tons per day (tpd) to maintain the plant’s functionality, extend its service life, and further enhance energy conservation. The 2.48 billion yen project is slated for completion in March 2020. The existing MSW incineration plant was designed and constructed by MHI and completed in August 1997. The plant incorporates three stoker incinerators with capacity of 175 tpd each, and can generate up to 6 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The order just placed with MHIEC includes the replacement or refurbishment of superannuated equipment used primarily for incineration, combustion gas cooling, flue gas treatment and ventilation, as well as electrical and instrumentation systems. The refurbishment project will also target enhanced energy conservation, largely through the adoption of MHIEC’s proprietary new exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) low excess air combustion system and use of high-efficiency invertor motors in key equipment. With these measures the refurbished plant will be able to reduce CO2 emissions by more than 20%, or 2,200 tons of CO2 per year, to help curb global warming. Modification and improvement of existing MSW incineration plants are increasing to extend their operational lives and reduce their environmental impact. This trend has also accelerated since the Japanese national government introduced a subsidy system in 2015 to help extend operational life and enhance energy savings at local waste treatment facilities.(2) MHIEC took over MHI’s waste treatment plant business in 2008, acquiring MHI’s technological development capabilities in environmental […]

Henri Winand addresses Asia Clean Energy Summit on the importance of air quality

Singapore 27 October – Intelligent Energy is actively working with Singapore’s Asia Clean Energy Summit (ACES) this month (27-28 October) – the perfect platform to highlight the company’s increasing commercial and operational presence in the region and the vast opportunities for its proprietary fuel cell technology. Intelligent Energy’s key focus at the conference will be to highlight solutions to air quality issues in urban areas – an issue with which Singaporeans are well acquainted. Over the past two years, Intelligent Energy has established an operational hub in Singapore to foster relationships, unlock opportunities and build capability from an operational, business and technology basis. The company has been working closely with a number of strategic partners in the region including SMILE FC System Corporation in Japan, a joint venture established in 2012 by Intelligent Energy and the Suzuki Motor Corporation to develop and manufacture air-cooled fuel cell technologies for the motive sector. In addition, the company is working with high technology Singaporean partners, Manufacturing Integration Technology Ltd (MIT) and Sunningdale to supply key components for fuel cell systems for its Distributed Power & Generation (DP&G) and its Consumer Electronics division’s applications. This also includes working on various opportunities with Japan, Singapore, China and other Asian based partners in all three of its business divisions Motive, Consumer Electronics and DP&G. Intelligent Energy’s Chief Executive Officer, Henri Winand, will be addressing the delegates at ACES on the importance of adopting a portfolio approach to low carbon technologies. Dr Winand commented: “I am delighted to proactively support such an important event which builds on our commitment to our business activities in Singapore. Our presence and strategic partnerships reflects the increased importance of our activities across Asia. We see Asia as the leading region for fuel cell technologies and our recent announcements including a £1.2bn […]

«‹ 5 6 7 8

News Ticker

Energy