Tensions between China and other nations bordering the South China Sea are escalating, with the oil and gas resources that lie beneath those waters playing a central role. Keep reading →
China
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We will never sell or share your information without your consent. See our privacy policy.Former Big Oil Executive Expects Importance of Oil to Decline (And That’s Not All)
By Jared Anderson
China’s growing thirst for oil will leave the rest of the world scrambling for supply, oil could soon face a competitor it never expected and the US has no free market for energy. These are just a few of the provocative ideas former Shell Oil President John Hofmeister shared at a recent New York Energy Forum meeting.
Upon retiring from Shell Oil – the US subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell – in 2008, Hofmeister founded the non-profit nationwide membership association Citizens for Affordable Energy. The group is dedicated to promoting sound US energy security solutions that include a range of affordable energy supplies, efficiency improvements, essential infrastructure, sustainable environmental policies and public energy issue education. Keep reading →
Will low-cost Chinese meters eventually force out equipment made in the U.S. and Europe? Earlier this year, we saw China-affiliated Glen Canyon launch an inexpensive smart meter for the North American market. But most analysts predict it will take a few years – at the earliest – for Chinese meters to penetrate the staid and slow-to-change market here.
A more grave threat may be embodied in Monday’s announcement (see the press release) that Chinese giant Huawei is teaming with Landis+Gyr to attack the UK market. Most U.S.-based metering companies have long assumed that Europe would provide their next wave of growth. But European utilities may prove more willing to incorporate Chinese technology. At best, the North American companies will have to slash prices and margins. At worst, they could be priced out altogether. Keep reading →
China faces unique energy challenges to fuel continued rapid development. More from Peter Voser Shell CEO http://bit.ly/GLJASY
By Peter GardettChina faces unique energy challenges to fuel continued rapid development. More from Peter Voser #Shell CEO http://bit.ly/GLJASY Shell
Two Israeli exhibition staffers next to solar panels at a stand at the EnergyTech international exhibition on solar, wind and green technologies in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv.
The Middle East is being eyed for a solar revolution by the Chinese owner of more than 40% of Israel’s solar photovaltaic panels in a new twist on the energy sector’s international roots.
Currently the largest producer of solar panels in the world, China-based Suntech has long been eyeing the oil-rich Middle Eastern market as a critical region for energy transformation. As oil prices skyrocket, many Middle Eastern countries are opting to sell their oil and produce electricity from other sources – including solar – for domestic use.
But the Israeli market has been a unique business opportunity for Suntech because of the plethora of high-tech and IT companies in the country’s “Silicon Wadi” that are innovating unique solar solutions.
Suntech signed a 10 million NIS (approximately $2.7 million) contract in January with Israel’s Tel Aviv-based Enerpoint for the company’s SuperPoly solar system that improves panel operating efficiency in extremely hot and sunny climates like Israel and the Middle East. The companies say that contract, which was signed for the first quarter of 2012, could be extended for the remainder of the year.
And while Suntech has done most of its business in Israel through large local solar companies like Arava Power in the south and Solarit Doral in the north, Suntech Communications Supervisor for the Asia Pacific, Middle Eastand Africa (APMEA) regions Ryan Ulrich told Breaking Energy that Israel has proved a very comfortable place for the company to do business.
“In Israel things are much more open: access to relevant decision makers, access to the media is much easier than in other markets,” Ulrich said.
A Holy Land History
Ulrich said Israel has been a key market for Suntech since 2008 when the company joined with Solarit Doral to build a 50 kW rooftop solar installation in Katzrin, located in Israel’s Golan Heights mountain range. Since then, Suntech provided the panels to Arava Power for Israel’s first utility-scale solar project, a 4.95 MW solar array in Kibbutz Ketura. Keep reading →
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates delivers remarks on the state of energy February 28, 2012 during the US Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit at the Gaylord National Hotel & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland near Washington, DC. Gates was joined by US Energy Secretary Steven Chu and former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu sees energy following cell phones and “going viral” worldwide if the costs of advanced batteries teamed with efficient solar panels can be reduced enough. Keep reading →
Duke Energy and China Huaneng Group Expand Cooperation to Develop Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies – http://prn.to/wSyPlB
By Peter GardettDuke Energy and China Huaneng Group Expand Cooperation to Develop Carbon Capture and Sequestration Technologies – http://prn.to/wSyPlB DukeEnergy
Chinese companies continue to “overpay wildly” for foreign energy investments but still can’t keep pace with growing consumption in China’s subsidized domestic market, Derek Scissors of the Heritage Foundation told the China Environment Forum in Washington last week.
Fuel prices are controlled and kept well below market in China, he said, so Chinese companies end up selling oil and gas into international markets whenever possible rather than sending the resources home. The government is promising reform but has set no schedule. Keep reading →
The unique structure of the US natural gas industry enabled development and rapid deployment of new shale gas technology, and the lack of that structure is complicating efforts of other countries to follow suit.
That’s according to Laszlo Varro, head of the Gas, Coal & Power Division at the International Energy Agency, speaking at the Center for Strategic & International Studies recently. Keep reading →
China has the world’s largest-ever program to build new nuclear generating plants, the world’s largest-ever program to build renewables, government mandates to vastly improve efficiency – and the world’s largest coal building program.
China’s situation was used by International Energy Agency experts to illustrate why their first report on coal’s prospects over the next five years, the Medium-Term Coal Market Report 2011, has concluded coal will remain the world’s dominant fuel, despite growing worries about climate change. Keep reading →
