China

Voltaix has formed a sales and customer support office for solar and semiconductor applications in Shanghai, China.

JinkoSolar has claimed it has completed ‘Phase 1’ of an environmental safety upgrade of its chemical storage area, without noting what upgrades had actually been undertaken.

Yingli Green Energy has upgraded existing warranties for both its mono and multicrystalline products as well as introduced a linear-based extended warranty that guarantees power output for each year of a 25-year warranty period.

China Resources Power selected Emerson Process Management to automate two new ultra-supercritical units of 1000MW Puqi power plant in China.

China’s new feed-in tariff has led to a significant increase in downstream activity.

It increased to 9,368,705 MWh from 7,733,629 MWh for the same period last year.

China Guangdong has reopened talks with Kalahari over a 270 pence-a-share bid, according to a Bloomberg report.

The transaction would mark the latest energy sector deal between China and Canada.

Mingsong Liang and Shuming Zhao has been selected as the new independent directors for the company board of Daqo New Energy.

Currently in Australia like much of Asia, the debate about a carbon tax and what form it should take is holding centre stage in both the political arena and public debate through the media. Looking at the major industrial countries, India has already legislated a carbon tax whilst China is looking at implementing a tax in either 2012 or 2013. South Korea has discussed a number of initiatives, but is still to formally legislate any compulsory taxation measures.

China electricity industry has been restructured by separating the design and construction businesses from power grids and firms and establishing two new companies. The two new firms, PowerCorp China and China Energy Engineering Group Co. Ltd., are both solely funded by the state, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The separation of auxiliary businesses from the nation's power grids and power generating companies was part of the country's efforts to reform the power industry as formulated by the State Council in 2002, said Wang Yong, head of SASAC. After the restructuring, the state-owned Sinohydro Corporation, HydroChina Corporation, together with the design and construction units previously affiliated with the State Grid and the China Southern Power Gird in Shanghai, Hebei, Jilin and 11 other regions, will merge into PowerCorp, with assets totaling 196 billion yuan or US 30.63 billion U.S. dollars and 202,700 employees. CEEG has also taken over the other two state-owned enterprises, the China Gezhouba Corporation and the China Power Engineering Consulting Group Corporation, along with auxiliary units previously operated by the State Grid and the China Southern Power Gird in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi and 13 other provinces or regions. CEEG has assets totaling 120 billion yuan and 160,000 staff.

This after exercising a call option to acquire the entire equity interest of Tongji Environmental Pte Ltd for RMB34.03m.

China will tighten emission standards for thermal power plants to curb worsening environmental degradation.

Some Chinese regions will face a shortage of power in winter due to strong demand growth and low water storage, reports Reuters.

Suntech Power expects China to benefit from falling solar prices, forecasting that the country overtake Germany as the largest solar market by 2015, reports Reuters.

State Grid Corp of China won preliminary government approval for its plan to put up a second alternating current ultra-high voltage power line.The approval allows the country's dominant power grid operator to move a step closer toward establishing a network of UHV power lines that would connect energy-rich inland regions and coastal demand centres.