Sinovel Wind Group Co. (601558)’s bonds were suspended from trading today after the wind-turbine maker said losses widened almost sixfold. The company reported a loss of 3.45 billion yuan ($551 million) in 2013 versus 582.7 million yuan the previous year, according to a statement to the Shanghai stock exchange yesterday.

General Asia

The problem is that the cost-plus tariff system rewards the most corrupt and inefficient proponents. The average is computed on the phony cost claims of such parties and becomes the order of the day. In Wind Power, this factor has come to pervade more so than in other cases. As a result, there is a huge difference between Wind Tariff in Pakistan and almost anywhere. ...The problem is that local professionals are themselves involved in the scam. Who would hire them, if they do not collaborate in the scam? ...What happens is that only the vested interest remains in the tariff award process. Third-party comments (interventions minus stamp paper) remain as a free advice to which nobody is obliged to respond.

Impact on Economy Energy Policy Asia

“Even as the current wind power market rebounds slowly, industry competition is still very intense” so that manufacturing companies don’t have sufficient profitability, Ma Jinru, a Goldwind spokeswoman, said by email. ... “Companies with less competitive technology and quality will die and their market share will be carved up by several rivals.”

General Asia

Sinovel Wind Group Co., a Chinese wind-turbine maker, plans to save as much as 2.63 billion yuan ($430 million) after canceling plans to build four wind manufacturing plants and scaling back three others. ...Sinovel is cutting spending as orders decline.

General Asia

Suzlon has been trying to recoup $208 million from Big Sky for machines sold in 2009 and wrote down the value by Rs.400 crore last year. Big Sky was formerly owned by Edison Mission Group ...NRG Energy Inc. agreed in October to buy most assets of bankrupt Edison Mission. The Pune-based manufacturer sued Big Sky for payment in September 2012 in New York.

General Asia Illinois

Loss-making Suzlon Energy's auditors have raised red flagged issues like the wind turbine maker's ability to generate adequate cash flow to support operations. Suzlon, grappling with tough business conditions, posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 1,075.25 crore in the three months ended December 2013.

General Asia

“European conservationists generally consider the habitat loss associated with windmill development to be a greater threat to bird populations than collision fatalities.There is evidence that construction of windmills renders habitat unsuitable for birds as it has been found that grassland bird densities were higher on grasslands without wind turbines, than on areas with wind turbines."

Impact on Birds Asia

Sinovel's shares on Monday fell 9.9% to 3.54 yuan (about 59 U.S. cents) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. The company's shares have fallen 41% since it disclosed accounting irregularities in March. Sinovel said in March that it overstated its revenue by 10% and profits by 20% in 2011—its first year as a public company. Sinovel attributed the error to revenue it wasn't supposed to recognize for uncompleted projects.

General Asia

China’s green crash is a textbook example of what happens when central planners substitute their economic decrees for the complex supply and demand decisions of a market. Compounding the missteps of China’s green planners was a belief that the West’s love affair with green power was here to stay, despite its higher cost and unreliability. Believing that it could meet the world’s surging demand for solar and wind power, the Chinese state – from the supreme planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission down to city governments and state-owned banks – gave Chinese manufacturers near-monopoly powers and all-but-free money.

Energy Policy Asia

Japan set a new target for greenhouse gas emissions that critics say will set back United Nations talks for a treaty limiting fossil fuel emissions. The new target effectively reverses course from the goal set four years ago by allowing a 3.1 per cent increase in emissions from 1990 levels rather than seeking a 25 per cent cut.

General Asia

"The decision has to be taken quite carefully as it is a big investment. We need to make sure the costs are fully understood," he said at the World Energy Congress in South Korea last week. Lancaster said more solid wind data would be required to confirm the project's economic feasibility, and that a couple more years of study were needed.

General Asia

Ng says the wind farms are unsightly and kill birds, and are an unreliable source of energy. He makes the point that the Shanwei wind farm operates at an average of 17 per cent to 18 per cent efficiency: "The government is silly to support this project - building this white elephant just for the sake of appearing to do something green, when in fact it is damaging the environment, and costing the community a lot of money in terms of higher fuel bills and higher costs to business. The only beneficiaries are the power companies."

Safety Structural Failure Asia

Typhoon Usagi also broke off blades of another nine wind turbines when it hit the Honghaiwan Wind Farm in coastal Shanwei City, Guangdong.

Structural Failure Safety Asia

"We have built the minimum necessary facilities, including power transmission lines according to demand, and there are times when connecting (renewable energy sources) is difficult due to capacity issues," an official with Hokkaido Electric said. ...in the absence of grid access rules, utilities often do not reveal how limited their delivery lines actually are or the details of the construction costs for letting providers use their grids.

Energy Policy Asia

Japan's commitment to restarting many of its 50 idled reactors appears stronger than ever, a year after a previous government said it would begin to phase out nuclear power completely. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took office in December, says nuclear power remains essential, even with a surge in generation capacity from solar, wind and other renewable sources, and that the world's No. 3 economy cannot afford the mounting costs from importing gas and oil.

Energy Policy Impact on Economy Asia

Laying large-scale photovoltaic panels for power generation requires wide areas of flat, vacant land, ruling out urban areas. Land suited for wind farms, meanwhile, is often in the less populated Tohoku and Hokkaido regions in the north. While these areas have power delivery lines, their capacity is often limited due to low regional demand for electricity.

General Asia

A weaker currency inflates overseas debt when repaid with local earnings, increasing finance costs, while also boosting prices of imported components and other raw materials. The average yield for dollar debt of Indian companies jumped as much as 2.56 percentage points to a 19-month high of 6.32 percent on Aug. 22.

Impact on Economy Asia

What was considered as petty thefts earlier have now taken the shape of an organized operation. About 15% of the turbines put up by developers like Suzlon Energy, Inox Wind, Gammesa, and Enercon (India) are under complete breakdown due to theft, a source in the industry body Indian Wind Power Association (IWPA) said.

General Asia

Five workers died and another five were injured when a wall collapsed at the approach to a wind farm currently under construction in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. ...Five died despite medical efforts, and the other injured were receiving treatment at two different hospitals.

Asia

Vestas has filed lawsuits against the two Indian companies embroiled in the Danish company's row with former CFO Henrik Nørremark. Vestas has filed the lawsuits in New Delhi's high court against RRB Energy and ECO RRB for the return of money handed over by Norremark, in deals that were not sanctioned by the Danish company's board.

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