On the morning of Apr.26th, the unveiling ceremony for the preparation and construction office of Huaneng Changchun Biomass Thermal Power Plant was held in Shuangyang District, Changchun City, Jilin Province, which marks the first biomass power generation plant for Huaneng Group have settled in Changchun.

It’s understood that the power plant, with a total investment of about 300 million yuan, the installed capacity of 50,000 KWH, and the annual generating capacity of up to 180 million KWH, is expected to go into operation in August 2009. As the plant mainly takes crop stalks as fuels, it consumes about 200,000 tons of crop stalks per year, saving 85,000 tons of standard coal. The heat from burning stalks can also meet the heat demand within an area of 1.8 million sqm, with energy utilization efficiency up to nearly 90%.

The Chinese government has begun refunding value-added tax (VAT) and import duties on core wind power turbine parts and materials in a move to promote the development of clean energy, the Ministry of Finance announced on Wednesday.

The rebate will be backdated to Jan. 1, according to a statement posted on the ministry`s website.

Meanwhile, the country is to cancel its tariff-free policy on imports of wind turbines with a capacity less than 2.5 megawatts.

The government has set a target for renewable energy to account for 10 percent of the country`s energy consumption by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020.

(Shanghai Securities News, Apr.11th) In order to support the development of nuclear power, the Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration yesterday jointly announced A Notice on Issues Related to Taxation Policy on the Nuclear Power Industry, confirming favourable taxation policy to encourage the development of nuclear power. According to the notice, within the first 15 years since nuclear enterprises produce electricity products and the official commissioning of nuclear power units for commercial operation, VAT policy of collection first followed by refunds will be implemented. The proportion of refund will be gradually decreased in three stages. 75% of the VAT will be refunded within the first 5 years.

According to the notice, the specific refund ratio is as follows: in the first 5 years of official commercial operation, 75% of the VAT paid will be refunded; between the 6th to the 10th year of official commercial operation, 70% of the VAT paid will be refunded; between the 11th to the 15th year since official commercial operation, 55% of the VAT paid will be refunded. Once official commercial operation has gone beyond the 15th year, VAT refund policy will no longer be applied.

Once the VAT has been refunded to nuclear enterprises, the money can only be used to pay off the interest and will not be taxed as business income.

The notice stipulates, existing nuclear enterprises already enjoying the VAT refund policy which terminated in 2007 can continue to enjoy the new VAT refund policy. The refund proportion for the remaining years will be determined in the next month after the expiration of the policy. As for nuclear power stations newly commissioned in 2007, the entitlement to the above tax policy will start in the next month of their commercial operation.

ET Solar Group Corp., a Nanjing-based integrated manufacturer of photovoltaic products including ingot, wafer, module, and state-of- the-art dual-axis tracking systems with manufacturing facilities located in Taizhou, China, recently announced the completion of a US$19 million private equity placement transaction.

The Series A redeemable convertible preferred share placement was led by Tsing Capital / China Environment Fund, a highly experienced institutional investor dedicated to cleantech investment in China, and joined by another prominent institutional investor.

Commenting on the news, Xinghua Wang, chairman of ET Solar, said, "As a vertically integrated solar company that focuses on downstream part of the value chain, ET Solar is well positioned to capture the exponential growth of the solar industry and represents a very attractive investment opportunity to the investors."

China will grant a value-added tax (VAT) rebate to nuclear power companies as part of the country`s efforts to promote the development of nuclear power, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation said in a joint statement.

The government will return 75 percent of VAT to nuclear firms each year for the first five years after a nuclear plant starts operations.

The annual rebate will fall to 70 percent in the following five years and to 55 percent in the five years after that, the statement said.

The rebates took effect on January 1, 2008.

China, the world`s second largest energy consumer, has been promoting nuclear power as an alternative to oil- and coal-fired generating plants.

Its target is 40 million kilowatts of installed nuclear power capacity — 4 percent of total capacity — by 2020.

BEIJING, March 18 (Xinhua) — China`s annual consumption of renewable energy will reach the equivalent of 300 million tons of standard coal by 2010, which would be 10 percent of its total annual energy consumption, under the renewable energy development plan for 2006-2010.

The plan was released on Tuesday by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country`s top economic planning agency.

The plan says 2010 renewable energy consumption will nearly double the 2005 level, which was equivalent to 166 million tons of standard coal. That led to a reduction of 3 million tons of sulfur dioxide emissions and more than 400 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Given the dearth of petroleum and natural gas resources and the large share of coal in China`s energy production, it is difficult for the nation to sustain its development and protect the environment by relying simply on fossil fuels, the NDRC said.

China boasts abundant renewable resources that could be exploited, the plan says. It says that by 2010:

– the nation will have hydropower projects with a combined installed capacity of 190 million kilowatts and wind power projects with installed capacity of 10 million kw.

– the installed capacity of bio-energy projects will reach 5.5million kw and that of solar energy projects will be 300,000 kw.

– domestically produced hydropower equipment and solar water heaters should become competitive on global markets.

– wind power equipment manufacturers should put generating units with installed capacities of at least 1.5 million watts into mass production.

South China`s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region became the 10th Chinese locality to have replaced gasoline and diesel oil with bio-ethanol fuel on Tuesday out of environmental and energy efficiency concerns.

Petrol stations in all the 14 cities of Guangxi began to sell bio-ethanol fuel on Tuesday and in two weeks, traditional petrol and diesel oil will be phased out, said Fu Jian, an official in charge of transport with the regional government.

Fu said about 350,000 motor vehicles and more than 3 million motorbikes will have their tanks cleaned up for the fuel change.

Presently nine other Chinese provinces are using ethanol fuel including Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang provinces in the northeast, Henan and Hebei provinces in the north, Anhui, Shandong and Jiangsu provinces in the east and the central Hubei Province.

Guangxi is the first Chinese locality to commercially produce ethanol fuel with cassava instead of grain. The region produces 7.8 million tonnes of cassava a year, more than 60 percent of China`s total.

It is home to China`s first bio-ethanol fuel production base that went into operation in December in the coastal city of Beihai. The base is designed to produce 200,000 tonnes of biofuel annually out of about 1.5 million tonnes of cassava.

China banned the use of grain for ethanol production last year to ensure sufficient food supplies, and biofuel manufacturers have since turned to sweet potatoes, sorghum and straw stalks instead.

Ethanol fuel is believed to help ease China`s energy supply bottleneck. Customs statistics say China`s net crude oil import climbed at least 12 percent year on year to reach 160 million tonnes in 2007, and the country`s reliance on crude oil import is at least 46 percent.

It is also believed to help cut carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide emissions, by around 30 percent and 10 percent respectively.

Chinese officials said the country`s ethanol fuel sales will reach 30 million tonnes in 2010 to make up half of the total gasoline supplies.