A few days ago, the silicon rod and wafer production project with an investment of 1.1 billion U.S. dollars settled in Xuzhou Economic Development Zone. This is a new breakthrough achieved by Xuzhou Economic Development Zone in speeding up the development of the photovoltaic industry, which has important strategic and indicator significance for building up the 100 billion voltage photovoltaic industry.

The photovoltaic industry is another leading industry developed by Xuzhou Economic Development Zone. It has developed rapidly since it started more than two years ago. From January to July this year, the photovoltaic industry led by polysilicon has achieved a production value of 2.43 billion yuan, an increase of more than 12 times. At present, eight of the world`s 10 biggest photovoltaic producers have established business links with us. It’s expected that by 2010, 1/3 of the global output of polycrystalline silicon will be manufactured by Xuzhou Economic Development Zone.

Relying on the resource advantage of rich silicon materials, Xuzhou Economic Development Zone has actively developed downstream and end products. Silicon rod and wafer production is an import link of the solar photovoltaic industrial chain. The project is invested by Jiangsu Zhongneng Silicon Technology Development Co., Ltd, with a total investment of 1.1 billion U.S. dollars, and an annual production capacity of 2,700MW silicon rod and wafer. Upon completion in 2010, it is expected to achieve an annual sales income of 30 billion yuan, profit and tax 4 billion yuan and 6,000 new jobs.

The first wind power project invested by China Power Investment Corporation (CPIC) Northeast New Energy Co., Ltd in Dalian City, Dalian Tuoshan Wind Farm started construction in Tuoshan Town, Wafangdian City yesterday. It is the largest wind power project in Dalian, with a total investment of 2.8 billion yuan, and a installed capacity of 300,000kw. It will be implemented in three phases. It is learnt that wind turbine generator units with an installed capacity of nearly 50,000kw will go into operation in December next year, with an annual generation capacity of 120 million kwh. It can save 40,000 tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 120,000 tons per year, which will have positive impacts on optimizing the energy structure, pushing up the regional economy and improving the ecological environment.

After more than one year’s wind measurement and site selection, Tuoshan Wind Farm eventually settled in Tuoshan Town, Wafangdian City, with the most abundant wind resource. Extending to some coastal areas of Xiyang Town and Yongning Town to the east, it covers 62 square kilometers. According to Deputy General Manager of CPIC Northeast New Energy Co., Ltd, requirements for the site of the wind farm include the annual average wind velocity there must be 7m/s for 30 consecutive years. Through wind velocity measurement, the average wind velocity in Tuoshan Town exceeds 7.6 m/s, which is northwest sea breeze. And all the other indicators have reached the construction standard.

Taishan Nuclear Power Station, located in Chixi Town, Taishan City, is the fourth nuclear power station built in Guangdong Province by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group.

It is estimated that by the end of 2013, the first two units will be connected to the power grid for commercial operation. Its annual on-grid power volume can reach 26 billion kwh, all of which will be transmitted to the Southern Power Grid.

It’s planned that by 2020, all the nuclear power stations will be put into production, which can save 60 million tons of thermal coal per year.

Yesterday morning, the foundation-laying ceremony of the first phase project of Taishan Nuclear Power Station jointly established by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group and a French enterprise was officially launched. Construction on Taishan Nuclear Power Station has switched from preparatory work into the main body construction phase.

News from Guandong Taishan Nuclear Power Co., Ltd claimed that according to the planned installed capacity of 6 units, Taishan Nuclear Power Station is expected to become No.1 in the world in terms of planned installed capacity.

It’s learned on August 21 from the wind power office of Huaneng Hainai Power Generation Holdings Co., Ltd that, the first batch of wind turbine generators in the first phase of Huaneng Wenchang Wind Farm project has entered the hoisting stage. It’s expected that the first batch of 11 wind turbine generators will complete hoisting at the end of September, and then begin stand-alone debugging, and go into production at the end of December.

Huaneng Wenchang Wind Farm project is one of the key projects in Hainan Province during the "11th Five-Year Plan" period, as well as the first large-scale wind power generation project in Hainan Province. It’s planned that the installed capacity is 120,000kw, and total investment 1.3 billion yuan. Huaneng Wenchang Wind Farm officially started construction on Feb.28 this year. Construction period for the first phase project is 1 year. It will install 33 sets of wind turbine generator units with a unit capacity of 1500kw, which can achieve an annual on-grid power capacity of 103 million kwh. Compared with coal-fired power plants of the same scale, it can save more than 35,100 tons of coal, and reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by 679 tons, and carbon dioxide emissions by about 76,500 tons per year for the country.

At 9:00 on August 16, Guangdong Thermal Power Installation Company undertaking the hoisting work of wind turbine generators of Wenchang Wind Farm began to hoist the No.32 wind turbine generator, which marked the hoisting project of Wenchang Wind Farm entered into the installation stage. On August 17, the first megawatt-class wind turbine generator completed hoisting.

Good news came again from Bashang Area of Hebei Province. Three large-scale wind farms were recently approved by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). With a total installed capacity of 450,000kw, it will install all wind turbine generator units with a unit capacity of 1,500kw. The investment totals to 4 billion yuan.

Three wind farms approved this time include Shangyi Qijiashan Wind Farm invested by Guohua (Hebei) New Energy Co., Ltd, Shangyi Longyuan Wind Farm invested by Longyuan (Zhangjiakou) Wind Power Generation Co., Ltd, and Zhangbei Lvnaobao Wind Farm jointly invested by Hongkong New Energy Holdings Limited and China Energy Conservation Investment Corporation (CECIC).

Of them, Qijiashan Wind Farm project has a construction scale of 199,500kw, and plans to install 133 sets of wind turbine generator units, with a unit capacity of 1,500kw and an annual generation capacity of 462 million kwh. With the approved total installed capacity of 150,000kw, and an overall investment of 1.32 billion yuan, Shangyi Longyuan Wind Farm will build 100 sets of wind turbine generator units with a unit capacity of 1,500kw. With the approved total installed capacity of 100,500kw, and an overall investment of 950 million yuan, Zhangbei Lvnaobao Wind Farm will build 67 sets of wind turbine generator units, with a unit capacity of 1,500kw and an annual generation capacity of about 242 million kwh. It is expected to go into operation in 2010.

The semi-annual report recently released by Beihai Gofar showed that it realized a sales revenue of 195 million yuan, and net profits 36.84 million yuan in the first half year, down 4676.89% year-on-year. The major reason for the loss is that highly-anticipated Guangxi Gofar Bio-energy Co., Ltd suffered 10.2261 million yuan in loss in the first half year, as it hadn’t received NDRC’s permit on the assigned locations of bio-ethanol for long.

Spokesman from the Secretariat Office of Board of Directors of Beihai Gofar said that this may be due to excessive subsidies. As 2,000 yuan of government finance subsidy can be delivered for 1 ton of bio-ethanol, a 100,000-tons bio-ethanol project will get 200 million yuan of subsidy. For a local business, the subsidy amount is a bit too large. Therefore, the approval procedure will be excessively “strict”.

"Exorbitant subsidy is one reason, and the insufficient supply of raw materials should not be ignored either." said bio-energy researcher of Tianxiang Investment Co., Ltd Liu Bin. Because fuel ethanol consumes quantities of raw materials, the relevant state departments suspended putting corn deep-processing projects on records last year. The similar problem also exists in the deep-processing projects of cassava. Restricted by the current strict national conditions, it’s generally very hard for enterprises with ethanol production capacity to convert edible or chemical ethanol into fuel ethanol.

Beihai Gofar hasn’t thought of the tight national monitoring on fuel ethanol. Restrictions on the production of ethanol from corn may also indicate the national consideration on fuel ethanol supply. On September 2007, the National Development and Reform Commission pointed out that during the "11th Five-Year Plan" period, new corn deep-processing projects will not be approved in principle. Localities are required to suspend putting corn deep-processing projects on records immediately. Projects under construction or in planning must be put in order, and projects on record but yet to be built must be halted.

"It’s undeniable that there are good prospects for the development of bio-fuels. However, as the development of fuel ethanol involves exorbitant financial subsidies on the one hand, and raw material supply on the other hand, the approval procedure is also extremely rigorous. That’s why, at present, only a local bio-ethanol enterprise in Tianguan, Henan obtains the production license in addition to several bio-ethanol companies under COFCO.” said the above researcher.

In order to speed up the technical progress of China’s wind power equipment manufacturing industry, and promote the development of wind power, the Ministry of Finance yesterday issued "Provisional Measures on the Management of the Special Subsidy for the Industrialization of Wind Power Equipment”. “Measures” clarifies the subsidy standard and application scope for the central government, as well as subsidy objects, methods and conditions.

According to "Measures", for the first batch of 50 wind turbine generators produced by qualified wind power equipment manufactures, the central government will deliver subsidies according to the standard of 600yuan/kw, of which, complete units manufactures and vital parts manufactures account for 50% respectively. For vital parts manufactures, the subsidy amount is determined by the proportion of cost in principle, with priority given to converters and bearings enterprises. The special subsidy should be allocated to related expenditures like the R&D of new wind power equipment.

"Measures" defines that the subsidy objects are Chinese-funded or Chinese holding enterprises on the territory of China, which specialize on the manufacturing of wind power equipment (including complete unit and blade, gear box, generator, converter and bearing.) The fund mainly subsidizes the complete units and supporting parts of the first batch of 50 industrialized wind turbine generators, with a single unit capacity of over 1MW, newly developed by enterprises, and the subsidy amount will be determined by the installed capacity and required standards.

According to "Measures", the applicant must meet the following 6 requirements: First, equipment must possess independent intellectual property rights and brands, namely, independent research and development, joint development or innovation of introduced technologies must have complete technical documents; Second, the single unit capacity of wind turbine generators is 1,500KW or above; Third, wind turbine generator units have passed the product certification of Beijing Jianheng Certification Center; Fourth, the supporting blade, gear box and generator must be manufactured by Chinese-funded or Chinese holding enterprises, and the adoption of converters and bearings manufactured by Chinese-funded or Chinese holding enterprises is encouraged; Fifth, for the same enterprise which applies for subsidies on products of different sizes with the same technology, the power difference should be 500KW or above; Sixth, wind turbine generator units must complete production, installation, and commissioning in China, pass more than 240 hours of trouble-free operation, and checked and accepted by the owner.

"Measures" stipulates that enterprises should, in strict accordance with relevant requirements, fill in application reports and relevant materials. For enterprises practicing fraud, the Ministry of Finance will withdraw granted subsidies, and hold the person involved accountable.

On August 14, the first batch of wind turbine generator units with a total installed capacity of 41.25MW in Shanxi Youyu Wind power project officially went into operation, which indicated wind power generation in Shanxi Province has fulfilled the zero breakthrough, and unveiled the curtain of utilizing wind energy to achieve recycled economy in Shanxi Province.

The project is jointly undertaken by China Huadian Engineering (Group) Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Electric Co., Ltd., and invested by Shanxi Fuguang Wind Power Co., Ltd under Shanxi International Electric Power Co., Ltd. With a construction scale of 41.25 MW, it is composed of 33 sets of 1250KW wind turbine generator units.

The project started construction in May 2007. The first wind turbine generator was installed on September 4, 2007. It’s expected the whole project can be completed by the end of October, 2008.

Recently, Beima Wind Farm in Longkou City has been approved by the Shandong Provincial Development and Reform Commission, and it is expected to start construction within the year. The total investment of the project is 400 million yuan. At present, the project has begun preliminary planning, and site selection.

It’s reported that Beima Wind Farm is located in mountainous and hilly region of Beima Town, southwest of Longkou City. With an installed capacity of 30MW, it plans to build 20 sets of wind turbine generators with a unit installed capacity of 1500KW. Wind turbine generator units will be connected to the planned 220KV Beima Transformation Station first, and then joined to Shandong power grids in 110KV. All required equipment will be procured through public bidding, and the localization rate of wind power equipment will reach over 70%. According to relevant state regulations, the supporting power transmission and transformation project should be funded, built and operated by power grid administrative bodies. The on-grid power prices will be approved by pricing departments in accordance with relevant regulations.

At present, the construction company of the project is actively preparing wind turbine generator layout and the optimization of installation programs, and strictly controlling the scale of construction land, to achieve economical and intensive land use.

The financial report in the second quarter issued by the leading silicon chip producer in Jiangxi Province Saiwei LDK showed that, as of June 30, its production capacity has reached 880MW, and sales volume 191.7MW, which both surpass that of the former No.1 silicon chip producer in the world, REC.

According to the annual and quarterly financial reports of the well-known Norwegian photovoltaic manufacturer REC, its planned production capacity in 2008 is 800MW; the sales volume of silicon chips in the second quarter of 2008 is 139MW. But Saiwei LDK exceeded REC in both indicators. The sales revenue of Saiwei LDK in the second quarter reaches 441.7 million U.S. dollars, up 89.2% than the last quarter. The sales revenue in the first half year is 675.l million U.S. dollars. By the end of the second quarter, Saiwei LDK has signed 9 long-term silicon chip supply agreements. The total shipment of silicon chips in the second quarter has grown by 60.8% to 191.7MW.

In addition, with an annual production capacity of over 420MW of polysilicon chips, Saiwei LDK recently announced it will expand production with the support of heaps of orders. It plans to expand the production capacity from 800MW to 1,200MW in 2008, from 1,600MW to 2,200MW in 2009, and to 3200MW in 2010; moreover, it also plans to invest 12 billion yuan in building a 15,000-ton silicon material production base.

"By the end of the first quarter this year, our silicon chip production has reached 580MW. The silicon material project with an annual output of 16,000 tons is progressing as planned or in advance. At present, the timetable for the company`s orders has been arranged by 2018. With aggregate orders exceeding 12GW(12,000MW), Saiwei LDK is one of the polysilicon chip suppliers with the largest number of orders in hand around the globe. Head of Saiwei LDK said that the goal of LDK is to become the world’s most economical and largest solar cell silicon chip supplier and an industrial leader with absolute edges in sales volume and market share.