Energy

Europe’s biggest manufacturer of solar panels is to create 300 new jobs at a plant in the UK.

Sharp said the expansion in Wrexham, North Wales, follows the extension of its production facilities and will increase the workforce from 800 to 1,100.

The company anticipates that the enlarged factory, which was first announced in July last year, will almost double production capacity, manufacturing an additional 8,000 panels every day by March 2011.

Permission has been granted for construction of the final nine kilometres of the Corrib Gas Pipeline in Ireland.

The final stretch of the pipeline will bring gas onshore from the Corrib Gas Field, located 83 kilometres off Ireland’s north-west coast. The onshore section of pipeline will be underground along its entire route, linking the end of the offshore pipeline at Glengad to the gas terminal at Bellanaboy, County Mayo.

Permission was granted by Ireland’s planning board, An Bord Pleanála.

CleanTech Innovations, Inc announced today that it has signed two initial wind tower supply contracts totaling $11 million with a subsidiary of China HuaNeng Group, the largest energy company in China. The wind towers will be supplied to HuaNeng later this year.

"These two recent contracts represent approximately 50% of our entire 2010 revenues,” said Bei Lu, chairman & CEO of CleanTech. “The new contracts are critical to meeting our 2011 revenue targets in a favorable market environment.”

Spain’s biggest power utility, Iberdrola, is set to acquire Brazil’s Elektro for €2.4 billion in a move designed to expand its presence in growing markets.

The purchase of Elektro, a distribution company which serves 2.2 million clients in Sao Paulo state, will turn Iberdrola into one of the leading operators in Brazil’s electricity sector. It will also complement the company’s existing presence in north-eastern Brazil.

Algeria’s state-run energy company, Sonatrach, plans to invest around $60 billion in boosting the country’s hydrocarbon production, according to the news agency APS.

The money will be invested over the next five years, APS said, citing the country’s energy minister Youcef Yousfi.

Around 57 per cent of the allocated funding will be spent on exploration and production activities, designed to increase the country's reserves and optimize its exploitation of its hydrocarbon deposits.

The UK and Cuba have formed a joint venture to build biomass power plants adjacent to sugar mills, it has been announced.

The agreement marks one of the largest renewable energy partnerships between the two nations.

Havana Energy, a UK group chaired by former UK energy minister Brian Wilson, will form a joint venture with Zerus, a state-owned company within Cuba’s Ministry of Sugar, to build up to five power plants fuelled by bagasse, the fibre that remains after sugar cane processing.

Joe Rousmaniere, CEO of PETRONAS Base Oil (M) Sdn Bhd, talks to Jayne Alverca about the alchemy that transforms a commodity into an added value product with a global market.

As African economies develop, many nations have learnt the value of maintaining links to their former colonial pasts. In Mozambique, the Cahora Bassa Dam has delivered energy across Southern Africa for over 30 years. Andrew Pelis explores how Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa has managed to maintain supplies through a turbulent 30 years, with a little help from Portugal.

Biggest doesn’t have to be best but the scale of Eskom’s Kusile coal-fired power station is of strategic importance to the hard-pressed utility: it has to catch up with ever increasing demand from industry and South Africa’s mass electrification programme.

Over 30 years Dolphin Offshore Enterprises has emerged as India’s primary offshore oil and gas industry diving and engineering service company, with a reputation for efficiency and innovation. Joint managing director Navpreet Singh talks to Gay Sutton about his strategy for expansion and development.