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Romania – Factors to Watch on July 13

July 14, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

July 13 (Reuters) – Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Tuesday.

PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ends a two-day official visit to Romania. He is expected to meet the speaker of parliament’s lower house.

CURRENT ACCOUNT

The central bank is expected to release current account data for May.

ROMANIA JUNE INFLATION FLAT AT 4.4 PCT AS EXPECTED

Romania’s annual inflation ROCPI=ECI held steady at 4.4 percent in June, in line with market expectations, data from the National Statistics Board showed on Monday. [ID:nBCR000049]

ROMANIA JAN-MAY TRADE DEFICIT SHRINKS 3.2 PCT Y/Y

Romania’s trade deficit ROTBAL=ECI shrank by 3.2 percent to 3.8 billion euros in January-May from the previous year, as exports’ growth rate outpaced that of imports, data showed on Monday. [ID:nBCR000050]

* For an instant view of analysts’ comments on the date releases, please see [ID:nLDE66B0DM].

ROMANIA SELLS LITTLE DEBT, EVEN AT HIGHER YIELD

Romania sold a fraction of what it had planned at a tender for one-year treasury bills on Monday, sticking to a self-imposed cut-off yield of 7 percent and heightening concerns over budget funding. [ID:nLDE66B1OG]

ROMANIA INDICTS CHAIRMAN OF BANCA TRANSILVANIA

Banca Transilvania (BATR.BX), Romania’s second-largest listed bank, has denied any knowledge of wrongdoing after the bank’s chairman was indicted by prosecutors on charges of money laundering and manipulating the market. [ID:nLDE66B0XV]

CZECH GROUP CEZ QUITS ROMANIA GAS-FIRED POWER PROJECT

Czech power group CEZ (CEZPsp.PR) has withdrawn from a partnership with Romania to build a new 400 megawatt gas-fired power plant citing unforseen costs, central Europe’s biggest utility said on Monday.

[ID:nLDE66B180]

CHINA THE ANSWER FOR BALKAN POWER REVAMP

Faced with dwindling interest from cash-strapped and cautious European investors, the Balkans’ creaking electricity infrastructure is happily soaking up more money from China. [ID:nLDE6660I5]

CARS

New car registrations dropped 42 percent on the year in January-June in Romania, to about 37,000 units.

Ziarul Financiar, page 12

LAYOFFS

Romania’s farm ministry plans to lay off about 3,500 people out of its total 13,300 employees, according to a government draft bill.

Ziarul Financiar, Page 2

NOTE- For a diary of forthcoming Romanian events, double

click [RO/DIARY], and a calendar of east European economic indicators, see [CONV/DIARY].

For other related news, double click on: ————————————————————— Romania Market Debt [RO-DBT] Romanian forex [RO-FRX] Romania Market Report [ROL/] Romanian money [RO-M] Emerging Market Debt [EMRG/DBT] Emerging forex [EMRG/FRX] All Emerging Markets news [EMRG] CEE indicators [CONV/DIARY] All East Europe News [EEU] E.Europe equities [.CEE] TOP NEWS — Emerging markets [TOP/EMRG] TOP NEWS — Convergence watch [TOP/EAST] Romanian indicators [RO/ECI] Main page of Reuters poll —————————————————————

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Banca Transilvania, Batr, central Europe, Cez, Czech Group, Electricity Infrastructure, European Investors, mahmoud abbas, market expectations, Market Id, megawatt, Mone, National Statistics Board, Palestinian President Mahmoud, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Power Group, president mahmoud abbas, reuters, Speaker Of Parliament, Treasury Bills

IFC invests $1.7 mln in Thailand solar power plant

June 25, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

June 24 (Reuters) – The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has invested $1.7 million in equity for a 20 percent stake in Thailand’s Solar Power (Korat 1) Company Ltd., Southeast Asia’s largest solar power plant, the IFC said.

Financials

The funding would help expand private power generation and help develop rural Thailand, the IFC, the investment arm of the World Bank, said in a statement.

“IFC’s support to renewable energy generation in Thailand, specifically solar, will encourage similar investments in the region,” Anita George, IFC director for infrastructure, said in the statement.

Solar Power (Korat 1) owns and operates a 6-megawatt grid-tied solar power plant in the Nakhonratchasima province, in northeastern Thailand, the IFC said.

The project supports the government’s goal of generating at least 20 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2022, which will improve the supply of clean energy, help move Thailand toward low-carbon growth and reduce reliance on imported energy, it said.

The Thai firm is majority owned by Solar Power Company Ltd. (SPC), a Thai developer of large, grid-connected, solar photo-voltaic projects. Kyocera Corp (6971.T) has a minority shareholding in SPC.

IFC’s investment rights in SPC and its related companies could amount to as much as $20 million if fully exercised, it said.

SPC Korat 1 also has received a minority equity investment from the Energy for Environment Foundation and debt financing from Kasikornbank (KBAN.BK).

Since 2005, IFC has invested more than $1 billion in renewable energy projects. ($1=32.37 baht) (Reporting by Arada Kultawanich; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: clean energy, Debt Financing, Environment Foundation, International Finance Corporation, Investment Arm, KASIKORNBANK, kyocera corp, megawatt, Minority Equity Investment, Northeastern Thailand, Private Power, renewable energy generation, renewable energy projects, renewable sources, reuters, shareholding, Solar Power Company, solar power plant, southeast asia, Thai Developer

Kansai to restart Mihama No.2 reactor in late June

June 12, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

June 11 (Reuters) – Kansai Electric Power Co (9503.T), Japan’s second-biggest utility, said on Friday it plans to restart the 500-megawatt No.2 reactor at its Mihama plant in late June.

Utilities

The unit has been shut since April 24 due to a problem related to the unit’s cooling system. (Reporting by James Topham and Osamu Tsukimori)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: April 24, cooling system, Electric Power Co, Japan, kansai, Kansai Electric Power, Kansai Electric Power Co, megawatt, Osamu, reactor, reuters, Topham

Uttarakhand Congress demands CM”s resignation over corruption charges

May 6, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Dehradun (Uttarakhand), May 6 (ANI): Uttarakhand leader of Opposition and Congress leader Harak Singh Rawat has demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank over allegations of corruption in the allotment of a hydro-power project.

Rawat accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government of being corrupt in the allotment of the power project to as many as 56 private companies.

Rawat demanded a probe into the matter and sought Nishank”s resignation.

“The State government has resorted to corruption in the hydro-power project. We have been demanding a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) probe into the matter. The Chief Minister was justifying himself on a national television. We have demanded that he should resign on moral grounds,” said Rawat.

He added that the Congress would not allow the State Government to sell the power project to private companies. The power station in question is capable of generating up to 800 Megawatts.

Meanwhile, Nishank said that the process of allotment would only take place after all clearances have been received and Memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with the companies.

“The 56 companies got power projects on the basis of tender. Only those companies got the tender that were technically sound. After the clearance of objections, MoUs will be signed with the companies,” said Nishank.

“I want to repeat that till now, nobody has got even half a megawatt of power,” he added.

The Chief Minister further said that that a committee of secretary-level officials has been formed to look into the objections raised over the allotment process.

He added that a committee of Secretary-level officials has been formed to look into the objections raised over the allotment process. (ANI)

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Residents meet over water contamination fears

March 19, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) will tonight address South Burnett residents worried about an underground coal gasification (UCG) project near Kingaroy.

Cougar Energy has begun producing gas from its coal seam this week.

The Kingaroy Concerned Residents group says the company’s proposed 400 megawatt power station could contaminate local water supplies.

Group spokesman Gary Tessmann says the QCC will present a report by the United States Environmental Protection Agency which discovered water contamination at an American UCG plant.

“They’ve certainly had problems with this process and I don’t think they actually do it any more,” he said.

“This is something that we actually want to get people aware of, actually there is problems with underground water and this is where this group is mainly concerned about.”

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Airborne laser to shoot ballistic missile as part of flight test

September 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, September 12 (ANI): Soon, the Airborne Laser (ABL), built into a customized Boeing 747, is ready for flight tests, in which it will try to shoot a ballistic missile.

According to a report in New Scientist, the US Department of Defense’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) has developed the ABL.

The ABL aims to focus a beam of laser energy in the megawatt range for several seconds onto a missile at a “militarily significant distance” – more than 100 kilometres.

So far, the laser has only operated at near full power on the ground. On August 18, it was fired successfully from the air, but at reduced power.

That, however, was no mean feat, as aircraft vibrations play havoc with the precisely aligned optical components needed to generate a laser beam.

Firing at full power poses other challenges as well.

At powers high enough to destroy missiles, any surface contamination or tiny flaw in the laser optics can absorb so much heat that they crack or shatter.

High-power laser beams also heat the air they pass through, creating perturbations that can disperse or divert the beam.

To counteract those effects, the ABL uses an adaptive system that senses atmospheric changes along its path and makes optical adjustments to compensate.

To test that system, the MDA plans a series of increasingly powerful shots at modified ballistic missiles loaded with sensors to measure the distribution of laser power on the target.

Engineers will assess each shot’s performance and use the results to fine-tune the adaptive optics.

Once this is done, the MDA will test the laser again in varying conditions, and attempt to destroy actual missiles.

The first of these tests is planned to take place late this year, with two more to follow in early 2010, according to an MDA spokeswoman. (ANI)

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India, Bangladesh discuss dam on Barak river

September 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Sep 9(ANI): Union Water Resource Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal met visiting Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni on Wednesday to discuss a dam project which is being built by India on the Barak river.

India has approved plans for a 1,500 megawatt project at Tipaimukh on the river, which flows through both countries before emptying into the Bay of Bengal.

Bangladesh is asking India to scrap the dam project on Barak River, as experts warn that the dam being built in Manipur could make two rivers in Bangladesh -Surma and Kushiara- dry up, which would be a drastic environmental disaster and affect millions of people.

Earlier, India had commissioned the Farakka Barrage in 1974 on the river Ganges along Bangladesh’s northern border to divert water to the river Hoogly to keep Kolkata port navigable.

As a result, Bangladesh faced severe water shortages during winter until a 30-year agreement was signed in 1996 to share the flow.

Critics of the new project cite environmental experts as predicting similar results this time. (ANI)

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Enhancement of India, Russia trade ties

September 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Moscow, Sep 3 (ANI): President Pratibha Devisingh Patil has expressed a desire to enhance bilateral trade ties with Russia.

While addressing a gathering of expatriate Indians and some prominent Russians during the course of her five-day visit, Patil said, the only area where India-Russia relationship is lagging is in the field of bilateral economic cooperation.

“When I look at our relationship, if there is anywhere I feel we are lagging behind, it is in the field of bilateral economic cooperation. For two economies with GDP’s of this size, economic structures that only point to our strong complementarities, close political ties, at all levels of government and strong desire of political leadership of both the sides to foster closer ties, India-Russia bilateral trade and investment ties remain much too modest,” Patil added.

Acknowledging the work done by the expatriate Indian community towards enhancing ties between both the countries, Patil said, “All of you have been working in some capacity or the other with India-Russia collaborators projects. It is your work that has provided the building blocks to the India-Russia strategic partnership.”

Reportedly, Russia is keen to double the trade with India to 10 billion dollars by 2010 and cement Indo-Russian relations despite trade with India lagging far behind Moscow’s economic ties with the European Union and China.

Russia sees India, a staunch ally of the erstwhile Soviet Union during the Cold War era, as an important partner to expand Russian influence in Asia, though Moscow and New Delhi have bickered over delays in the delivery of Russian military hardware.

Russia is aiding in the setting up of two 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors at Kudankulam as part of a deal signed in 1988. Russia agreed in 2008 to build four more reactors at the site. By Pankaj Choudhary (ANI)

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Poor monsoon lowered hydro electricity generation in HP

August 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Kullu (HP), Aug. 29 (ANI): Scanty rains have resulted in low hydro electricity generation in Himachal Pradesh this year.

Lack of snowfall is being attributed as another big reason that affected the flow of rivers and streams in the region and resulted in lower power generation.

86 megawatt Malana Hydro Electric Project is one the hydel projects which has been affected.

According to the General Manager of the Hydro electric project, J.K.Beri, Compared to 2008, the production level of electricity has decreased by 5,49,68,808 units.

“Last year from April 2008 to August 25, 2008, we generated 24,71,97,856 units of electricity. This year in the same period, we have managed to generate just 19,22,38,048 units of electricity. The reason is less rainfall and low temperature during the melting time of glaciers,” Beri said.

The peak season to generate power starts from June and ends in September.

Beri added that as the peak season is over, they might not be able to fulfil the generation loss.

“I think we may not be able to recoup our generation loss this year as we don’t expect enough rainfall in future,” he said.

Himachal Pradesh plays a significant role in the supply of electricity to northern grid.

The state supplies electricity to Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: electricity generation, generation loss, Himachal Pradesh, Hydel Projects, hydro electricity, hydro-electric, kullu, low temperature, megawatt, melting time, Monsoon, northern grid, peak season, power generation, Rajasthan, rivers and streams, snowfall, time of glaciers, Units Of Electricity, Uttarakhand

Dadri farmers up in arms over proposed power project

August 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Lucknow, Aug 29 (ANI): Hundreds of farmers took to the streets in Uttar Pradesh’s Dadri district, seeking return of farmland acquired to set up a power plant.

Reliance Power held by Anil Ambani’s ADA group had announced setting up of a 3,500 megawatt gas-based power plant in Dadri at a cost of 2.2 million dollars.

Farmers alleged that they were given a meagre compensation for their highly fertile agricultural land.

Farmers started the protest march from Reliance power project site in Dadri to Lucknow, on Thursday.

The protest was jointly organised by the farmers unions and the Congress Party.

Protestors said that their struggle was for justice.

“This demonstration is a long struggle that depicts the battle between justice and injustice. The way in which the 2500 acres of highly fertile land snatched from farmers by sighting the dream of a power project was wrong…five years have been passed but there is no sign of power plant,” said Pramod Tiwari, senior Congress leader. (ANI)

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Nathpa-Jhakri Power Station achieves record power generation

August 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Rampur (Himachal Pradesh), Aug. 9 (ANI): The 1500-megawatt Nathpa-Jhakri Power Station (NJPS) in Himachal Pradesh generated a record 114 crore units of power in the month of July, officials said on Sunday.

The power plant usually produces 6.6 billion units of power a year.

“I am pleased to say that this year the Nathpa-Jhakri station, country’s biggest project has done a record power generation. We have generated 114 crore units power in the month of July in comparison to any other projects across country,” said N C Bansal, General Manager of NJPS.

“In just last four months we have generated 340 crore units of power whereas annually our target production is of 660 crore units,” he added.

Locals said the increase in power generation despite scanty rainfall could be due to the fact that there was less silt in the dam compared to the previous years.

“There were less rains this time and it has not benefited farmers. But, still Nathpa-Jhakri project has produced record power generation. Generally the heavy rain brings silt and muck from the mountains, as there was less rain this time I think this has helped. Also, this in turn has benefited government and the industries,” said Hemant Kumar, a local resident.

NJPS provides power to Uttrakhand, Jammu and Kashimr, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. (ANI)

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Russia plans to build five floating Arctic nuke stations

May 4, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Tromso (Norway), May 3 (ANI): Russia is planning to build a fleet of floating and submersible nuclear power stations to exploit Arctic oil and gas reserves.

This is causing widespread alarm among environmentalists, reports The Guardian. prototype floating nuclear power station being constructed at the SevMash shipyard in Severodvinsk is due to be completed next year.

An agreement to build a further four was reached between the Russian state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, and the northern Siberian republic of Yakutiya in February.

The 70-megawatt plants, each of which would consist of two reactors on board giant steel platforms, would provide power to Gazprom, Russia’s largest oil firm.

The building of the nuclear power stations would allow Gazprom to power drills needed to exploit some of the remotest oil and gas fields in the world in the Barents and Kara seas.

The self-propelled vessels would store their own waste and fuel and would need to be serviced only once every 12 to 14 years.

In addition, designers are known to have developed submarine nuclear-powered drilling rigs that could allow eight wells to be drilled at a time.

Bellona, a leading Scandinavian environmental watchdog group, yesterday condemned the idea of using nuclear power to open the Arctic to oil, gas and mineral production, terming it as a highly risky proposition.

Environmentalists also fear that if additional radioactive waste is produced, it will be dumped into the sea.

Russia has a long record of polluting the Arctic with radioactive waste.

Countries including Britain have had to offer Russia billions of dollars to decommission more than 160 nuclear submarines, but at least 12 nuclear reactors have been dumped, along with more than 5,000 containers of solid and liquid nuclear waste, on the northern coast and on the island of Novaya Zemlya.

The US Geological Survey believes the Arctic holds up to 25 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas reserves, leading some experts to call the region the next Saudi Arabia.

The technological exploitation of the region is next to impossible due to sea ice, strong winds and temperatures that can dip to below -50C.

Russia, Norway, Denmark, Canada and the US have all claimed large areas of the Arctic in the past five years. But many countries bordering the Arctic see climate change as the chance to exploit areas that were once inaccessible and to open trade routes between the Pacific and Atlantic. (ANI)

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UPDATE 1-Entergy NY Indian Pt 3 reactor reonnects to grid

April 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

(Releads with reconnection to grid)

NEW YORK, April 15 (Reuters) – Entergy Corp’s (ETR.N) 1,025-megawatt Unit 3 at the Indian Point nuclear power plant near New York City reconnected to the power grid Wednesday afternoon after a 35-day refueling outage, the company said.

The unit had been shut since March 11 for scheduled maintenance and refueling. By late Wednesday afternoon, it was operating at 28 percent of production capacity, said Jerry Nappi, Indian Point spokesman for Entergy.

The 2,045 MW Indian Point station is located in Buchanan in Westchester County about 45 miles north of New York City. The station has two units: the 1,020 MW Unit 2 and the 1,025 MW Unit 3, which entered service in 1973 and 1976.

Unit 2 continued to operate at full power early Wednesday.

Before it shut on March 11 to refuel, Unit 3 had operated for 678 consecutive days, a U.S. record for continuous operation for Westinghouse pressurized water reactors, Entergy said.

One MW powers about 800 homes in New York.

Entergy, of New Orleans, owns and operates about 30,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities and transmits and distributes power to 2.7 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. (Reporting by Joe Silha and Bernie Woodall, editing by John Picinich)

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Russia delivers first batch of nuclear fuel to India

April 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Vinay Shukla Moscow, Apr 10 (PTI) Under a multi-million dollar long-term nuclear fuel supply deal between Moscow and New Delhi, Russia has delivered the first batch of 30 metric tonnes of uranium pellets to India. “Thirty metric tonnes of pellets have been delivered to Hyderabad-based Nuclear Fuel Complex for the production of fuel for ‘Rajasthan’ NPP,” Russia’s ‘Atomenergoprom’ said in a statement.

Under the USD 700 million contract inked between Russia’s TVEL Corporation and India’s Department of Atomic Energy in February, this is the first batch of Uranium Dioxide pellets delivered to Nuclear Fuel Complex. One of the largest nuclear fuel producers in the world, TVEL is a wholly owned subsidiary of ‘Atomenergoprom’.

Under the deal, it would supply the uranium pellets to fuel pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWR) in India. TVEL would also ensure life-cycle supply of fuel for the light-water VVER reactors of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu.

Russia is currently completing the assembly of first two VVER-1000 reactors with total two Megawatt capacity at Kudankulam. Under the deal inked in December 2008 during President Dmitry Medvedev’s maiden India visit, Russia will build four more reactors to meet India’s growing energy requirements.

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Japan power firms make scant progress with CO2 cuts

April 12, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

TOKYO, April 10 (Reuters) – Japan’s electric power companies made little progress in producing low-carbon electricity and lowering emissions in the past year, industry data showed on Friday, mostly due to an outage at a nuclear power plant.

The data increases the likelihood that Japanese power firms, factories and companies will have to buy more carbon offsets from abroad to help Japan to meet its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.

Japan’s commitments depend largely on the electric power sector’s efforts to make electricity low carbon by using more non-fossil fuels and producing 20 percent less carbon dioxide emissions per kilowatt hour than 1990/1991 levels.

Japan’s 12 electric power companies produced 0.45 kg CO2 per kilowatt hour in the year to March 2008, preliminary data by the Federation of Electric Power Companies showed.

That compares with 0.453 kg a year ago, against the sector’s target of 0.34 kg over the five years to March 2013 from 0.417 kg in 1990/1991.

Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (9501.T) 1,356-megawatt No.7 reactor at its Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, the world’s largest, has been closed since July 2007 after a powerful earthquake. [ID:nT327041]

The industry data is being closely watched. 2008/2009 was the start of Japan’s five-year plan under the Kyoto Protocol, the U.N.-led global climate pact under which many nations aim to reduce emissions.

The electric power sector’s CO2 emissions per kilowatt hour is used as a basis to calculate emissions at offices and factories from their power consumption. [ID:nT299251]

The sector’s voluntary target is not legally binding, but it considers it a commitment and has said it would make up any shortfall with U.N. approved emission credits from abroad or other offsets. (Editing by Sue Thomas)

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Ahmadinejad inaugurates Iran’s first nuclear fuel plant

April 10, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Isfahan (Iran), April 9 (DPA) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Thursday inaugurated the country’s first nuclear fuel manufacturing plant (FMP) located near this central Iranian city.

The FMP, reportedly based solely on work by Iranian experts, is to provide the Arak 40-megawatt research reactor with fuel, producing nuclear fuel tablets, rods and assemblies for the plant, which is to be launched within the next two or three years.

Iran says that with the launch of the FMP, it has de-facto mastered the final stage of the nuclear fuel production process.

Ahmadinejad opened the plant on Iran’s so-called Nuclear Day.

He is also to inspect the Natanz uranium enrichment plant near Isfahan, where 6,000 centrifuges are operative and according to Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, at least 4,000 more are planned to be installed during the current year.

Isfahan’s FMP can also produce nuclear fuel assemblies for the Bushehr nuclear power plant that is a joint project with Russia with its first phase scheduled to be completed later this year.

The FMP in Isfahan will convert enriched uranium hexafluoride into uranium dioxide (UO2) powder, which will later be processed into pellet form, Tehran’s Press TV said on its website.

The pellets will then be stacked into tubes of corrosion-resistant metal alloy called fuel rods. The finished fuel rods will be assembled together to build up the nuclear fuel core of a power reactor.

Tehran says its nuclear programmes are only for civil and peaceful purposes, but the West fears that Iran might use the same technology for making nuclear weapons.

Ahmadinejad has several times said that Iran would be ready for negotiations with the West, however not for following international demands of suspending the controversial nuclear enrichment but for removing concerns over alleged secret military programmes.

On Wednesday, the US said it would join other permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany in talks with Iran over its nuclear activities, indicating a significant shift from former president George W. Bush’s stand that US participation in any talks with Iran would depend on its suspension of all nuclear work.

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Russia offers aid for hydroelectric plants in Bangladesh

April 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Dhaka – Russia on Wednesday offered to help Bangladesh set up hydroelectric units using river currents to ease the country’s severe power crisis, an official said.

“By constructing low-height dams on rivers, it is possible to establish a number of small power plants with 10- to 20-megawatt generation in Bangladesh,” Russian Ambassador Gennady P Trotsenko said after meeting with Bangladesh officials.

The envoy said a Russian delegation would visit Dhaka next month for a feasibility study of a pilot project using river currents.

Presidential energy advisor Toufiq-e-Elahi said the government was determined to ensure diversification of energy resources to overcome energy shortages.

Impoverished Bangladesh has been reeling under an energy crisis as nearly 30 percent of the total population is using the national power grid with maximum generation capacity of only 4,000 megawatts.

The two sides are also expected to ink a deal for peaceful use of nuclear energy to allow future construction of two 1,000-megawatt nuclear power plants in Bangladesh, officials said. (dpa)

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Future electric cars, laptops may benefit from a new kind of capacitor

March 16, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, March 16 (ANI): Electric cars and laptops may soon benefit from a prototype capacitor that can store power as densely as a supercapacitor, and release it rapidly.

The novel capacitor has been developed by a team of scientists from the University of Maryland and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

Gary Rubloff, a chemist at the University of Maryland, says that the secret to the prototype’s performance is that it has 10 billion tiny capacitors crammed into every square centimetre.

Electrodes connect up the mini devices so they can function as a single unit, the researcher adds.

Rubloff has revealed that the prototype capacitor can deliver energy at a speed typical of electrostatic capacitors, at a rate that would allow a single kilogram to deliver one megawatt of power, which is enough to power 10,000 100-watt light bulbs.

The researcher further says that the capacitor can also store energy as densely as a supercapacitor, with 1 kg holding 2500 joules.

“Our primary target (for this technology) is as part of a hybrid battery-capacitor system for electric cars. But there are many (potential) small scale applications, (including) better electrical storage systems for cellphones or laptops,” New Scientist magazine quoted Rubloff as saying.

A research article on the creation of the new prototype capacitor has been published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. (ANI)

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Highway sinks in Doda, rescue work underway

February 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Doda (Jammu), Feb.8 (ANI): Doda and Kishtwar districts of Jammu and Kashmir were virtually cut off from rest of the state after heavy overnight rains washed off parts of a road near the Baglihar power project on Saturday.

A half-a-kilometer stretch of road between Batote-Kishtwar National Highway-1B collapsed under the weight of rising waters of the Chenab River.

Officials said four vehicles, including two trucks; an ambulance and a van were swept away. The driver of a van is missing.

A house was also buried under the debris.

Eyewitnesses said the river gradually swamped the road. Panic-stricken locals said after the commissioning of Baglihar project, the water level in Chenab had increased.

“My house is just hundred meters away from Chenab River. We got scared that that the water would submerge us also. We could not sleep the entire night,” said Shyam Lal, a resident of the area.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) teams have been pressed into action and repair and rescue work is going on.

“We have sent a team of engineers and officials of the revenue department. They are taking stock of the situation and are estimating the loss and the locals would be compensated and evacuated from the region if required,” said Sayed Shareif-Ud-Din, District Commissioner of northern Doda.

He said a chopper would be available at the Doda district headquarters to meet any emergency.

State chief, Omar Abdullah conducted an aerial survey of the region and ensured supply of essential commodities to the region.

Experts had earlier cautioned that there was a danger of the twin districts getting submerged and being cut off from the rest of the state if the water flow increased.

The disputed 450-megawatt Baglihar Dam is being built by India on the Chenab river, which flows from Indian Kashmir into Pakistan.

Islamabad has objected to its design saying it violates a 1960 World Bank-brokered water-sharing treaty. India rejects the charge. (ANI)

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