International technology group ANDRITZ has signed a contract with the Indian state utility company KARNATAKA POWER CORPORATION LTD. to refurbish and renovate the Shivasamudram hydropower plant located in the southern state of Karnataka. Shivasamudram is one of Asia’s oldest hydropower plants and was built in 1902. The ANDRITZ scope of delivery includes the supply of equipment for the turbines and auxiliarie ...

A critically endangered species of orangutan which lives in one forest in Indonesia is in danger of rapid extinction after a court ruled construction of a new hydro-electric dam can go ahead, despite a legal challenge by environmental groups. The Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis) was discovered by scientists in 2017, and just 800 individuals are believed to exist, making it the rarest great ape speci ...

InfraCo Asia Development Pte. Ltd (InfraCo Asia), a company of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), is hoping to open up future private sector investment in small hydropower projects in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) Province of Pakistan following the signing of an agreement to develop four new hydropower schemes in the region. InfraCo Asia has entered into the Joint Investment and Development ...

THE DEBATE over Laos’ strategy to become the “Battery of Asia” continues months after the deadly disaster at the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy hydropower dam, even as the Lao government keeps building more dams. Despite the previous government’s decision to suspend new dam projects and academics’ concerns over the transboundary impacts of dams on the environment and the wellbeing of people in the Mekong River Basin, La ...

After three blasts on Thursday at Nepal's under-construction hydropower project, which is being developed with the assistance of India, workers at the site have expressed fears on continuing work. The explosions on Thursday night by improvised devices at the Arun -3 hydropower project in the Sankhuwasabha district damaged a boomer used for the construction of the tunnel of the project being built. Prime Min ...

By the end of 2018, China's installed capacity for renewable energy reached 728,000 megawatts (MW), up 12 per cent on a year-on-year basis. It took up 38.3 per cent of the total installed capacity, growing 1.7 percentage points year on year, demonstrating that the alternative role of renewable energy has become increasingly important. The data were released on Monday (Jan 28) during a media briefing held by ...

China Three Gorges Corp (CTGC), operator of the world's largest hydropower plant, is turning to projects offshore, a senior official said, as domestic costs soar and space runs out on the country's crowded rivers. "We don't have any plans to build more hydropower projects in China but will develop more projects overseas," said Sun Zhiyu, the company's vice-president, on the sidelines of a meeting. "We alrea ...

Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc (TYO:9501), or TEPCO, announced today that it has acquired a minority stake in the 29.7-MW Coc San hydropower plant (HPP) in Vietnam. TEPCO said in a statement it has bought 36.38% of the shares in Singapore-based Viet Hydro Pte Ltd, which is the majority owner of the company that operates the plant, namely Lao Cai Renewable Energy JSC (LCRE). Separately, InfraCo As ...

A year after the international Expo 2017 held in Astana on ‘Future Energy’ Kazakhstan begins its long journey from oil-dependency to a sustainable developed nation. The emergence of Kazakhstan as an international eco-warrior and regional pioneer of green energy was firmly established last year, after the country was selected to host the international Expo 2017 on ‘Future Energy.’ On the face of things, Kaza ...

When Wolfgang Schwanghart went to Nepal for the first time, he was shocked to see many hydropower dams perching on the steep Himalayan terrains. “They looked rather precarious,” says the geologist, who works at the University of Potsdam in Germany. That was in early April 2015. Two weeks later, a devastating magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck, killing nearly 9,000 people. It also damaged 31 projects of the typ ...