Power generator expands to insurance sector

Power generator expands to insurance sector - People's Daily

China Guodian Corporation, one of the largest State-owned power generation groups, is expanding its range of interests in the financial sector.

"Financial business will be one of our strategic focuses in the future," said Shao Guoyong, general manager of Guodian Capital Holding.

Shao is also president of Old Mutual-Guodian Life Insurance, a Sino-UK joint insurance venture.

In February, Guodian acquired the stake that Beijing State-owned Asset Management Co Ltd had in the 50:50 joint life insurer with London-based Old Mutual Plc for 330 million yuan ($49.2 million). The joint venture was previously called Skandia BSAM Life Insurance Co.

After the acquisition, the two shareholders injected a total of 100 million yuan into the new company in September, boosting its registered capital from 520 million yuan to 620 million yuan.

Guodian's stake purchase in the joint life insurer, however, is not its first attempt to work in the financial sector.

Meanwhile it is also considering initiating a property and casualty insurance company in which Guodian will take a controlling stake.

Prior to that, the company had purchased a stake in All Trust Insurance, a non-life insurance company.

Besides active participation in the insurance sector, Guodian Group has set up Guodian Capital Holding, serving as the company's financial platform.

It also set up an asset management company with Citic Trust.

Meanwhile, Guodian Group has a controlling stake in Shijiazhuang City Commercial Bank.

A source close to Guodian Group said the company plans to build a financial platform which will include all the major financial sectors.

However, Guodian still lacks a license for securities and trust business.

"How to maximize the synergy between the power sector and the financial sector will be a big challenge for us," said Shao.

"Old Mutual-Guodian will be an important subsidiary to boost our financial sector's profit contribution," Shao added.

According to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, Old Mutual-Guodian had a premium income of 665.5 million yuan during the first nine months this year, up 35.6 percent year-on-year.

Zhang Guohou, chief accounting officer of Guodian Group, said earlier that the company is quite optimistic about the insurance sector, due to the country's huge aging population.

But for Zheng Wei, an insurance professor with Peking University, State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have to be patient in the insurance business.

"As the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (the watchdog for China's largest SOEs) tightened the performance evaluations of the top management of those SOEs, they could hardly be patient with the business development of their joint life insurance ventures, which usually lose money in the first seven to eight years," said Zheng.

Japan warming up to solar power exports

Japan warming up to solar power exports - Asahi Shimbun

A scorching desert in Tunisia provides a site that symbolizes the end of the "cold shoulder" treatment the Japanese government has given to Japan's solar thermal power industry.

Japanese companies next month will start surveying the area in the North African desert for a project to jointly build a solar thermal power generation plant with the Tunisian government.

But it was the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry that obtained the order for the project.

After three decades of not supporting Japan's solar thermal power generation industry, the Japanese government is pushing sales of the country's solar thermal power technology to other nations.

Tadahiro Matsushita, senior vice minister of economy, trade and industry, visited an experiment plant for solar thermal power generation in the United Arab Emirates in January.

The plant was built by Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co.

"We want to spread these Japanese technologies more," Matsushita said, as he watched experiments being conducted at the site.

A UAE government organization and Japan's Cosmo Oil Co. paid 1 billion yen ($12 million) needed for the experiments.

"We had repeatedly asked the Japanese government for support, but the government gave us the cold shoulder," said Yutaka Tamaura, a Tokyo Institute of Technology professor involved in the joint experiments.

In the 1980s, the Japanese government and the private sector joined hands under a "sunshine plan" and developed solar thermal power generation technology.

However, the government's support in this area stopped for about 30 years due to a lack of efficiency in power generation and expectations that the technology would not spread due to a lack of enough sunshine in Japan.

The situation changed when the government led by the Democratic Party of Japan decided that exporting infrastructure, such as nuclear power plants, high-speed railways and water supply and sewerage systems, would be a pillar in its growth strategy.

Solar thermal power generation plants re-entered the equation.

Demand for solar thermal power generation has rapidly increased in deserts, but promising markets in the Middle East and North Africa are already dominated by European businesses, which are closer to those areas. Japan has been desperately trying to catch up.

After senior trade ministry officials toured Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia in efforts to sell Japanese solar thermal power technology, Tokyo reached an agreement with the Tunisian government in July to start the joint solar thermal power generation project.

The Japanese government will pay up to 3 billion yen to Japanese companies building the plant.

"The government made a complete about-face in its stance," Kazuaki Ezawa, a Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding official said.

Ezawa welcomed the policy shift as a major advantage for Japanese companies seeking future orders for building plants.

But Japan is not the only government stepping up efforts to help the private sector win contracts abroad.

Japan upgraded its efforts after the UAE late last year awarded a contract to build nuclear power plants to South Korean companies that had received direct help from President Lee Myung-bak and the government-run Korea Electric Power Corp.

Several major Japanese companies teamed up with Innovation Network Corp. of Japan to establish International Nuclear Energy Development of Japan Co. The arrangement created an "all-Japan" team trying to win an order to build two nuclear power plants in Vietnam.

A number of Cabinet ministers also cooperated, and Japan won the order for the 1-trillion-yen project.

But concerns have arisen that if the government becomes too deeply involved in private-sector business, the conditions of the deals could become unclear.

To win the contract in Vietnam, the Japanese government pledged additional yen loans worth 79 billion yen. Depending on future negotiations with Vietnam, the government or the Japanese companies may have to cover additional costs.

"The government's assistance is very powerful for making an initial breakthrough," said Hideaki Omiya, president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. "However, we are being asked to climb a mountain together without being able to really see the whole mountain yet."

Omiya said if competition among governments escalates, it could go beyond a scope of what can be considered proper private-sector activities.

In the lab, pursuing a more intelligent wind turbine

In the lab, pursuing a more intelligent wind turbine - Smart Planet

University researchers are working hard to improve the design of the wind turbine.

In 2008 and for the first time, new wind turbine power generation capacity topped new coal-fired capacity in the U.S. The growth of the nascent wind power market only promises to drive down costs in the future, but engineers say the design of the wind turbine itself could use an upgrade.

One problem is that the turbine is designed to work best under one wind condition: steady. Mother Nature, of course, rarely lets that happen.

So researchers at Syracuse University are testing intelligent systems-based active flow control methods to allow large turbines to better handle naturally-occurring gusts, turbulence, wakes and shear.

With support from the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of Minnesota Wind Energy Consortium, researchers Guannan Wang,Basman El Hadidi, Jakub Walczak, Mark Glauser and Hiroshi Higuchiare using their technology to estimate the flow conditions over the blade surfaces from surface measurements.

By feeding the information to an intelligent controller, they can implement real-time actuation on the blades to control the airflow and increase the overall efficiency of the wind turbine system.

The result, according to their simulations: allowing a turbine to have a wider operational range with the same rated power output. What’s more, the flow separation may help reduce noise and vibration.

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Minnesota are investigating how to reduce drag on wind turbine blades.

To reduce the effect, the researchers are implementing tiny grooves — described as triangular “riblets,” just 40 to 225 microns deep — by scoring them into the coating on the blade.

The researchers – Roger Arndt, Leonardo Chamorro and Fotis Sotiropoulos — are testing various groove geometries on the airfoil surfaces of a 2.5-megawatt turbine, in both simulations and the wind tunnel.

The concept of “riblets” is hardly new, but it’s not yet been applied to turbine blades. Conventional thinking grouped wind turbine blades with airplane wings, but it turns out that the peculiarities of the job — turbulence near the ground, a different blade design — means turbine blades require a different approach to drag reduction.

According to the researchers, the riblets will increase wind turbine efficiency by about 3 percent.

Both ideas were presented this week at the 63rd annual American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting in Long Beach, Calif.

TEDxNewSt - Thomas Power - The Future of Social Networks

Thomas Power is reaching the conclusion that it takes 10 years to develop an open, random and supportive digital mindset and it could be longer. Much longer.

He's been online since 1994. 16 years. He has built a network, a club, a gang, a fan club, a following. This has taken him 16 years of relentless activity. Fortunately he loves it. Not everyone does.



Thomas has learned how to blog, post, tweet, share youtube videos, respond to debates, criticisms, write books, make speeches and deal with endless technological challenges of Nokias, BlackBerrys, iPhones, servers, switches and open source software. He moved from Unix, to Windows, to Mac and back again to Windows. He has studied hard. He has read 1000 books. He has met 12,000 people in the last 12 years. He has been to 50 countries. He has joined 600 social networks and tested them to destruction. As he says he loves his work. This has not been hard for him.

He has a digital mindet.

He thinks digital.

Every problem he's faced with he thinks how can he solves that problem electronically online. How can he solves that issue digitally.

How can we fight against global warming?

Fight for America's Clean Energy Future!

Become a citizen co-sponsor of the Kerry-Boxer bill!

Let's not beat around the bush: you know as well as I do how urgent it is that we take action on climate change and build a clean energy economy right now. We can't wait; our economy can't wait for a new, clean energy future, and our planet can't wait to start cutting carbon pollution.



The Senate needs to hear from you. Barbara Boxer and John Kerry introduced the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power act and Barbara Boxer is moving it through the EPW Committee, but they need your voice added to theirs to give this legislation the momentum it needs.

So will you join Barbara Boxer and John Kerry as a citizen co-sponsor of our legislation? Please click here to add your name to show the Senate how important it is that we take action right now.



Clean Energy Economy Forum
John Kerry is meeting with Senators just about every day helping to find the path to 60 votes, but your voice can make a big difference. If they can demonstrate the size and scope of their movement demanding action, they can give energy and climate reform a tremendous push, and begin to tackle the enormous crisis of climate change.


Big Oil and the forces of the status quo will fight hard, so they need all of you pulling together to win this fight.

Google Retail Blog: Back-to-School Shopping Gets Back in Session

Google Retail Blog: Back-to-School Shopping Gets Back in Session: "8/10/2009 09:21:00 AM"

Depending on which state you live in, school is starting somewhere between 2 weeks to 4 weeks from today--which according to marketers' calendar typically signals the end of the back-to-school retail season. But in this not so typical year, we're noticing that the 2009 back-to-school retail season is just getting back in session as we enter August. Sure, shoppers are expected to spend a little less this season than the economy would like, but as much as they're stretching their shopping dollars, students and parents are also stretching their shopping cycle. In a recently released NRF back-to-school survey, we've found that up to 82% of shoppers are expected to still be shopping for back-to-school items this week, or have not even begun shopping yet. [1] If surveys aren't enough indication, real-time data is showing signs that marketers really should amp up their back to school campaigns now, instead of pulling back or completely pulling off their campaigns.

Back to school searches have been steadily rising in popularity the past month, to nobody's surprise. As we closed out the month of July, we saw various keywords rising especially fast this year compared to the same back to school time frame last year. Users around this time are showing much stronger interest in 'college laptops,' 'school shoes,' and 'backpacks' among other things than 2008: [2]

What struck me as most interesting about these searches was the idea of using these trends as a starting guide to dig into keywords that uncover what may be on students' and parents' shopping lists this year. New keywords that surface in back to school categories can reflect new or popular items everyone is looking to stock up for the back to school season. In that case, we can expect more boys and girls donning North Face backpacks and Jessica Simpson 'Carsi' sandals this year, while accessorizing their cell phones with new faceplates and skins, and parents and college students decorating new rooms with zebra bedding and hip barstools. [3]

Historical trends on Google Insights for Search show us that the back to school shopping season is just approaching its height and expected to reach its peak online in the next two weeks. So even for those who haven't had a chance yet to run their back to school campaigns, there's still time to capture many of these shoppers online now.

[1] NRF's "2009 Back-to-School and Back-to-College Surveys," released July 14, 2009. Percentage total of those who begin shopping 1 month (4 weeks) before school starts, to those who begin to shop after school starts, based on all Adults 18+ respondents from Back-to-School survey.
[2] Google Insights of Search in US. Query Volume Index growth refers to year-over-year growth based on Week of 7/19-7/25 in 2009 compared against corresponding week in 2008. **Growth rates are indexed to the highest point of search volume and are expected to vary as active searches increase. Please use for directional purposes only.**
[3] Hitwise, Industry Search Terms Comparison Report. New search terms driving traffic to 'Apparel & Accessories,' 'Appliances & Electronics,' and 'House & Garden' category sites during 4 weeks ending 7/25/09 compared against 4 weeks ending 6/6/09.

Posted by Julia Tang, the Google Retail Team

Magma Energy buys US$25 million stake in Icelandic geothermal energy producer

Magma sinks cash into Iceland geothermal producer

Canada's Magma Energy Corp said on Thursday it will boost its geothermal production power with an investment of up to $40 million in Iceland's HS Orka, a producer poised for expansion.

Geothermal Power Plant Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on KUTV News
Recently listed Magma shares touched a new high of C$1.90 on the Toronto Stock Exchange before slipping back to C$1.80, a gain of 16 Canadian cents, at the close on Thursday. Magma, which generated C$100 million or an equivalent of US$91.7 million in its IPO July 7, said it will buy the minority interest in privately-held HS Orka from Geysir Green Energy. Magma will first buy an 8.62% stake for about $20 million, payable at deal closing, and a 2.16% holding for about $5 million, due by March 31, 2010. It has an option to acquire another 5% share by investing $15 million into HS Orka.

"The geothermal sector is attracting increasing interest! There are 9,000 MW worldwide, however, a lot of utilities now, I think, will be entering the market! Major utilities, especially in North American, know that a cap and trade system is coming. And so they'd be better off to use their money to buy existing renewable companies...as opposed to continually buying carbon credits."

McIlveen cited a bid by TransAlta Corp, Canada's biggest publicly traded electricity producer, for Canadian Hydro Developers as an example. Separately on Thursday, Canadian Hydro Developers recommended shareholders reject the bid from TransAlta, which is worth about C$654 million.

Iceland's largest privately owned energy company, HS Orka has installed geothermal power capacity of 175 MW of electricity from its Svartsengi and Reykjanes power plants. It plans to expand production to 425 MW by 2015. The company also generates 150 MW of thermal energy for district heating.

Much of its geothermal power is sold in U.S. dollar contracts to a large aluminum smelter, Magma said, with expansion capacity earmarked for a new aluminum smelter under construction. Magma, run by mining magnate Ross Beaty, is currently a small producer of geothermal energy, with one plant in Soda Lake, Nevada. It has four advanced-stage exploration properties in the western United States, Chile, Argentina and Peru. Magma has said it plans to use the C$100 million from its IPO to double capacity at Soda Lake from 8 MW to 16 MW, advance its exploration properties and make acquisitions.

"I think Magma's more interested in acquiring online assets than pipeline projects.They have a considerable pipeline now and really don't need to acquire more projects."

Geothermal power comes from hot water and steam produced deep below the earth's surface. They are piped up to the surface and used to drive turbines that generate electricity.