Denmark to build wind power plant in Philippines: "Construction of the 25-megawatt plant in the northern province of Ilocos Norte will begin next year and will be completed in 2004, the Department of Energy said Tuesday. It will be the first commercial wind plant to be established in this country through a 25 million-dollar funding from the Danish International Development Agency. The plant will be built and operated by Danish firm Northwind Power Development Corp., which is to sell the electricity to a local distributor at rates below that of traditional power plants, the energy department said. A state firm is also planning to set up a 40-megawatt wind power plant in the northern Philippines by 2004. If both projects are completed, the Philippines will become the region's biggest user of wind-power, the department said"  11:53:55 PM    

Renewable energy relegated to niche play in Asia: A new EIA report on Asia reports

• more than one billion people without access to power, largely in rural communities, in 2000
• The World Bank's lending to energy efficiency and renewable schemes made up about 64 percent of total energy financing in 2001 and 2002, up from 16 percent in the 1990s. 
• The Asian Development Bank (ADB) in October approved a $33.1 million loan to develop biomass power generation in rural China and also has funded projects in India and Indonesia
• Shell estimates solar power costs would fall by 20 percent every three years.

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