A bitter intellectual property dispute between AMSC, an American technology company, and Sinovel, one of China’s biggest wind turbine makers, has escalated to China’s Supreme Court. AMSC is seeking USD1.2 billion from Sinovel. The Chinese turbine maker was once AMSC’s biggest customer, accounting for 70% of revenues in late 2010. The U.S. company alleges that Sinovel made unauthorized use of proprietary turbine software code and breached its supply contracts. Sinovel has denied wrongdoing in previous statements. The dispute involves one of China’s biggest intellectual property lawsuits in terms of damages sought, and has prompted U.S. politicians including Massachusetts Senator John Kerry to raise complaints over China’s poor intellectual property protection. AMSC’s experience is seen by many foreign executives in the wind industry as a sign of the lurking dangers for foreign businesses in China. The company’s share price plunged more than 80% last year when its relationship with Sinovel turned sour. AMSC lodged an appeal with China’s Supreme Court, asking for the reversal of a decision by the Hainan Supreme Court, which upheld a lower court decision to throw out AMSC’s copyright suit against Sinovel and Sinovel’s subsidiary Guotong on the grounds that it should be covered by arbitration proceedings, the Financial Times reports.

Only one-tenth of the 500,000 electric cars and plug-in hybrid vehicles China’s carmakers plan to produce by 2015 would be able to find a buyer in China unless the central government rolled out supporting policies or extra incentives to boost sales, analysts said. While sales of new-energy vehicles during the first quarter of this year exceeded those for the whole of last year, nearly 80% of the 10,202 units sold in the first three months were of conventional hybrid vehicles, which are partly fueled by petrol. Pure electric and plug-in hybrid cars accounted for only one-fifth of the sales, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM). China’s car manufacturers have big plans for green vehicles. Beijing Automobile Works and Guangzhou Automotive are set to produce up to 200,000 new-energy vehicles a year by 2015, while Changan Automotives aims to make about 150,000 by 2014. “There are a lot of varieties under the umbrella of new-energy car. Among them, electric cars and plug-in hybrid vehicles still make up a very small portion because facilities for charging them are incomplete,” Auto Analyst Yale Zhang said. Ouyang Minggao, Director of the Automotive Safety and Energy Laboratory at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said earlier this year that only 200,000 to 250,000 new-energy cars would be sold on the mainland by 2015, when they would account for only 1% of the projected total car sales that year. The Chinese government last week confirmed that the development of electric cars and plug-in hybrid vehicles is a priority, and set a target of producing at least 500,000 by 2015 and 5 million by 2020.

Chinese solar companies are expanding into Japan, where the solar industry is receiving more government support following the Fukushima nuclear accident. Chaorisolar Energy Science and Technology Co and Sky Solar Holdings Co plan to develop 100 megawatt (MW) of solar projects with an investment of USD93.9 million in Japan this year. Chaorisolar is a Shanghai-based maker of photovoltaic products and Sky Solar builds solar farms, where solar electricity can be generated on a large scale. The project is expected to generate gross profits equal to as much as CNY10 a watt, Chaorisolar said. Hareonsolar Technology Co also plans to establish a subsidiary in Japan, while Yingli Green Energy Holding Co recently opened a subsidiary in Tokyo, and Trina Solar also set up an office in Japan, showing the companies’ interest in the market. Suntech Power Holdings Co, which makes the most solar cells of any manufacturer in the world, moved into the Japanese market in 2006 by acquiring MSK Corp, a maker of solar equipment. “Today, we are a strong player in the Japanese solar industry with a 5% market share,” Yutaka Yamamoto, Suntech Japan President, said, and the company expects to command at least 10% of the Japanese market in 2012, when new feed-in tariffs will take effect. By 2011, Japan had 1.2 GW of solar capacity, a number expected to increase by 40% in 2012.

The U.S. has imposed countervailing duties on Chinese solar panel manufacturers of between 2.9% and 4.73%. In 2011, imports of solar cells from China to the U.S. were valued at USD3.1 billion. The price of solar panels dropped more than 30% last year, mainly linked to cheaper panels made in China. China’s Suntech, the world’s largest producer of solar panels, will now face duties of 2.9% to offset what the U.S. said is its subsidy from the Chinese government. Another firm, Changzhou Trina Solar Energy, will receive duties of 4.73%. All others face duties of 3.61%. U.S. Customs will collect deposits equivalent to these amounts now and the Commerce Department will make a final ruling in June. The U.S. will also rule on whether China’s solar panel output is violating its anti-dumping rules on 17 May. China has already said it will launch its own investigation into U.S. government support for renewable energy.

China has set a goal of producing 6.5 billion cubic meters (BCM) of shale gas a year by the end of 2015 – about 6% of China’s current total gas production – as part of a five-year plan to increase the country’s capacity to tap the unconventional resource. Annual output is expected to increase to as much as 100 BCM by 2020, said Zhang Yuqing, Director of the National Energy Administration’s Oil and Gas Department. In early March, the Ministry of Land and Resources estimated that China has 25 trillion cu m (TCM) of recoverable shale gas. Recoverable reserves of the gas are expected to reach 200 BCM by the end of 2015. If companies fail to meet the country’s minimum work requirements and production targets, the government will revoke their rights to explore gas blocks and sell them to others at auction, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said. The U.S. shale gas industry had an annual output of 170 BCM in 2011. Chinese companies have drilled several dozen wells and brought in firms such as Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and Hess to conduct joint studies, but has not yet started commercial shale gas production even though it is widely believed to hold the world’s largest shale gas resources. Exploration will focus on finding 600 BCM of proven geological shale gas reserves and 200 BCM of recoverable deposits by 2015. China is likely to tender its second batch of shale gas blocks in April or May after awarding two out of four blocks in its first ever auction in July last year. “Blocks on offer will be increased and the number of qualified bidders will increase too,” Xiong Bingqi at the Ministry of Land and Resources said. The government would require rights holders for traditional oil and gas blocks to scour shale gas as well, and could take back the development rights if shale gas exploration inputs were below certain standards.

Royal Dutch Shell has done more exploration work in China than other foreign firms and has drilled an estimated five wells in Sichuan. The company has signed China’s first shale gas production sharing contract (PSC) with the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the state-owned parent of PetroChina. The companies will explore, develop and produce shale gas in the Fushun-Yongchuan block in the Sichuan basin, an area covering about 3,500 square kilometers. “We are delighted about this new milestone in our strategic cooperation with CNPC,” Shell CEO Peter Voser said in a statement. “China has huge shale gas potential and we are committed to making a contribution in bringing that potential into reality.” Shell said it invested more than USD400 million in shale projects with CNPC in China last year.