Matinee Energy Inc., a renewable energy project developer and financier, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) and formed a strategic alliance with Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. and LG Electronics Inc., which are based in Korea. Matinee said it is focusing on utility-scale projects in the US Southwest.

Matinee has invited Hyundai and LG to join as lead partners for a total of 240 MW – or $1 billion – in contracts for solar energy plants in the initial phase. Both companies have accepted the invitation. Matinee says it also plans to add additional alliance partners that are complementary to all parties.

According to Matinee, The Industrial Company (T.I.C.), which is based in Colorado, as well as other construction and technology companies located in the U.S., will join in supporting this announcement and provide their specific services and resources.  ( source Matinee Energy Inc.)

LG Group last week announced plans to invest $18 billion over the next 10 years to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and expand it business in energy efficient and renewable energy products. Earlier this month Hyundai Heavy announced its entry into the Chinese wind power industry through a MOU to jointly develop a turbine manufacturing plant with Datang Shandong Power Generation Co., LTD.

About LG Electronics, Inc.:
LG Electronics, Inc. is a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications, employing more than 82,000 people working in 114 operations including 82 subsidiaries around the world. With 2007 global sales of USD 44 billion, LG is comprised of five business units – Home Entertainment, Home Appliance, Air Conditioning, Business Solutions and Mobile Communications. LG is the world’s leading producer of mobile handsets, flat panel TVs, air conditioners, front-loading washing machines, optical storage products, DVD players and home theater systems. For more information, visit www.lg.com.

About Hyundai Heavy Industries:
Korean multinational Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has a global business network in each of its six business divisions: Shipbuilding, Offshore & Engineering, Industrial Plant & Engineering, Engine & Machinery, Electro Electric Systems, and Construction Equipment. Founded by the late Chung Ju-yung on March 23, 1972, Hyundai Heavy Industries wrote the first chapter of its shipbuilding history in June, 1974, by completing construction of the world’s largest shipyard and two VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carrier) simultaneously. A decade after its first delivery, the Hyundai Shipyard topped 10 million dead-weight tons in aggregate ship production, and has maintained the leading position in the world shipbuilding market ever since. Hyundai Shipyard’s drive has mirrored the growth of modern Korean heavy industry, and its success has allowed it to expand into other heavy industry areas, ultimately leading to the formation of Hyundai Heavy Industries, an integrated heavy industry company. The latest chapter of HHI’s history began when it separated from the Hyundai Group in February, 2002.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology was introduced during the first decade of the new millennium with much fanfare. But the radio tags were practically limited to just replacing conventional barcodes.

In this climate, experts point out that the hype originally promised by RFID would be realized only when its applications go mobile and Korea is currently leading the world in the shift toward mobility. Mobile RFID is based on portable readers imbedded in such wireless devices as cell phones with which people can check detailed data of groceries or movie previews by attaching their handsets to radio tags on vegetable wraps or movie posters.

“No matter how many radio tags are around us sporting fancy applications, its usefulness would not be realized if a number of people do not carry the readers,” a spokesperson at the Mobile RFID Forum said.

“In my view, the idea of ubiquitous RFID readers will be materialized when they are incorporated in such devices as cellular phones or other handheld devices. Korea is setting the global trend.”

Entities both from the public and private sectors convened in 2004 to form a Mobile RFID Forum involving the state-run Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and SK Telecom. The companies and organizations have finished pilot tests geared toward checking the commercial viability of mobile RFID, faster than competitors in other countries. On top of commercial deployment, Asia’s fourth-largest economy has taken the initiative in technological advances as demonstrated at an international conference on RFID standards. Korea hosted the conference, which started Monday to continue through March 26 on Jeju Island, and asked for 16 technologies to be made global standards, or around 16 percent of the 68 overall proposals. Of these, observers predict that the country’s offers in mobile RFID and real-time location systems are highly likely to be endorsed because the country is ahead of the pack in these segments.

Then, Korea will be able to preempt the mobile RFID markets, which are expected to explode in the not-so-distant future, said the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The RFID tag is a small integrated-circuit chip together with a radio circuit. The tiny tags emit radio waves so that its identification code can be scanned from a distance through a reader. The cutting-edge technology has been expected to offer a variety of information on any product like their ingredients, origins, producers and transportation histories as well. However, the hitch was that the fixed reader of the mobile RFID was not available to the general public. This prompted many countries to come up with wireless readers but they were prone to mistakes in recognizing the tags accurately. To tackle the problems, many Korean researchers have worked on improving the precision of the readers in motion to make a substantial advancement in the studies, according to the Mobile RFID Forum.

(source www.koreatimes.co.kr)