Taiwan which had set a cap restricted solar feed in tariff program in 2009 is set to change the subsidies to reflect the decreasing costs of solar energy.Note Taiwan is one of the biggest solar cell producers in the world,next only to China.A number of its world class companies like TSMC and AUO have made major investments into solar energy recently.It already has big pureplay solar cells companies with Gintech and Motech amongst the top 10 world solar cell producing companies.A big domestic market is a good testing ground for new companies and technologies.Taiwan is now set to change renewable energy subsidies for wind and solar energy.Solar Energy subsidy for 2011 will be lowered while for wind energy it will be increased.Renewable Energy in Taiwan – Feed in Tariffs Wind to be strangely Increased while for Solar Sensibly Decreased

Asian Development Bank (ADB) may rescue the JNNSM process which seems to be headed for certain problems.The Bank is committing to provide loan guarantees for under 30 MW projects to Indian Banks and upto 25% equity investment into >30 MW projects.Note debt financing is a major issue which was talked about by the biggest Indian utilities for not participating.Note ADB has already committed to setting up 500 MW Renewable Energy Capacity in India in JV with NTPC.This will further increase ADB’s exposure to Solar Energy in India.It remains to be seen if ADB give equity and debt to many of these projects which don’t seem to be feasible at these prices.Will ADB willing to take losses in these ventures and provide loans to many of these unknown firms with no track record.

Note the issue size of the IPO is quite small at around $100 million which means the retail portion is only $30 million.Coal India IPO with a $3 billion issue and $1 billion retail portion got subscribed by almost 2-2.5x.This mean that Punjab and Sind Bank can get subscribed by almost 60x since MOIL IPO got 55-60 times overall subscription with almost 31x retail portion even when the issue size was almost triple that of Punjab and Sind Bank.Note though MOIL IPO in my opinion was more undervalued than PNSB,still I think oversubscription in case of this PSU Bank would be higher than that and could easily cross the 31x retail that MOIL IPO got

Japan and China has suffered from perhaps the most tense relationships with the Japanese occupation of Chinese territory during World War 2.China recently embargoed the export of crucial rare earth minerals in which it has a virtual monopoly causing great distress amongst Japanese administrators.China’s military has started to become more and more sophisticated with China even now becoming an arms exporter of low tech weapons.With growth in Chinese economy,the technology sophistication of Chinese weapons systems has also grown.Close relations between China and Russia have also led to sale of front-line weapons systems such as the Sukhoi 35 fighters to China.It is no wonder that Japan is started to reorient its Defence towards China from Russia.Greater emphasis is being placed on the Air Force and Navy rather than on the Army.Note Japan is protected by the US Nuclear Umbrella and has US Forces stationed on its soil.However,declining USA military power (bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan) has made Japan beef up its own defences.Note India too has strengthened its border forces with China stationing new fighter squadrons in the Himalayan region.

Note both the Solar Thermal and Solar PV Project bidding have led to grave doubts about how these solar plants will be implemented.Not only are the firms small,unknown with little project experience but they have also bid for feed in tariffs which would definitely lead to losses.According to MNRE,the government also plans to make the local domestic content requirements more stringent.The requirements will be extended to solar inverters as well and the provisions may not stop at 2013 but will go beyond as well.Note the JNNSM mandates that modules for solar energy be made in India in the first year and both cells and panels be made in the 2nd year.This is important for the growth of solar energy equipment manufacturing in India.This has been successfully used by both China and Canada to foster the growth of the green industry in their domestic market.However it has the side effect of raising prices and increasing inefficiency as they would lead to higher costs.They could also lead to the gaming of the system particularly as India is highly corruption prone country.

A Number of Japanese Companies have been entering the Solar Energy Market following in the footsteps of Japanese solar leaders like Sharp,Kyocera,Mitsubishi and others.Toshiba was a surprising entrant into the Solar EPC market with a solar plant planned in Easter Europe.Now Mitsui Engineering and Shipping,one of Japan’s huge zaibatsus is planning a foray into the solar energy market as well.The Company is being supported in its initiative by METI which will collaborate with the Tunisian government in setting up a combined gas solar hybrid plant.A 5 MW Solar CSP plant will be set up by 2013 to demonstrate the technology.