There is urgent need to reduce the solar capacity addition in Germany because

a) It is requiring almost half of the $21 billion renewable energy subsidies in 2011 while generating 3% of the total power

b) Too much solar power while put pressure on the power grid as at the peak afternoon hours solar can generate almost 10% of Germany’s power requirement which means shutting down other sources

c) German Solar Panel producers have stopped benefiting from German domestic growth. Most solar companies in Germany have been decimated by Chinese competition and around 20000 solar jobs and 5000 companies have shut down.

The company is planning to introduce a big bang plan for broadband coupling a cheap tablet with a cheap monthly plan. This is on the lines of a mobile phone with a monthly connection. Reliance has a good chance of winning the broadband market which remains under penetretad and high cost. It poses a direct existential threat to India’s telecom companies which have failed to compete on data effectively.

Reliance in continuation of its strategy in the media industry has bought a small stake in Den Networks one of India’s largest cable networks though one its subsidiaries. The company is slowly and methodically capturing the entire media development and delivery network in the country. The stake in the cable companies will give it leverage to deliver its broadband and content.

Solar Insolvency Protection is a new financial product that is going to be introduced by Munich Re the giant German reinsurer. Note Munich Re has been at the forefront of introducing insurance products for solar energy. It was one of the first companies to provide an insurance against the 25 year solar warranty which is generally given by solar companies for their solar modules.It has introduced it for LDK Solar Panels before moving onto other companies as well.

More Hedge Fund Employees were arrested by the FBI on Insider Trading Charges . Note Raj Rajaratnam the high profile hedge fund manager of the technology hedge fund is already cooling his heels in jail after being convicted of insider trading by paying money to company and insiders for illegal information. A number of low rung employees have also been jailed for lesser terms. His friend Rajat Gupta who was a former Mckinsey chairman is also facing charges which may result in conviction for passing confidential information to Rajaratnam.

First Solar the Big Daddy of Thin FIlm Solar Panels too is under pressure and if not for the DOE funded solar farms in California would have been facing a huge global marketshare loss. There are only a few thin film companies that can hope to compete . Those that can have big parents with massive balance sheets like Solar Frontier backed by Showa and Shell, Sharp ,TSMC and others . VC and PE backed startups have a snowball chance in hell of surviving because they need to get their costs to 50c/watt an impossibility even for First Solar leave alone poor startups.

Wind Power in India has been wildly successful and is the 5th biggest in the world because of substantial incentives from the government. One of them has been accelerated depreciation which has made hundreds of companies and rich individuals buy small wind farms. This helps them offset their tax liabilities providing a substantial 2 digit returns. However the big drawback in this from of green subsidy is that it does not incentivize the production of wind energy. Once the wind farm is set up, the incentive to produce lots of electricity is not there unlike the case of Feed in Tariff where your returns are solely based on the electricity generation.