Solar Gold Rush The Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which is set to announce a solar subsidy policy soon, is seeing a massive gold rush. Note in India, the information about Government policy is generally leaked to big industrialists and insiders much before the actual government regulations are released. This gives a huge advantage to […]
United Kingdom is seeing a raft of new Solar Farm projects in the 20-50 MW range even as the solar feed in tariffs have been sharply reduced and in the case of large scale solar farms being capped at 5 MW. This boom has come about by solar developers using the Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROC) […]
The LED chip industry flourished in China as the government provided capital subsidy to small companies to buy MOCVD tools which help in making these chips. With oversupply, prices have crashed to below costs leading to bankruptcies. China is now seeing the 3rd Green Industry Bubble Bursting with LED chip manufacturers in China going bankrupt […]
Biomass Plants in India are shutting down as feedstock costs have increased rapidly while government regulated electricity tariffs have yet to increase.60% of India’s Biomass Plants have closed down as they are longer profitable.Note India has a massive growth target for biomass electricity capacity up from 1 GW at present (2 GW if you count cogeneration).A number of agricultural companies have set up a number of plants besides dedicated green utilities.However inflation in India has affected the operation of plants specially those who don’t have inhouse feedstock supply.
Gujarat solar energy has been massively promoted by the state government led by Modi which has announced numerous incentives and subsidies.The state has an ambition of becoming the Germany of solar energy in India with more than 1 GW of capacity in the next 2-3 years,but the solar energy developers has missed the deadline.29 solar companies in India now want an extension which add up to 450 MW of capacity.The 300 MW of capacity target has not even been half covered with only 140 MW installed.However the problem is that on Jan 29 2012 new feed in tariffs will be announced which will be lower.This will benefit the older developers if they get the older higher tariffs with much lower equipment prices.The State has already implemented a clear and forward looking Renewable Energy Policy with emphasis on Solar Energy.It has signed PPAs with a number of solar project developers under its State Solar Subsidy Scheme.While other states are looking mainly towards the federal subsidy scheme JNNSM to push Solar Energy Generation,Gujarat is looking to push Solar Energy on its own.Gujarat now has reportedly acquired 3000 acres at Charnaka village in Patan District which it will give to solar project developers to install solar panels.
Renewable Energy is a sunshine industry in India right now and a number of non traditional players are getting into the clean energy industry right now.Companies with surplus cash or lack of growth opportunities are turning to solar energy generation to fuel growth.The JNNSM first phase saw a large number of companies bidding and some unknown players winning the auction.While a large number of these solar companies will never their projects see the light of the day (pun intended),some will survive and thrive.More companies are getting into the solar power busness attracted by the long term potential of solar energy in the country.Kanoria Chemicals which recently sold off a large chunk of its chemical business is sitting on a huge pile of cash.The company has decided to get into renewable energy generation by setting up a 2-3 MW solar plant.Note Kanoria Chemicals has little to any relation between its core operations and solar energy.