August 2010
August 19, 2010
The Tres Amigas Facility will be the first of its kind in the world and would be profitable allowing sale of power between the Three Grids.This unique initiative has received support from numerous stakeholders like utilities,transmission operators,Green Energy Suppliers etc.Extreme Power has been selected to provide Energy Storage Facilities and Energy Management Technology for this project.If this project gets built it will lead to the building of similar such facilities in the rest of the world and be a big boon in the quest of Mass Adoption of Green Energy.Note this Project seems to deserves a DOE Grant much more than the Billion Dollar Loans to Abengoa and Solyndra.
August 19, 2010
Nuclear Energy currently accounts for 21% of the electricity supply and would be replaced by renewable sources by that timeframe.However utilities which have a huge amount to lose want the reactors to stay.They are using the common language of anti-Green lobbies that it would lead to Job Losses and Energy Insecurity.They don't think that Renewable Energy can replace the cheap Nuclear Power.This is the same argument being used by the opponents of California's AB32 Law.Like the Solar Feed in Tariff Controversy earlier in the year,this fight too promises to be an interesting one though I think the Nuclear Lobby will lose.
August 19, 2010
Ontario had ample opportunity to learn from past experience and its Renewable Energy Subsidy Policy is on the whole quite good.However one part of the FIT program which gave a very generous 80.2c/KwH to micro installations of solar projects under 10 KW was faulty.It led to 160 MW of project applications which were ground mounted with very high production as they used trackers.There was no discrimination between roof and ground mounted micro installations leading to this problem.Note its not possible to install trackers on roofs which can increase the energy by 30-35%.The large number of applications were not factored in by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) which proposed to retroactively cut those tariffs by 27% for ground plants.
August 18, 2010
Now Blackstone has decided to gamble on India's Power Deficit Story by investing $300 million for an undisclosed stake in the company.With investment plans of $6.5 billion and parent company sinking under loads of debt,Moser Baer Projects desperately needed equity which has been provided by Blackstone.Its previous track record in Solar and Optical Media does not inspire a lot of confidence.But India's 8-9% Growth Rate is like a Rising Tide which will lift all sorts of Boats.Blackstone is perhaps gambling more on that rather than on Moser Baer.
August 18, 2010
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Technology is akin to putting Lipstick on a Pig (read Coal Power Plants).This Technology which has been hyped as the Green Answer to Coal's Dirty Polluting Ways has never been proven on a commercial scale .Note the British Government promising CCS with every new Coal Plant.Despite numerous large pilot projects,the Technology remains immature.Even China which gets 80% of its electricity from Coal Power Plants and is the biggest emitter of GHGs,remains skeptical of this technology.
August 18, 2010
India’s Business and Political Elite continue to mock the Indian Legal System through loopholes and expensive lawyers.I had written earlier in a post of how Satyam […]
August 18, 2010
TSMC has made a smart entry into the Solar Energy space through investments into CIGs technology.Beside investing in a solar fab in Taiwan using Technology from […]
August 18, 2010
But with the imminent visit of President Obama to India,the government wants to put the final touch to the deal during November.The government has raised the cap Three Fold to $330 million in order to win the support of the main opposition party the BJP.However Greenpeace the international Green NGO has opposed the cap.The reason is there should not a be cap as it increases the moral hazard of the companies.With a cap on their liability,their is an incentive for the private players to loosen their safety standards.There is no cap on liability for any other type of industrial hazard so a nuclear cap also does not make much sense .The recent BP Oil Spill is estimated to cost BP around $20-30 billion despite the Disaster being of lesser magnitude than a Nuclear Accident like Chernyboyl.
August 17, 2010
The ETF does not make much sense for any class of investor.A Lithium investor would be better off investing in Rockwood,SQM and FMC with appropriate offsetting positions in the agri and speciality chemicals sector.A Battery Investor should invest in BYD,A123 Systems,Ener1 etc. rather than Sanyo,Exide and Cosco.Also a lot of the companies in the ETF have never made profits and are high risk in nature while stable holdings like Rockwood,SQM are expensively valued at the moment.I would advise against investing in this pseudo Green ETF which is only masquerading as a Lithium ETF.
August 17, 2010
There have been diplomatic skirmishes with China trying to block a ADB loan to the state and giving different visas to persons in that region.India has so far remained muted despite some border incursions by Chinese troops as well.India and Chinese political and trade relations have improved quite a lot in the recent years,however the trust quotient remains low between the world's two most populous countries.China has used Pakistan as a proxy against India and has also been blamed over cyberattacks on Indian defense networks.India has responded by banning Chinese telecom equipment firms over security concerns.The rise of these 2 great powers and the dynamics between them will be the most important event shaping the 21st century.
August 17, 2010
To reduce its expense Vedanta will only pay Rs 355/share to minority shareholders in the open offer while offering Cairn Rs 405/share .This will include Rs 50/share for a non compete agreement.This seems a ruse to shaft minority shareholders as I don't think Cairn poses much of a threat to Vedanta from further Oil Explorationin India.I don't know how Vedanta's returns from the Cairn's oil fields can be impacted through Oil Exploration by Cairn's parent in the future.Indian stock market regulator had earlier rejected Heidelberg's premium to be paid to SK Birla Group when buying Mysore Cements stake.The controlling premium has been paid in earlier M&A by foreign promoters to Indian promoters.The area of controlling premium remains a grey one and I think it is being exploited by Vedanta to lower its open offer price.It remains to be seen if SEBI rules in the favor of the minority shareholders.
August 17, 2010
The stock might offer some short term profits for high risk traders on a dead cat bounce,but it is definitely not a fundamental pick.Unless the company really makes significant progress on the revenue and orders front,it is not a buy in my book.
August 17, 2010
The Board has lashed out at IL&FS for forgetting the strictures under which the company was given to the management of IL&FS.The government appointed directors had also been silent at the flouting of these norms.Note the company has already sold the preferential shares in the company without the approval of the CLB.Now IL&FS finds its reputation tarnished due to the jinxed Maytas.I am not superstitious by nature but it definitely seems that Maytas brings bad luck to its promoters.
August 17, 2010
.Now a Central Government Panel has indicted both the state government and Vedanta of environmental abuses in its earlier projects.The N.C. Saxena panel has found the state government officials guilty of violating Forest Rights Act in order to help Vedanta.While rejected Vedanta's Bauxite Mining Rights,the Panel has found the company guilty of mining on government land,violating environmental laws and tribal rights
August 17, 2010
The 10.8c/KwH Tariff will be almost 35% lower than the earlier project awarded in the Ningxia province.For comparison 10.8c/KwH is generally given to Wind Energy which has considerably lesser costs than Solar Energy.Parts of USA and Europe have electricity tariffs of greater than 20c/KwH at present.Such low tariffs may not be useful as they might lead to project delays if not cancellations.
August 16, 2010
This almost 30% decline in US yield is due to a combination of factors like expectations of more monetary easing by Fed,deflation worries and disappointing US economic data.In lockstep with the the US Treasury yields,the German bunds have also been rising.The rise in German Bunds is despite very strong German economic data.The German economy expanded at the fastest pace in 23 years on Rising Exports.So the fall in Bund yield is confusing when seen in terms of the US Treasury and Economy relationship
August 16, 2010
A Number of new Solar Companies have followed Motech into this industry and are currently challenging it for Pole Position.Gintech,Neo Solar,DelSolar are some of biggest Solar Cell Producers in the world now gaining from the worldwide boom in solar demand in 2010.These companies have reported sold out capacities in 2010 and strong profits benefiting from the generous European subsidies for Green Energy.However these companies are vulnerable to demand fluctuations as they lack the vertical integration capabilities of mainland Chinese companies like Trina and Yingle
August 16, 2010
China has come under a lot of criticism recently from conglomerates like GE and Siemens over discrimination being practised against non-Chinese companies.Massive implicit and explicit subsidies are bolstering Chinese companies against the Western ones as the government pushes the creation of National Champions in Green Technology.Through clever use of regulations and subsidies,Chinese companies are even challenging Western and Japanese companies in their own turf.
August 15, 2010
Sikhism’s most Holy Shrine the Golden Temple situated in Amritsar,Punjab will be now a part of the Green Energy Movement.The Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) has […]
August 13, 2010
Germany which was a Reluctant Rescuer of Spain and Greece during the Greek Contagion has emerged as the surprise beneficiary of the crisis.The country’s economists and […]
August 13, 2010
rance has very low percentage of its energy mix being generated by non-nuclear Green Energy forms as most of its power is derived from Nuclear Energy.The low cost of abudant nuclear power has made France relatively immune from the Energy Insecurity faced by the rest of Europe.While Germany and Spain have installed large amounts of solar and wind energy,France remains a laggard in this respect.Unlike the other EU heavyweights,it has few companies in the field of Green Energy due to lack of a vigourous domestic market.
August 13, 2010
he valuation of this ETF is quite expensive given that Large Cap Nature of these Stocks.There are also some picks that I would avoid .It would make much more sense to invest in individual high quality infrastructure stocks especially since India has recently liberalized foreign investing in Indian stocks.I would advise someone to rather invest in NiftyBees which is listed on the Indian Stock Market.
August 12, 2010
While L&T and BHEL,the two Largest Capital Equipment Companies have won a lot of orders,the sheer scale of Demand requires Huge Imports as well.Low cost Chinese equipment providers like Shanghai Electric and Dongfang Electric have won almost half of the power equipment orders raising concerns amongst the Indian administrators.The relations between the 2 countries has always been testy with a major war being fought in 1962.Recently India banned Chinese telecom equipment providers Huawei and ZTE over Security Concerns.
August 12, 2010
Honda's modules have an efficiency of 11.6% which seems lower than those claimed by the TSMC-Stion,Miasole and Q-Cells.These companies are claiming 13% efficiency though none of these companies have large scale commercial production as of now.Q-Cells and Miasole are at the head of the CIGs pack with companies like Nanosolar,Solyndra,Solar Frontier and TSMC-Stion closely following.CIGs technology is said to be the best thin film technology better than the Cd-Te technology used by First Solar and a-Si technology used by Sharp and the now bankrupt Applied Materials thin film division.
August 12, 2010
USA losing Green Jobs as Solar Companies shut US plants and Outsource Production to Mexico and China
This trend goes contrary to what US administration is advertising as the creation of a large number of Green Jobs due to the Stimulus.The Senate has given up on the Climate and Energy Bill while EPA's regulation of carbon emissions is also uncertain.Big investors are shunning the USA while putting money into Green Manufacturing and Investments as China takes over the Global Green Energy Leadership .
August 12, 2010
UN's CDM panel which decides on the eligibility of projects under this scheme has come under criticism for being too lenient in approving projects.It has been said that these projects sometimes lead to more emissions defeating the very purpose of this scheme.The Panel has become more discerning and has rejected around 50 Wind Projects in China because they were thought to be profitable even without these credits.
August 12, 2010
The competition has been extremely high for these projects leading to zero to negative returns for investors.This is due to a) low electricity rates on offer b) Aggressive bidding leading to even lower rates.This new phase of projects seems to be repeat of the old program.Giant state utilities can easily bid to win even if they lose money in the process.
August 10, 2010
Only communities adjacent to the rivers can use this water.An Environmental Group has also accused the state EPA of colluding with these corporate interests.This may lead to huge lawsuits against these companies and force the Boom to a halt.Shale Gas is supposed to be the new energy panacea as the deposits can meet US energy needs for 20 years.However like other fossil fuels it will deplete leaving behind a legacy of ecological degradation and destruction.
August 10, 2010
The new law will impose a $2000 annual via fee for companies with more than 50% of its employees in the US who are working on visas.The law is specifically targeted at Indian IT companies from the letter and spirit of the law.It remains to be seen how this affects the growing closeness in India-USA relations.Though India has shown maturity by not coming out with a sharp retaliatory action,it will sour relations.
August 10, 2010
Extreme Weather Conditions has increased in frequency this decade.In fact this decade is the hottest decade in records with temperatures making new records every year.While nothing can be said with a 100% possibility that it is due to Global Warming,the evidence is certainly pointing in that direction.