Regulator
March 31, 2011
The Reactor 1 of the failed Fukushima Daichi plant might be recritical as Radioactive Chlorine has been detected suggesting chain reactions continued after the reactor shut down.This is quite alarming and has made Japan thing about pouring concrete into its crippled Fukushima atomic plant IEAE warned that a potential uncontrolled chain reaction could cause further radiation leaks.The risk to workers might be greater than previously thought because melted fuel in the No. 1 reactor building may be causing isolated, uncontrolled nuclear chain reactions.Dumping concrete on the plant would serve a second purpose: it would trap contaminated water, said Tony Roulstone, an atomic engineer who directs the University of Cambridge’s masters program in nuclear energy.
March 30, 2011
Sharp is the biggest company in the world in terms of making revenues from sales of solar panels so it seems counterintuitive for someone to recommend not buying Sharp Solar Panels.However this Japanese Conglomerate has been losing marketshare rapidly to cheaper Asian competitors.Sharp due to its factories in high cost locations makes solar panels at a much higher cost and sells them at much higher prices as well.The reason is that they manage to sell so many solar panels is that consumers are not educated about other better options and the other solar panel companies don't have the distribution networks.Note Sharp has been trying to diversify away from crystalline solar panels to thin film solar panels.The reason is that they are losing the competitive advantage to Chinese companies like Trina Solar and others.
March 30, 2011
The radioactive fallout from the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster is not only keeping Japan on high alert but also its neighbours.China has said that it has detected trace radiation levels from the spreading radiation in its provincial regions bordering Japan.Note most of the Chinese economic centres are situation near the eastern coast near Japan.Its 2 main cities of Guangdong and Shanghai have also detected trace levels of radioactive elements like iodine and caesium.Note China has turned back vessels and people from Japan in the last week because of high radiation levels.
March 29, 2011
The Fukushima Nuclear Disaster shows more dangerous radiation signs each day.While Plutonium Poisoning was found in the soil near the Nuclear Reactors,a more alarming development is the high levels of Caesium being found in areas far away from the plant.Note Caesium is a heavy element which is found in areas of radioactivity like Iodine 130.Caesium has a much bigger half life than iodine and can cause radiation poisoning for a much longer period.
March 29, 2011
It remains to be seen whether the top corporate executives of India's topmost conglomerates get prosecuted over these wrongdoings.Essar and ADAG are amongst the top 10 conglomerates in India with wide ranging operations with billions of dollars in revenues nationally as well as internationally.The Supreme Court has been instrumental in bringing this case so far as the government seems totally coopted by corruption.It has been frequently been castigated by the Supreme Court and has shamelessly defended corrupt bureaucrats and politicians.It remains to be seen how this 2G Telecom Case ends.If justice is done,then it may provide a new chapter to India's corruption ridden story till now.
March 29, 2011
TEPCO the beleaguered Japanese utility said that plutonium was found around the damaged nuclear reactor.Plutonium has been detected in soil at five locations at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said in a statement on MondayThe company could not confirm which of the reactors in the plant was leaking plutonium which is a very dangerous radioactive element.The No. 3 reactor is the only one at the six-reactor facility to use plutonium in its fuel mix.The United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency said the find was expected due to known fuel degradation, however Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is highly worried about the radioactivity of the plutonium samples detected.
March 28, 2011
British Petroleum (BP) the multi billion dollar Oil and Gas Conglomerate is a strange player in the Renewable Energy Sector of Solar Energy.BP was a dominant company amongst the top 10 global manufacturers of solar panels till a few years ago.However the lack of interest on the part of management,low investment,lack of R&D has made it a bit player in the fast growing solar panel market.Companies which did not exist till a few years ago have outpaced BP to become top solar panel producers.However BP Solar Panels continue to sell in a number of market because of existing sales relationships and brand name.However it is only uneducated and uninformed consumers who are buying BP Solar Panels in my opinion.BP Solar Panels should be avoided both from an economic point of view and from the environment perspective.
March 28, 2011
Dangerous levels of radiation has been detected in the water around the reactors as the Japanese government says that a partial meltdown has occured.While there is no confirmation about cracks in the pressure and containment vessels around the reactors,the radiation in the water inside Unit 2 has tested at radiation levels some 100,000 times normal amounts.Workers also discovered radioactive water in the deep trenches outside three units, with the airborne radiation levels outside Unit 2 exceeding 1,000 millisieverts per hour _ more than four times the amount that the government considers safe for workers.TEPCO officials said Sunday that radiation in leaking water in Unit 2 was 10 million times above normal.TEPCO has been giving confusing figures for radiation making it all the more difficult in understanding the gravity of the nuclear crisis.Note this disaster is only second to Chernobyl in its scale of radiation destruction.Tokyo and other parts have reported intermittently about high radiation in water and air.A ship from Mitsui was recently turned back from a Chinese port because of high levels of radiation.
March 28, 2011
India's Supreme Court castigates ED for incompetence on Black Money Hasan Ali Hawala Corruption Case
India’s Supreme Court has become a schoolmaster for the errant Indian investigative agencies which keep showing glaring incompetence and reluctance to go after top offenders.The Indian […]
March 19, 2011
India's ambitious nuclear energy plan to add around 2G of Nuclear Plant Capacity is running into more and more hurdles each day.Nuclear Energy in India got a boost when India and USA signed a 123 agreeement which removed India's pariah position in the International Nuclear Community allowing transfer of nuclear equipment and material.However the Japanese Nuclear Disaster has thrown a spanner into the works.The Jaitapur Nuclear Power Plant in Maharashtra was already seeing huge protests from local villages and political parties.The news of the Nuclear Radiation from the Fukushima plant has added fuel to the Nuclear Fire it seems.Note only have the Jaitapur protests become more stringent but another planned plant in Kovvadu village in the south eastern state of Andhra Pradesh has run into trouble.Villagers from all 150 villages took out a rally demanding withdrawal of the proposed nuclear power plant in the wake of ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan.I had earlier written that the Biggest Fallout Effect of the Japanese Nuclear Accident would be the Not in My Backyard (NIMBY) opposition of all existing and proposed Nuclear Energy Reactors globally and this is exactly what is happening.
March 19, 2011
Coal Mines in Indonesia,Australia,Africa and North America are selling like hot cakes as Indian,Chinese companies as well as mining conglomerates like Rio Tinto,Vale,BHP Billiton fight to secure raw materials.Note India and China are consuming huge amounts of coal to power their thermal plants.While China consumes a monstrous 3 billion tons,Indian demand is rising at more than 10% a year though on a smaller base.Coal is the cheapest form of power despite its polluting and health hazardous affect.Though Coal Plants in Developed countries are becoming much more expensive to build due to taxes and opposition by environmental groups,there is no stopping their furious growth in countries like China and India.Though India too faces some environmental opposition,massive ultra mega power plants with capacity of 4000 MW are getting built by new Indian private utilities
March 19, 2011
India's Economy is being hampered in its growth trajectory by lack of infrastructure which is leading to supply side problems.India suffers woefully from a lack of roads,electricity,ports etc. and almost a trillion dollars is going to be spent in the next few years as demand outstrips supply.India's Machinery and Capital Goods Industry is set to capitalize on this strong growth and is already seeing massive orders which are 2-3 years worth of their annual revenue.While the stock valuations of the capital goods equipment manufacturers has come down a bit from the heavy days of 2008,they are still quite high reflecting the strong growth potential.India's Engineering Industry is also composed of a number of smaller manufacturers that export light engineering equipment worth several billion dollars mostly to developing countries.India's Machinery Sector is composed of a mix of government owned and private companies as well as the giant capital goods MCN conglomerates like Areva and others.Here is a list of the major Indian equipment manufacturers.
March 16, 2011
Japan's Nuclear Crisis has taken a turn for the worse as US Energy Sectratary CHU saying that a Partial Meltdown has occured.Even IAEA has said that the situation has turned very serious with 4 of the reactors suffering from core damage and 3 of the reactors have their spent fuel rods exposed to the atmosphere as cooling systems have failed.While Japan has almost imposed a news blackout,the damaging news comes from the US administration which has said that the crisis exceeds that of the Three Mile Island already.Japan has doubled the number of workers as the crisis continues to escalate.Authorities battling the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant have doubled the number of workers on the site to 100.Helicopters have failed to cool the plant using water due to radioactive plumes and now the desperate Japanese are planning to use water cannons to spray the pools.
March 16, 2011
The situation at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant continued to be desperate as new fires and explosions rocked the nuclear plant.The utility which owns and operates the Nuclear Reactors Tepco said that the containment structure may have been damaged as smoke was seen from top of one of the reactors.70% of the Fuel Rods at Nuclear Reactor 1 and 33% at Reactor 2 have been exposed.This means that these fuel rods are not being cooled and may be melting leading to increased radiation poisoning hazards.New Fire broke out on the morning of 16th March at Reactor No.4 and containment chamber at Reactor 2 is damaged from Reactor 2.The problems at the Nuclear Plant seems to be increasing with no solution in sight.What is worse is that the 2 reactors No.5 and 6 which have been dormant all this time have all seen their temperature .increasing.Temperatures in the spent fuel rod cooling pools of the shuttered No. 5 and No. 6 reactors were rising as of 7 a.m. today to about 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit)
March 15, 2011
The backlash against the new and existing Nuclear Power Plants has started in different places around the world despite defiant expressions by Nuclear Plant Owners and Operators.While China and Italian utility Enel have said that they will go ahead with their billion dollar investment plans,Switzerland and Germany have put nuclear plant extensions on hold.Note Germany had extended the life of Nuclear Plants in the country by 10 years after extensive lobbying by the Nuclear Industry.This had led to huge protests from the Opposition Greens but the government had gone ahead in order to reduce Power Costs.However Merkel has been forced to eat humble pie and has said that a 3 month review will be done to check the safety of the Nuclear Reactors.Switzerland has also come out and put the plans for new Nuclear Reactors on Freeze.
March 15, 2011
The explosion and fire at the Japanese Nuclear Plant in NorthEast of Japan has led to the release of a small nuclear plume above the reactors.The southern winds have caused this radiation to spread in many of the prefectures in Japan and cesium and other radioactivity has been detected in the capital of Tokyo.Note Radiation does not affect the human body in small doses as radiation is present in our everyday lives at well.However the increase in radiation concentration can lead to severe health hazards and in extreme cases even death.It is almost impossible to escape radiation effects unless one has special nuclear,biological warfare protective equipment.Note Radiation in Japan is still at quite mild levels and seems unlikely to cause any major health hazard.Radiation will need to increase about 1000 times from the current level for the situation to become serious as of now
March 15, 2011
This Nuclear Energy Disaster in the Age of Twitter and Facebook will vehemently increase the opposition to the setting up of big Nuclear Plants.The Radiation Leak and subsequent health hazards will make it impossible for a Nuclear Reactor to be located except in very remote areas like the Sahara Desert.NIMBY protests are going to almost kill the Nuclear Industry in the next decade at least in democracies.The Nuclear Industry will take a long time in establishing its trust amongst the citizens.Without Nuclear Energy,the other major forms of Renewable Energy ,Solar and Wind Energy have to gain.Already Switzerland and Germany are deferring the planning and extension of Nuclear Energy.Other countries are putting safety reviews.Note the costs of environment regulation and nuclear waste disposal are already quite high.This will make new nuclear plants uneconomical as they are already facing huge cost overruns . Ask Areva in Finland and Constellation in the US.
March 15, 2011
Japan's Nuclear Disaster took a turn for the worse as another Fire and Blast in the Nuclear Reactor led to Severe Radiation Leak.Japan's PM warned people within 20 miles of the Plant to evacuate and within 30 miles to remain indoors.There is a high probability of the Nuclear Containment Vessel may get Damaged as Temperatures kept rising with the failure of the Cooling Systems.Radiation Levels at the reactor reached 965.5 micro sievert per hour, later jumping to 8,217 micro sievert at 8:31 p.m. The level would be more than eight times the 1,000 micro sievert limit to which people can be exposed in one year without effect, according to the report.The Wind was blowing south which implies that one of the highest population density cities in the world - Tokyo might feel the affects of Radiation.Prime Minister Naoto Kan urged calm in a national address Tuesday.
March 14, 2011
India's Biomass Electricity Capacity at 2 GW (including cogeneration) is around 4% of the world's total Biomass Power Capacity of around 50 GW.US is the leader in Biomass Capacity with around 20% of the world's biomass potential.India has set ambitious plans for expanding the biomass power capacity in the next 10 years.India's Ministry of Renewable Energy has set a very high target of multiplying the power capacity by 10 times in the next 10 years.India's Total Biomass Potential with existing Technology is around 25 GW of which around 8% has been realized till date.India produce s 500 million tonnes of biomass per year, 120-150 million tonnes is surplus
March 13, 2011
The Tsunami Nuclear Energy Disaster which is unfolding in Japan highlights that Nuclear Energy can cause some very serious damage though the safety of the nuclear reactors are highly touted in the media by the Nuclear Energy Industry.These Nuclear Plants in Japan are quite old but so are most of the Nuclear Energy facilities in the West.Most of these Nuclear Plants are susceptible to serious natural disasters like earthquakes and tsunamis.In case of a nuclear meltdown the radiation from the Nuclear Plants can not only cause more deaths and injuries from natural causes but also make the area around the Nuclear Plant uninhabitable for hundreds of years.India and China are on a major Nuclear Energy Building Spree even though their nuclear plants have faced minor accidents in recent years.With this Nuclear Disaster,the protests in the se countries are set to grow with NIMBY becoming the biggest hurdle.Already protests are being held in Jaitapur in Maharashtra over damage to the ecology,expect the Japan's nuclear reactor incident to basically kill this Areva-NPCIL plant.Nuclear plants in the US and Europe are already facing huge cost and time overruns.This new problem should cause those projects to also die off.
March 13, 2011
Wind Power has come under attack in the USA focused around the Cape Wind Project off the eastern shore.The project which was conceived over 10 years ago has not managed to still build the Wind Farm due to countless number of lawsuits filed for myriad reasons most of which are quite groundless.However some of the reasons have some solid facts behind the opposition to Wind Energy.Note Wind Energy unlike other forms of fossil fuel energy should have much less opposition however it is not so.Unlike Coal,Gas and Oil Energy it does not lead to increase in Greenhouse Gas Emissions and contribute to pollution.It does not lead to deaths of hundreds of miners each year nor has the danger of a catastrophic nuclear meltdown leading to death and disability of thousands.It also does not have the drawback of massive ocean pollution leading to an ecological disaster.However there are still protests against building of Wind Power Capacity and this article examines them in details.At the outset let me mention that advantages of Wind Power far outweighs the Disadvantages.
March 8, 2011
India is set to see a massive infrastructure capex cycle over the next decade as the existing infrastructure fails to support India's massive population.$500 Billion is expected to be spent in India's next 5 year plan with expenditure concentrated on roads,railways,ports,water,power,transportation etc.Capital Goods,Construction and Real Estate Companies will benefit hugely from this capex cycle.A Number of Companies have been raising capital from the Indian Stock Markets as India requires massive amounts of capital to fund its ambitious growth plans. Here is the list of top construction companies in India on the basis of their tie-ups with their international counterparts, technological advancements, generating money from the market to trigger their expansion plans and for establishing an entire township in the wastelands and making it the hottest commercial destination.Note Infrastructure companies in recent days have taken a massive beating falling to their 2008 Lehman lows.This is due the the numerous scams hitting the country,delays due to land acquisition,high interest rates and slow execution.However the long term potential of these construction/EPC companies in India remains excellent due to the massive investments.
March 8, 2011
India's GDP has been growing at a rapid clip over the past decade and is set to grow at even a faster pace in the coming decade.Financial services penetration of the Indian economy is quite low compared to even other developing economies.With majority of the Indian population mired in poverty,access to banks and financial companies is quite hard as people lack knowledge and education.India's banks have grown at a rapid pace over the past 2 decades after the financial liberalization.However this growth has still lacked in meeting the massive demand in the need of financial intermediation.This has led to the growth on non-banking financing companies (NBFCs) and microfinance companies.With the opening of the insurance sector,financial companies in India are set to enter a new growth phase.Major banks in India are either state owned or previous government owned institutions which have been fully privatized like ICICI and HDFC Bank.Both the state owned banks and the private banks have managed to grow without throwing the whole system in a crisis like what has happened in the recent past in Europe and USA and in China in the 1990s.Here is a list of the 10 Major Banks in India
March 7, 2011
Coal Demand in India is surging as the power companies set up thermal power plants at an astounding rate to triple the power capacity over the next decade.Soaring Coal Prices have already made the Global Electricity Prices shoot up and its probably going to increase more in the coming decade.China is the world's largest producer and consumer of coal accounting almost for the 50% of the world's output at 3 Billion Tons.India is far behind at 400 million tons but will fast catch up given the prodigious rate of power plant building that is happening.The Environment is probably going for a toss as India has allowed "No-Go" Forested Areas to be mined.This plus China and India are importing more and more coal from Australia,South Africa and the USA.The recent looking in Australia saw coal prices shoot up alarmingly.Coal India the world's largest coal producing company recently increased the coal price from its shockingly low price leading cement makers and utilities to raise prices more than 5-10%.While its strange for a green blog to recommend coal stocks,the opportunity does exist over the next 10 years till renewable energy comes to grid parity and policymakers don't come to their senses.Here is a list of coal stocks/companies in India .Note there are not many major private coal companies as in the early 1970s, all privately owned coal producing companies were nationalized under the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act.
March 7, 2011
Lovable Lingerie is an innerwear textile company that is coming out with a $20 million IPO.Unlike other totally junk issues which are totally hands of market operators,this one seems to have decent fundamentals and the valuation is not too expensive either.The company has managed to sell 6% pre-IPO to Sequioa Capital which is one of the blue blood PE firms in the country.However this should not be an endorsement given that a number of their investments have bombed in the recent mid cap and small cap carnage.Corporate governance and management issues in small companies in India is totally out of control so investing just based on pure fundamentals does not help.Also a number of other companies in the same sector in textiles remain at attractive valuations.That said the company does have good differentiation as it leverages on the fast growing Indian consumer growth story.The company sells Lingerie though top retail outlets like Lifestyle,Shopper's Stop in top Indian metros and has good brand recall.Here are the positives and negatives of the company based on its DRHP.
March 6, 2011
India has around 300,000 Telecom Towers around the country , a large portion of which is not connected to the electricity grid.Another large portion does not have access to reliable electricity implying they have to install backup power systems in order to run without interruptions.Diesel Generators have been the choice of telecom operators despite their high carbon imprint.This is because of the ease of buying and installing diesel generators as well as the lower fuel costs as the government in India heavily subsidizes diesel.Note India's Fossil Fuel Subsidies have led to hundreds of distortions in the economy.Corruption,Pilfering,Adulteration is carried out on a large scale due to government subsidies.In fact a senior government official was burnt alive by the Kerosene Mafia a direct outcome of this subsidy policy.But that is a separate issue.
March 6, 2011
Rooftop Solar Energy in Australia sees a Boom leading to Subsidy Cut Pressure in Spain,Czech Deja Vu
Other states are looking to do so as well.Like other Solar Subsidy Programs elsewhere in Czech,Germany,Spain,Australia too has seen solar energy costs fall much faster than subsidies.This has led to a boom in solar installations as the returns become very high.These costs are ultimately passed on the customer electricity bills drawing howls from the states.Large Wind Energy Producers like Origin Energy have also seen the prices of RECs decrease so that is not feasible to build new wind farm projects.On top of all this confusion,the Australian government can't make up its mind on a Carbon Tax which will help it to meet the 2020 20% Green Energy Target.
March 6, 2011
There exists a reasonable number of ETFs in the US Stock Market which are dedicated to Clean Technology.However the performance of these ETFs has been quite […]
March 5, 2011
Indian Privately Owned Power Utilities are furiously expanding their capacities as India looks to treble its Power Generation Capacity in the next decade.The major power companies like Adani Power and Reliance Power are giving Tata Power a tough fight for the position of the biggest private Indian Utility.While these companies cannot hope to overtake state owned giant NTPC in this decade,they may do so in the next one.Note some of these companies are expected to grow almost 20 times in the next 10 years.Here are the main contenders
Note most of the power plants being built in India are coal ones with the power providers aggressively buying up coal mines in Indonesia,Australia and South Africa to increase fuel security.However in case of any global disruptions,India remains very vulnerable.However India's policymakers are sleeping on this issue.It makes more sense to concentrate on those sources whose fuel security is high such as solar and wind power.Coal also faces the prospect of high carbon taxation as global warming becomes acute.Environmental issues related to power plants has already resulted in some being halted as local citizens agitate against the thermal plant's negative effects on livelihoods and health.
March 4, 2011
The Indian Government’s launch of the ambitious Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission(JNNSM) was done with much fanfare with a target of reaching 20 GW of Solar Capacity by 2022 under 3 phases from the 81 MW currently.While the government had the best intentions and had laid down a well defined 10 year plan with subsidy support for both Solar Thermal and Solar PV Technology,it has already run into problems.Due to high interest the government went in for bidding of projects which led to irrationally low bidding from unknown firms.This has put the entire exercise in question with the the biggest private utility saying JNNSM is a failure.Without extensions of deadlines it looks highly unlikely whether the 37 winners will actually put up the plants.