Asia Cleantech was recently profiled on New Energy World (link to profile).

Ron Mahabir, Managing Director of Asia Cleantech Capital, will moderate a panel, “Green Technology.”

Link to program

12-13 February 2009
JW Marriott, Hong Kong

Ron Mahabir, Managing Director of Asia Cleantech Capital, will speak on Financing Renewable Energy.

Following the run-away success in 2008 of the inaugural conference in Dubai, The 2nd Annual Euromoney Global Infrastructure Finance Conference again brought together 600 leading infrastructure investors, project sponsors, senior government officials, and infrastructure experts in Hong Kong to discuss and plan the development of the global market for infrastructure finance.

Water shortages caused by a drought has caused significant problems for generation of hydro power in Chile.  This, along with natural gas shortages from Argentina are causing potential brownouts or power cuts.  Similar to the recent situation in South Africa, Chile’s power problems are affecting commodity prices, primarily copper.

Read the article here on Bloomberg

No surprise that India has been beaten by China for oil exploration bids in Myanmar, Kazakhstan and elsewhere over the past few years. With serious shortages and blackouts seriously affecting and threatening India’s economic growth, India is looking to Africa, South America, Pakistan, and elsewhere for new supplies.

Read article at Bloomberg

With oil prices over US$100/barrel, China’s independent refineries are understandably balking at supplying at a loss. The government is forcing independent suppliers to take the brunt of the massive inflation affecting the country, causing shortages to even Shanghai and Beijing.

Click to read the full story

February 28, 2008 (Renewable Energy World) -

Moser Baer PV steps up its plans to change the way India receives electricity. 

The company, a relatively new entrant in the solar photovoltaic (PV) market, has recently announced a series of new initiatives. These include setting up India’s largest grid-connected solar farm in the sunshine abundant state of Rajasthan, and increasing production capacities.

MBPV announced that it had partnered with the Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation (RREC) to set up a solar farm of 1-5 MW capacity in the state. At US $4.5 million per MW, the total investment for this farm will be US $25 million.

Mr. Ravi Khanna, CEO of MBPV said, “As per our MOU [memorandum of understanding] signed with the Rajasthan government back in Nov 2007, we are committed to continue working on the solar farm in Rajasthan. And for this, we are in the process of tying up the investors/partners for this project. Moser Baer will be providing the complete turn-key solution for this farm.”

The company is awaiting the announcement of suitable tariffs for its sale of electricity to the state utility. It has other initiatives currently in the discussion phases with other states and investors. “In fact, there is so much interest today from potential investors in solar farms that we are tying them in MOUs that our module capacities and order books are properly planned out,” Khanna said.

Rajasthan already generates about 10% of its electricity from non-conventional private units. According to a press release issued by MBPV, “Rajasthan offers significant opportunities for renewable energy projects and also has large natural resources conducive for setting up such non-conventional energy projects in the state.”

India’s economy is growing fast, nearing a double-digit growth rate. To fuel this growth, more commercial-use electricity is needed in addition to meeting residential demand. India has supply shortages in both residential and commercial electricity, including peak time supply. Solar electricity may help fill this demand gap, especially in peak time demand. Many of India’s remote villages are not connected with electricity grid, and solar offers a solution for this, along with other local small scale renewable electricity generation technologies.

The government of India has announced subsidy plans of US $750/KW for installed capacity of residential or commercial use, with a maximum of US $1,250/household. For community and institutional use the subsidy is higher, at US $1,250/KW. The government has also announced feed-in-tariffs of up to US $0.30 per unit (KWh). This is up to 75% of the generation costs of PV, which range between US $0.38 to $0.75 per unit.

Commenting on policy support for PV, Khanna said, “We believe the recent policy announcement is a very positive and welcome step by the Indian government. Though we will continue to work with them to make it a real success, there is no doubt that once a few MWs are installed in India, we can see the beginning of a much wider growth for the PV industry. Already, we are seeing the spiraling effects of this with many state governments like Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, etc. getting in the process to formalize solar tariffs.”

India has abundant solar resources, receiving about 3000 hours of sunshine every year, and has a potential of about 20 MW per sq km, according to energy researcher Mr. Shirish Garud at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi. However, the high price of PV electricity remains an issue.

With higher volumes and economies of scale the prices are expected to come down as the market expands in the next few years. “We expect the per unit price to drop to US $0.12 to $0.15 in the next 3 years. Also, as we have big plans for thin films as well, we don’t expect any delays in this target at least for Moser Baer. We also have a considerable focus on reducing BOS (Invertors, Structures, etc.) parts cost which will help us achieve our target,” said Moser Baer’s Khanna.

PV-based electricity is expected to remain a very small share of total electricity generated in India in the near future. Therefore, even with higher costs it is not expected to add much to the averaged price of electricity. “It may add only about US 1/40 cent to averaged cost of electricity in the short-term. It is important that we invest in solar now, and the costs will come down as the technology and market develops in the future. It is very good option to develop for the future,” Garud said.

Moser Baer PV is fueled by the enthusiasm for PV. It is planning to expand its plant in NOIDA near New Delhi, and planning a new plant near Chennai. The major expansion will be in thin-film capacity going from the present 40 MW to 600 MW by 2010, with a total investment of US $1.5 billion. An immediate doubling of crystalline silicon cell capacity from 40 MW to 80 MW is expected by the end of March 2008.

The company has also invested in solar technology R&D through stakes in three U.S.-based companies: Stion, Solaria and SolFocus. MBPV hopes to benefit from R&D by these firms in concentration technology and nanotechnology to increase PV output and reduce the of size of PV producing units.

The growing global market for PV, which is expected to generate revenues of up to 16 billion by 2012 by some estimates, is what MBPV is banking on. Most of the demand for MBPV is expected to come from the U.S. and the EU but MBPV’s expectations for Indian market are also high, 1,000-2,000 MW by 2010.

PV offers many potential applications in India. According to Garud, “The telecom industry has used it [PV] to power relay systems and telephone exchanges in rural areas. Railways have used it for remote applications, signaling and for operating unmanned gates,” he said

Use in telecom towers is another potential application. Dr Bharat Bhargava, a Director in India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said that in India, “Solar makes possible stand-alone, distributed and decentralized electricity available to rural, remote, difficult areas and unmanned applications. The rule of thumb today is that where reliability and unmanned operation are important – for example, telecom etc – solar offers the best solutions.”

With the flexibility of PV in generating electricity from milliwatt to megawatt it offers a wide range of applications. Moser Baer PV focuses primarily on large scale modules and commercial applications. However, solar lamps and other consumer applications of PV are a large potential market in India, especially in underpowered rural areas and high-tech uses like personal and business computing.

March 3, 2008 (Datamonitor) – Sustainable Power has announced that Borneo Energy Sendirian Berhad, a wholly owned subsidiary of Borneo Oil and Gas, has entered into a share subscription agreement to purchase 50 million restricted shares of Sustainable Power.

The initial deposit required per the agreement has been received by Sustainable Power (SSTP). Sustainable Power also entered into a technical collaboration term sheet with Borneo Energy Sendirian Berhad (BOE).

The agreement for the technical collaboration will be implemented in two stages. Stage one entails the immediate fabrication and successful commissioning of a mini biofuel reactor in Malaysia to undertake trial production of biofuel using Malaysian-sourced feed stocks such as palm oil, fresh fruit bunches or waste, coconuts, wood chips and other industrial waste. The site in Malaysia will be determined by BOE. Stage two entails the fabrication and successful commissioning of commercial type biofuel reactor plant(s) across Malaysia and Indonesia.

Scott Hoerr, director of SSTP, said: “We are ecstatic to have identified the availability of nonfood feedstock in large enough quantities to have a significant impact on the alternative fuel markets. We believe the introduction of SSTP in Malaysia is a major step towards replacing the world demand for petroleum-based products and helping the world ecosystem.”

March 4, 2008 (AP) – A Norwegian manufacturer of solar panel components will start building a wafer plant in Singapore this year, the company said Tuesday.

“Solar energy will be the dominant source of energy in the future. It’s a very exciting industry to be part of,” said NorSun AS founder Alf Bjorseth, at a press conference.

The company plans a US$300 million (euro197 million) factory that can make enough solar wafers in a year to produce 350 megawatts of power. Construction will start in the third quarter of this calendar year.

It expects operations to begin in the third quarter of 2009.

NorSun has a solar wafer plant in Finland and another plant in Norway is scheduled to begin operations shortly.

March 3, 2008 (Reuters) – The fund, to be set up jointly with the United States and Britain, is expected be the largest ever of its type, with total investment of about 500 billion yen ($4.82 billion), the Nikkei said.

By investing in technologies such as wind and solar power in less developed countries, participating governments hope to encourage private finance to follow suit, the newspaper said without identifying its sources.

The British government last year announced 800 million pounds in support for the fund over three years, while the United States said this year it would provide $2 billion, also over three years, the Nikkei said.

Spain and other European nations are considering participating, it said.

Japan’s finance ministry is likely to make an announcement on Tokyo’s contribution at a meeting of G7 finance chiefs and central bank governors in Washington in April, the newspaper said.

Japan, this year’s host of the G8 summit of industrialised nations, is trying to take a lead on climate change and media reports say the government is planning a 16-nation leaders conference on the issue in parallel with G8.