Saturday, August 29, 2009

New reports: Indian solar and biofuels market

Uttar Pradesh-based RNCOS has released "Indian Solar Energy Market Outlook 2012" that provides an overview of the solar power industry in the country along with the forecast for the sector.

Meanwhile, Research and Markets has added an Indian biofuels report to its offering. Bio-fuel Market - India provides the current status of ethanol and biodiesel production in the country, government policies and key challenges and drivers.

NAPCC Report - 2 of 8 National Missions approved

The Indian government has finalised two of its eight missions under the National Action Plan for Climate Change announced on 30th June 2008. While the National Mission on Solar Energy has set a target of 20GW of solar power by 2020, the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency aims to secure 10GW of EE savings by 2020. The government is expected to roll out all eight missions by November as they will form the centre piece of India’s climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Friday, August 28, 2009

India close to 15GW of green power

While it is still years behind the well established renewable energy markets of US and European nations, India is slowly but surely establishing its presence on the green map. According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the country is just 100MW away from the 15GW milestone.

India’s cumulative green power capacity, as of 31 July 2009, is 14.9GW including 10.4GW of wind, 2.4GW of small hydro, 1.1GW of cogen-bagasse and 773MW of biomass power. The country is likely to get its first MW scale solar project by end of this year – 2MW PV project being developed by West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation in the district of Burdwan.

Gujarat plans to lead the Indian solar race

Gujarat’s shopping spree for MOUs on solar power in January this year was largely seen as a media fluff to project a green image. However, the state has silenced its naysayers by approving 34 projects totalling 716MW. Of this, 365MW is for PV and 351MW is for solar thermal. The Gujarat Energy Development Agency expects the state to attract an investment of nearly USD 2.4bn over the next few years from national and international solar players.

Gujarat has its own state level solar policy that offers incentives for up to 500MW of projects, valid until 31 March 2014. This has attracted big players to the state but time will tell if these projects move from the paperwork stage to the ground and make Gujarat the solar power hub of India.