The potential for off-grid solar is not only large, but is growing rapidly. The five major drivers that are influencing the growth of the off grid solar industry is elaborated in this  blog: Lagging grid growth The importance of grid growth as a driver for solar lighting demand varies by...

It is no secret that the explosive growth in the wind energy sector in India is chiefly attributed to the accelerated depreciation incentive that has been adopted. AD is a mechanism through which project developers can show that their asset has depreciated at a significantly faster rate over its life...

Over the course of 2011, investments in renewable energy rose by about 5% to $260 billion, up from $247 billion in 2010 and $186.5 billion in 2009, according to numbers released by BNEF. Investments in 2010 were largely driven by wind energy while 2011 clearly belonged to solar. New financial...

The wind power is highly variable in nature. The unpredictable and infirm nature of wind energy poses a great challenge for the grid management. There are also other constraints such as availability of transmission infrastructure to evacuate the entire power generated by the wind energy promoters. Tamil Nadu government’s policy...

With power deficit becoming a pressing problem, the Tamil Nadu state government is not surprisingly pushing through many thermal projects in the state. Here is a list of the prominent thermal projects in various stages of development: North Chennai Thermal Power Station- Stage-II is being expanded, with two units of...

While an often cited reason for electric cars not being popular on today’s roads is that they simply do not have the range that a fossil fuel powered car has. A statistical analysis by two Columbia doctoral candidates investigating the travel preferences of 150,147 households gathered between March 2008 and...

Seems that our coal fired thermal power plants the lifeblood of Indian power sector, will no longer be able to supply power at the same old affordable price.  The sequence of events happening in the coal industry and its influence on the power sector in the past few months is...

The past week saw various solar companies' stocks soar. Companies all along the value chain - from poly to panel saw significant gains. The confidence in the solar companies was plain to see. Chinese solar companies though saw the largest gains (in terms of percentages) amongst the other companies of...

The Power Ministry of India had recently announced that discussions are in the final stages for the setting up of 8 smart grid projects in the country. These pilot projects are estimated to be worth about Rs. 500 crores. With seminars and conferences related to smart grids around the corner,...

As I had briefly mentioned in our solar manufacturing whitepaper, the solar PV panel manufacturing segment (to a large extent in China) is expected to consolidate over the coming years. China, which hosts a signifcant percent of the global manufacturers (over 500) is set to see the number of manufacturers...