Bharat Forge founders to raise $300 mn in wind energy arm Kenersys

The founders of Indian auto components maker Bharat Forge are in talks with private equity firms to sell a $300 million stake in their wind energy firm, Kenersys, two sources familiar with the matter said.

The transaction would dilute part of the controlling stake of the Kalyani group in the alternative energy firm and also enable First Reserve Corp, a US-based energy-focused private equity firm, to make a partial exit from an investment it made in Kenersys in 2008, the sources said.

"We are aiming to raise capital by end of this financial year," said one company source.

Kenersys is an integrated wind energy company that designs, assembles and markets wind turbine generators. The group CFO of Bharat Forge, Kishore Saletore, told Reuters in an e-mail that the company would not comment on market speculation.

First Reserve was not immediately available for comment. While investment in India's core power generation and distribution space has slowed due to delays in project approvals and a lack of access to fuel, global energy funds have been investing in India's alternative energy sector.

Recently, an infrastructure fund managed by Morgan Stanley bought a stake in Indian wind energy firm Continuum Energy for about $250 million. The private equity arm of Goldman Sachs in December invested about $200 million in another Indian alternative energy firm, ReNew Wind Power.

India, with 206,456 megawatts of installed power capacity at the end of July, suffers from a peak-hour power shortfall of about 10 percent. Asia's third largest economy aims to add 88,000 MW of generation capacity based on fossil fuels and hydro during 2012-17, and another 29,800 MW capacity based on renewable energy sources during the same period.

Morgan Stanley joins race to acquire DLF's wind power business

MUMBAI: Morgan Stanley, the US-based investment bank, has joined the race to buy real estate firm DLF's wind powerbusiness, signalling heightened private equity interest in renewable assets at a time of deepening financial trouble for its main customers and reduced margins due to the government's rollback of incentives.

In a response to an email sent by ET, a DLF spokesperson said: "As a company policy, we do not comment on marketspeculation." Morgan Stanley also declined to comment

Solar water heaters see high demand

Thrust on green concepts, increasing power cuts and better awareness on solar products have resulted in high demand for solar water heaters in the last two years.

Some companies in Coimbatore say that sale of solar water heaters has gone up four times during the last one year.

Most of the recently-constructed houses have provisions to install solar water heaters.

The demand is mainly from those who are just constructing a house or from those who have the provisions for these heaters.

A basic solar water heater consists of a collector and a storage tank.

The efficiency of the collectors is defined by the performance level.

An average solar collector has an efficiency level of 72 per cent, says A. Mahesh, Managing Director of Cascade Helio Thermics.

The technology adopted by solar water heater manufacturers has improved and the developments include four cavity evacuated solar tubular collectors, two cavity heat exchange evacuated solar tubular collectors, super-high pressure solar ETC collectors and special tanks for hard water. Though the frequency of break down is minimum in the solar heaters, if there is a break down, it should be attended to immediately.

Those who buy a solar water heater should be cautious.

They should check for Bureau of Indian Standard or MNRE mark, the warranty, availability of Government subsidy, the operation specifications, and the capacity of the product.

Those who use hot water throughout the day should go in for high-capacity tanks. Consumers who have installed the solar heaters should also take precautionary measures during rainy and winter seasons. They should try to avoid using the solar heater in the evening hours.

The cables and joints should be checked for insulation. Most of the solar water heaters have in-built electrical heater and these should be ready for use in winter.

Mr. Mahesh also suggests that consumers should avoid buying heaters with tubes of low efficiency level. There should be insulation for the vent. During winter, the solar water heater works as an electrical water heater and hence it should have rust proof support structure.

TN starts implementing solar home lighting programme

The Tamil Nadu Government has commenced the implementation of its ambitious programme to provide solar-powered lights to 300,000 homes in the State.

Work on this has been going on in the last couple of weeks in the Tiruchi district and 60,000 homes would be lighted in the current financial year, Sudeep Jain, Chairman and Managing Director, Tamilnadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA), said today.

(The government intends to do it in phase of 60,000 homes over a five-year period. The first phase was to have been completed in 2011-12, at a cost of Rs 1,080 crore. Under the programme, solar panels would be put up on the roofs measuring 300 sq. ft. Each unit would cost Rs 1.80 lakh. As the programme is meant for rural poor, the entire cost would be to the government.)

Speaking at a conference on the ‘Dependability of REC mechanism, RPO and power trading in solar industry,’ organised here by the Energy and Fuel Users’ Association (ENFUSE), Jain said that the Tamil Nadu government was also implementing another programme to energise 100,000 street lights with solar power, at a cost of Rs 200 crore. ENFUSE is an organisation which is supported by the major oil companies such as ONGC, IOC and CPCL and the conference was sponsored by CPCL.

Both the home light and street light programme are grid-backed, “the first of their kind in the country,” Jain said.

Net metering

Jain said that the Government of Tamil Nadu was also very keen on net-metering. (Net metering enables the rooftop solar plant can put in surplus energy into the grid because it spins the other direction when power is being put into the grid, thereby giving credit to the generator.)

He noted that two pilot net metering projects were on—one in TEDA’s own office building and another at Auroville, Puducherry. He said that when net metering became a reality, rooftop solar plants could do away with the costly and energy-inefficient battery-based storage.

Jain also hoped that just as the prices of solar panels have fallen drastically (from $2.5 a watt in 2009 to around $0.65 a watt now), the prices of inverters would also fall.

He said that the cost of putting up a 1 kW rooftop solar plant had come down from Rs 2.5 lakh a couple of years back to Rs 1.5 lakh and said that if the cost of inverters came down, the overall cost would come down to less than Rs 1 lakh per kW. The rooftop solar movement would take-off then, he said.

Solarcon India - 2012 to be held in Bangalore, Sep 3-5

Solarcon India-2012, a solar energy-focussed technological and business event, said to be the largest in the country, will be held here from September 3 to 5.

The event, to be held at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC), is the fourth annual edition of the Solarcon.

The event is being organised by Semi India, a global association of industries in the area of nano and micro-electronics’ manufacturing supply chains, in association with various government agencies, including the Department of Industries and Commerce, Karnataka Udyoga Mitra and Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL).

Announcing this at a press conference here on Thursday, Semi president Debasish Paul Choudhury said about 100 companies, including those from 11 foreign countries, were participating in the business event.

Nearly 200 stalls were being set up to showcase products of these companies.

He said the meet would provide a fillip to the solar energy sector.

DOE expands research to lower solar costs

The Department of Energy will drive five new research projects aimed at driving innovations that would lower the cost of PV and concentrating solar power (CSP) technology.

The projects come off recent announcements of SunShot Initiative investments in CSP. SunShot's goal is to make solar energy cost competitive by the end of the decade.

Research teams from industry, universities, and national laboratories will collaborate at the DOE's Scientific User Facilities, where they will have open access to cutting edge resources such as x-ray sources, accelerators, supercomputers and nanoscale research centers.

Two projects have been awarded $900,000,  including a partnership with PLANT PV and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Molecular Foundry to develop 3D mapping tools for higher performing thin film solar material. The University of Colorado will use tools at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to research high-temperature inexpensive materials for concentrating solar power technologies.

Investments totaling $2.6 million will go toward establishing full research programs resulting in new tool development and expanding the capability of each Scientific User Facility to conduct advanced solar energy research. Sandia National Laboratories will partner with the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies to improve the efficiency of thin film photovoltaic materials; Arizona State University will use x-ray technologies at Argonne National Laboratory to address solar cell material performance; and Stanford University will partner with SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to research inexpensive ways to print solar cells. 

The Bahrain World Trade Center...!!!

It is the first skyscraper to have wind turbines integrated into the structure of the building...!!
Three large wind turbines are suspended between two office towers. The towers are aerodynamically
tapered to funnel wind and draw air into the turbines.

This airfoil tapering allows the wind to enter the turbines at a perpendicular angle and increases air speed as much as 30 percent in each of the 95 ft wide
turbine rotors.
The turbines supply about 15 percent of the electricity used by the skyscraper - approximately the same amount of electricity used by 300 homes.