| INDIA LOOKS TO HARVEST THE LATE-MOVER ADVANTAGE IN SOLAR The first set of projects under India's ambitious National Solar Mission went under the hammer last week. Initial trends show that the capacity bid for is at least three times more than the 620MW that is to be awarded, though the final numbers could show a much higher multiple. There are however no alarm bells going off in the Indian finance ministry. The government has what can be referred to as a late-mover advantage, which has allowed it to avoid the excesses seen in some European countries. There are a few things which stand out in the auction of India's first batch of solar projects, to be set up by 2013, and involving an investment of over USD 2bn. Upcoming Research | 
| LED investors' guide: lighting the path forward Energy efficient LEDs are spoken of as an imminent revolution in the $40-80bn lighting industry, a fact that has been reflected in both public markets and private investments. By drawing on Bloomberg New Energy Finance's case-by-case analysis of over 200 organisations active in the space, this Research Note will provide insight and clarity across the full breadth of LED lighting's complex value chain. | |
| Next-generation biofuel capacity: from now to 2015 The research note will examine global next generation capacity between 2010 and 2015, the subsidy landscape, and biomass supply among other relevant issues. It will also include some analysis on bioenergy levelised costs for key technologies such as enzymatic hydrolysis and gasification. | For starters, the auction is primarily about large solar thermal. Bids for 470MW of capacity have been invited. This is higher than the total commissioned capacity of 437MW of solar thermal in Spain, the world lead, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance data. On the PV side, there are just 150MW of capacity on offer in India's first round through 30 projects of 5MW each to be set up by 2013. That is a small blip in the capacity being added globally. Bloomberg New Energy Finance has projected a PV capacity addition of 14GW-to-19GW in 2010. Up to 1.2GW of new installations are expected in the Czech Republic alone this year. Germany has installed over 3GW of PV in the first half of 2010. Secondly, there is an element of market price discovery built into the process. The attractive feed-in-tariffs will now cease to matter since the 400-odd applicants will have to offer the largest discounts to get selected, a formula that India has emulated from other countries which have married feed-in-tariffs with reverse-bidding. Thirdly, the government has limited its own, and the consumer's bill, for solar power by ensuring initial support for only pre-defined solar capacity instead of the anyone-past-the-goalpost kind of a scheme which has led to runaway growth of solar power in parts of Europe. Fourthly, India has mandated the use of domestically made PV modules in this phase and domestically made cells and modules in the next phase. For solar thermal projects, the rules mandate a 30% local content, both moves reflecting the worrying trend of increasing protectionism in the clean energy sector. Elsewhere, during the week, there has been a spurt of announcements from various parts of the world committing more renewable power in the overall energy mix. Scotland announced its intention to get 80% of its power from renewable sources by 2020, more than any published estimate from a European Union member state. California regulators approved rules that would require utilities to get a third of their power from renewable sources by 2020. In US, Senator Jeff Bingaman, a New Mexico Democrat, introduced the Renewable Energy Standard Bill which would require utilities to source 15% of their power from clean energy by 2021. The island nation of Jamaica also unveiled a policy that proposes a 20% clean power mix by 2020. Top | 
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