GREEN NEWS - VENTURES

German solar inverter maker sets up India arm- Business Line, 26 Aug 2011

Germany-based SMA Solar Technology AG, which makes photovoltaic inverters, has set up a wholly-owned Indian subsidiary, SMA Solar India, in Mumbai.

With sales of €1.9 billion in 2010, the SMA Group is a global leader in the PV inverter market and has 19 overseas subsidiaries.The company already has 200 megawatt (MW) of business in India since 2010 in off-grid, roof-tops and utility scale power plants.

Mr Marko Werner, Chief Sales Officer and Board Member, SMA Solar Technology AG, said, “Globally, our market share in the PV inverter segment is 40 per cent, spread over 18 countries and the expansion in India is consistent with our overall growth strategy for increasing global market share. We are here to lend our expertise and experience to the growing demand of this sector. We see India becoming one of the top markets in the PV industry.”

The company would continue to ship inverters from Germany where it has 11-gigawatt (GW) capacity, he said.SMA offers modern system technology for grid-tied solar power plants and a stable solution for backup and off-grid systems. The India operations with service hubs in Mumbai and Ahmedabad will have a dedicated technical sales support function, project management and after sales support teams.

Mr Rakesh Khanna, General Manager, SMA Solar India, said the inverter cost is about 10-15 per cent of the MW cost, depending on project requirements.A MW cost of crystalline solar plant is about Rs 14 crore, which is inclusive of the inverter.

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"TiE to help Vizag entrepreneurs get funding for start-up"Hindu Business Line, 20 Aug, 2011.

Local entrepreneurs can make use of funding opportunities opened up by venture capital funds, or angel investors ( investors that fund start-ups in exchange for ownership equity or convertible debt), and start off their enterprises and the Hyderabad chapter of TiE (formerly known as The Indus Entrepreneurs) will help them in the endeavour, according to Mr Murali N. Bukkapatnam, Chairman of the events committee of TiE, Hyderabad chapter.

He was speaking to reporters here on Friday after organising a one-day seminar to apprise the local entrepreneurs of the emerging opportunities. He said TiE had 54 chapters in 13 countries, with a membership of 13,000. “It is most closely affiliated with the South Asian business community and is the recognised networking forum for entrepreneurs and investors. Our activities have till now been confined to Hyderabad. We are now holding seminars in Visakhapatnam and other important towns of the State such as Vijayawada and Tirupati to promote entrepreneurship,” he explained. He said the focus was on networking, entrepreneurship and education.

About 200 local entrepreneurs participated in the seminar. The Visakhapatnam District Collector, Mr Luv Agarwal, also spoke at the seminar and promised full co-operation to the entrepreneurs who could start new units making use of the funding opportunities and the technical support given by TiE.

Emerging opportunities

Mr Sateesh Andra, Venture Partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ), India Advisory Services Pvt. Ltd , said nearly $50 billion had flowed into the country during the past five years, most of it in the form of private equity and a little in the form of venture capital. In the next five, $70 billion may flow into India. Therefore, the funding opportunities were aplenty, provided the entrepreneurs had good ideas. In particular, the fields of health care and education held out great promise.

Mr Srini Koppulu, the former Managing Director of Microsoft India, said a group of investors, christened Hyderabad Angels, had been floated in Hyderabad and it had so far funded one unit and three more were in the offing. Entrepreneurs in Visakhapatnam and other parts of the State could also make use of it. The maximum investment limit would be Rs 3 crore.

Representatives from several leading venture capital funds and other investors participated in the seminar.

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SunBorne Energy pools funds for Gujarat solar plant- Business Line, 18 Aug 2011

State Bank of Patiala, the lead bank, with three other banks, Export-Import Bank of India, Canara Bank and State Bank of Travancore, participated in the debt program. The debt advisory was led by SBI Capital Market Limited (SBICAPS).

Mr James Abraham, Managing Director and CEO, SunBorne, said that the support from Indian banks demonstrates their increasing confidence in the solar industry.

Indian commercial banks are lending cautiously to projects in the solar sector because large scale projects are being commissioned for the first time in India, Mr Anil Nayar, Executive Director and CFO, SunBorne said, adding that “banks are trying to better grasp the technology risk and understand execution capability of the developers.”

“While there is enormous potential to install solar power in India, bankability and financing has been a key concern for many project developers. With Indian banks coming forward to fund solar projects, the prospect for the second phase of National Solar Mission and other State projects only look brighter,” he said

This project is one of the early and larger projects in Gujarat. The company plans to commission it before December 31. The plant will provide 15 MW of photovoltaic power, producing enough electricity annually to power more than 10,000 households. The project shall also generate carbon credits under the CDM mechanism of UNFCCC.

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IIMA to launch Rs 100 cr fund for sustainable energy, INFUSE- Business Line, 23 Aug 2011
Ahmedabad: The Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIMA) will launch the Indian Fund for Sustainable Energy (INFUSE) with an estimated fund size of Rs 100 crores in collaboration with the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Technology Development Board (TDB) and British Petroleum(BP).

The Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah,and the Gujarat Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, will launch the fund on August 25 in the IIMA premises, Dr Samir K Barua, Director, IIMA, said here on Tuesday.

INFUSE is the first of its kind private-public-academia partnership which the IIMA will support to incubate, build and support sustainable energy enterprises across the country. INFUSE will be managed by the IIMA's Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) and aims at bringing together other like-minded corporates and organisations to work collaboratively to bridge India's energy demand-supply gap through development of sustainable entrepreneurial solutions, he said.

Others participating in the event will include Mr Deepak Gupta (Secretary, MNRE), Mr Justin Adams, (Head, BP Ventures), and Mr HK Mittal (Secretary, TDB).

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News from DSDS 2011 (3-5 Feb 2011)

Review of Green regulation should not bring back licence raj: Manmohan - The Hindu, 4 Feb 2011

Advocates carrot and stick formula to ensure compliance.

Norms must be enforced, which is often difficult, says Prime Minister “Capacity building, key to effective village level planning”.

NEW DELHI: In the midst of the raging debate on environment versus development, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has warned that enforcement of environmental standards must not signal a return to the licence permit raj era. Addressing the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) on Thursday, Dr. Singh emphasised a carrot and stick formula. On the one hand, he urged economic incentives to encourage environmentally responsible decisions, and on the other, advocated the “polluter pays” principle, as well as the enforcement of regulatory standards. “The central principle that must be enshrined in any sustainable development strategy is that incentives facing all economic decision makers must encourage them to act in a manner that is environmentally benign,” he said.

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