Staff Reporter

Sunday 8 September was an exciting day in Japan. In the early hours the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Tokyo will host the 2020 Olympic Games for a second time (first time was in 1964).

Acquires Japanese wind farm company.

Becomes one of only five countries with 10 GW solar capacity.

This could begin as early as this autumn.

Hydropower will come second.

To be funded by company's reserves.

Its subsidiary will provide services in 150 hectares of concession area.

Subsidies will be given from 2013 to 2015.

Releases plan to cap coal consumption.

Expands relationship in conventional energy.

New policy covers shale gas and oil exploration. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates show that India could have as much as 96 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of recoverable shale gas reserves equivalent to 26 years of the country's gas demand. Exploration and production of shale gas, however, remains a long way off for India. India is beset by energy shortages that make power outages common and hinders its industrial growth. Energy imports account for a large share of its energy supplies and strains its finances. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the shale gas and oil exploration program to boost domestic output. This policy will allow national oil companies to carry out exploration and exploitation of unconventional hydrocarbon resources particularly shale gas and oil in their already awarded in Petroleum Exploration License/Petroleum Mining Lease (PEL/PML) acreages under the nomination regime. Six basins hold shale gas potential: Cambay (Gujarat); Assam-Arakan (in the northeast); Gondawana (in central India); KG onshore (in Andhra Pradesh); Cauvery onshore and the Indo-Gangetic basins. State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Oil India Ltd have been permitted to explore and produce shale oil and gas. Of the 356 blocks held by ONGC and Oil India, 176 could hold shale resources. The government will offer shale oil and gas blocks to other companies through an auction planned after this policy is taken to the Cabinet for approval in next few weeks.

Plans to derive 63,000 MWe from nuclear power by 2032. The Department of Atomic Energy said the average annual availability of Indian nuclear power producers has remained at 90%. Six of the 19 operational reactors have logged continuous operation of over 300 days this year. DAE said Indian pressurized heavy water reactors are some of the most economical in the world. India is ready to sell these reactors and is currently building four: two each at Kakrapar in Gujarat and Rawatbhatta in Rajasthan. It noted that India has brought down the price of a nuclear reactor to among the cheapest in the world. The prototype fast breeder reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam is close to completion. PFBR is expected to achieve criticality in about a year.

Japan’s “zero nuclear power” state accelerating development of renewable energy. As a result, the total amount of grid-connected installations may reach 7 GW this year or triple the installations last year. Ever since the Fukushima nuclear disaster, most of the nuclear power plants have been shut down causing the usage of nuclear power to drop from 33% in 2010 to 2.15% in 2012. The top 10 power utilities significantly increased the usage of thermal power generation from 59.1% in 2010 to 89.8% in 2012. This forced Japan to import large quantities of coal, oil, natural gas and other fuels. These utilities have purchased more power generated from solar energy since 2008. The annual growth rate increased from 9.25% in 2008 to 45.89% in 2011. According to EnergyTrend, the amount of grid-connected installations in Japan has continued to increase.

Fund has capital of US$100 million.

Bandung 1955, the Non-Aligned Movement, Sukarno, Nehru, Tito, Nasser, etc. – like leaves from a sepia photo album faded as time moved on.  Yet in the interconnected global economy where international investments and financing routinely ignores borders, is there room to dust off the “South-South” paradigm for energy development?  Especially in a sector such as renewable energy where the challenge and risk profiles are similar along a “South-South” axis, there may yet be some juice left in that old model.

Offers Cuba lines of credit and its RE expertise.