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Japan: Houses With Solar Get Discounted Loan Rates

Sumitomo Trust offers lower loan rates for houses with solar energy. Kyodo News reports that Sumitomo Trust & Banking Co. said Tuesday it will offer lower housing loan rates for buyers of houses from Sekisui Chemical Co. that are equipped with a solar energy generation system. Sumitomo Trust will lower interest rates by 1.7 percentage points from its usual lending rates if such buyers take out long-term loans of either 20 or 30 years at a fixed rate. The current rates for these loans are 4.65% for 20-year loans and 4.8% for 30-year loans. They will reduce the rate even further, .05 point, if the solar power generation capacity of the home totals 3 kilowatts (kW); with additional reductions 4 and 5 kW. Thus, for a 30-year loan for a home with a 5 kW solar PV system, the interest rate will be lowered by 1.85 points to 2.95%.

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India: BHEL Wins 1.26 MW Solar Project

The electronics division of Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel), a leading engineering company in India, has a prestigious contract to supply 1.26 megawatt (MW) of solar water pumping (SVP) systems to Punjab. The contract is for supply, installation, commissioning and after sales service of 700 sets of SPV water pumping systems for the Punjab Energy Development Agency, valued at Rs 19 crore. This is the single largest order for solar photovoltaics won by Bhel, against stiff competition from leading players in the field, the company press release said. Bhel will supply and install the systems over the next few months. The system consists of a 1800 wp solar PV array which is directly connected to a 2 HP DC surface pump. During sunshine hours, the PV array converts sunlight to electricity and provides this power to run the pump. The pump will be used for providing drinking water as well as for irrigation purposes by individual farmers.

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Investment Firms Look to EPA Performance Track

Calvert Group, Ltd. and KLD Research & Analytics, Inc. have announced that they will use membership in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Environmental Performance Track program as a criterion in developing their investment ratings. Ratings are used by investors to help make informed investment decisions. Positive results can increase investor confidence, strengthen brand recognition, and boost stock prices. In 2003, Innovest Strategic Value Advisors became the first investment firm to use Performance Track membership as a criterion in its ratings. Calvert now monitors Performance Track membership to identify potential companies to include in its socially responsible mutual funds. KLD uses Performance Track data to assess how well companies prevent pollution and eliminate wasteful byproducts. The interest of these companies indicates a growing trend toward socially responsible investing. "Investment advisors have discovered that environmental performance can be an excellent indicator of stock market potential, "said Chuck Kent, EPA Director for the Office of Community and Business Innovation, "and Performance Track members represent many of the top environmental performers in the United States today." The program started in June 2000, and today 344 companies are members of Performance Track, including 3M, Anheuser-Busch, BMW, Clairol, Dow, E.I Du Pont de Nemours, […]

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