According to research firm Gartner, India’s fast-growing industry for data centers (a power-hungry business) is coming up against generation capacity limitations in the country. Data centers are buildings packed with rows upon rows of humming servers (computers) that store and distribute information available on the Internet — like this blog, for example. As such, they consume vast amounts of power. Further, because location is of little import, most companies outsource this service to spots on the planet where real estate and other costs are lowest.

India’s estimated 15-percent energy shortfall has already affected data centers in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore … “The biggest challenge is the concern about a lack of energy supplies in the country.”

Full report here, courtesy of Cleantech Group LLC.

In the following interview on the podcast “Inside Renewable Energy,” Louis Schwartz, the president of China Strategies LLC, explains that the horde of Chinese solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers who IPO’d in recent years are having to sharply cut back their expansion plans due to the credit crisis. Although China itself is somewhat sheltered from the financial and economic turmoil, the sector exports nearly all of its output — so is seeing a drop in demand, as financing to drive renewable energy projects overseas has dried up. What’s more, the chill effect on investor sentiment in the equities markets means these solar PV companies will also have to shelve their plans to tap equity markets to scale up their manufacturing capacity.

By contrast, he says, Chinese wind-turbine manufacturers are mainly sustained by domestic and state-supported projects, so are feeling less pain.

Photo courtesy of alibaba.com.